If you’ve hit a recent audio show, chances are you’ve had an opportunity to hear Burwell & Sons loudspeakers. The bespoke, vintage Altec driver designs are beautiful to look at, and convey true tone, timbre, […]
By John Stancavage With brick-and-mortar audio shops increasingly few and far between, high-end shows have seen tremendous growth in recent years. But are we on the verge of having too much of a good thing? […]
As a closer to my California Audio Show coverage, I’m going to tell you a little story about how I broke my own rule. CAS was really meant to be the cherry on top of […]
Running around the Westin San Francisco hotel for three days with a press badge on, feeling like John Atkinson (or even, shrudder, Scot Hull), certainly had its moments. Even though I’ve been attending high-end exhibitions […]
No other speaker component gets as much attention from innovators and fiddlers as the tweeter. It’s easy to understand why: your ears can forgive some weaknesses in the bass or even the midrange, but if […]
Again, ignore the misleadingly soothing pianist in the lobby. One of the real pleasures at an audio show comes when the big guns bring out all of their dogs and ponies. Some may systems are […]
Ignore the misleadingly soothing pianist in the lobby. One of the real pleasures at an audio show comes when the big guns bring out all of their dogs and ponies. Some may systems are stunt […]
It’s almost mean to make Gary Alpern, the True Audiophile, wait until the very end to see his room covered. After all, we opened our coverage with pictures of him from a midnight listening session […]
Next to a rain-soaked dumpster full of old Altec drivers, the Headmasters ballroom had to be the saddest place in the HiFi world. The Westin’s air walls are a perfectly uniform shade of County Jail […]
You can lead music lovers to a better lifestyle system, but can you make them buy? That’s the question a lot of companies are asking as they seek to offer an alternative to crappy department-store […]
Reviewers are prone to wax poetic about speakers they like, often saying they “present a clear window to the music.” Not many transducers literally are a clear pane of glass, though. The new Clara from […]
The (self-described) dashing duo of Fritz Heller of Fritz Frequencies and Tony Chipelo of Electra Fidelity joined forces again for this show, and they seemed to be far too happy about it. Just look at […]
We’re going to take a short break from CAS 2014 while my outstanding field contributors collect their wits and their thoughts. With that said, this seems an excellent time to let slip that Part-Time Audiophile will […]
In this age of tiny Class D amplifiers and pocket-sized DACs, the Wells Audio Innamorata Signature amplifier ($13,000) reminds me of the cancerously large boxes that characterized the receiver wars of the late 70’s. It’s […]
In addition to their big demo, Sony also brought a number of their hi-res listening devices to show off. The HAP-S1 ($999.99) won high marks for me when I experimented with it at T.H.E. Show […]
Oppo was on hand to show off their PM-1 and the new PM-2 headphones. The PM-1 ($1,099) is a lightweight planar magnetic headphone. The newer PM-2 ($699) is an even lighter-weight planar magnetic headphone. Both […]
I’m always a bit suspicious of high-end speakers sporting cabinets that cost the designers a chunk of change to manufacture. You know, rare hardwoods, automobile-painted polymer resins, structural foam, even metal. The result usually is […]
Folks who’ve hung around the industry for a while know Steve Holt. He spent years fronting for MIT Cable before striking out on his own with the joint ventures of Kool Kat Jazz Records (selling […]
Recently, I had a small dinner party with some friends. Or that would be the refined way of putting it. Really, I had some friends over, we cooked an enormous dinner together, and then we […]
Marc Silver, the big fella himself, helmed the room presented by Santa Rosa’s Soundscape AV. If last year’s exhibit was a giant temple to all things Martin Logan, this year’s exhibit was a very small […]
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