Stereophile July 2014

Start Making Sense Record-business profits peaked 20 years ago, just before Napster and other file-sharing sites turned their world upside down. There have been occasional surges, but the future of the Compact Disc looks bleak, and while income from downloaded fles is still climbing, the shift of profitability from à la carte music sales to unlimited streaming on demand seems inevitable. The realignment is already underway—the vast majority of today’s music listeners, young and old, haven’t bought a CD, fle, or LP in years. It pains me to admit it, but after hearing, at the 2014 Midem music exhibition, a presentation by Marc Geiger, of William Morris Endeavors, I was convinced that music-streaming companies are poised to reboot the industry. If Geiger’s predictions are accurate, the music business will be more…

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR Of music & musicians Editor: It is a pleasure reading Robert Baird’s columns in Stereophile. His latest, on Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, and In Utero (April, p.186), made me think of the sheer number of classic albums celebrating their anniversaries replete with commemorative DVDs, boxed sets, and never-before-released materials: alternate takes, outtakes, et al. Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road celebrates its 40th with four CDs of the original tracks, different versions, covers by other artists, and live performances (“Aural Robert,” June, p.122). All of this stokes our curiosity, but what does it say about today’s music, as the music industry celebrates, markets, and rehashes its reliable back catalog to generate revenue? I am a transplanted New Yorker living in London. I go out regularly for live music of all…

UK: ESSEX Paul Messenger Ruark Acoustics was founded by the late Brian O’Rourke as a loudspeaker manufacturer, but soon after O’Rourke’s son, Alan, took over, in 2000, he adopted a much more “lifestyle”-oriented approach. Renamed Ruark Audio (www.ruarkaudio.com), the company began by distributing in the UK the “tabletop” audio components made by US firm Tivoli Audio, but saw as a disadvantage the Tivoli models’ lack of the DAB digital radio standard, which is widespread throughout Europe. Ruark decided to develop their own broadly equivalent range of high-quality tabletop models, at first marketed under the subbrand Vita Audio but now badged Ruark—perhaps a reflection of the fact that the company no longer makes traditional hi-fi stereo loudspeakers. I won’t repeat here my detailed descriptions of the various models that appeared in November 2013…

In 1920, Irving Berlin wrote lyrics and music to a song you may have heard in the first season of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire: “After You Get What You Want (You Don’t Want It).” Kathy Brier sings it, backed by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEDM96cXtQ. You can hear Van and Schenck’s original recording on YouTube, too: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sUe28J921U. There’s a fine version by the Nat Cole Trio that appears on more than a dozen Cole compilations. Marilyn Monroe sang it. Berlin could put some real bite into his lyrics. Listen before you get married. Or before you get involved in hi-fi. I’ve been married to LFD Audio’s LE integrated amplifier, on and off, in different iterations, for nearly 20 years. I’ve got it. I still want it. This diminutive, 65Wpc (into 8…

With a parts list that includes 18 new-old-stock Black Cat capacitors, 16 vintage-style Cosmos potentiometers, two Tango chokes, one Tango power transformer, and some of the loveliest steel casework I’ve seen on a contemporary product, no one could accuse Noriyuki Miyajima of skimping on the build quality of his company’s only power amplifier, the Miyajima Laboratory Model 2010 ($9995). Then again, because the 2010 is an output-transformerless (OTL) tube amplifier, Miyajima-san spent considerably less on iron than would otherwise be the case. Think of the money he saved! I recently had the pleasure of hosting not one but two samples of the Miyajima 2010: This 7Wpc stereo amplifier can be strapped for mono with a flick of a rear-mounted toggle, to offer a healthy 16Wpc—a whole watt more than the 15W…

Welcome to the Ecosystem I’m the editor of AudioStream.com, a Source Interlink Media website devoted to computer audio. We review all manner of hardware, software, and music related to file-based playback, and offer helpful (we hope) “How To” articles as well as interviews with industry people—all designed to ease your journey to and through the world of computer audio. I envision my new Stereophile column, “Audio Streams,” as an extension of this mission—and the addition of that trailing, plural s gives me some leeway to explore a wider range of hi-fi topics. One of the main benefits of computer audio is that performance no longer must be traded for storage. The data capacity of the Compact Disc no longer applies, and increases in bandwidth and hard-disk storage have made moot the MP3’s…