"Is it wrong to love it for its physical beauty?" asks Michael Lavorgna of Astell&Kern's extraordinary (and expensive) AK240 portable file player, which gets the star treatment on the November 2014 issue's cover. But as he also found it a joy to listen to, the question becomes moot.
The AK240 gets the most from hi-rez digital music and the Chesky Brothers' HDtracks website pioneered access to these files. Inside the issue, we interview the other Chesky brother, Norman, who is the business brain behind HDtracks.
In reviews, John Atkinson auditions an expensive Nola loudspeaker from the US, Bob Deutsch listens to a superb-sounding affordable tower speaker from Focal, Art Dudley lives with a classic tube amplifier from Japan's Air Tight, and Herb Reichert reviews a Bluetooth integrated amplifier from Roksan in the UK. The issue kicks off with Steve Guttenberg arguing that much of what audiophiles dismiss in today's music as bad sound is done deliberately by the artists. What? Get the November issue, on paper or on your tablet, to read on . . .
