Cynics and Saints was recorded at Immersive Studios direct to DSD via Meitner converters to Sonoma. The entire album is DSDPure Available for download in DSD, 176/24, 96/24, and 88/24 at: http://store.acousticsounds.com Denver, CO After three and a half years of sweat, pain, tears and love - and even a little bit of blood -... Read More »
I like surprises. I especially like them when they bushwhack me. You know…when I'm not looking and all. This doesn't happen in audioville very often. Usually there's a reasonable expectation of the quality of what I'm going to hear when products come in for review. Most of my review projects are by invitation; I generally... Read More »
Audience Debuts Its Improved ClairAudient 1+1-V2 Loudspeaker And Introduces 1+1-V2 “+ Kit” Option San Marcos, CA, November 9, 2015 – Audience today announced the introduction of its ClairAudient 1+1-V2 loudspeaker, incorporating upgraded drivers to deliver even greater sonic realism than the original version of the 1+1. In addition, an available “+ kit” takes the 1+1-V2’s... Read More »
Westchester, New York, November 6, 7 & 8 Roaming the sparsely populated halls of the Rye Brook Westchester Hilton during opening day of "New York Audio Show 15," the event looked to be a bust. Instead of the usual throng of audiophile fiends blocking access to popular rooms, one could stroll the show's two floors,... Read More »
Now, more than ever, the audiophile world is awash with digital to analogue converters. Not a day seems to pass by without entry to the market of yet another shiny box sporting the latest chipset and the ability to decipher the Enigma code. Sarcasm notwithstanding, the audiophile kingdom has a plethora of choice at its... Read More »
Audiophiles are often use to trying many different methods and ways of thinking to improve the sound of their playback systems. One can find countless varieties of tweaks, accessories, and approaches to produce even small changes in the audibility of our favorite music and sound recordings. But one of the least understood of these is... Read More »
The TAVES Consumer Electronics Show is one event that I always look forward to. It is, by far, the show with the friendliest crowd that I have ever encountered any high-end audio show that I have attended over the past 35 years. It is also very well organized and always features a good number of... Read More »
"How can I even try I can never win Hearing them, seeing them in the state I'm in" —"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by Lennon–McCartney I haven't written a column on digital music servers in a very long time, and I think that's because I haven't really had anything new to say. Everything... 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 »
I have to confess. Since moving away from CDs and other physical digital media (at least from a playback standpoint) I actually listen to music digitally more than I ever imagined I would. Looking back over the last year or so, I probably have more actual listening time using my budget digital server system than... Read More »
Irvine, California November 4th, 2015 – Synergistic Research introduces the World's Highest Resolution cables for Audeze and Sennheiser headphones - Atmosphere Series Headphone Cables. MSRP $ 695.00 / 2.5 Meter Atmosphere Headphone Cables for Sennheiser and Audeze feature: The world's first use of Graphene in a headphone cable. Graphene is a room temperature super conductor... Read More »
STOW, OH, November 3, 2015 — This holiday season, Audio-Technica offers gift ideas that make music more enjoyable and fun. Bringing unmatched convenience to listeners anywhere and everywhere, the all-new ATH-ANC40BT QuietPoint® wireless Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones are here just in time for the holiday season. Audio-Technica’s ATH-ANC70 and ATH-ANC33iS noise-cancelling headphones combine standard-setting noise-cancellation with... Read More »
So there is a lot to see and hear at RMAF. So much, that just getting to the majority of rooms, saying hello, taking a few shots, and giving a quick listen becomes not only mind boggling, but physically boggling. So here is Part 2. Will have a lot more to say in the conclusion.... Read More »
Always a great time, but man are we getting old. Hard to do the shows like we used to in the past... just not able to make all the rooms nor sit and spend any amount of time. When we did, we found ourselves too beat to get up and continue. Even so, we did hear... Read More »
Some of the DSD Stereo Downloads at HDtracks Two years ago at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver, Acoustic Sounds and Native DSD announced their new music download sites that would feature Direct Stream Digital (DSD) downloads. At the same show, Sony Electronics introduced a family of Digital Music Servers and Converters that would... Read More »
One of the most frequent reactions of people who have never visited me before and who have nothing to do with audio, is their surprise at the sight of my speaker cables trailing on the floor. In my reference system, I have been using the Tara Labs Omega Onyx cables for many years. They are... Read More »
When one of the fellow audio journalists from abroad asks me about the best Polish audio brands among few I always recommend Warsaw based Amare Musica. It is a company that from the very beginning, from 2012 when they debuted during Audio Show in Warsaw, always offered highest quality products. They debuted with the De... Read More »
In past reviews of loudspeakers I presented the notion that products, for me at least, tend to sound like the personality of the designer. How so…? Well… From Issue 64…"So how do they fit into the idea of being cut from the same (or similar cloth) as the designer? That is… do they present the... Read More »
The Audio Oasis! Awards Time is short…on to my Audio Oasis! Awards. These I give to the rooms that were of high quality, drawing me in to sit down and really get into the music. You know: An audio oasis! Rest for the weary audio traveler and all that. For me, that's a sign of... Read More »
I have some more pictures to share from RMAF and a few more thoughts about the show. Below is a picture of the Einstein/AF-2 room. I think the AF-2 is a great looking table, but nothing much was happening when I visited the room so I really don’t have much to share beyond the pictures.... Read More »
USB DAC recording system offers professional-grade A/D conversion and the ultimate in vinyl archival To satisfy audiophiles everywhere, KORG expands its Direct Stream Digital (DSD) hardware and software products with the introduction of the DS-DAC-10R, a revolutionary USB DAC recording system offering professional-grade Analog-to-Digital (ADC) conversion. Thanks to seamless integration with the improved AudioGate 4 software... Read More »
Today at NativeDSD.com we celebrate the milestone of having over 10.000 DSD Tracks available at Native DSD with a Storewide 10% discount on all albums! We also release Two brand new Channel Classics releases by Amsterdam Sinfonietta Soloists and Hamlet Piano Trio. Jazz trumpeter Eric Vloeimans is in the spotlight this week with an extra special pricing, and we have added 6 New DSD Releases from Caro Mitis to the... 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 »
Damn! Unbelievable! Yet another trip to Denver done; another annual circuit in the Earth's orbit; the 12th RMAF is in the books. The only one of these that I've missed was the 2008 show, when I had just temporarily relocated to Virginia Beach, Virginia. Otherwise, I've seen them all, from the very beginning, when Al Stiefel... Read More »
September 30, 2015—Channel D, developers of the innovative Pure Vinyl™ and Pure Music® computer audio software for Apple Macintosh computers and the creator of the Seta® Ultra Wide Bandwidth Phono Preamplifiers has released a major update to its Pure Music® software. The new Pure Music 3 software includes nearly 50 new features and performance enhancements.... Read More »
October 12th, 2015 — Bryston has announced the introduction of four high-performance compact analog solutions for vinyl enthusiasts—three phono stage preamplifiers and a matching outboard power supply. These new small form factor devices join the BUC-1 (a digital to digital converter outputting asynchronous USB) and the BOT-1 (CD ripper and player for the Bryston digital... Read More »
October 12, 2015 – The Sound Organisation announces the latest Arcam state-of-the-art audio/video receivers. The new AVR550 and AVR850 are capable of playing back captivating sound with Dolby Atmos®. To complement Dolby Atmos these new Arcam AVRs have HDMI 2.0a including HDCP2.2 to allow the consumer to enjoy the best video and audio presentation available... Read More »
October 7th, 2015 MYTEK DIGITAL is pleased to announce the new BROOKLYN DAC - Preamplifier - Headphone Amp - the world first stand alone, high performance DAC with MQA ® technology. Built on 25 years of MYTEK’S experience with Hi-Res audio converters for both studio music production and audiophile playback, the BROOKLYN DAC incorporates key Hi-Res... Read More »
October 8th, 2015 — Bryston has announced today the introduction of the BDA-3 digital to analog converter (DAC), the company’s highest resolution DAC to date. Pre-orders for the BDA-3 have broken all records for new product introductions at Bryston and continue to be brisk. Target MSRP for the BDA-3 is $3495 USD with a delivery... Read More »
October 5th, 2015 Audeze, maker of award-winning planar magnetic headphones, is excited to offer The King Headphone Amp on Indiegogo at an astonishing discount for 30 days beginning today. It’s Good to be King The King Headphone Amplifier received amazing feedback at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this past weekend, and now anyone can purchase... Read More »
Peterborough, Ontario October 6th, 2015 — Bryston has announced today the introduction of the Model T Cinema reference home theater in-wall loudspeaker. By leveraging key design cues from the flagship Model T floor-standing loudspeaker, Bryston has developed a highly capable architectural speaker system for dedicated home theater rooms. The Model T Cinema combines high-performance with... Read More »
While getting ready to conduct another interview for "The Editors" series, I sent an appropriate enquiry to the largest printed German audio magazine—Audio (it is a coincidence, of course, but the latest interview from the series also involved another printed German magazine—"Stereo", read HERE ). Audio has been published for many years and it is... 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 »
Driving north on I-25 after the first day of the show. It's dark, we're tired, and only one lane of three is open. It's just as bad on the other direction. Traffic moves forward at 10 to 15 mph as rain comes down and gigantic paving machines emit asphalt roars and smells. The ten miles... Read More »
There's anarchy afoot in the listening room; LP's are stacked everywhere, yet even in the shadow of chaos, there is a renewed love for that old black plastic magic. Yep, spinning records has become quite the pastime again, and it all started with a realization that I wanted better vinyl playback. While writing Phase One... Read More »
Another year and another RMAF show is in the books. I'm going to tell you about some of the rooms that I considered to sound very, very good, and I will leave out the rooms which didn't sound so great. As we all know by now, pulling off setting up a system in a hotel... Read More »
