Innehållsförteckning för April 2017 från Stereophile

What’s New? Do you remember your very first record? I started with the Hollywood Argyles’ “Alley Oop” in 1960, and played that silly 45 on repeat until my mother begged me to stop. My tastes quickly evolved, thanks to WWRL AM radio’s steady diet of tunes by Jackie Wilson, Bobby Bland, Etta James, and Gary U.S. Bonds. It didn’t take me long to gather a sizable collection of singles, but I switched to LPs with Meet the Beatles! in 1964, and since then the craving for new sounds has never let up. Now it’s 2017. I buy three to five albums a month, and download another eight to ten from Tidal to my iPhone 6S. It seems like nearly every day I read or hear about or have friends turn…

COMPONENTS LISTED HERE HAVE been formally reviewed in Stereophile and have been found to be among the best available in each of four or five quality classes. Whether a component is listed in Class A or Class E, we highly recommend its purchase. Each listing—in alphabetical order within classes—is followed by a brief description of the product’s sonic characteristics and a code indicating the Stereophile Volume and Issue in which that product’s report appeared. Thus the May 2015 issue is indicated as “Vol.38 No.5.” “Not Reviewed.” We recommend that you read any product’s entire review before seriously contemplating a purchase (products without reviews should therefore be treated with more caution)—many salient characteristics, peculiarities, and caveats appear in the reviews, but not here. To obtain back issues of the magazine, visit our…

The soul of a loudspeaker cannot be exclusively characterized by such unmeasurable, reviewer-friendly declarations as “lush tonality,” “gossamer textures,” “clear-water transparency,” “microdetail,” or “pacey dynamic rhythmic expression.” Neither can it be fully described by such measurable characteristics as anechoic frequency response, dynamic impedance, or step response. More than anything else, a loudspeaker expresses its full character in how and where it directs the listener’s attention. What a loudspeaker emphasizes—what it reveals, what it obscures, what it forces the listener to notice and think about—that is a loudspeaker’s soul. Best of all, noticing what we notice as we listen employs the three most sensitive and perfectly calibrated analytical devices on the planet: the ears, mind, and heart. I call this type of audio analysis mindful listening—and isn’t that the principle this…

CH Precision P1 & X1 Editor: CH Precision’s team would like to warmly thank Michael Fremer and Stereophile for publishing a review of our P1 phono stage and its external X1 power supply. It was a delight to read that Michael had a great time testing our unit, and we would like to express our sincere gratitude to him for this thorough, enthusiastic, and wonderfully entertaining review. As an addition to Michael’s review introduction, here is a summary of CH Precision’s history.The company was created in 2009 by Florian Cossy and Thierry Heeb, the C and H of CH Precision. It is located in Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. The design as well as the final assembly of CH products are done in-house, while metalwork machining is handled…

TAKE HEED! Unless marked otherwise, all letters to the magazine and its writers are assumed to be for possible publication. In the spirit of vigorous debate implied by the First Amendment, and unless we are requested not to, we publish correspondents’ e-mail addresses. Humming with Charles Editor: I enjoyed reading “Both Sides Now,” Sasha Matson’s interview with Joe Harley, in the January 2017 issue. It was refreshing to read about someone who is so passionate about both the music and the sonics of the recording process. I, too, am a big Charles Lloyd fan, and was wondering why, or how, the track “Sombrero Sam,” on I Long to See You, was recorded with a faint ground loop in the recording. It is especially noticeable in the hi-rez version. Arnold Gregg…

Before I revert to form and leave the subject for another nine or ten months, I’ll pick up where I left off in last month’s column to focus once again on step-up transformers (SUTs) for moving-coil cartridges. There’s yet another choice you should know about—in this case, a thoroughly brilliant, handmade SUT that sells for well under $1000. MUSIC FIRST AUDIO MC STEP UP 632 Introduced in 2015, the MC Step Up 632 ($715, sold direct) is the most affordable phono transformer offered by Music First Audio, of Hastings, UK. Music First is run by Jonathan Billington, a member of the family that owns Stevens & Billington, specialists in the design and manufacture of light-duty transformers. Indeed, given that he began plying the family trade when still a schoolboy, it’s…

DEVORE FIDELITY GIBBON 3XL LOUDSPEAKER About three years ago, after a long day of busking and barking for biscuits, I called my lifestyle consultant. “Listen, Sphere”—he’s not round, that’s just one of his nicknames—“I’m down to $161 in the bank, I have no construction work, haven’t sold a painting in a year, and now I’m spending my days on the sidewalk with a cardboard sign, a stinky dog, and a paper cup.” After a long pause, Sphere grunted. “What should I do?” I blurted. I was impatient. He grunted again, then paused even longer. Finally, he growled, “Why don’t you get a job?” “Doing what?” “What about writing for Stereophile?” I began to stutter. “What? That— that’s ridiculous! Why? I—I couldn’t do that—no way! I don’t even have a fancy…

Acoustic Sounds 12-13 Audeze 156 Audience 6 Audio Advisor 46, 110 Audio Plus Services C4 Audio-Union 134 Audioengine 136 AudioQuest 41, 118, 120 Auralic Limited 10 Aurender 79 AVM 90 AXPONA 176 Bel Canto 68 Bricasti Design 184 Bryston 53 Bowers & Wilkins 104 Cable Company 16-17, 191 Cary Audio 59 CH Precision 75 Chord Electronics 26 Classé Audio 112 Conrad-Johnson 155 Crutchfield 121 Crystal Cable C3 D’Agostino 19 dCS 170 Deja Vu Audio 190 DH Labs 191 Dynaudio 64 Elusive Disc 22-23, 180 Fidelis Audio 184, 186 GamuT 39 Get Better Sound 174 Gifted Listener Audio 27 Golden Ear Technology 24 Gramophone 140 GTT AV 44-45 HDtracks 82 High Performance Stereo 182 JL Audio 8, 9 Joseph Audio 163 JS Audio 92 KEF 130 Kevro Monitor Audio 67 Kimber…

When it comes to Focal loudspeakers, I’ve been a lurker. For decades now, their demonstrations at audio shows have been memorable— a highlight was when, several years ago, I got Focal to play a powerful percussion track through a pair of their Grande Utopias at very high volume on a show’s last day. Just to hear and feel how this mammoth system could deliver clarity and impact was awe-inspiring, and it was underscored by seeing folks from all the neighboring rooms quickly entering to enjoy it with me. It has also been a continuing pleasure to relax and listen to music with Stereophile’s former Senior Editor, Jonathan Scull through his Focal Utopias, which he purchased in 1998. Alas, the years have turned, speakers have come and gone, and I had…

The biggest opera “news” of the 1966-1967 season in New York was the Metropolitan Opera, newly opened at Lincoln Center. The 10 broadcasts included here feature some singers who still have no equals. In addition to seven starrily cast favorite operas and the premiere of Marvin David Levy’s fine Mourning Becomes Electra, there were Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, composed to inaugurate the new house; the Met premiere of Richard Strauss’s 1919 masterpiece, Die Frau ohne Schatten; and the first production in 20 years of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, with the incomparable Jon Vickers essaying the title role for the first time. These three required every resource in the Met’s armory. Antony was seen as a somewhat overblown, Hollywoodstyle failure, its handsome music and few good set-pieces offset by a…

I Get Misty Every city has its musical heroes, and few have as proud a jazz legacy as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Along with such greats as Joe Pass and George Benson (guitar), Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Art Blakey (drums), and Stanley Turrentine (tenor sax), The Burgh has been particularly rich in piano players. Earl “Fatha” Hines, Ahmad Jamal, Billy Strayhorn, and Mary Lou Williams all came from Pittsburgh. Then there’s the man who, in terms of record sales, was the biggest name of them all: Erroll Garner. He wrote and recorded that rarest of jazz birds, a hit single that crossed over to the wider pop audience: the irresistible “Misty.” Since his death, in 1977, Garner has, for no apparent reason, slipped into obscurity. Even worse, a lot of thinking and scribbling…