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.
THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS AS THERE ARE EXPERTS One Saturday not long before press time for this issue, I received an email from Technical Editor (and former Editor) John Atkinson with the subject line, “20 Years Ago.” “Just read your May 2005 As We See It for the first time in many years,” John wrote. “Great stuff!” Could 20 years really have passed since I wrote that piece? Back then, I was in a different career, indulging my hi-fi passion by contributing to Stereophile on the side; now I’m in my seventh year as Stereophile editor. Then I was still a youngish dude; now I am an oldish dude. “Time flies” just doesn’t capture it. Some readers will surely remember that long-ago editorial.1 It was about a product dubbed…
Pass it on David Fisher’s essay in the December 2024 My Back Pages was terrific, thoughtful, and well written, and it addressed itches we all tend to scratch, or at least want to. I’d like to add that upgrading our systems and adding to our music libraries can also involve other substantive matters. Regarding upgrading our systems, technologies and their implementation improve over time, sometimes in revolutionary ways. As much as we may hope not to, it’s usually easy to hear the sonic improvements from better (usually more expensive) gear. We may move to different listening environments that lend themselves to system upgrades. I’ll also emphasize a point Mr. Fisher made: Our financial flexibility can change over time; it’s so good to have our son wrapping up grad school! Regarding…
BOWERS & WILKINS BECOMES OFFICIAL AUDIO PARTNER TO MCLAREN F1 Mark Henninger Bowers & Wilkins has expanded its decade-long partnership with McLaren, becoming the official audio partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team. Previously focused on in-car audio for McLaren’s road vehicles, the collaboration now includes cobranded products inspired by McLaren’s 2024 Constructors’ Championship win. The partnership extends beyond automotive audio, with Bowers & Wilkins products integrated into the F1 team’s travel and prerace preparations. New products build on past releases, for example the Px8 McLaren Edition headphone and Zeppelin McLaren Edition speaker. Joint marketing efforts will highlight their shared commitment to performance and innovation. The proximity of Bowers & Wilkins’ facility to McLaren’s Technology Centre in Surrey, England, supports technical collaboration—including refining systems for the new McLaren W1 supercar.…
EXPLORING THE ANALOG ADVENTURE The story goes that starting in 1962, Malcolm Jones was KEF’s “first employee,” where he “did most of the design and development of the legendary KEF drive units—the B139, B200, B110, T15, T27—and the systems in which they were incorporated. Malcolm left KEF in 1974, having just completed the Reference Series 104 system and work on an active professional monitor to work full time at Falcon Acoustics Ltd.”1 Fast-forward a few years. I bought my first BBC LS3/5a in 1980. It was a Falcon Acoustics kit I saw advertised in the back of Speaker Builder magazine. Fingers crossed, I sent a postal money order in a thin Air Mail envelope to what I imagined was a garden shed in England. But of course it wasn’t. According…
PEERING INTO HI-FI’S BACK ALLEYS AND DUSTY NOOKS Some years ago, I visited the home of a well-known American author who happened to be an audiophile. His cramped, dimly lit listening room contained a tube amp, a DAC, and a pair of inexpensive floorstanding speakers surrounded by what looked like a museum of audio tweaks. I recall a scarecrow-like contraption with swiveling wood-and-metal arms that rearranged magnetic fields, assorted boxes and panels that promoted “quantum proton alignment,” mysterious dots covering the walls like a rash, and nearly a dozen things dangling from the speakers’ binding posts that were supposed to do something I can’t remember. The author had an almost mystical belief in the power of these objects to bend the laws of physics and told me that he’d spent…
WE COME SPINNING OUT OF NOTHINGNESS, SCATTERING STARS LIKE DUST.—RUMI It doesn’t happen very often, but every once in a while a new turntable comes to my attention that I have no prior knowledge of. The last new turntable company that was a complete blank slate was J.Sikora, which I first encountered about six years ago courtesy of importer Jeff Fox of Notable Audio. Now I find myself in that position again, with UK-based Connected-Fidelity and their turntable the TT Hub. Until I read the press release last December, sent to me by Mike Fajen of importer/distributor Sierra Sound, I was completely in the dark about the TT Hub, its manufacturer Connected-Fidelity, and that company’s owner and head designer Michael Osborn. Connected-Fidelity is the manufacturing arm of Air Audio Distribution,…
