Stereophile September 2015

THIS ISSUE: Why do so many music lovers dislike the audiophile state of mind? Are you on Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Reddit? Social media has done much to bring together people of every interest imaginable to share their fascinations, desires, and, occasionally, delusions. From fans of frogs (FrogStomp) and proponents of clean public toilets (Benjyo Soujer) to a group that challenged an Iranian cleric’s statement that women’s flimsy attire causes earthquakes (Boobquake), social media is a global town square in which anyone with a keyboard and an attitude has an equal voice. Like all self-respecting Facebookers, audiophiles also have their groups, including Audiophile Network, High End & Vinyl Lovers United, Audiophiles North America, and Hi Fi Audio, with memberships ranging from 3000 to 10,000. On these virtual forums audiophiles exchange opinions, upload system…

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. Alan Blumlein Editor: Re: Paul Messenger’s report in the July issue’s “Industry Update” (p.17), your subscribers may enjoy reading The Inventor of Stereo: The Life and Works of Alan Dower Blumlein, by Robert Charles Alexander (Oxford: Focal Press, 1999). It is a fascinating account of the life and untimely death of one of the absolute geniuses of the 20th century. His accomplishments were truly amazing. —Charles Crawford Louisville, KY ccrawfocl@aol.com Harvey Fletcher Editor: I was very interested to read Paul Messenger’s report (July, p.17) on the posthumous awarding of the IEEE Milestone plaque to…

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 November 2015 issue is August 20, 2015. US: NEW YORK Stereophile Staff We are pleased to announce that, on June 15, Art Dudley joined Stereophile magazine in the full-time position of deputy editor. Art has extensive experience in the world of magazine publishing, beginning with Backpacker in the 1970s, followed by a stint at The Abso!ute Sound. Following some years reviewing audio gear for Hi Fi Heretic and Sounds Like . . . , in 1994 Art founded his own audio magazine, Listener, which gained an enviable reputation for telling it like it was. Listener was sold to Englander Communications in 1999, with…

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@vcable.us and request an info-pack. 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. CALIFORNIA Friday–Sunday, August 14–16: The California Audio Show takes place at the Westin San Francisco Airport, 1 Old Bayshore Highway, Millbrae 94030. For more information, visit http://caaudioshow.com. Sunday, August 23, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at The Audio Salon, in Santa Monica (at Bergamot Station, 3035 Kashiwa Street, Gallery F1). Our host, Maier Shadi, will demonstrate top-of-the-line equipment in…

THIS ISSUE: Mikey auditions DS Audio’s DS-W1 “Night Rider.” Using light to read data from a disc sounds a lot like the technology behind the Compact Disc—but you may be happy to hear there’s nothing digital about DS Audio’s optical phono cartridge. The DS-W1 uses the motions of a Shibata stylus and boron cantilever to modulate the output of its externally powered light-emitting diode (LED). More good news: The DS-W1 optical cartridge plus its associated electronics, which replace the phono preamp, cost only $8500—less than the price of many high-end cartridges alone. (Of course, many great cartridges and phono preamps cost much less.) Toshiba introduced the first optical cartridge, the C-100P, in the 1970s. It had a filament-based lamp that produced a lot of heat and was prone to failure. The DS-W1’s LED…

THIS ISSUE: Getting the best from your audio system at little cost. Our small hobby contains many even smaller subgroups, some of them openly hostile to one another—itself a partial explanation for the whole small-hobby thing. I have been a card-carrying member of some of those groups, have lurked at the edges of others, and have ignored only a few—most notably that community of manufacturers who believe that the surest way to make a better piece of playback gear is to make it bigger and heavier and more expensive than anything else on the market: a group sadly notable for its influence over much of the reviewing community. Those exceptions aside, almost every approach to domestic playback gear has, at one time or another, had at least some appeal, and I’m…