Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i Stereophile

There’s a good case to be made that the world’s greatest—and strangest—audiophile culture resides in Japan. Probably the most important notion the Japanese have introduced to our hobby is that home audio isn’t merely a way of heightening the musical art of others but can be an art in itself. This idea’s most flamboyant embodiment was the poet, journalist, chef, and amplifier builder Susumu Sakuma, better known as Sakuma-san. After having built many amplifiers as a young man, Sakumasan experienced an epiphany: Amplifiers that measured well often failed to make him feel deeply. He soon discovered that, for him, the most emotional sound came from mono systems powered by transformer-coupled amplifiers that used directly heated triode tubes. In 1968, somewhat improbably, Sakuma-san opened a restaurant in the quaint seaside town…

Of all the brand lines I’ve reviewed, none’s sound has changed as much over time as Esoteric’s top-tier Grandioso series. When I first encountered Grandioso setups at shows, they consistently sounded dark. That in itself is not necessarily bad; the darker presentations of some concert venues and hi-fi systems often enhance detail. But I prefer my music more illumined, with all the color and brilliance that instruments and voices can offer. And over the last three years or so, Esoteric’s sound has become better lit, as though a 40W bulb was replaced by a 75W bulb. At AXPONA 2022, I eagerly headed to the company’s exhibit, where I spoke with Keith Haas, national sales manager of 11 Trading Company, Esoteric’s US distributor. When I learned of the forthcoming Grandioso M1X…

Although NAD was founded in England in 1972 as New Acoustic Dimension, my introduction to the brand was in 1980. I bought an NAD 3020 integrated amplifier after hearing it successfully drive Acoustic Research’s current-hungry AR9 loudspeakers. Designed in England by Bjørn-Erik Edvardsen1 and manufactured in Taiwan, the ridiculously inexpensive 3020—it cost just $135 back then—showed that an amplifier didn’t need machined faceplates, intimidating heatsinks, or technically glamorous components to be able to drive real-world speakers. In 2002, the 3020 was nominated by Stereophile’s writers and editors as one of the 100 most significant audio products in the magazine’s first 40 years.2 NAD was little known in 1980, but the 3020 put the brand on the map, the company selling 1.1 million units over the amplifier’s lifetime. NAD subsequently went…

Hygge might not be the first word that comes to mind when contemplating the Primare PRE35 Prisma preamplifier, but in Limhamn, Sweden, that is how Primare likes to describe their products. It means “cozy,” and it’s a very important concept in the Nordic countries, almost a way of life. Another term that appears in Primare’s product descriptions is lagom, which loosely translates as “not too little, not too much—just right.” For me, none of this is lost in translation. I’m all for folksy adjectives for high-tech equipment. After spending hygge time with the new PRE35 Prisma preamplifier, I’ve come to equate hygge with “not digital-sounding” and lagom with the elegance of its physical and electronic design: not too little, not too much. By modern hi-fi standards, Primare has been in…

When I survey the realms of fancy-pants audio, the first thing I notice are cohorts of luxury-brand manufacturers selling pride of ownership with emblematic faceplates. After that, I spot another type of manufacturer, one that mocks the first type and aims its products at a younger, more working-class demographic, seducing potential customers with how much “truth” they are offering for only $15. But sometimes, when I look beyond the full-page ads and big rooms at audio shows, I discover a rogue manufacturer that is peddling a very specific type of listening experience, which they believe is the best. A listening experience only they could have created. I am grateful for manufacturers like this. They make my job more interesting, and I admire them for their courage in betting on their…

I’m a music lover first, not the most Type A of audiophiles. Sure, I clean my records, but I’m not obsessive about keeping them immaculate like my audiophile father is;1 he cleans each record ultrasonically before it lands on his turntable platter, writing the date of each record’s last bath and which cleaning machine he used on the outside of a fresh plastic inner sleeve before sliding the LP back inside. I don’t think his cleaning schedule is rigid—he has far too many LPs for that—but it’s regular. Whenever I visit with LPs in tow, they must pass through the record-cleaning machine (RCM) gauntlet before they’re permitted to land on his turntable’s platter. His rule makes sense: All kinds of icky muck—lint, ash, dust, dead microscopic bugs, mold, fungi, pet…

Turns out rock stars are human after all. Which means music fans should prepare themselves for the coming toll. The next few years are certain to be brutal: Bob Dylan, 81; Paul Simon, 81; George Clinton, 81; Brian Wilson, 80; Carole King, 80; Keith Richards, 79; Jimmy Page, 79; Sly Stone, 79; Rod Stewart, 78; Neil Young, 77; Pete Townsend, 77, and the inexorability rolls on. The news is even worse among the pre-rock era stars, where it’s a matter of any day now: Tony Bennett, 96; Burt Bacharach, 94; Sonny Rollins, 92. Even the ageless one, Willie Nelson, is 89. January 2023 was a particularly cruel harbinger of the reckoning to come as guitar legend Jeff Beck and folk rock icon David Crosby died within eight days of each…

Sub Pop (16/44.1, Qobuz). 2022. Natalie Mering and Jonathan Rado, prods.; Kenny Gilmore, eng. “These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment.” So says singer-songwriter Natalie Mering about her latest album under the name Weyes Blood (pronounced like “wise,” a tribute to a novel by Flannery O’Connor). And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, her fifth album, is the second part of a planned trilogy. Its 2019 predecessor, Titanic Rising, brought the American singer international attention for her rich, expressive voice and ethereal music. That album warned of perils humanity would soon face. Hearts Aglow moves on to what Mering sees as the current chaos. She was expecting this “time of irrevocable change” and views it stoically. Assisting…

Roscoe Mitchell, saxophones; Famoudou Don Moye, drums, percussion; 18 others RogueArt ROG-0123 (LP). 2023. Sons d’hiver, prod.; Olivier Gascion, eng. It’s often said that you can never go home again. Places change, and you won’t be the same person you were when you left. The Art Ensemble of Chicago’s 1972 album Live at Mandel Hall documented their return home after a two-year stay in Paris, during which the quartet gained a drummer and honed its sound into something completely new. Fluent in what trumpeter Lester Bowie termed “Great Black Music,” the band was practiced enough and exploratory enough to switch among open improvisation, Dixieland jazz, African rhythms, field songs, and military marches in the space of a breath. In 2020, they returned to their French home away from home—a revived…

Potter, tenor saxophone; Craig Taborn, piano; Scott Colley, bass; Marcus Gillmore, drums Edition EDN1214 (WAV 24/48, also CD, LP). 2023. Potter, prod.; Tyler McDiarmid, Geoff Countryman, engs. For each of the last five years, Chris Potter has placed either third or fourth on tenor saxophone in the DownBeat Critics Poll. He is an elite player in jazz, with a large discography. His new album is a departure because it is all covers. But for a jazz fan who has somehow missed Potter, it may be the best place to discover him. Some of the reasons are the people, the place, and the repertoire. This new band (see above) is made up exclusively of worldclass badasses. The Village Vanguard is hallowed ground. Musicians spill their guts there. In its legendary acoustics,…

Most of us were not born with musical tastes intact. Tastes develop over time as we learn and experience new music and other things. An open mind, an ear attuned to songs and sound, and a procession of mentors and musical guides make for a musical life that’s rich and full. To my way of thinking, the best life has a soundtrack that’s varied and constantly expanding. Which is not to say there aren’t transformative events. Prior to my lightning-strike moment—about which, more in a minute—the blues were all around me, as they always are around all of us. As a kid attuned to rock’n’roll, growing up in the suburbs with a full FM dial, I was exposed to blues-based music current and past, from Elvis on the oldies stations…

Because of the Klipsch La Scala’s bulk—it weighs 201lb—I measured the speaker in AH’s apartment. I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the La Scala’s behavior in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and in-room responses. The loudspeakers were driven by the Manley Mahi Mahi amplifiers AH used for his auditioning. For the measurements, I left off the grille that covers the high-frequency and midrange horns, as AH preferred the sound without them. The La Scala’s sensitivity is specified as an extraordinarily high 105dB/2.83V/m, which is the same specification as the Klipschorn AK6 that the late Art Dudley reviewed in September 2019.1 As with the AK6, my B-weighted estimate was lower, at 101.3dB(B)/2.83V/m, but this is still the second-highest…

Before I tested one of the Esoteric M1X amplifiers, serial number 20014, with my Audio Precision SYS2722,1 I preconditioned the amplifier, following the CEA’s recommendation of operating it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the internal heatsinks were fairly warm, at 105.7°F (40.8°C), though the top panel’s temperature was just 82.6°F (28.1°C). As JVS had told me that the M1X’s sound quality improved after a lengthy break-in, I then ran the amplifier at one-third the specified power into 8 ohms for another 30 minutes before examining its measured performance. The heatsink and top panel temperatures had increased only slightly after this period, to 107.4°F (41.9°C) and 83.4°F (28.5°C), respectively. The Esoteric’s voltage gain is specified as 28.5dB; I measured…

I measured the C 3050 LE using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system.1 As the NAD is a class-D design, I didn’t precondition the amplifier by driving a 1kHz tone at one-third power into 8 ohms. Nevertheless, before doing any testing, I ran it for an hour at a moderate power level to ensure that it was fully warmed up. At the end of that time, the temperature of the black grille on the top panel was 92.1°F/33.4°C. Because class-D amplifiers emit relatively high levels of ultrasonic noise that would drive my analyzer’s input into slew-rate limiting, all the measurements other than frequency response were taken with Audio Precision’s auxiliary AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter, which eliminates noise above 250kHz. Without the filter, 294mV of ultrasonic noise with a center frequency of…

I measured the Primare PRE35 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system,1 repeating some tests with the magazine’s higher-performance APx500 system. Looking first at the analog inputs, the balanced and single-ended line input impedances are specified, respectively, at 30k ohms and 15k ohms. I measured, for the balanced inputs, 29.6k ohms from 20Hz to 20kHz, and for the unbalanced inputs, 14.8k ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz and 13k ohms at 20kHz. The maximum gain at the balanced outputs was 16.7dB for the balanced inputs and 22.75dB for the single-ended inputs. There are two sets of single-ended outputs, one labeled “Pre1,” the other “Line”; I assumed the latter to be a fixed-level passthrough. The maximum gain at the Pre1 output was 16.7dB for the unbalanced inputs and 10.7dB for the balanced inputs.…

I measured the Mojo Mystique X SE with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system1 after leaving the processor decoding AES3 data for several hours to make sure it was fully warmed up. A slide switch on the processor’s back panel lifts the DC ground from the AC, chassis, and Earth grounds. The manual recommends lifting the DC ground; it also says that most people prefer the single-ended analog output. So I performed a complete set of tests using AES3 data with these outputs with the DC ground lifted. I repeated some tests with the balanced outputs, with USB and coaxial S/PDIF inputs, and with the ground connected. The AES3 and coaxial S/PDIF inputs locked to datastreams sampled at all rates up to 192kHz. Another slide switch above the USB port, labeled…

ON A WARM DAY IN SEPTEMBER 2022, ALONGSIDE 40 OR SO PRESS COLLEAGUES, I WAS TREATED TO AN ADVANCE DEMONSTRATION OF THE DOLBY ATMOS MIX OF THE BEATLES’ REVOLVER, AT REPUBLIC STUDIOS ON BROADWAY IN NEW YORK CITY’S MIDTOWN. PRODUCER/MIXER GILES MARTIN—SON OF ORIGINAL BEATLES PRODUCER SIR GEORGE MARTIN—WAS OUR HOST. GILES MARTIN’S DEMEANOR WAS SELF-DEPRECATING, AND HE SEEMED TO KNOW ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT THE BEATLES AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS. AS MARTIN PLAYED SONGS FROM REVOLVER IN SURROUND SOUND, THE ASSEMBLED GROUP SEEMED AMAZED BY WHAT THEY HEARD. Played through a JBL-based 7.1.4 system in a conference room,1 “Tomorrow Never Knows,” Revolver’s final track (which, however, was the first to be recorded), was transformed. Based on texts from The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book…

Over the past decade-plus, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, 40, has been one of the key figures reinvigorating jazz from the inside. Born and raised in New York and educated at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (the famed Fame school) and the New School, Benjamin has worked with artists as diverse as David Murray and Stevie Wonder. Her last album, Pursuance, was a starry tribute to the legacy of John and Alice Coltrane. Phoenix (Whirlwind Recordings), her latest—to belabor an already labored metaphor—has Benjamin rising from the pandemic’s ashes. The police siren and gunshots that open the album with an unsettling jolt foreshadow some of the weighty sociopolitical themes Benjamin will tackle. Civil rights activist Angela Davis’s voice introduces “Amerikkan Skin”; Benjamin’s horn recalls the siren…

Third Man Records (TMR 776). 2023. Gina Birch, Youth, prods.; Michael Rendall, eng. Ever since the group was formed, by Gina Birch and Ana da Silva, in 1977, the Raincoats have grown steadily in stature. Along the way, they have influenced generations of musicians, especially (but not exclusively) women. I Play My Bass Loud is Birch’s first solo effort. In truth, much of the music could easily be on a Raincoats album, and that’s no bad thing. Present is the scratchy guitar sound and, not surprisingly, her own bass playing, so obviously shaped by punk and dub. Birch has an uncanny knack for writing songs that combine wit with deadly seriousness, often in the same verse; “I Will Never Wear Stilettos” is a case in point. “They love blue suede…

Nicolas, bass, compositions, arrangements; Jeremy Pelt, trumpet; Sullivan Fortner, piano; Bill Stewart, drums; Ulysses String Quartet Sunnyside SSC 4119 (CD, also download). 2023. Nicolas, François Zalacain, Daniel Yvinec, prods.; James Farber, Ryan Streber, engs. Clovis Nicolas has always been a jazz bassist. But in 2009, while attending the Juilliard School, he immersed himself in classical music. He composed a five-part work called “Le Miroir.” In April 2022, he recorded it with the Ulysses String Quartet. Five months later, he recorded it again, this time with a jazz quartet. The result is The Contrapuntist. Rather than attempting to blend jazz and classical, Nicolas places the two genres in illuminating juxtaposition. The structure of “Le Miroir” is an andante (moderately slow) movement at the beginning and end and two scherzo (fast) movements…

Isabelle Faust, violin; Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello; Alexander Melnikov, piano; Prague Philharmonia/Jiří Bělohlávek. Harmonia Mundi HMM931833 (CD). 2023. Martin Sauer, prod.; Philipp Knop, eng. Isabelle Faust makes a fine impression in the Dvořák concerto. She answers the orchestra’s opening phrases with firm-bowed flourishes, impeccably tuned, both in the “little notes” and when sailing in alt. Without sacrificing polish, she makes the second theme feel shaggy and untamed. The curlicued cadenzas on the lead back are dazzling. The opening of the Adagio sings fervently, and Faust launches the finale with delicacy and incisive rhythm, capturing the boisterous Furiant mood without losing elegance. Supporting her, Bělohlávek and his players know how to tease and shape a melody into authentic Bohemian inflection, with strong, cushioned accents. Woodwind and horn lines stand in sharp relief,…

IN MEMORIAM: ERNO BORBELY Peter Noerbaek APRIL 25, 1936–AUGUST 7, 2022 Erno Borbely, in his 86 years, embraced opposing viewpoints with imagination, boldness, and a deeply generous spirit that is often found in the best teachers. He was grounded in home and family—especially his wife and business partner Irene and his son Alexander—yet he was willing to venture forth to new nations, learn new languages, and embrace the challenges of new ideas, methods, and technologies. Borbely’s gift for audio electronics gave him opportunities to work in prestigious European and American companies, such as Dynaco and Motorola, while teaming up with major names in electronic engineering. He channeled much of his expertise into work on preamplifiers and amplifiers. He analyzed and remembered the nuanced strengths and weaknesses of every component of…

Every product listed here has been reviewed in Stereophile. Everything on the list, regardless of rating, is genuinely recommendable. Within each category, products are listed by class; within each class, they’re in alphabetical order, followed by their price, a review synopsis, and a note indicating the issues in which the review, and any subsequent follow-up reports, appeared. “Vol.45 No.6” indicates our June 2022 issue, for example. “WWW” means the review is also posted online. Stereophile’s Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products available in the US through hi-fi retail outlets. Companies that sell only through dealers must have well-established dealer networks. Products sold online also qualify, but companies that sell only online must demonstrate the capacity for satisfactory customer support, preferably here in the US. A no-risk at-home audition…

You might think that by 1931—the year Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) completed his unforgettable Violin Concerto in D Major—orchestral instruments were the same as those used today. Far from it. According to the website of Claire Givens Violins,1 pure-gut D strings began to disappear after WWI and were wound with aluminum after WWII. Gut A strings ceded to synthetics in 1970, and gut E strings transitioned to steel between 1910 and WWII. With no consistency between modern orchestras, the string sections we hear in live performances and on electrical recordings set down since 1926 are, for the most part, a grab bag. Wind instruments and pianos have changed as well, and halls have increased in size and pitch has risen. Put all that together, and you can well understand why this…

Self-Released (45rpm LP). 2022. Rick Rosato, prod.; John Davis, eng. The pandemic’s effect on music was dramatic. Fans and musicians alike found solace in music’s colors and rhythms. Bassist Rick Rosato, a Montreal native now living in New York City, found himself listening to acoustic and electric blues on radio. After being “recalibrated” by this music, especially the acoustic delta blues of solo performers Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt, Rosato made the brave decision to focus his first album as leader on original arrangements for solo standup acoustic bass of early blues tunes, according to the liner notes for this album. “As time has passed, connecting with so many inspiring musicians, I see that the best improvisers certainly have the blues awareness and language in them regardless of the…

Pieranunzi, piano; Luca Bulgarelli, bass; Mauro Beggio, drums; Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, Michele Corcella, arranger/conductor Challenge CR 73550 (24/48 WAV, also CD). 2023. Pieranunzi, Corcella, prods.; Carlo Cantini, eng. Enrico Pieranunzi, one of Italy’s greatest pianists, has added an essential, beautifully realized recording to his large body of work. Blues & Bach is seven John Lewis compositions, plus one that’s associated with him, performed by Pieranunzi’s trio and a 10-piece classical ensemble. With the Modern Jazz Quartet (a beloved band that lasted 45 years), Lewis succeeded in blending two divergent art forms: jazz and classical music. In this tribute album, Pieranunzi, with his formidable chops and his independent creativity as an improviser, could have drastically reshaped Lewis’s songs. He chose another path. These pieces, reworked and orchestrated, sound like themselves although…

Albany Symphony, David Alan Miller, cond.; Hila Plitmann, soprano; American Music Festival Chorus Albany Records Troy1915 (24/96 WAV). 2022. Silas Brown/Legacy Sound, eng. David Del Tredici’s quarter-century foray into Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has been the stuff of audiophile legend ever since soprano Barbara Hendricks and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Georg Solti recorded Final Alice (1974–1975) for Decca. It and In Memory of a Summer Day (1980)—part of the larger Child Alice (1977–81) and winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize in Music—only provide two pieces of an extremely complex, frequently phantasmagoric opus gigantus that can induce a drugless altered state of unfettered wonder. Now, conductor David Alan Miller enhances our understanding and enjoyment of the 85-year-old American composer’s supreme achievement with premiere recordings of two essential Alice works:…

Probably the biggest group of audiophiles right now are still “Boomers”: members of the “Baby Boom” generation, which by most definitions puts their minimum age at close to 60. Boomers are aging and won’t be around forever. So bringing new blood into the hobby is more important than ever. Younger people (post-Boomer generations) listen to a ton of music—but are they really listening? Are they paying close attention, or, as the cliché goes, is it, for them, all background music? Generational clichés are rarely accurate. Of course they actually listen. Enough of them are, anyway. And they hear more; their hearing is better. There are differences, though, for sure. Many of them listen to headphones, often very good ones. When not listening on headphones, they’re likely to be listening in…

Heretic AD614 We would like to thank Herb Reichert and Stereophile for reviewing our AD614 loudspeakers. We designed and built this product, which is strictly aimed at music enthusiasts, against commercial common sense, hoping to delight music lovers who trust their ears and emotions. The fact that Stereophile accepted to review the AD614 was both a surprise and testament to the editors’ open minds, and I sincerely want to thank you all for it. Robert Gaboury, DesignerHeretic Loudspeakers Esoteric Grandioso M1X On behalf of Esoteric Japan, I would like to thank Jason Victor Serinus and John Atkinson for their commitment to the process, attention to even the most intricate details, and willingness to capture every element of the new Grandioso Series M1X monoblock power amplifier. Nature, logistics, and physics did…