Stereophile May 2022

THIS ISSUE: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Take a left on 57th. There’s a notion among audiophiles that we must be regular consumers of live music, especially live acoustic music. It’s the only way, the thinking goes, to calibrate our ears to the sound we should all be aspiring to at home. This notion persists despite some deep and obvious flaws. For one thing, it doesn’t matter what live acoustic music sounds like if that sound isn’t captured on the recording we’re listening to—it usually isn’t—and it’s impossible to know whether it has been or not. The very notion that grooves on a record or bits in a file even have a sound independent of the means of reproduction is questionable except as an abstraction or, at best, an unapproachable…

TAKE HEED! Unless marked otherwise, all letters to the magazine and its writers are assumed to be for possible publication. Please include your name and physical address. We reserve the right to edit for length and content. March delights Thanks for two especially delightful parts of the March 2022 issue. JVS’s tribute to and traverse of art songs reached me at my soul. I’ve always delighted in melting friends’ hearts by playing recordings of Kathleen Ferrier. Jason’s wonderfully rich and heartfelt article thrillingly expands that wonderland. Thanks and kudos to Jason for such a generous and encouraging share, and to Editor Jim Austin for the sidebar encouraging listening for the beauty and power of performances not presented in the highest of fi. Tom Fine’s follow-up on the Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2 reached me…

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to you: stereophile.com/audiophilesocieties. If you’d like to have your audiosociety information posted on the site, email Chris Vogel at vgl@cfl.rr.com. (Please note the new email address.) Please note that it is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless it is associated with a seminar or similar event. Note: Due to the ongoing pandemic, Stereophile recommends confirming that events are still taking place. CALIFORNIA Saturday, May 14, 2022, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will ILLINOIS Friday–Sunday, April 22–24: AXPONA will be held at the Renaissance Schaumberg Hotel & Convention Center in Schaumberg, outside Chicago (1551 N. Thoreau Dr.). For more information and tickets, visit axpona.com. Saturday, May 21, 9:30am–3:30pm: The Midwest Classical…

SUBMISSIONS: Those promoting audio-related seminars, shows, and meetings should email the when, where, and who to stletters@stereophile.com at least eight weeks before the month of the event. The deadline for the August 2022 issue is May 20, 2022. US: CARLSBAD AND IRVINE, CALIFORNIA Jim Austin In a February 15 press release, Sound United, parent company of Denon, Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins, Polk Audio, Classé, Definitive Technology, HEOS, and Boston Acoustics, announced that it had “entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Masimo Corporation.” Masimo, according to that company’s simultaneous press release, “is a global medical technology company that develops and produces a wide array of industryleading monitoring technologies, including innovative measurements, sensors, patient monitors, and automation and connectivity solutions.” The price: an impressive $1.025 billion. Masimo’s market capitalization—its value—is estimated at $12.6…

THIS ISSUE: Three vinyl accessories, and a new, premium phono cartridge from EMT. Let’s get right to it: The best way to set azimuth, as I recently wrote in this space,1 is to measure crosstalk using either a high-quality voltmeter or a digital oscilloscope and a good test record like Analogue Productions’ The Ultimate Analogue Test LP (AAPT1). The traditional, qualitative procedure—setting the headshell so that it’s parallel to the record surface—assures only cosmetic satisfaction. The AP test record’s second band contains a 1kHz tone, on the left channel only. The third band repeats that tone on the right channel. Measuring output on the unmodulated channel, in comparison to the output on the modulated channel, gives you the crosstalk, which ideally should be zero but never is. I went over how to measure…

THIS ISSUE: Herb listens to music performed on the guqin, an ancient Chinese zither, and auditions R-2R DACs from Denafrips and HoloAudio. The week before Christmas, I invited my artist friend Joe to visit my studio to see my 2021 paintings. To spice the invitation, I told Joe that while he was looking he could audition the newest flagship DAC from Denafrips, the Terminator Plus. Joe is an all-in Denafrips guy who currently uses an Ares II in his bedroom system and a Terminator in his big studio system, to which he listens while he works, typically for 10 hours per day. He paints his car, dog, and horse pictures while listening through a pair of dusty, paint-spattered Klipsch La Scala horns sitting on cement blocks. He told me he was curious…