Sasha Matson

Rita Coolidge: Reaching Higher and Higher

Sasha Matson Sep 04, 2018

There are the Grammys, and then there's the supermarket. Both are marks of achievement and permanence in popular recorded music. Having just begun writing this piece, I walked into the Price Chopper Supermarket in Cooperstown, New York, and what do I hear? Rita Coolidge, and the refrain from her 1977 recording of "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher." Now that's a hooka high mark on the tree of pop.

Music and Recording Features

DJ Club Sound Systems of Brooklyn

Sasha Matson Apr 09, 2018

There I was, at my son Peter's thirtieth birthday party at Black Flamingo in Brooklyn, staring at a large. floorstanding speaker cabinet. Then it hit meyoung people are gathering in groups to listen and dance to high-quality music playback. Just like we used to do!

Interviews

Joe Harley: Both Sides Now

Sasha Matson Dec 15, 2016

Recordings and playback gear are two different sides of the hi-fi coin, and while many people have made careers creating one or the other, far fewer have made significant contributions to both. Joe Harley is one of those few. A longtime principal with the influential high-end audio manufacturer AudioQuest, he also continues to expand the discography of highly regarded recordings he has produced or helped to remaster, of both new and historically significant music.

Interviews

Charley Hansen: The Wizard of Boulder

Sasha Matson Jul 19, 2016

Twenty-three years ago, in 1993, Charles Hansen cofounded Ayre Acoustics, Inc., in Boulder, Colorado. On Ayre's website, Hansen is named as Research Director for Ayre, and it seems an apt description. Along with experimenting in and developing audio-electronics hardware and software, Hansen has strongly hewn to certain design principles, among them fully balanced operation, an absence of loop negative feedback, and solid-state circuitry. Ayre's current flagship preamplifiers and amplifiers, the twentieth-anniversary R Series, have received reviews and accolades, while at the other end of the budget spectrum, Hansen's design work was a key element of Neil Young's widely publicized and crowdfunded PonoPlayer project.

T.H.E. Show Newport 2016

T.H.E. Show Newport: Sasha's Wrap

Sasha Matson Jun 10, 2016

The stars were out, and it was a dark night

T.H.E. Show Newport 2016

More from T.H.E. Show: Sasha Matson's Day Three (Part One)

Sasha Matson Jun 09, 2016

There's more than one way to skin a cata profusion of ways to hook together audio components in the high-end world of todayand my hunch is that the number of dedicated cabling companies has increased within the past decade, and now exceeds that of any other audio-hardware category.

T.H.E. Show Newport 2016

T.H.E. Show Newport: Sasha's Day Two (Part Two)

Sasha Matson Jun 08, 2016

"Dear TSA, These are Hi-Fi components. They are magnetic. Nothing active. Thanks."

T.H.E. Show Newport 2016

T.H.E. Show Newport: Sasha's Day Two (Part One)

Sasha Matson Jun 08, 2016

A Game of Thrones vibe hit me when I visited the room hosted by Texas-based distributor Believe High Fidelity

T.H.E. Show Newport 2016

Sasha at T.H.E. Show, Part Two

Sasha Matson Jun 07, 2016

During the second part of my first day at T.H.E. Show, I paid a visit to the Hotel Irvine's Woodbridge Rooma poetic name that gelled with the quality of the gear on display

T.H.E. Show Newport 2016

Sasha Matson at T.H.E. Show Newport, Part One

Sasha Matson Jun 05, 2016

Stereophile Editor John Atkinson and I drove down from deepest Hollywood to arrive at T.H.E. Show Newport late on Thursday night, in time for the public opening the following morning