Stereophile July 2015

THIS ISSUE: Enjoying great music in great sound has never been so easy or affordable. Adecade ago, my mother, on noticing a copy of Stereophile on my kitchen counter, asked me, “Are you still into that sound stuff?” Her tone had a touch of exasperation. “Geez, Mom. I’ve been an audiophile for 15 years. This isn’t a phase I’m going to outgrow.” Instead of motherly empathy, I got a slight smirk and a retort: “But it’s always the same thing.” Until recently, I’d begun to think that Mom may have had a point: The audiophile pursuit—mine, at least—was beginning to feel a bit samey: Get tired of component A, buy a possibly better-sounding, likely more expensive component A to replace it. Do the same for components B through D, then repeat all steps until…

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. RIP Robert J. Reina Editor: I was saddened to learn of the death of Robert J. Reina. He was one of my favorite Stereophile writers. My condolences to his family. I really enjoyed his reviews of affordable loudspeakers. He will be missed. —Joe Mitchell joemitchell777@yahoo.com Robert Reina Editor: He was one of my favorite writers. His approach was very logical and, perhaps more important, consistent. —Chris Kline telwirecpk@gmail.com Bob Reina Editor: I want to express my condolences to the staff of Stereophile and to his family on the death of Robert J. Reina. I was…

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 2015 issue is June 20, 2015. UK: VINYL Paul Messenger My smugness rating continues to increase with regular news items about the serious revival of the vinyl LP in the UK least. Virtually coincident with the celebration of Record Store Day 2015, on April 18, comes the news that the UK sales charts for vinyl singles and albums are being resuscitated, many years after the LP was widely regarded as all but dead, buried, and consigned to the pages of history. I’ve hung in with vinyl all along. I’d been collecting LPs for 20 years before the arrival of the CD on…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website dedicated solely to you: www.stereophile.com/audiophile-societies. 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 29, 7–9 pm: The Arizona Audio Video Club will hold its monthly meeting at a new location: Esoteric Audio, in downtown Phoenix (111 W. Monroe Avenue at First Avenue). We will be listening to Esoteric’s front-line audio components, such as Aesthetix, Boulder, Devialet, Focal, Magico, Rockport, and VTL. Guests are welcome and refreshments will be served. For more information, contact our president, Adam Goldfine, at goldfineam@aol.com; or Esoteric Audio,…

THIS ISSUE: Mikey is knocked out by the Swedish Analog Technologies tonearm. INSIDER VIEWS ON EVERYTHING VINYL It was immediately obvious to me that the SAT was easily, and by a wide margin, the finest, non-sounding tonearm I have ever not heard. Late in the fall of 1982, Los Angeles turned ugly for me. I’d finished my work on Tron and despite the Academy Award nomination for Best Sound (which went to the mixing team, not the sound supervisor), it was obvious that nothing else was coming my way anytime soon. To earn a living, I had to reinvent myself. So there I was in Las Vegas, at the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show, schlepping heavy bags filled with press kits, each containing an audio cassette of a dozen radio commercials for a car-stereo store…

THIS ISSUE: An update on the classic EMT 997 tonearm, plus thoughts on audio show etiquette and Internet trolls. IN SEARCH OF THE EXCEPTIONAL Before hitting the Refresh key on last month’s column, which was dedicated to the challenges one encounters when evaluating audio cables and other accessories, I’d like to share with you a true story: a cautionary tale, as it were, about the hazards of writing reviews for a living. Seven or eight years ago, just as spring was returning to upstate New York, I made my annual trek to Montreal for Salon Son et Image: one of my favorite audio shows for a number of reasons, not the least being the fact that I can travel there by train. My time at SSI went well, until the morning I visited a…