Stereophile October 2019

THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS AS THERE ARE EXPERTS THIS ISSUE: “Ghosts are always hungry.”—RAYMOND DE LOY JAMESON Yup, you’re in a strange position, all right. You’re in love with a girl who is no more.—HARUKI MURAKAMI The quote above, from Haruki Murakami’s novel Kafka on the Shore, is addressed to Kafka, a 15-year-old boy who has fallen in love with the teenage ghost of an older woman. The woman is still alive, but ever since the death of her lover many years before, she has existed separate from her spirit. Falling in love with ghosts is something I’ve done often, starting at about Kafka’s age. Early ghost-loves included Sugarcubes-era Björk and a young Sheena Easton (on the cover of her first album and singing “For Your Eyes Only” at…

Kudos to Art Editor,BRAVO!!! I grinned stupidly through Art Dudley’s April Listening column—you are so spot on! Male audiophiles are so aggravating, saying things like, “We need more women in the hobby” out of one side of their mouth, but spouting silly things like “WAF” and “women just like music not gear” out of the other side. I feel like I’ve been an audiophile most of my life, and I’m tired of being dismissed by most of the industry. So much of what you said in your column seems so right to me, particularly the comparison to anoles. That’s exactly how it comes across to me, too. A few weeks ago, someone on my Facebook feed posted yet another “clickbait” link to their YouTube channel with another tired “There are…

Triton One. R $2999 each “Everything that earned Triton Reference Stereophile’s highest Class A Rating in a gorgeous, super sounding, more compact and even more affordable package!” “? e powerful sense of atmosphere that the One.R speakers conveyed conjure up memories of my time with the Triton Reference.”–Al Griffin, Sound & Vision GoldenEar Technology is pleased to announce the introduction of the new Triton One.R. This extraordinary new reference quality loudspeaker is a smaller, less expensive follow up to the Triton Reference. The T Ref has been compared with speakers selling for over ten times its surprisingly affordable cost. It has had a remarkable response from both music and hifi enthusiasts as well as press and reviewers from around the world, who have bestowed upon it innumerable Speaker-of-the-Year and Product-of-the-Year…

US: RHODE ISLAND John Atkinson I was saddened to learn that Jack Renner, renowned recording engineer and cofounder of Telarc Records, died on June 19, 2019, age 84, at his home in Rhode Island. Mr. Renner is survived by his wife, Barbara, three children, and six grandchildren. Renner trained as a trumpet player and received a BSc in Music Education from The Ohio State University. In 1990, he was recognized as an outstanding alumnus. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he taught for 30 years. I first saw Jack’s name on Telarc’s debut album, the direct-to-disc Direct from Cleveland with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel, which was featured on Stereophile’s very first four-color cover, in March 1977.1…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to you: stereophile.com/audiophile-societies. If you’d like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, e-mail Chris Vogel at info@xlinkaudio.com. Please note that it is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless it is associated with a seminar or similar event. This edition of the Calendar has been condensed so that we can include more products from our Recommended Components list in print. We’ll return to our usual format next month. CALIFORNIA September 14, 6–10pm: Excel Audio’s Mike Rose welcomes visitors to its 2nd annual Customer Appreciation Open House, featuring Bill Peugh from Wilson Audio, Garth Leerer of Musical Surroundings, and other special guests. The event will feature the Wilson Alexx…

THIS ISSUE: An all-Haniwa LP player, including a current-source phono stage and a tonearm that eschews both overhang and offset angle, has captured Mikey’s attention this month. Haniwa’s Dr. Tetsuo Kubo is an interesting fellow. If you go to shows, domestic or overseas, you’ve possibly encountered him in his room—a space known for being strewn, shrine-like, with LPs that once belonged to The Absolute Sound’s founder, the late Harry Pearson: Dr. Kubo was a fan. He is also a fan of phase coherency and flat frequency response. Indeed, Dr. Kubo—an engineer and a medical doctor—claims both of those qualities for Haniwa’s HDSA01 integrated amplifier and HSP01 single-driver “full-range”1 loudspeaker: Despite his being an analog fan, Kubo’s integrated amplifier digitizes the incoming signal at 24 bits/192kHz in order to apply real-time…