Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2016 i Stereophile

THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS AS THERE ARE EXPERTS THIS ISSUE: It appears that listeners can hear the difference between CD-quality audio and its hi-rez equivalent. My spirits sank as I read the comments on Stereophile’s Facebook page. In the November issue, we had published reviews of UpTone Audio’s USB Regen device by Kalman Rubinson, Michael Lavorgna, and myself.1 Michael and Kal had enthused about the positive effect the USB Regen had made, but I could detect no measurable difference. On Facebook, Dan Madden had written, “I think a device like this would need a blind listening test to verify that a listener could hear the difference in a statistically measurable way, in a very high percentage of times.” I have no argument with that statement. But then, Madden went…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website dedicated solely to you: www.stereophile.com/audiophilesocieties. 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 this is associated with a seminar or similar event. CALIFORNIA ■ Sunday, January 31, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at The Source Audio/Video Design Group, in Torrance (3035 Kashiwa Street). Our hosts, Steven and Jason Lord, will demonstrate top-of-theline equipment in spaces customdesigned to maximize your musical (and visual) enjoyment. Listen to Boulder, Dan D’Agostino, Denon, Linn, Marantz, MBL, McIntosh, Pearl Evolution, Simaudio Moon, Sonus Faber, Totem Acoustic, Wadia,…

1918: Konosuke Matsushita founds Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Japan). 1965: Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. (Japan) introduces the first Technics product, a two-way acoustic-suspension loudspeaker designed to compete with the increasingly popular line of sealed-box speakers made by Acoustic Research (US). 2008: Matsushita renames itself Panasonic Corporation. 2010: Panasonic halts production of the revered Technics SL1200 turntable, thus ending an era and the Technics brand name, whose wide-ranging audio products had become synonymous with smooth sound, elegant styling, and rugged construction. 2014: Panasonic revives the Technics brand. 2015: I listen carefully as Michiko Ogawa—former Technics engineer, renowned classical and jazz pianist, and current director of Panasonic’s Technics division—speaks these words: “In honor of our 50th anniversary, we at Technics are determined to blaze a new audio path and deliver new…

Apogee Electronics Corp. has been in business for 30 years, and I’ve always thought of them as one of the pro-audio companies responsible for moving digital in the right direction. They’ve made their mark in recording studios around the planet with digital-audio interfaces and master clocks that have long been considered some of the most technically and sonically advanced, and that were probably used in a high percentage of the recordings in your collection. So when I saw Apogee pop up at the consumer end of the market with a technically unique product, budget-priced at $295, it got my attention. The Apogee Groove USB DAC–headphone amp has a USB Micro B input at one end and a mini (1⁄8") headphone jack at the other. Its machined-aluminum case is just under…

In his “Music in the Round” column on p.45 of this issue, Kal Rubinson nails it: “An accessory is something without which your system would still work just fine.” Thus, unless you’re one of those Neanderthals who assign to audio cables1 that rather dubious distinction, there isn’t a single audio accessory on the planet that anyone actually needs.2 But because most of my listening is to LPs, I find that a reliably good record-cleaning machine comes closer than any other accessory to being essential to my full enjoyment of music—not to mention the preservation of my record collection. I didn’t feel quite so strongly on the matter until I experienced the German-made Audiodesksysteme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner ($3995),3 a fully automated, wet-wash/blow-dry machine that uses ultrasonic cavitation to remove contaminants from…

ANY CLOD CAN HAVE THE FACTS; HAVING OPINIONS IS AN ART THIS ISSUE: TARA Labs, Acoustic Sounds, AudioQuest, SOtM, and JL Audio comment on our reviews of their products. TARA Labs Omega Evolution Editor: Michael Fremer’s somewhat confusing recent review of TARA Labs’ Omega Evolution speaker cable (December 2015, p.27) was the result of us initially sending him the wrong version of the cable. We based our choice on what we thought he had in his reference system, and that was our error. (Going forward, we’ll read the “Associated Equipment” sidebars more carefully.) We want to make sure Stereophile readers know that the cable that did not work well in his system has already gotten many outstanding reviews. The SP version he needed, and eventually got, has greater inductance than…

TAKE HEED! Unless marked otherwise, all letters to the magazine and its writers are assumed to be for possible publication. In the spirit of vigorous debate implied by the First Amendment, and unless we are requested not to, we publish correspondents’ e-mail addresses. Hello, Lachlan I just want to thank Michael Fremer for inspiring me to decide to get into hi-fi. I’m 15 years old and I’m absolutely obsessed with analog systems, especially vinyl ones. I think I’m probably one of the youngest audiophiles you’ve heard of! Don’t let that fool you, though—I know my stuff, and I love tweaking my setup like everyone else. —Lachlan Cuskelly lmcuskelly23@gmail.com Goodbye, John Marks Editor: I was despondent to read that John Marks has left Stereophile (November, p.19). His “The Fifth Element” was…

A ROUND MAN CANNOT BE EXPECTED TO FIT INTO A SQUARE HOLE USBTHIS ISSUE: A subwoofer and two USB accessories are thoroughly auditioned. In my last column, in the November 2015 issue, I talked about Marantz’s AV8802A preamplifier-processor and two accessories: UpTone Audio’s USB Regen, and a DIY battery supply for my DAC. This month’s column is all about accessories, and for me that’s unusual. Some items, like interconnects and speaker cables, are usually considered accessories because they’re not fundamental components (eg, source, amplifier, speaker), even though they’re essential to getting any sound at all. As far as I’m concerned, an accessory is something without which your system would still work just fine. By definition, accessories are preferential, not essential: You buy them in the hope that they’ll improve the…

Déjà vu all over again? Apart from being reminded of this Yogi-ism by the death, in September 2015, of its originator, I was all set to begin by commenting that this would be my first review for Stereophile of a Paradigm loudspeaker. But—the recent online posting of my June 1992 review of Paradigm’s Studio Monitor took me back.1 That speaker sold for $1899/pair in an era when $5000/pair was near the top of the price structure of high-end audio—apart from a very few nosebleed models. I have in my hands a copy of the April 1992 Stereophile. In that issue’s edition of “Recommended Components,” only four Class A speakers exceeded $10,000/pair: the B&W Matrix 800, the Infinity IRS Beta, the Meridian D6000, and the Wilson Audio WATT 3/Puppy 2/WHOW. The…

The last time we had a big-budget, studio recording of Aida; in fact, the last was from 2001, and it was awful—conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s attempt to present an intimate (read: “miniaturized”) reading of the score, a sort of period-instrument approach with small-voiced singers. Aida has been taken on nearly 30 studio outings (the first was in 1928), and there are “private” and video versions. This is one of the best, with what might arguably be the finest cast one can assemble today. One might argue that recording Aida without an Italian in an important role is heresy, but if that were the case, many others would also be burnt at the stake: Leontyne Price, Jon Vickers, and Rita Gorr under Georg Solti; Maria Callas and Richard Tucker; not to mention…

THERE’S ONLY TWO KINDS OF MUSIC: THE BLUES AND ZIPPETY DOO-DAH. —TOWNES VAN ZANDT “In 1986 I started a label to give a chance to kids like Lou Ann Barton and Doug Sahm. The sound was just like what they did in the nightclub; it was what they really sounded like; a chance to capture and share the feeling.” —CLIFFORD ANTONE 2006, WWW.AUSTINDAZE.COM In writing this month’s feature on Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin, I was once again confronted with the problems that haunt the blues ca 2015. After its final heyday in the 1960’s, the blues has become a niche music, if not a museum piece. With nearly all of its original practitioners gone, catching a blues gig today means, more often than not, watching a bunch of guys who…