On creaks and coughs and candy wrappers
The advantage of a highly resolving music system is that you can hear deeper into recordings. The disadvantage is that you can hear deeper into recordings.
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LATEST ADDITIONS
CANJAM 2022 NYC: Dekoni Audio and Auribus Acoustics
Dekoni is another small company with solid products, I thought.
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Bergenfeld New Jersey’s Dekoni Audio was showing headphone accessories at CanJam, including replacement earpads for major headphone brands, eartips, sprays, wipes, cleaners, and the like. They were also auditioning their new headphones, a reworking of the Fostex T50RP MK3 planar magnetics called the Dekoni Blue.
CANJAM 2022 NYC: Mytek Audio
The buzz was palpable as I stepped off the escalator onto the conference floor at the Marriot Marquis hotel, where CANJAM New York City 2022 was revving up within shouting (or at least screaming) distance of Times Square.
CanJam NYC 2022: Audeze CRBN Electrostatic Headphones and Filter Portable Speaker
Presented by Head-Fi, CanJam promotes headphone and portable audio at shows in New York City, London, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, Southern California, and Chicago.
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Gramophone Dreams #58: Stax SR-X9000 headphones, EAR Phono Classic, Bob's Devices Sky 20 SUT
A month ago, I ran into my Russian neighbor in the hall. As usual, he asked me what I was reviewing. (Vladimir likes to come over and listen, then find fault with everything I play.) When I told Vlad I had Stax's new top-of-the-line earspeaker, the SR-X9000, he lit up and exclaimed, "I need to hear it," adding that he has been a lifelong Stax fanatic and owns at least five different models, "dating way back."
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Revinylization #27: Round Trip: Ornette Coleman's Blue Note sides on Tone Poet
Round Trip: Ornette Coleman on Blue Note is the first boxed set on the label's Tone Poet imprint, and it's a bold move. Audiophiles are not known to be keen on avant-garde music, but Don Was, Blue Note's president, and Joe Harley, the Tone Poet producer, are huge Ornette fans. They've lately been reissuing some other adventurous titles from the catalogso good on them! Fellow fans should dive into this one, and the hesitant should give it a try, with some caveats.
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MayFly MF-201 loudspeaker
If you've ever read Homer's Iliad, you probably remember the Catalog of Ships at the beginning. It's an exhaustive record of the contingents the Achean army deployed against Troy, naming the commanders, their hometowns, the number of ships in each contingent, and more. Not to put too fine a point on it, it's a snoozefest. It makes you dread what's next. But of course, if you come to this point only to abandon the Iliad in frustration, you'll miss the fabulous war epic that follows, chockablock with action, drama, and romance.
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Re-Tales #18: Partnering up to go to market
Today's audio distributors have their hands full, now more than ever. As I've discussed previously in this space, COVID-related failures in the global supply chain and related, large increases in the cost of freight have impacted audio just like most other industries.
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darTZeel NHB-108 model two power amplifier
Like the proverbial pot of gold, darTZeel's golden equipment beckons. That, at least, is how it felt in January 2010, when John Atkinson and I ended our coverage of T.H.E. Show Las Vegas in the room shared by darTZeel, Evolution Acoustics, and Playback Designs. Listening to darTZeel's discontinued NHB-458 monoblocks (footnote 1) and NHB-18NS reference preamplifier (now updated), I was transfixed by the fullness of the system's midrange and overall beauty of the sound. "It was as though the system was opening its heart and welcoming us in," I wrote. "That's how warm and nurturing the sound was."
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Analog Corner #319: Paradox Phono 70 Signature phono preamplifier
One privilege of being a Stereophile columnist is the opportunity to cover products from smaller, less well-known manufacturers, including those that don't have wide enough distribution to qualify for a full review. One such company is Victorville, Californiabased Paradox. I'd never heard of them until I received an email from Terence Robinson, the company's owner. The email included a description of a phono preamplifier that so intrigued me that I asked for a review sample.
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