Stereophile Mar-13

as we see it

A Reviewing Life It’s been 30 years since I began work on my very first equipment report, of the Goldbug Brier moving-coil phono cartridge, for Hi-Fi News & Record Review. That review appeared in the British magazine’s May 1983 issue; I have lost track of how many equipment reviews I’ve written since then, but my review of the Vandersteen Treo loudspeaker in this issue is at least my 500th. I touched on the subject of reviews in my Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecture, “Where Did the Negative Frequencies Go?,” which I was invited to give on October 21, 2011, at the 131st Audio Engineering Society Convention, in New York City (see http://tinyurl.com/cx9j4j4). I had mentioned in that lecture that my education in electronics and audio was based exclusively on tubes. Even the…

letters

Bruce & Robert Editor: I had to think for a while about Robert Baird’s article about the concert in the Meadowlands (December 2012, p.162), and his comments in general about Bruce Springsteen. Bruce has given a lot of himself to the world the past 40 years. I cannot find anything that Mr. Baird has given but a small part of a small magazine. Robert, you should stick to writing about never-was and never-will-be musicians, because that is who you are: a never-was and never-will-be writer. —Emerson Pitts emo5@aol.com Spot on, Robert Editor: I don’t often make it to the last page of Stereophile, but I’m sure glad I did in December. I’ve been waiting for an honest assessment of Bruce’s last decade, and I’ve finally found it. Having been a fan since 1974, when I saw him…

calendar of industry events

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted 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@vcable.us. 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 ∎ Sunday, February 17, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at Scott Walker Audio (1215 N. Tustin Avenue, Anaheim). Four different systems will be demonstrated, each utilizing electronics from Simaudio, loudspeakers from NOLA, and cable and accessories from Synergistic Research. Costa Koulisakis and Robert Scranton of Simaudio, Carl Marchisotto of NOLA, Peter Hansen of Synergistic, and Michael Baskin of Michael Baskin Company will address…

industry update

US: LEXINGTON, KY John Atkinson A press release in late November announced that loudspeaker manufacturer Thiel Audio had been acquired by a private equity firm based in Nashville, TN. Kathy Gornik, Thiel’s cofounder—see www.stereophile.com/content/sisters-sound-kathy-gornik—has left the company. According to the release, new Thiel CEO Bill Thomas has indicated that the brand focus will continue to be on premium quality, time-coherent loudspeakers, with long-time Thiel employees Brad Paulsen, Gary Dayton, Lana Ruth and Rob Gillum all remaining onboard. “We identified Thiel as a brand with an unmatched heritage in performance audio and it is our intent to invest in the company’s infrastructure, strengthening the engineering department first and foremost,” stated Thomas. Thiel has just launched the CS2.7 and the CS1.7 is in the final stages of development, rounding out the CS series with the award-winning…

analog corner

Analog Comparisons & New Phono Products How was last fall for you? Mine was crazy. I traveled much of October: the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest one weekend, emceeing Chad Kassem’s Blues Masters at the Crossroads Blues Festival the next, and the week after that, appearing at two Audio Advice stores, in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina. From there I traveled to Los Angeles to attend a 30th-anniversary celebration for Tron at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where, standing in front of the screen, I talked to a theater full of Tronnies about how we’d produced some of the sound effects for the original film. Experiencing the historic space from that perspective (and, earlier, in Sid Grauman’s office) was a fleeting but unforgettable experience. I had to leave the post-screening party early to rush to…

listening

A Good Enough Time is Guaranteed For All Let’s say you’re lucky enough, or just plain old enough, to have bought a copy of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood on January 12, 1966. Let’s say you’re lucky enough or just plain smart enough to have held on to it and kept it in perfect shape for the past 47 years. And let’s say it was one of the first 500 copies, which the author signed. If so, congratulations: For once in your life, even the smuggest collector can’t claim that his copy of a book is “better” or more valuable than yours. Of far greater importance, of course, is the artistry between its covers: The person who, in 2013, buys an ink-and-paper copy of In Cold Blood is guaranteed the same reading…