A photojournal by Eric Franklin Shook “Success is 5% perspiration and 95% getting your name out there.” -Albert Einstein Often the reason I get from dealers and manufacturers who have already “arrived” at their place […]
by John Grandberg “It’s hard when you’re stuck upon the shelf.” So sang Eddie Vedder on “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”, circa 1993. While I’m reasonably confident he wasn’t referring to […]
The McIntosh room sponsored by Chicago retailer Audio Video Interiors was fascinating to me. At one end was an all-out “balls to the wall” reference system with prodigious and clean bass emanating from the Martin […]
Some equipment just speaks your language. Pass Labs designs have always been a favourite of mine on the audio-show circuit. They construct incredibly musical components with real sonic muscle that never sacrifices air or detail, so […]
Reviewing high-fidelity audio equipment is fraught with peril, and snake pits. Gauging relative sound quality (and writing about it) when inserting a component into an existing system can be a difficult thing to accomplish objectively. There […]
This year, I decided to do the accelerated CES 2017 tour. With some loss of good judgement, I created a flight plan in and out of Vegas from Seattle in a single day with just enough time to […]
A juicy tasting of MQA was experienced at T.H.E Show @ Newport on a Meridian Ultra DAC, and ever since we have anxiously awaited the arrival of more MQA content. The day has finally arrived…. At CES 2017, TIDAL announced […]
As audiophiles, we transfix on the transducer. We debate amplifiers; solid state or tube, and yearn for watts of power to provide absolute dynamics. We tweak every element of our audio systems … akin to building a […]
So here we are again. Somehow, the year has turned, we’re all facing yet another New Year, and yet no one is running through the streets screaming about “the end of meaning”, “the inexorable march […]
I approached this year’s Rocky Mountain Audio Fest with a strange mix of excitement and trepidation. The long-time venue of the Denver Tech Center Marriott was in the midst of significant construction which literally shut […]
Audio-show exhibitors love keeping the lights low. It creates a moody, exotic atmosphere. But for aging scribes like myself, it also presents challenges. The way I do not want to make an entrance is by […]
Words and Photos by Eric Franklin Shook From The Bottom To The Top Poverty in the American South has many names, one of them being Laurinburg. It’s a small town in North Carolina, just north […]
Words and Photos by Eric Franklin Shook There are people; then there are these people Narrow minded, prejudiced, ready to make assumptions about places different from where they grew up. I’m not talking about North […]
Listen Up did something unexpected at the Rocky Mountain Audiofest. Unexpected, you say? Well, yes — unexpected, for me. I think many readers are familiar with brands like Bowers & Wilkins, Simaudio and AudioQuest. These are established brands. The “big […]
Just got the word that AudioQuest is refreshing their headphone line. NightHawk isn’t all that long-in-the-tooth, but advances and refinements wait for no … something something something. Ahem. Long story short — they’ve went ahead and made […]
Counterfeit Notice From AudioQuest: It has recently come to light that a counterfeit version of the guts of DragonFly v1.2 is inside multiple brands of Made In China small USB DACs. It is important to […]
Jim Jordan of Vaughn Loudspeakers has been showing with vintage plasma tweeters from DuKane for the last few years, but this $20,000 Plasma Signature is the first I can recall with them integrated into the overall […]
AudioQuest recently released a new set of DragonFly ultra-portable computer DACs, the Red ($199) and Black ($99). The difference, perhaps obviously, isn’t just color — in addition to some upgraded parts, the Red nearly doubles […]
Ampsandsound may be missing a few spaces in its name, but a visit to its room at T.H.E. Show in Newport revealed the company wasn’t lacking much else. Indeed, the business founded by medical social […]
A day prior to the start of THE Show Newport, Meridian announced their new Reference Meridian Ultra DAC that caught my attention. Looking at the spec sheet- a dedicated clock card & dual mono DACs, this […]
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