Star Wars Original Soundtracks in Stereo DSD and Analog Tape Horch House has released the first three original soundtracks from the Star Wars Series: Episode 4: Star Wars – A New Hope, Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode 6: Return of the Jedi in Stereo DSD, analog tape, and WAV formats. The albums... Read More »
George Frederick Handel, Water Music. Academie fur Alte Musik Berlin. Harmonia Mundi HMC 902216. Handel was German, but he was also a Londoner for 47 years and lived and studied for four years in Italy. We can hear all of this in his music, an extremely satisfying blend of three distinct baroque musical cultures. He... Read More »
Transformative Evolution I first heard about the Ref 6 line stage coming to market in late October 2015. Without any hesitation, I contacted ARC and placed my order. Why? Because ARC has rarely taken missteps in the evolution of their products since the inception of the company and I was confident that the Ref 6... Read More »
Audio Vault USA is a relative newcomer to the world of audio equipment racks designed for use in high end systems. Audio Vault USA was founded a year ago by Dave Vincent. Dave is the President of Audio Vault USA and Dave is a mechanical engineer. Dave and James Wall who works for Audio Vault... Read More »
Usually, I come to a review with foreknowledge about a product and a set of basic expectations. In this case, I had no first hand prior exposure to Furutech or experience with high-end power receptacles. A very long time ago, before cell phones and audio websites, I replaced the original duplex of my typical post-war... Read More »
"Help!" —The Beatles In memory of Lee Weiland, the man who introduced me to the concept of a digital music server and whose Locus Design cables I still use All my audiophile friends have NAS clusters. There's tremendous peer pressure for me to have one, too, and I tried an inexpensive one to see how... Read More »
Sony Electronics is expanding the company’s High Resolution Audio line with a new Car Audio System, Turntable and Universal Disc Player which all support Double DSD (5.6 MHz) and PCM music files during 2016. The new products build upon the company’s High Resolution Audio line which started in 2013 and was timed to support the... Read More »
My recent review of the Devialet 400 Integrated Amplifier was quite an eye opener for me and apparently many of our readers. Please see the review HERE. Many folks agreed with my findings and others provided some very interesting (but respectful) feedback. You gotta love this hobby! The entire exercise reminded me again and again... Read More »
Fiio is beginning to gain a little steam in the personal portable world; their top-of the line player sells for about a third of what an Astell&Kern mid-line player costs, and offers a feature set that's easily the equal or better of the higher-priced machine. I first reached out to them last year, and the... Read More »
Not sure how this came about, but man do I have a lot of stuff here to review… the PS Audio BHK250 amplifier and their AC12 and AC5 power cables, the Aurender N100H streamer, the Entreq Poseidon Grounding box and cables, several items from Synergistic Research (Black Box, Atmosphere, MiG, and HFT), iFi Audio's new... Read More »
When I first encountered the vertical walls of houses and the hard, straight lines of streets I was still suffused with a memory of something altogether different. It's no easy task to describe this memory. I guess I knew it mostly by contrast to the new world into which I was suddenly dropped. After all, how... Read More »
Label: Aigle Music | Universal Music UK/Warner Music Japan WPCR-17045 Released: Nov. 20th 2015 Format: Mini LP CD Dark Sky Island is the 8th studio album by Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, known rather as Enya. Her career started in 1980. She, together with her family, became a member of the band called Clannad. She became really famous... Read More »
How our memory works is still a mystery. We know where memories are stored, we can literally point out parts of our brain responsible for that. But the answer to a question of how it actually works still eludes scientists. They know some, they assume some but they can't be really certain. It is possible... Read More »
Roger Sheker, left, Chief Engineer for Audience LLC, with President John McDonald. Born in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, on Christmas Day, 1942, Roger was a self-made man and a certified (Mensa card-carrying) genius. Though he never attended college, his diverse and comprehensive education came at the hands of both the U.S. Army and his time working at General... Read More »
Jeez, this thing is heavy. Schlepping the box upstairs, I stopped to catch my breath and wondered what they're made from. Thus I embarked on my latest audio adventure. Medusa Speaker Cable from Stage III Concepts, along with a set of Medusa jumper cables, replaced a double run of Kubala•Sosna Elation! speaker wire. That pits... Read More »
All of us who love music and audio have some sort of history that goes way back into our past. In my case, it was my Dad's love of all things classical and flamenco related in the vast world of the guitar. I grew up listening to Segovia, the Romeros, Sabicas, Montoya, and Bream, on... Read More »
A Serious Overachiever From the moment I opened the box containing Audioengine's new flagship HD6 powered loudspeaker system, I had a feeling something special was in my possession. The velvety drawstring bags containing cables and speakers made it seem almost like Christmas. And while it wasn't a winter holiday, it was very, very cold, so... Read More »
Audeze Nails It Yet Again As I sit on the back porch bobbin' my head to A Tribe Called Quest's "Lyrics To Go" off Midnight Marauders via TIDAL through Audeze's new Titanium EL-8 closed-back planars, I'm feelin' the music like I do when I'm using one of my usual portable systems. The sound is full-bodied, engagingly... Read More »
So there is this controversy of sorts… well not really for many of us, but certainly for some of us. See, the argument is that USB cables cannot and will not change the sound since it is just passing along 1's and 0's from point A to point B. It is all digital and so there... Read More »