CATEGORIES

The Virtues of Vintage

They don’t make ’em like they used to.

PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium

Let us pretend . . . you have a pair of loudspeakers that have proven themselves to sound articulate and musically responsive in your room, without excess boom, bloom, or frail leanness.

Enough With The Hobby Already

As We See It.

The Permanent Jazz Festival

The Rise of Europe and the Future of Jazz.

Bowers & Wilkins 805 D3

I have had a long relationship with Bowers & Wilkins.

Aerial Acoustics 5T

Long-lived loudspeaker models are rare.

MQA, DRM, And Other Four-letter Words

MQA, DRM, And Other Four-letter Words

The Tight Lines Project

WE LAST RELEASED A RECORDING ON THE STEREOPHILE LABEL SIX YEARS AGO—A JAZZ ALBUM FEATURING ATTENTION SCREEN, THE LATE BOB REINA’S FREE-JAZZ ENSEMBLE. THIS DRY SPELL WAS MAINLY DUE TO THE INCREASING DEMANDS MADE ON OUR EDITORIAL TEAM’S TIME BY SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE MAGAZINE’S WEBSITE, BUT ALSO BY JOHN ATKINSON’S RECORDING ACTIVITIES WITH THE PORTLAND STATE CHAMBER CHOIR, WHO ISSUE THEIR RECORDINGS ON THEIR OWN LABEL. NEVERTHELESS, WE’VE BEEN KEEPING OUR EYES AND EARS OPEN FOR SUITABLE OPPORTUNITIES.

Analog Corner

THIS ISSUE: Zesto’s Andros Téssera phono preamp and Acoustic Signature’s revised Ascona turntable and TA-9000 tonearm.

Follow-Up

The words right and wrong and good and bad make me uncomfortable. Assigning virtue or value is against my religion. And thinking that I know the best way to design a loudspeaker, amplifier, or record player would only prove that I’m a conceited old fool. Therefore . . .

Jason Victor Serinus - Audionet Max

Monoblock Power Amplifier

New Age.

Having Survived Cancer And New Age, The Solo Pianist Climbs Aboard His Carousel

Bel Canto Design e. One REF600M- Monoblock Power Amplifier

Has it really been more than seven years since I reviewed Bel Canto’s REF1000M monoblock?1

NAD Masters Series M50.2

Back in May 2014, I reviewed NAD’s Masters Series M50 Digital Music Player ($2499) and M52 Digital Music Vault ($1999 with 2TB storage). 1 At the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, NAD announced the M50.2, which is almost identical to the original M50 but now incorporates two 2TB hard disks, arranged as a 2TB RAID array, to ensure data integrity, and adds TosLink and coaxial digital inputs, Bluetooth with aptX for streaming music from a smartphone or tablet, and two single-ended analog inputs—all for $3999, or $499 less than the combined cost of the two earlier products.

Analog Corner

CH Precision’s P1 phono preamplifier, which I wrote about in the April 2017 issue, is not going back to its manufacturer.

Music Hall Audio MMF-7.3

Turntable

Of Headphones To Come

I figured it was coming, but it wasn’t until just after I’d returned from the Audio Engineering Society’s 2016 International Conference on Headphone Technology1— held last August in Aalborg, Denmark—and was writing up my report and summary on the event for InnerFidel ity.com2 that I knew for sure: Headphones are about to change . . . a lot.

Power Tripping

Some of our readers seem to believe that the essence of high-quality audio is disclosed primarily by science, and not by dreamy, bodice-ripping adventures that take place on plush carpets behind closed doors.

As We See It - Not-So-Giant Steps

I’m a thirty-year-old puppy doing what I’m told And I’m told there’s no more coal for the older engines,” —ANDY PARTRIDGE,

as we see it

steve guttenberg's 116th dream.

Moon by Simaudio Evolution 780D D/A PROCESSOR.

Moon by Simaudio Evolution 780D D/A PROCESSOR.

Auralic Altair

D/A Processor.

Analog Corner

Do good things come in small packages, or is bigger better? Your call.

As We See It

THIS ISSUE: Are audiophiles ignoring the most affordable means of achieving true high-end sound?

Listening

THIS ISSUE: A belt-drive turntable with a skeletal plinth, an acrylic platter, and an apparently lowish-torque DC motor. From Serbia.

Record Reviews

The blues, that wonderful basis of so much American popular music, has for many listeners grown a bit stale and old-fashioned. It’s not much of a draw outside bar bands, and other than Alligator Records and APO Records, most of the biggest blues labels have folded or gone dormant. Losing many of the music’s first- and secondgeneration practitioners hasn’t helped.

Ortofon Launches The Windfeld Ti Cartridge

Ortofon, which turns 100 next year, launched the original Windfeld cartridge nearly a decade ago. Named for cartridge designer Per Windfeld—who had just retired at age 75, after 30 years with the company—that top-of-the-line cartridge cost $3400 at the time of its introduction. 

Vinyl Apocalypse

Solving the Lp Shelving Dilemma

Rockport Technologies Avior II Loudspeaker

Following my review of the floorstanding Magico S5 Mk.II last February,1 I spent some time with two-way stand-mounted speakers from Aerial Acoustics, Bowers & Wilkins, and Dynaudio. As much as I appreciated the small speakers’ virtues, I found myself missing the big Magico’s bass extension and ability to play loud; my next loudspeaker review, therefore, would be of another floorstander. 

See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me (Again)

Once it was a cherished ritual: come home from the record store, tear off the cellophane, drop the needle, and lose your self in the artwork, the liner notes, the smell of the jacket’s freshly glued seams.