Jim Austin

1 week ago | stereophile.com | Jim Austin

As I write this, the current US president recently put into effect large import tariffs on almost every country except (oddly) Russia and North Korea, then paused for most countries (including EU countries) for 90 days (except for 10%, and then another 10%). The 145% tariff on Chinese exports wasn't paused (except for computers and smartphones). Tariffs are the dominant force in our industry right now, due partly to the added cost but also to the uncertainty they create.

1 month ago | stereophile.com | Jim Austin

At recent shows, Switzerland-based CH Precision has most often presented its electronics with Wilson speakers. At High End Munich 2025, the company was planning to demo with a pair of Rockports; that plan was foiled when a badly behaved volume-control took out a pair of tweeters. CH hardly had to settle for second-rate speakers, or anything approaching bad sound.

2 months ago | stereophile.com | Jim Austin

I heard people at the show, including Stereophile writers, were talking about the Ø Audio room—though when I say they were talking about it, I don’t mean that they were saying the company’s name, since no one knew how to do that. I looked it up. Ø is a letter in Norwegian and Danish that comes after the end of our alphabet, after Æ and before Å. If you want to know how to pronounce it, I'll provide a link to a pronunciation guide.

2 months ago | stereophile.com | Jim Austin

The Innuos ZENith Next-Gen ($20,700 as equipped) does what streamer-servers do: store music files, read them into memory, and send them on to a D/A converter to make music. In Innuos's complex (yet logical) lineup of streamers and streamer-servers, the ZENith Next-Gen sits just below the flagship Statement and above the ZENith Mk.3 (footnote 1). The ZENith Mk.3 remains in the Innuos lineup for now but will be replaced at AXPONA shortly after this issue hits mailboxes and newsstands.

2 months ago | stereophile.com | Jim Austin

"Just read your May 2005 As We See It for the first time in many years," John wrote. "Great stuff!"Could 20 years really have passed since I wrote that piece? Back then, I was in a different career, indulging my hi-fi passion by contributing to Stereophile on the side; now I'm in my seventh year as Stereophile editor. Then I was still a youngish dude; now I am an oldish dude. "Time flies" just doesn't capture it. Some readers will surely remember that long-ago editorial.