Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Stereophile

THIS ISSUE: A lesson in acoustics from the Geffen Hall renovation. What do New York’s Lincoln Center and the typical Stereophile reader have in common? Both have recently made large investments to achieve sonic excellence. I doubt that very many Stereophile readers have spent as much as Lincoln Center did on the renovation of Geffen Hall: $550 million. But then few audiophiles’ systems are supported by the likes of David Geffen, a $100 million contributor to the Geffen Hall project, or Joseph and Clara Wu Tsai, who gave $50 million. Geffen made his contribution several years ago, setting the stage, as it were, for the renovation. Tsai’s late-2020 contribution helped accelerate the work so that it could be completed, or almost completed, while the hall was closed due to the pandemic.…

THIS ISSUE: A preamp and an amplifier from a company fairly new on the US hi-fi scene, Lab12. In my realm, the most sophisticated, intelligent, difficult thing anyone can do is create something mysterious. It could be a poem, a photo, a movie, a song, a symphony, or a piece of painted wood. What’s most important is the mystery—and that experiencing the mysterious creation inspires in the observer a desire to probe its hidden realms, to somehow figure it out. Human cultures are founded on mysteries: Mysteries incite art, inspire science, and facilitate dreaming. To me, mystery and beauty are synonymous. Consequently, I have steered my years so that I am always engaged in a search for, or a study of, the mysterious. And nothing—not books, nor museums, nor seas,…

With Jason Victor Serinus’s listening room 2900 miles from my home, measuring the Wilson Alexia V presented potential logistical problems. Fortunately, Elliot Fishkin of Manhattan audio retailer Innovative Audio1 was amenable to my measuring the Alexia Vs that had just been installed in one of their listening rooms. (Thanks, Elliot.) As I was traveling from Brooklyn to Innovative on the New York subway, I used the Fuzzmeasure app installed on my Mac mini for the acoustic measurements rather than the bulky 1997-vintage PC that I use with DRA Labs’ MLSSA system. The microphone was a calibrated Earthworks QTC-40. Preamplification, D/A conversion, and A/D conversion were performed by a Metric Halo 2882 FireWire interface. The amplifiers used for the testing were Dan D’Agostino Momentum monoblocks. For the spatially averaged in-room response…

“Dear audio enthusiast.” Those were the user manual’s introductory words, not “Dear audiophile.” I stared at them for a few seconds, letting the implication of that greeting sink in. I don’t know if it was meant this way—perhaps not—but for me, this was a whistle call announcing that the KLH Model Three ($1799.98/pair) was not intended for those obsessed with having the best at all costs; it was meant for people who dig quality sound, period. It was also meant for people who dig that vintage-American-speaker look. At first glance, the Model Three—I’ll call it the M3 for short—may seem retro, but I’d argue that its look is more timeless than old-fashioned. I’m staring at the sample pair as I write these words, and they by no means look out…

Itested the Pathos InPoL Remix MkII with my Audio Precision SYS2722,1 checking some of the results with the magazine’s APx500 system. The review sample was not fitted with the optional HiDac Mk2 digital-input board. Although the Remix MkII’s output stages are described as operating in class-A, where the maximum heat dissipation is with no signal, I still preconditioned the Pathos amplifier before the testing by following the CEA’s recommendation of operating it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the heatsinks were hot, at 118.1°F (42.9°C), as was the top panel, at 113.6°F (45.3°C). This amplifier needs to be well-ventilated. The Pathos’s volume control operated in accurate 0.5dB steps, and the maximum voltage gain from the loudspeaker outputs into 8…

It’s a not-untypical tale. Two veteran engineers, Jason Stoddard, who had extensive experience in product design, development, manufacturing, and marketing,1 and Mike Moffat, who had an impressive track record designing hi-fi products,2 got together in June 2010 to start an audio company. What wasn’t typical was the new company’s brand name: Schiit Audio. What also wasn’t typical was the company’s business strategy. Instead of introducing a small number of very expensive products, an approach that’s increasingly common in hi-fi,3 Schiit products would be affordably priced. What’s more, affordability would not be due to subcontracting manufacturing to a Chinese company: Schiit products would be made in America. Schiit products would not be available from traditional audio dealers; instead they would be sold direct, with a 15-day money-back guarantee after purchase. (Schiit…

BASSIST RON CARTER, WORLD-RENOWNED MUSICIAN AND MOST-RECORDED JAZZ BASSIST OF ALL TIME, SAID IN AN INTERVIEW FOR STEREOPHILE’S MUSICIANS AS AUDIOPHILES1 THAT HE SEES HIMSELF NOT JUST AS A BASSIST BUT ALSO AS A SCIENTIST, FOREVER STRIVING TO UNDERSTAND AND PERFECT THE SOUND OF HIS RECORDINGS. CHILE-BORN SAXOPHONIST MELISSA ALDANA, A STUNNINGLY EXPRESSIVE JAZZ MUSICIAN, SHOWS SIMILAR DEDICATION TO HER ART, STUDIOUSLY INVESTIGATING THE CENTURY-LONG HISTORY OF THE GENRE. Aldana started saxophone lessons at age 6 under the tutelage of her father, Marcos Aldana. Her technique and musicality progressed steadily, influenced by a pantheon of great alto and tenor saxophonists, Sonny Rollins in particular. She went on to study at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, graduating in 2009. Just four years later, she won the prestigious Thelonious Monk international jazz saxophone…

THIS ISSUE: A new, premium, all-analog Waiting for Columbus from Warner Bros., plus an archival digital release. One of my favorite comments by an actual participant in rock history is from Bonnie Raitt: “I miss Little Feat like I miss being eight years old.” That remark was included in the liner notes for the Feat’s 1981 album Hoy-Hoy (Warner Bros. 2BSK 3538), which was released two years after front man Lowell George’s passing in 1979. The original group began recording in the latter 1960s and continued to the end of the ’70s, when analog tape technology was at its peak. Following George’s passing, after a pause of some years, surviving members of the band re-formed and continued to tour and record. There’s a lot of tape in the vault, some…

THIS ISSUE: Is the hi-fi buying binge over? How are economic slowdowns and rising costs impacting the industry? Conversations with dealers and manufacturers reveal sales shifts. How healthy is the hi-fi market? One widely reported silver lining of the pandemic was increased sales of anything to do with home entertainment, including hi-fi. Recently, though, inflation has broken out and the stock market tanked. Higher prices all around—from shipping and logistics to necessary parts and raw materials—added pressure from all sides. How are these factors impacting hi-fi sales? Is the hi-fi buying binge over? To find out, I spoke with several industry folks, mainly dealers and manufacturers. Among many diverse opinions, there was one thing everyone agreed on: Change is afoot. Elliot Fishkin, owner of Innovative Audio in New York City,…

TAKE HEED! Unless marked otherwise, all letters to the magazine and its writers are assumed to be for possible publication. Please include your name and physical address. We reserve the right to edit for length and content. Hi-fi 101 Thank you for your coverage of our sound-education session here in Westchester, in As We See It (Vol.45 No.10).1 Music remains to be of such importance in our daily lives. By giving our children access to the possibilities of high(er) quality sound to enjoy when listening to their favorite tunes, we can help more children have access to it in the future. We are now planning the next sessions at our school for spring 2023, with close involvement of the music and science faculties. Indeed, we should emphasize more the social…

THIS ISSUE: Alex enjoys a classic: the Manley Steelhead RC phono preamplifier. The other day it occurred to me that the main difference between audiophiles and more reasonable adults isn’t our gear. Plenty of people have impressive hi-fis simply because they can afford them and are running out of things to buy. No, what makes someone an audiophile is the willingness to sit down in front of a pair of speakers (or with a pair of headphones clamped over their ears) and focus the entirety of their attention on listening. I recognize just how unusual this habit is when someone visits my home and happens to remark on the hi-fi, either because it sounds good to them, looks weird, or resides in a place where most homes have TVs. Though…

The Topping DM7 DAC ($599.99) is a high-resolution, eight-channel DAC that supports PCM and DSD sources but will not handle any of the common Dolby/DTS codecs. It employs the highly capable and respected ES-9038PRO DAC chip, ESS’s flagship. It has just one input, and it’s USB. Its eight analog outputs are fully balanced, but they are TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) phone jacks, which are more widely used in pro audio; most audiophiles will require adapters. Finally, it includes a master volume control and individual channel gain controls (all with 0.5dB resolution), but the finicky up/down buttons on the front panel dictate the use of the included remote for volume control. All these are minor, and they can fade in significance based on the DM7’s performance. This is the second Topping audio device…

Iused DRA Labs’ MLSSA system with a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the KLH Model Three’s frequency response in the farfield and an Earthworks QTC40 mike for the nearfield response of the woofer, both microphones used with an Earthworks preamplifier. I measured a different sample than those auditioned by Robert Schryer; its serial number was 20220401101. The Model Three’s excellent manual includes a lot of useful advice on optimizing the balance of the speaker. A diagram indicates that with the Model Three sitting on its stand, the listener’s ears should be within a 20° vertical angle centered on the tweeter. I set the KLH on its angled stand and calculated that at an approximate distance of 96" the listener’s ears, which on average are 36" from the floor, would…

Patches was the first to exit the car, sporting a nose like an overripe tomato. Amid the sawdust-and-tiger-dung smell that wafted through the bigtop, he nimbly extracted himself from the multicolored Mini Cooper, face beaming with vows of slapstick and mischief. Patches gestured behind him, to Chuckles, who emerged with floppy shoes the length of baguettes. Next to squeeze out of the Mini were Bozo, Klutzy, Wiggle, Dinky, Cletus, Peewee, Pinhead, Joey, Sparkles, and Poppy—all wearing baggy pants in shouty hues and huge smiles applied with grease paint. I shuddered with delight. I was 8. Inevitably, clown cars don’t do as much for me as they used to. But I still marvel at the promise of outsized entertainment that will fit in an impossibly small container. Take the brand-new SVS…

I tested the Schiit Tyr with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system.1 I preconditioned the amplifier by following the CEA’s recommendation of operating it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the heatsinks were hot, at 121.3°F (49.6°C), though the top panel was just warm at 103.9°F (39.9°C). The Schiit’s voltage gain is specified as 22×, or 28dB; I measured 27.55dB into 8 ohms for both the balanced and unbalanced inputs. The Tyr preserved absolute polarity (ie, was noninverting) with both input types. Both the balanced and unbalanced input impedances are specified as 47k ohms. I measured a still-high 21.5k ohms for the unbalanced input at 20Hz and 1kHz, dropping to 18.1k ohms at 20kHz. The balanced input impedance was 43.2k…

THIS ISSUE: A boxed set documents the rise of the early-punk/new-wave band. Stars live in the eveningBut the very young need the sun, uh-huh.Pretty baby, you look so heavenly,A neo-nebular from under the sun.I was forming, some say I had my chanceThe boys were falling like an avalanche. When I discovered Blondie’s breakthrough album, Parallel Lines, those lines filled my teenage mind with jealous fantasies. Whoever the object of Deborah Harry’s desire was—I knew it was probably Chris Stein, her bandmate and romantic partner—was too lucky to walk the earth. Possibly, Stein wrote the lines for her, and she willingly sung them to him. In a band that contained many songwriting partnerships, the song, “Pretty Baby,” was co-written by Stein and Harry. I preferred to imagine that Harry was singing…

This is not just another Leonard Cohen tribute album. It is an ambitious, unified work of art. The performances are all new. They constitute a profound encounter with a towering figure among North American songwriters. The producer is Larry Klein, who has won Grammy awards for his collaborations with people like Joni Mitchell (his ex-wife) and Herbie Hancock. For this project, Klein assembled a world-class jazz ensemble and recorded 12 tracks in The Village, a studio in Los Angeles. Then he recruited 10 prominent vocalists, from 10 different genres, to sing one Cohen song each. Gregory Porter, Luciana Souza, and Nathaniel Rateliff recorded their tracks in The Village. Norah Jones, James Taylor, Peter Gabriel, Sarah McLachlan, Mavis Staples, David Gray, and Iggy Pop recorded their tracks in studios around the…

THIS ISSUE: Representatives of Manley Laboratories, Wilson Audio Specialties, Pathos, KLH, and SVS respond to our reviews of their products. Manley Steelhead RC Special Edition Mk II Thank you to Stereophile and Alex Halberstadt for such a great review. I’ve had a love affair with the Steelhead for years, and Manley has made fantastic updates over the years that are so smart for both usability and performance. I wanted to make little loading tweaks that would render it the ultimate phono stage for the cartridges we sell today. Being Mr. Tube-Head, I picked out some tubes I really like and we sent them out for cryogenic treatment. Then we tested them and graded them by ear in a high-gain circuit that mimics a moving coil phono stage, and finally we…

SUBMISSIONS: Those promoting audio-related seminars, shows, and meetings should email the when, where, and who to stletters@stereophile.com at least eight weeks before the month of the event. The deadline for the April 2023 issue is January 20, 2023. TROUBLE BREWING AT SOUND UNITED’S PARENT COMPANY? Jim Austin In early November, Strata-gee.com reported that at least one major shareholder is unhappy with the current leadership of Masimo, the medical-equipment company that bought Sound United—home of B&W, Classé, Definitive Technology, Denon, Marantz, and Polk Audio. The shareholder’s unhappiness is a direct result of the company’s decision to acquire Sound United, which dramatically suppressed the company’s value, which hasn’t recovered. Masimo is a successful company—the market leader in pulse oximetry devices (those little clip-on sensors that measure blood oxygenation via a fingertip)—but CEO…

In the very first copy of Stereophile I encountered, back when issues were digest size, one review infuriated me. The writer went on at inordinate length about the fine wines he’d consumed during the review period. On and on he went, gushing about the costly drinks, until I exclaimed (in a sentence laced with expletives), “What in the world does any of this have to do with audio?!” Lifetimes later, I think I understand. Although to my recollection the connection was never made explicit, the writer was attempting to reinforce his credentials as a connoisseur in all matters. An informed imbiber I am not—I’m often content with baby sips from my husband’s glass—but I am a color, texture, and nuance junky. Give me a component that allows me to better…

Imeasured the Topping DM7 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system,1 repeating some measurements with the higher-performance APx500. I fed data to the DM7’s USB input with my Mac-Book Pro, running on battery power, and used ¼ " TRS-XLR adapters for feeding the Audio Precision’s balanced inputs. As the Audio Precision analyzers are two-channel devices, I performed a complete set of tests with the DM7’s channels 1 and 2 analog outputs, repeating some of the tests on channels ¾, ⅚, and ⅞. Apple’s AudioMIDI utility indicated that the Topping DM7 accepts 24- and 32-bit integer data sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 192kHz. Apple’s USB Prober app identified the DM7 as “DM7” from “Topping” and confirmed that the USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. The DM7’s analog…

Sometimes when the world shouts too loudly, I immerse myself in other sounds: in music. I escape the cacophony by diving into my stash of vinyl records (not literally, although that’s a fun image) and reveling in the soundwaves they release. The soundwaves liberated from those physical grooves, combined with impressions stored deep in my hippocampus, never fail to soothe, energize, fascinate, excite. Reviewing new analog equipment allows me to explore this sonic corporeality and gives me a chance to hear my cherished vinyl discs anew, with a different focus. Sound patterns and song lines are reanimated. A well-made tube amplifier represents, to me, the pinnacle of sound reproduction—including certain hybrid designs. I have yet to hear a solid state amplifier reproduce the natural tone, realistic timbre, liquidity, physicality, and…

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the SVS Prime’s frequency response in the farfield. I used an Earthworks QTC40 mike, which has a ¼ " capsule, for the nearfield responses. The TosLink optical input locked to data with sample rates from 44.1kHz to 192kHz. I performed a complete set of measurements using the Prime’s analog Line input, repeating some of the tests using the TosLink input. For these tests, I converted the MLSSA signal to 24/96 digital using my Ayre QA-9 Twenty A/D converter; as the Ayre doesn’t have an optical output, I converted its AES3 output to TosLink using my Z Systems digital preamp set to Bypass. As the Prime is an active loudspeaker, I calculated the…

THIS ISSUE: Underappreciated in their day, several soul jazz classics get first-class reissue treatment from a Craft Recordings/Vinyl Me, Please collaboration. It’s time to address a snarky rumor, a persistent urban legend surrounding music fans who care about listening in the highest quality sound possible. It’s been posited from time to time that quality gear and heavy, quiet LP pressings go better with a certain intoxicant—that you have to get high to truly have the fullest possible listening experience. I repeat all this with a broad grin. No judging here, live and let live, to each his own, etc. But it’s that, er… supposed mystical connection between getting high and music appreciation that Craft Recordings (a division of Concord Records) is now tweaking with the Jazz Dispensary Series. “It predates…

Queen’s 13th studio album, May 1989’s The Miracle, has been long overdue for a proper reassessment, and a new eight-disc box set from Hollywood Records dubbed The Miracle Collector’s Edition enables our finely attuned ears to do just that. (See sidebar for a full review.) Content supervisors Kris Fredriksson and Justin Shirley-Smith, along with their Miracle Sessions coproducer Joshua J. Macrae, recently all got on the line with me from across the pond to exclusively confirm how The Miracle box set came to be, and why it clearly lives up to its name. If I could only reach you / That would really be a breakthru… Mike Mettler: Why was The Miracle chosen as the follow-up box set to [October 1977’s] News of the World that came out in 2017 as…

THIS ISSUE: Jason visits the Warsaw show and likes what he finds there. I’d heard many times over the years that the Warsaw Show—officially called Audio Video Show 2022—was a “great” show. But that gives barely a hint of the special nature of this show, the second largest audio show in Europe.1 Did you know that there are at least 50 and perhaps 100 Polish manufacturers of audiophile hi-fi equipment? It isn’t just components: At the show, I encountered many Polish companies that make fantastic cables, room treatments, and power conditioners. Throw in headphone amplifiers and home theater, neither of which I had time to explore during three dizzying days scouting at least 190 exhibits, and the variety is dazzling. Poland’s audio industry caters to music lovers as much as…