AS WE SEE IT
Are you listening more but enjoying it less? I have a hunch that the overwhelming majority of Stereophile readers have pretty decent hi-fis, but they probably listen to a lot more music in their cars, or through computer speakers, or on the go with headphones. I’m in that last group, and log more hours listening to Jerry Harvey’s astonishing JH13 Freqphase custom-molded in-ear ’phones than to my Magnepan MG3.7 speakers—but music moves me more through the 3.7s. I can fully savor the White Stripes only when I’m on the couch, letting Jack White’s blistering guitar and Meg White’s pounding drums rearrange my brain. I’m not just talking about fidelity—how and where we listen changes the way we experience music. When I first started playing CDs, in the early 1980s, I got into…
