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A few times a year there comes a revolutionary product from a vendor. Sometimes it's a well known vendor with the usual high-dollar offerings. With those, it's usually an automatic—"well, they have the money since their products are not cheap" so the logic is maybe they didn't skimp on R&D? But when the underdogs come... Read More »

The only thing "entry level" about Audio-Technica's new AT-LP1240-USB is the price. MSRP is $530, and the street price is closer to $450. It's easily competitive with any source I can think of for that money—analog or digital—and it runs rings around some of them. Sorry if that's vague, but I wanted to let you know upfront that this... Read More »

This is my second installment investigating surround preamplifiers that might function as a reference two channel preamplifier. Leaving my Onkyo 885(b) for the NAD M17 was an encouraging, nearly thrilling start to my investigation. Happily there are an increasing number of promising offerings from bona fide audiophile firms. I naturally alighted on Classe's newly released... Read More »

New Seasons. Gidon Kremer. Glass, Pärt, Kanchelli, Unabeyashi. Kremerata Baltica. Deutsche Gramophone. DG 4794817. Violinist Gidon Kremer is a musical phenomenon most of us have come to admire and even love. His energetic and (at least to my ears) near vibrato-less sound brings a vigorous directness to everything he plays from Bach to Glass. In... Read More »

ATC are makers of studio monitors. I expect every reader of this review has at least one recording in which an ATC speaker was used in producing it. And we're talking some exceptional recordings, think Pink Floyd, Mark Knopfler, Diana Krall, and great recording engineers, again think Doug Sax, George Massenburg and Bob Ludwig and... Read More »

The Truth Serum We just arrived at Alice Tully Hall here in New York City on Saturday night, but I wasn't looking forward to the program. Yet another Dvořák's New World Symphony? C'mon, give it a rest, maybe trot it out every two years or so. Such was my gloomy mood as we settled into... Read More »

The Sunshine Company, Ltd. S50 Underboard Isolation Platform Early this year, David Robinson asked if I would be interested in reviewing a line of cost-effective isolation products from a Japanese company, Sunshine Company, Ltd., with my Magnepan 3.7i loudspeakers. They claimed excellent success in helping music lovers and audiophile improve the performance of their audio... Read More »

This is a review of the Cary Audio DMC-600 Special Edition ("SE") digital music center which was added to the Cary Audio line up of products in the fall of 2014 or, perhaps, early 2015. It went on my radar after I received a press release in the fall of 2014. Intrigued, I touched base... Read More »

When you're basically just maintaining the middle-of-the-road audio status quo, it's really very easy to get caught up in allowing yourself to become relatively pacified by garden-variety, substandard fidelity that's essentially just masquerading as an acceptable version of the absolute sound. And regardless of how relatively refined your hearing is with regard to what is... Read More »

This review is short, and to the point. And yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. This is something really different, and what does a label printer have to do with high-end audio, anyway? Well, the connection is actually pretty clear once you think about it, and realize what the Epson LW-600p does in a particular application.... Read More »

Winner! Winner! Winner! Finally, Grado Labs has stepped up with a mono phono cartridge you can take home to mother. After much research, John Grado has developed an entirely new motor and sculpted wood body which sings with unbeatable clarity and organic color. The Statement Reference Series 2 Mono was truly worth waiting for, and... Read More »

Rosary Sonatas. Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. Rachel Podger, violin. David Miller, theorbo and arch lute; Marcin Swiatkiewicz, harpsichord, organ; Jonathan Manson, viola da gamba, cello. Channel Classics SACD. CCSSA 37315. Biber's (1644-1704) searching, expressly mystical meditations on the Christian story from the annunciation through the nativity to the crucifixion and resurrection and on to... Read More »

"The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,  Shorter of breath and one day closer to death." —From "Time" by Pink Floyd So, first, you might ask, where have I been and why I am not talking about digital music servers, instead reviewing a vinyl reissue you can't buy anymore—at least... Read More »

You would be surprised if you actually measured your turntable's platter. It may be several RPM off and you didn't even know it. I started to get suspicious when I was listening to some music and the pitch just seemed a little off. I'm guessing not everyone has the ability to discern a pitch-shift but... Read More »

Admittedly, I am not a headphone enthusiast.  I have an old pair of open backed Grado SR 60s used occasionally for casual listening around the house. For music on the go I carry a pair of Klipsch S4i earbuds. Both pairs of headphones offer pleasingly smooth response and low coloration with a wide range of... Read More »

I think I made a mistake, one of those forest-for-the-trees kinds, in hunting for a radio-friendly single on the new Silversun Pickups album. I'd been spoiled with their previous offerings and came into this album, headphones swinging, lazily assuming I was going to be getting more of the same. It'd be really, really, amazingly good... Read More »

Audeze has come a long way from its first planar magnetic offering. The upstart company from the United States has steadily grown and offered what some would say to be the best headphones currently in the market place. Not wanting to stay on their laurels the guys from Audeze are back at it again; this... Read More »

Today, headphones are designed for DJs, hipsters, style mongers and those willing to spend $3k on high-end "Wearable Technology." The $399 Master & Dynamic MH 40 headphones stand in stark contrast to those business models. Not only are the MH 40s an example of a well conceived and smartly designed product that surpasses marketing hype,... Read More »

There's every probability you already have an opinion about audiophile tweaks and the folks who review them. Sometimes it seems like half the double-blindsters on the internet remain fixated on the original AudioPrism StopLight CD marker pen, so discussing any device from that company entails a certain incendiary risk-especially as Positive Feedback now features a... Read More »