Every month Stereophile magazine offers authoritative reviews, informed recommendations, helpful advice, and controversial opinions, all stemming from the revolutionary idea that audio components should be judged on how they reproduce music.
Not long after I moved to New York City, in anticipation of some summer-holiday meal, I went out into the city searching for lambchops. The closest butcher shop I found (thank you, Google Maps) was at roughly my latitude but across Morningside Park in a gentrified section of Harlem. I walked over and entered a large area occupied by a refrigerated glass case of the sort common in butcher shops. The case, though, was nearly empty—just a few cuts of meat, filling perhaps 5% of the available space. Adding to the vibe of neglect was that none of the half-dozen or so skinny young men with spiffy hats and immaculate facial hair (no hairnets on the beards) were greeting customers—or customer, since I was the only one. The natty men…
In-home auditions I would like to respond to the letter of Richard Potekin, who wrote, “the only A/B testing that’s meaningful is in my home” (May 2023). I totally concur with Mr. Potekin’s statements. When one is considering purchasing any component, the only way to evaluate it is in one’s home system. How well a component fits into your system depends on the acoustics and size of the listening room and on the other components in your system. It would be a nightmare to spend thousands of dollars and be disappointed. I’ve heard many folks over the years say they have no choice but to order the components from internet dealers that offer anywhere from a 30- to a 60-day return and a satisfaction guarantee. I would prefer to do…
A DEAL FOR AUDIO RESEARCH AWAITS APPROVAL Jim Austin As Stereophile reported in our July issue, in late April Audio Research filed for “assignment for the benefit of creditors,” a form of receivership. “Assignment,” in its most intensive form, means signing over all assets to a third party for eventual distributon to creditors. During the last few days of May, new court documents appeared online suggesting that ARC had been sold, pending only court approval. The selling price: $1,088,888.18, for all Audio Research assets except cash and bank accounts. Together with that cash and those accounts, the sale amount is expected to compensate all secured creditors in full and “possibly provide a modest distribution to unsecured creditors.” It was a popular sale. According to the court documents, 17 parties expressed…
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, email Chris Vogel at vgl@cfl.rr.com. (Please note the new email address.) It is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless it is associated with a seminar or similar event. CALIFORNIA ❚ Friday evenings, 5–7pm PST: The San Francisco Audiophile Society hosts a virtual happy hour via Zoom. This is open to anyone who’d like to join us to talk about hi-fi and whatever else is on your mind. For more information and registration, visit bit.ly/3RyaqX9. NORTH CAROLINA ❚ August 4–6, 2023: Audio Advice Live will take place at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel, 421 South Salisbury St.,…
I view poetry as more than a literary genre. It’s a worldview and a state of being that frames my daily experience in the supernal. I’ve consumed a lifetime keeping my senses peeled for authentic, manmade mysteries, especially in art and music. Music is my favorite hunting ground, and nowhere have I found mysteries as DNA-deep as the 59 takes of 29 songs recorded in only five days by Delta blues legend Robert Johnson (1911–1938). I’ve played the Columbia Records 1961 anthology King of the Delta Blues Singers (Columbia LP CL 1654) 100 times since my days in Chicago as a teenager, and I still haven’t grasped more than a portion of its juke-joint poetics. Robert Johnson’s lyrics, to songs like “If I Had Possession over Judgment Day” and “Crossroads,”…
May has long been one of my favorite months of the year, mostly because it means it’s time for the Munich show, the annual gathering of the high-end audio tribe in the Bavarian capital. High End Munich 2023 marked my return to the biggest audio show in the Western world following three years of lockdowns and travel restrictions, so I was eager to get back to the land of Wiener schnitzel and bratwurst. This year, as an added bonus, I was invited to visit the production facilities of turntable and tonearm manufacturer Acoustic Signature, which is based about 110 miles west of Munich, near Stuttgart. Acoustic Signature factory visit One day prior to High End Munich’s opening, I traveled with a group of dealers, distributors, and fellow hi-fi scribblers west…
