Video for Audio

May 7, 2008

SoundStage! Network publisher Doug Schneider loves movies more than anyone I know, so it seems especially appropriate that he would begin to create his own short movies on subjects of interest to SoundStage! readers. SoundStage! V is a video-only site where you can watch movies on subjects as diverse as the making of a Paradigm Atom to the installation of in-wall speakers. These are not long, rambling affairs but rather short, tightly edited movies that cover one subject in depth, often with appearances by experts who know the subjects inside out....(more)

A Visit from Philip

April 23, 2008

Anyone who has experienced one of Philip O'Hanlon's demos at CES knows how committed he is to music reproduced with über fidelity. Philip, the former US Halcro distributor and current US Luxman distributor, is well connected in both the audio and music industries, and he's the person to talk to about high-resolution formats. He often has music that no one else has, and the equipment he represents is always first-rate, even if, with Halcro in particular, it's not exactly to my liking....(more)

Elvis Lives Again (and Again)

April 9, 2008

I can think of no albums that have been reissued as often as those of Elvis Costello. In addition to the plain-Jane LPs and CDs, there have been extensive remastered series from Rykodisc, Rhino and now Universal Music/Hip-O Records. While multiple versions of the same album may seem like a blatant attempt to get fans to part with more of their money for music they already own, the promise of better sound and extensive extras seems like a good reason to own more than one copy of Elvis Costello's best albums....(more)

Enter The Predator

March 21, 2008

After a recent move from one coast to the other, we’re renting a small house while we wait for the real-estate market to settle down. I’ve been listening with headphones almost daily, as our rental house is small and my listening would disturb my wife and daughter as they sleep. I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 600s for use with my MacBook, and a pair of Etymotic ER-4Ses for travel. To power both of these, I’ve used a HeadRoom Total AirHead headphone amplifier, first with a portable CD player and now with my laptop. The Total AirHead is a nice, inexpensive little amp that has served its purpose, but because I’ve been spending so much time listening with headphones, I wanted an amp that would take advantage of my laptop’s USB output and run the signal through a DAC within the amp. Yes, I know HeadRoom makes such an amp, the Total BitHead, but although I’ve enjoyed using the Total AirHead, I’ve never liked its noisy volume control, and there’s no gain adjustment for headphones with different impedances. The HeadRoom crossfeed circuit is subtle at best, so that hasn't been an important feature for me. Plus, as we audiophiles are prone to do, I just wanted to try something different....(more)

A New Digital Format?

March 4, 2008

While Music Video Interactive (MVI) discs may appear to be brand new, they are in fact DVDs with diverse content, including multichannel and stereo audio programs, bonus tracks, music videos, lyrics and even cell-phone ringtones. The seven disc Nightfly Trilogy [Reprise 9 43325] is one of the first releases to include these discs. It comes complete with CDs and MVIs of Donald Fagen's three studio albums -- The Nightfly, Kamakiriad and Morph the Cat -- and a bonus CD of little-known and unreleased material, including a great cover of Al Green's "Rhymes." The audio on all three MVI discs includes multichannel DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital tracks of the albums, and 24-bit/96kHz stereo PCM tracks for Kamakiriad and Morph the Cat, while The Nightfly, easily Fagen's best and best-known solo effort, comes in 24-bit/48kHz PCM....(more)

Pricing and Perspective

February 11, 2008

Well, another CES has come and gone, and from my wanderings around the show this year one thing struck me in just about every room I entered. We‘re losing something -- something extremely valuable -- in high-end of audio: perspective with regard to pricing. Prices seem to be getting further and further out of whack. When I see new equipment being introduced at $10,000 and touted as "mid-priced," I shudder. Most people who choose to enter our little corner of the world will do so at lower price points -- dipping their toes in to see if what we say about better sound is true. There is a passel of good budget (or "entry-level") gear available -- gear that should start people down the audiophile road....(more)