September - October 2020
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Audio Discourse
The Pass Labs XP-12 Line-Level Preamplifier: A Musical...
I have been looking forward to telling you about the Pass Labs XP-12 line-level preamplifier, as I've found the XP-12 to make for an excellent match to...
In Search of a Perfect Song, Part 9
These Perfect Song articles have moved beyond my original intent: So, what is a perfect song? In my opinion, a perfect song touches you on many...
Bunking Cable Lifters: Roger Skoff Writes About the Other Side...
One of the audiophile "tweaks" most often criticized on the internet and in back-room bull sessions is the use of cable lifters to improve system...
Impressions: The Vinnie Rossi L2i SE Integrated Amplifier
The Vinnie Rossi L2i SE Integrated Preamp with DAC and Pono Section (image courtesy of Vinnie Rossi Audio) Ye Olde Editor, in situ (portrait by John...
Equinox Balance Acts – Listening to Vinyl
The year continues to be a trial for us all in balance and direction. I hope you are making the transitions needed or wanted in the most healthy and...
Time Stands Still - Neil Peart's Heady Metal
Freeze this moment a little bit longer Neil Peart GHOSTS…In keeping with my apparent predilection—as an obsessive chronicler of fructifying high...
Hardware Reviews
Wave High Fidelity Storm Reference BNC Cables
Wave Storm Reference BNC Cables and the Chord Dave I have heard many cables I have liked over the years, and have endorsed several of them throughout...
Grado GT220 Bluetooth Wireless IEM Universal Fit Headphones
Finally! Bluetooth IEM monitors that present real music in real space without wires! Grado has done it and I am mightily impressed. Surpassing the...
Synergistic Research Tranquility Pod
It is hard to imagine any human inhabitant of planet Earth whose life has not been negatively impacted by the current Covid-19 pandemic. However,...
Audience frontRow powerChords
One of the unsung perks of reviewing high-end gear is getting to travel without the discomfort of leaving home. When something new arrives, often even...
KECES S300 Power Amplifier and S3 Preamplifier
"Holistic." "Quiet." "Transparent." Those words are my attempt to summarize the KECES S3 Preamplifier/S300 Combo: A delightful possibility for those...
ZMF Vérité Closed Headphones
ZMF Vérité Closed, ZMF Wooden Case, Cable Bag, and Warrantee Card ZMF has become one of the most well-known names in the head-fi community, producing...
Interviews
An Interview with NativeDSD's Mastering Engineer Tom Caulfield
Tom Caulfield is NativeDSD's mastering engineer and an accomplished DSD multi-channel recording engineer. I've had the pleasure of getting to know Tom...
Music - SuperSonic Recordings
Top 500 SuperSonic List - Part 22
This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations "To B, or not to B-Note, that is the question" "It's Poetry In Motion" –Thomas...
Music Reviews
A Triumphant New LP Reissue: John Coltrane Quartet - Ballads
Ballads is considered by many as an essential addition to any John Coltrane collection. First released on the Impulse label in mono and then later in...
TRPTK: Intersection of Passion, Skill, and Excellence
The more I listen to the recordings created by Brendon Heinst and his team, the more enchanted I become. TRPTK has easily become a favorite music label...
Vince Guaraldi: Peanuts Portraits (70th Anniversary LP Edition)
If you're a baby boomer (OK, Boomer!) or one of their children, you no doubt have a strong familiarity of the works of jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. Or...
Collective Soul: 25th Anniversary LP Reissues
Back in the early nineties, I worked at my day job with a guy, Tim, who was following his dream, trying to make it as a guitarist moonlighting in a...
Organ Transcriptions of Handel
Handel: Organ Transcriptions (arr. J. Walsh and J. Hook). Simone Vebber, organ (Serassi organ, Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Milan,...
Cantor Meir Finklestein, Grant Geissman: Kathleen Mavourneen
Our good friend and fellow scrivener John Marks, he of The Tannhäuser Gate, has shared with us another of his musical reflections from that estimable...
New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print
Majeel Laboratories Pristine SA10 Amplifier
This article, as reviewed by Larry Cox, Dave Clark, and Victor Chavira originally ran in Issue 2, August/September 2002, so while we call this section...
Our Friends at High Fidelity
MITSUBISHI ProDigi Digital Reel-to-Reel Recorders - From X-80 to...
It is the story of birth of digital audio, as well as a journey through the 1970s and 1980s, the best period in the history of digital recorders, and...
Show Reports
Rocky Mountain Audio Fest
Sadly, the 16th annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, which was set for October in Denver, has been cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic. RMAF 2021 is...
