Stereophile Jun-13

Are you listening more but enjoying it less? I have a hunch that the overwhelming majority of Stereophile readers have pretty decent hi-fis, but they probably listen to a lot more music in their cars, or through computer speakers, or on the go with headphones. I’m in that last group, and log more hours listening to Jerry Harvey’s astonishing JH13 Freqphase custom-molded in-ear ’phones than to my Magnepan MG3.7 speakers—but music moves me more through the 3.7s. I can fully savor the White Stripes only when I’m on the couch, letting Jack White’s blistering guitar and Meg White’s pounding drums rearrange my brain. I’m not just talking about fidelity—how and where we listen changes the way we experience music. When I first started playing CDs, in the early 1980s, I…

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR Loves Love This Giant Editor: A belated thank-you for your choice of David Byrne and St. Vincent’s Love This Giant as Stereophile’s “Recording of the Month” in December 2012 (www.stereophile.com/content/recording-de cember-2012-ilove-gianti). It’s a brilliant collaboration, and immensely enjoyable. More popular-music reviews, please! —Ken Motamed Lynnwood, WA Thanks, JA Editor: I just wanted to drop you a note of thanks for John Atkinson’s Follow-Up in the April 2013 issue (p.180) explaining the inclusion of a new measurement protocol for assessing D/A reconstruction filters. The all-on-one-graph presentation is very useful. Thanks for accepting Mr. Reis’s suggestion. I also wanted to thank JA for getting permission from the Audio Engineering Society to post his 2011 Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecture, “Where Did the Negative Frequencies Go?” on the Stereophile…

AUDIO NEWS & VIEWS AUDIOPHILE ESSENTIALS PACKAGES NOW AVAILABLE Stephen Mejias Stereophile celebrated 50 years of continuous publication in November 2012 and released its milestone 400th issue in May. The magazine remains committed to providing all audiophiles—young, old, enthusiastic newbies, and grumpy veterans alike—the tools necessary to get the very best from their systems and music libraries. To that end, we’ve bundled our hot-selling Recommended Components Collector’s Edition and our invaluable test discs into two neat and affordable Audiophile Essentials packages. The Audiophile Essentials Editor’s Choice Package ($15) includes Stereophile’s Recommended Components Collector’s Edition and our most popular test disc, Editor’s Choice. The Recommended Components Collector’s Edition compiles the last 10 years of our most influential, controversial, and prized feature, “Recommended Components.” Inside, you’ll find ratings and review summaries for…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to you: www.stereophile.com/audiophile-societies. If you’d like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, e-mail Chris Vogel at info@vcable.us. 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 Friday–Sunday, May 31–June 2: The Home Entertainment Show and the Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will present T.H.E. Show Newport Beach at the Irvine Hilton (18800 MacArthur Boulevard) and the Atrium Hotel (18700 MacArthur Boulevard). For more info, visit www.theshownewport.com. GEORGIA Sunday, June 30, 2–5pm: The Audio Video Club of Atlanta (Virtual Properties, 6550 Sugarloaf Parkway, Suite 700, Duluth) will host a presentation by Paul Stubblebine, Grammy…

By the Light of a PrimaLuna Moon Author Scott Turow, novelist and president of the Authors Guild, “sees immediate peril in the prospect of a secondhand digital thrift shop.” I got this information secondhand myself, from an article in the March 7, 2013, edition of the New York Times: “Imagining a Swap Meet for E-Books and Music,” by David Streitfeld. I downloaded it for free.1 “The paperback of ‘Fifty Shades of Gray’ is exactly like the digital version except for this: If you hate the paperback, you can give it away or resell it,” Streitfeld reminded readers. “If you hate the e-book, you’re stuck with it. “The retailer’s button might say ‘buy now,’ but you are in effect only renting an e-book—or an iTunes song—and your rights are severely limited.”…

A Current Event But first, this message: I recently attended a music, food, and wine event at Mario Batale’s Del Posto, in New York City—the first Italian restaurant in 40 years to receive four stars from the New York Times. The restaurant’s private lower level is ideal for such occasions; I’d previously visited to discuss with management the possibility of a food, wine, and high-performance audio event that might attract some of the restaurant’s regulars, but it never got past the talking stage. Sponsored by the Austrian Trade Council and graciously hosted by restaurateur and TV chef Lidia Bastianich, the evening included Austrian wine, a tasting menu split between Austrian and Northern Italian cuisine, and performances by a string quartet comprising members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which the previous…