Album of the Week
Album of the Week: Celeste
Brighton soul singer Celeste rings my bell.
Year: 2019
HiFi Thoughts
Computer Audio Is Dead. And Streaming Has Killed It.
Do you remember when computer audio was hard?
Art&Culture
Five Favorite Things: Stephen Mejias
Five favorite things (outside of hifi) from Stephen Mejias, AudioQuest Director of Communications:
HiFi Bargains
HiFi Bargains: The Tannoy Reveal 402 Active Monitors
Are you ever on the lookout for a hifi bargain? A real deal? A steal? From time to time just such beasts exist out there in the wild. You just have get a little adventurous and go on the hunt.
#NewMusicFriday
#NewMusicFriday: June 14, 2019
Each Friday, Stephen Mejias, AudioQuest’s Director of Communications and former Stereophile and Audiostream.com columnist, will browse through the many exciting albums released that day and select 15 worth a closer listen.
Album of the Week
Album of the Week: Rhye
It’s been going like this—play “Cellophane”, the crazy-lovely new single from FKA twigs, cue up Rhye’s Spirit EP next, sit back, and dream.
HiFi Thoughts
Random HiFi Thoughts
A hifi is a system where performance is the result of the combination of the things in that system. Not to mention the room it lives in.
Art&Culture
The New York Times: The Day the Music Burned
Building 6197, a 22,320-square-foot warehouse in Universal Studios Hollywood, housed 2,400 square feet lined with 18-foot-high storage shelves filled with master tapes owned by UMG. On June 1, 2008, Building 6197 went up in flames.
HiFi Reviews
Review: Vanatoo Transparent One Encore Powered Speakers
Most people want the same thing from a small speaker—big sound. Amar Bose went to some lengths in his Wave Radios to deliver on this promise but you can only twist the truth so far. The Wave Radio sounded like a big table radio. If […]
Art&Culture
The Magnum Square Print Sale
Hurry! Magnum Photo Collective’s Square Print Sale is happening now, but not for long—June 10, 8 a.m. EST to June 14, 11:59 p.m. EST.
HiFi Thoughts
Top Ten Radical HiFi Ideas
Just like the title says. I give you…
Art&Culture
Artists on Artists: Shana Cleveland’s Lightnin’ Hopkins
There’s nothing better than artists on artists in my book. Whether that’s a cover, words, or images, artists on artists are 1000x more interesting (and insightful) than critics. Incidentally, I feel the same way about writers, philosophers, carpenters, etc.
#NewMusicFriday
#NewMusicFriday: June 7, 2019
Each Friday, Stephen Mejias, AudioQuest’s Director of Communications and former Stereophile and Audiostream.com columnist, will browse through the many exciting albums released that day and select 15 worth a closer listen.
Album of the Week
Album of the Week: Martha Argerich’s Bach
Some days, nothing short of glorious will do.
HiFi Reviews
Review: totaldac d1-streamer
Imagine you are walking down the street on your way to your favorite restaurant. As you approach the front door of Chez Écoute, the door recedes. The closer you try to get to it, the door continues its backward slide remaining just out of reach. […]
Art&Culture
Pitchfork Can Be So Smug: Exhibit A
Pitchfork writers can be smug. I think they get paid extra for smug word-count. Case in point…
HiFi News
“What’s he building in there? What the hell is he building in there?” ~ Tom Waits
There’s something going in the Barn. It’s a secret. For now.
Classic Albums
Classic Albums: Conlon Nancarrow, Studies for Player Piano Vol. I & II
Conlon Nancarrow was born in Texarkana, Arkansas in 1912, played jazz trumpet as a youngster, studied music with with Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Nicolas Slonimsky, joined the communist party, fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and lived out most of his life […]
HiFi News
iTunes Is Not Dead. It’s Been Dismembered
Everyone likes to type “iTunes is dead.” (I do) Beyond the schadenfreude appeal, there’s the clickbatefulnesss of the headline. Truth be told, iTunes is not dead. It’s just been dismembered.
Road Tours
Road Tour: A DALI Factory Visit
Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries. That’s what DALI stands for so you can remove that mustachioed artists’ image from your head. Along with a group of colleagues, I spent a few days before High End Munich 2019 visiting the DALI factory in Nørager, Denmark.
Art&Culture
Ellsworth Kelly Stamps from the USPS
Fortunately, I am not a stamp collector [footnote 1]. But…
Art&Culture
The Empathy Suite at The Palms: $200,000/weekend
“Who would pay that much for a pair of speakers?” Feel free to replace “speakers” with any other piece of hifi kit and you have all the makings of a fine, old, hifi whine.
#NewMusicFriday
#NewMusicFriday: March 31, 2019
Each Friday, Stephen Mejias, AudioQuest’s Director of Communications and former Stereophile and Audiostream.com columnist, will browse through the many exciting albums released that day and select 15 worth a closer listen.
Album of the Week
Album of the Week: Jac Berrocal, David French & Vincent Epplay
Fabulously unfamiliar. Sometimes, some days, I want to hear something fabulously unfamiliar. Past experience has proven that Jac Berrocal often delivers along these lines, even though I’ve come to expect such a thing from him. Familiarity breeds, in this case, continual surprise.
HiFi Reviews
Review: AudioQuest NightBird Model One Headphone Cable
If you’ve been here before, you may have noticed my affinity for Audioquest (AQ) headphones. Their sound made sense to me from the start. I’ve likely posted thousands of words about them. I know, enough already. Well, it seems we’re not quite done yet, as […]
Classic Albums
Jerome Sabbagh: Five Influential Recordings
Saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh’s release with guitarist Greg Tuohey, No Filter, has been getting some serious airtime in Barn of late. Jerome and I recently shared an email exchange wherein I asked Jerome if he would be interested in sharing a few favorite records. Instead, and […]
