Luxury High End: Heart vs. Head
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
I was recently in the market for a new SUV. The odometer of our family’s 2012 Toyota Highlander had recently rolled over to 200,000, and I was feeling less confident that the car would hold up through a couple of long road trips we’d planned. I began my search as most people do these days: I went online and read reviews. I’d been super happy with the Highlander, so of course my first thought was to buy another one. I scrolled through comparison tests from YouTubers as well as the usual magazines -- Car and Driver and Motor Trend among them -- to see what others thought of the current-model Highlander and its competitors. Having not shopped for a new vehicle since buying the Toyota new in 2012, I had no idea just how much the market in midsize SUVs -- and the pecking order among them -- has changed.
Synergistic Research PowerCell SX Power Conditioner
- Written by: Howard Kneller
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
In 2007, Synergistic Research developed a DC-biased, electromagnetic (EM), AC-filtering cell that they claim improves the quality of AC by affecting the movement of electrons through its conductive materials. According to Synergistic, the cell works without current restriction -- the Achilles’ heel of many early power conditioners, and of more than a few still sold today. In fact, Synergistic says, the more AC-powered devices are fed through the cell, the better it works.
Dion: "Blues with Friends"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Keeping the Blues Alive KTBA61081
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***½
Overall Enjoyment: ****
Dion DiMucci, one of the early fathers of rock’n’roll, has been making records since 1957, and turned 81 in July. Dion, as he’s best known, has gone through several musical transformations in his recording career, but in late 2005 he released Bronx in Blue, the first of half a dozen albums that have highlighted his guitar skills and his command of blues and traditional country music. His records since then, among them Son of Skip James (2007) and Tank Full of Blues (2012), showed him in strong voice and let his guitar playing shine.
Focal Diablo Utopia Colour Evo Loudspeakers
- Written by: Hans Wetzel
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
I don’t like the idea of meeting my heroes. The athlete likely takes performance-enhancing drugs and womanizes. The inspired yet tortured artist’s genius no doubt springs from a lifetime of trauma, haphazardly managed through substance abuse. And the stunning object -- a car, watch, loudspeaker -- is ultimately only that: an object, a thing, designed and made by beings as imperfect as you and I. The more I obsess about these people and things, the greater the expectation, and ultimately the greater the disappointment.
I've Changed My Mind About Luxury Audio
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
In my multiple articles on luxury audio over the last decade, I’ve missed some things. Today, I come to you a changed man -- or, at least, a somewhat more experienced audio journalist.
Gryphon Audio Designs Essence Stereo Amplifier
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
It’s easy for reviewers to digest a company’s products by starting at the bottom of a manufacturer’s line and working their way up to the top models. You’re initiated into what that company can do at a lower price, and hopefully you see and hear more and better as you ascend their price ladder. It seems to make psychological sense to experience a company’s line this way, and it often works out just as you’d hope: the higher the price, the better the qualities of build, appearance, and sound.
Paul Weller: "On Sunset"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Polydor 0859857 (LP), 0880405 (CD), 0880406 (CD, Deluxe Edition)
Formats: LP and CD
Musical Performance: ****½
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****½
Paul Weller doesn’t enjoy the level of stardom in the US that he does in his native UK, but his Stateside following is strong enough that his records have always been released here. Many of us in North America became fans when Weller fronted the Jam and, after that, the Style Council. We’ve stayed with him during his solo career of almost 30 years because his songwriting skills have never faded -- if anything, they’ve continued to grow -- and his records always surprise and challenge.
Constellation Audio Inspiration Integrated 1.0 Integrated Amplifier
- Written by: Hans Wetzel
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Few spirited e-mail threads are exchanged among the SoundStage! Network’s editorial staff. With so many articles coming out each month that need eyes on them to ensure that they’re squeaky clean for your reading pleasure, I find myself weighing in only when I spot something amiss, or I see a chance to lob a snarky remark at the infallible Jeff Fritz or the Napoleonic Doug Schneider. Recently, however, an objectivist/subjectivist discussion broke out that prominently featured the topic of “bias.” No matter where you are on that continuum, bias is of course unavoidable, and to suggest otherwise would be ignorant.
The Purchasing of Luxury Audio and the Pursuit of Hi-Fi Are Two Different Hobbies
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
Luxury audio has recently been gaining market share in an industry that was, at its beginning, about the pursuit of the high-fidelity reproduction of sound and music. I’ve seen the shift in more and more product introductions of the past decade -- components costing six figures and systems costing millions abound.
dCS Bartók Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Written by: Hans Wetzel
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
I like to think I was ahead of the curve when, in mid-2009, I bought a Benchmark Media Systems DAC1 USB (discontinued) off a dude on Audiogon. That was in the infancy of high-end computer audio, and the well-regarded Benchmark was one of the first mainstream DACs with a USB input. My previous source had been a cheap Sony CD changer (don’t judge -- I was 23), and the Benchmark DAC offered a big step up in sound quality: that immaculate, analytical sound that digital sources of the aughts all seemed to possess. And at the DAC1 USB’s modest price of $1295 (all prices USD), that kind of sound made it a steal.
- Plinius Reference A-150 Stereo/Mono Amplifier
- Neil Young: "Homegrown"
- EMM Labs DV2 DAC-Preamplifier
- What in Audio Excites Me?
- Wells Audio Commander Level II Preamplifier
- Steve Earle: "Ghosts of West Virginia"
- Audience frontRow Interconnects, Speaker Cables, and Power Cords
- In Honor of Art: Vertere Acoustics Mystic Moving-Coil Cartridge
- System Finished: MSB Technology Discrete DAC
- McIntosh Laboratory C1100 Preamplifier
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