Every month Stereophile magazine offers authoritative reviews, informed recommendations, helpful advice, and controversial opinions, all stemming from the revolutionary idea that audio components should be judged on how they reproduce music.
This, Stereophile’s June 2023 issue, is the 50th I’ve produced as editor. That seems like a lot—yet the four-plus years it took have flown by; it seems impossible that I’ve done this 50 times already. Still, the main thing it makes me think is how inexperienced I remain: It will take another 28 years to match JA1’s record. That’s unlikely to happen: I’m not sure when I’ll retire, but I hope it will be before I turn 87. What have I learned? I’ve learned a lot about producing this magazine, and I’ve gained a lot of detailed knowledge, especially about specific hi-fi components. I’ve gained some broader knowledge, too, including a deeper appreciation for the crucial importance of the time domain in hi-fi—of the fact that music happens in the…
Measure everything I’ve been a subscriber long enough (30+ years) to notice from the letters submitted that I’m now observing the comments from a younger generation of readers, despite the comments therein often being repeats of old themes. The price of seniority, I suppose. I’ve also been around this hobby long enough to recall some of the many hi-fi magazines that are no longer with us: Audio, Stereo Review, High Fidelity, Listener—and to have a notion as to why some of these failed. Some I sorely miss; others not. Now that we’re largely down to the “big two,” I think it’s time for Stereophile to focus on the core of its merits: measurements. The other guys appear to use only one technical tool, a thesaurus, as they pen their reviews…
MQA GOES INTO ADMINISTRATION—BUT WHAT DOES ITS FUTURE LOOK LIKE? Jim Austin MQA critics were gleeful when the news broke that the company’s South Africa–based main investor was looking for an exit. MQA would be going into “Administration,” the UK version of what we in the US call Chapter 11. The analogy to US law may not be precise, but in the US, Chapter 11 occurs when a company is unable to process its debts. The debtor typically remains in control of its business operations, subject to the oversight and jurisdiction of the court. Typically, the parties in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy seek a reorganization plan that, if agreed upon by the parties and the court, allows the business to continue as a viable concern. In case you haven’t kept…
ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to you: stereophile.com/audiophile-societies. If you’d like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, email Chris Vogel at vgl@cfl.rr.com. (Please note the new email address.) It is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless it is associated with a seminar or similar event. CALIFORNIA ■ Friday–Sunday, June 9–11: Save the dates for T.H.E. Show, which is moving to a new Hilton venue in Costa Mesa (Hilton Orange County, 3050 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, CA 92626), approximately 28 miles south of the prior Long Beach location. Tickets will be available soon. For more information, visit thehomeentertainmentshow.com. ■ Friday evenings, 5–7pm PST: The San Francisco Audiophile Society hosts a virtual Happy Hour…
I wish that all who love LP playback as much as I do could hear a Thorens TD 124 or Garrard 301 or EMT 930 in their systems, but those products are subject to the vagaries of supply and demand: They are rare and pricey.—ART DUDLEY I have a friend named Yale, a record producer, who lives in a capacious, art-filled SoHo loft with enormous windows, craggy wood floors, and a high, tin-tiled ceiling. I enjoy Yale’s company because he has extraordinarily diverse, highly evolved taste in music, art, architecture, books, home furnishings, and hi-fi equipment. In one part of Yale’s loft, a large, tin cow weathervane stands on a bureau. Bolted to the ceiling above the dining room table is a greasy black 300lb electric motor with a wide…
Have you ever asked yourself how you ended up an audiophile? I certainly have, and I haven’t been able to figure it out. Other audiophiles tell me that their father, uncle, neighbor, or whoever introduced them to quality home music reproduction and the equipment needed to achieve it, but that was never the case for me. My fascination with music and gear goes back further than I can remember: My mom once told me that by age 3 I was climbing the bookcase to put records on the turntable and already knew how to operate the whole hi-fi rig by myself. Like most American households in the early 1960s, we did have a hi-fi system, and we all loved our music, but my father was no audiophile. Our cobbled-together stereo…
