Stereophile August 2016

THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS AS THERE ARE EXPERTS THIS ISSUE: Upgrading—dealing with the perennial audiophile angst. Once in a blue moon, I’m asked this question: How much should I spend on an audiophile rig? It’s usually asked by someone with no real interest in buying an audiophile rig, but who’s fishing, for giggles, for the exorbitant figure that is the presumed going rate for joining our hobby. Sometimes, when the mood strikes, I’ll bang out a randomly absurd number—“$80,000!”—then lean back to observe the fallout. Nine times out of ten, that fallout consists of a head shake and a snicker, as if to say, “You guys are nuts!” But on those occasions when honesty seems the best policy, my short answer to the how-much question, regardless of the buyer’s financial means,…

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR TAKE HEED! Unless marked otherwise, all letters to the magazine and its writers are assumed to be for possible publication. In the spirit of vigorous debate implied by the First Amendment, and unless we are requested not to, we publish correspondents’ e-mail addresses. Peter, Paul and Mary’s In the Wind Editor: I write in response to the so-called “review” of Peter, Paul and Mary’s In the Wind (45rpm LP, ORG071), by Art Dudley, in the June 2016 issue of Stereophile (pp.35–36). This reads as little more than an unbalanced attack on Original Recordings Group, one laced with an apparent lack of knowledge of the reissue business. First, let me make two points: • With regard to the creased label [of the album purchased by Mr. Dudley]: This is undoubtedly a bad…

AUDIO NEWS & VIEWS SUBMISSIONS: Those promoting audio-related seminars, shows, and meetings should e-mail the when, where, and who to JAtkinson@enthusiastnetwork.com at least eight weeks before the month of the event. The deadline for the September 2016 issue is July 20, 2016. GERMANY: MUNICH Paul Messenger I was happily winding myself up for Europe’s biggest hi-fi food fight of the year—the annual High End show in Munich, at the beginning of May— when no fewer than three important news stories suddenly demanded attention. Arguably the most significant, and breaking during the show itself, was the announcement that the Warner Music Group (WMG) will support the MQA file format. First demonstrated at the 2015 CES and focusing primarily on time-domain optimization, MQA cleverly combines high subjective resolution with a data bandwidth low enough for Internet streaming…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website dedicated solely to you: www.stereophile.com/audiophilesocieties. If you’d like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, e-mail Chris Vogel at info@XLinkAudio.com. Please note that it is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless this is associated with a seminar or similar event. ARIZONA ❚Wednesday, July 27, 7–9pm: The Arizona Audio Video Clubwill hold its monthly meeting at Trinity Lutheran Church (9424 N. Seventh Street, Phoenix 85021). This will be our annual Members’ Music Night, for which club members bring the tunes they wish to share. The event will highlight the joys of analog with a nice turntable and associated electronics. Just ignore the occasional click, tick, or pop—analog still rocks. Visitors are encouraged to…

INSIDER VIEWS ON EVERYTHING VINYL THIS ISSUE: Two affordable turntables, one with a USB output and DSD encoding. Recently, when a reader questioned my hearing acuity on account of my age—I’m 69—I didn’t argue: I don’t hear as well as I did when I was 40, or 50, or even 60, and it would be foolish to claim otherwise. However, while my hearing isn’t what it once was, neither is my listening—which has never been better. Audio perception is a combination of what the ear delivers and what the brain does with it. A while back, I visited an audio store to give a presentation. Before the public arrived, I sat down with some veteran audio manufacturers who were contentedly listening to a system that contained one guy’s speakers and another guy’s electronics.…

IN SEARCH OF THE EXCEPTIONAL THIS ISSUE: The touch, the feel... the sound: new cotton-sheathed cables from Canada. I should have seen this coming: Less than a year after the last time I railed against the darkness of cable reviewing—the indignity of crawling around behind my equipment rack, the tedium of comparing one wire to another, the frustration of trying to wring from the experience some fresh and hopefully entertaining observations, the horror of dealing with manufacturers whose hunger for good publicity borders on the vampiric—I have once again invited into my home a cable manufacturer and his wares. I did so for the best possible reason: The manufacturer is someone I’ve known for five or so years, during which time I’ve learned that his audio sensibilities, his tastes in playback equipment, and…