Jim Austin

As We See It

Intimate Machines

Jim Austin Aug 13, 2026

In this space in the September 2025 Stereophile—exactly a year ago—I wrote about bicycles. I was researching a bicycle purchase, and the more I read about bikes, the more parallels I saw between bikes and hi-fi, especially economic parallels between that industry and this one.

Music and Recording Reviews

August 2026 Jazz Record Reviews

Jim Austin, Robert Baird, Thomas Conrad Aug 11, 2026

Jim Snidero: Best of the Trio Recordings; Nils Petter Molvær: Be Quiet; Adam O'Farrill: Elephant; The Oscar Peterson Trio: At Baker's Keyboard Lounge; Joe Syrian Motor City Jazz Octet: A Blue Time;

As We See It

Big Changes at Stereophile

Jim Austin Jul 14, 2026

Stereophile's new President and CEO Keith Pray (left) and new Technical Editor Paul Miller (right) listening to Audeze headphones at the 2018 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.

Stereophile has a new owner. Who is it? It's Stereophile. For 27 years, Stereophile has been led on the business side by Keith Pray. This spring, Keith formed a new company, Pray Media Holdings, for the express purpose of buying Stereophile and related titles.

As We See It

The End of an Era: John Atkinson Retires

Jim Austin Jun 19, 2026

The July issue is a milestone in Stereophile's history: It's the last issue in which John Atkinson will be performing the measurements for our equipment reviews. As a start toward digesting this momentous event, I asked JA1 some questions.

As We See It

Wash, Repeat, Don't Rinse; More on Cleaning LPs

Jim Austin May 26, 2026

I wrote in the April 2026 issue of Stereophile that when you clean records in an ultrasonic bath, you need to make some decisions. The first is whether it's necessary to use distilled water or whether tap water is good enough . . . The next decision is, should I use a surfactant?

Audacious Audio Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Marten Mingus Septet Statement Edition loudspeaker

Jim Austin May 01, 2026

As I prepared this review of the Marten Mingus Septet Statement Edition loudspeaker ($199,000/pair), I asked the Marten people to tell me something about the company and its values.

As We See It

Time Is On My Side

Jim Austin Apr 23, 2026

Lately, hi-fi's technical emphasis has shifted toward time, away from its longtime main focus on the frequency domain. I'm thinking the trend, which I consider a good thing, started years ago with growing awareness it might be better to accept some aliasing in order to avoid the phase distortion resulting from a "brick-wall" reconstruction filter.

As We See It

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Jim Austin Mar 24, 2026

Two recent Stereophile columns have offered thoughts on record cleaning machines (RCMs). Writing about the Klaudio RCM (above left), Michael Trei noted that the manufacturer says to use just water. No surfactant.

My Back Pages

Stereophile's Standards and Principles

Jim Austin Mar 16, 2026

Jim Austin (left) succeeded John Atkinson (right) as Stereophile's editor in April 2019 and has preserved the magazine's Great Wall between editorial and advertising. Here are some of the most important principles that Stereophile religiously follows.

As We See It

Presence: Self-Aware Listening

Jim Austin Feb 13, 2026

Recently, my good friend Bryan invited himself over for a "critical listening session" at my place. This was out of character. Typically our listening sessions are not of the "critical" variety. They take place late at night after several cocktails, neat bourbon in hand. Volume knobs are torqued. The choice of recorded material tends toward early Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), that one Hank Williams Jr. album that doesn't suck (The Almeria Club Recordings), and one of two Def Leppard albums (Pyromania or (Hysteria).