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1 month ago | 
stereophile.com | Jim Austin
Recently, I found myself in an email correspondence with David Chesky, the musician/composer/entrepreneur behind Chesky Records and HDtracks, which was the world's first hi-rez music-download service. With his brother Norman, David has long run those businesses while engaging with his art. At the time of our correspondence, he was on tour with his jazz trio and busy "writing operas and children's works to keep me out of trouble," as he wrote in an email.
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2 months ago | 
stereophile.com | Thomas Lund |Jim Austin
If there's a technical thing nearly every audiophile knows, it's that low frequencies (LF) aren't directional. We tend to treat LF as monothink sub/sat systems in stereo, "LFE" in home-theater. But if the conclusions of a study by Thomas Lund, a researcher at Genelec OY (footnote 1), imply what they seem to, then that conviction is quite wrong.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
joemygod.com | Joe Jervis |Jim Austin
Fake News, Fox News “Big Tech, who has been in the pockets of the Democratic party for years, they sit out one election cycle because things are going bad with the country. And now you want to make them the enemy? They helped you out the last time. “What about apologizing to the American people? When you said that the laptop was disinformation. You knew your son was an addict. You knew he was posting things.
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Oct 26, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Jim Austin
As editor, I love it when Stereophile reviews new equipment. "New" attracts readers. But there are good reasons to review stuff that's not totally new (though usually it is still shiny). The best reason is experience, first-hand: You hear a component at a show or in your own system. You're impressed and decide it deserves a closer look.
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Oct 14, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Jim Austin
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued two new/newly revised rules relevantor possibly relevantto the hi-fi industry. As John Atkinson reported in the October Stereophile (see Industry Update), the FTC recently announced a revision to the "Amplifier Rule," with changes that took effect in August. It's the culmination of a process that lasted several years and a significant modification of a rule that has been in place for half a century. Amplifier manufacturers take note.
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Jim Austin
Jerome Sabbagh: HeartSabbagh, tenor saxophone; Joe Martin, bass; Al Foster, drumsAnalog Tone Factory ATF 001 (LP). 2024. Jerome Sabbagh, Pete Rende, prods.; James Farber, Pete Rende, Aki Nishimura, Ben Miller, Bernie Grundman, engs. Performance ****Sonics *****It's rare for an artist to win Recording of the Month honors for consecutive albums released within a few months of each other, and frankly, I don't feel great about it.
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Sep 12, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Jim Austin
In the August issue's As We See It, Tom Fine and I encouraged readers to hold on to their physical mediathose black and silver discseven if they're stashed away in a closet or attic, replaced by hi-rez streaming. An important reason we gave is that with physical media (in contrast to streaming), you know exactly what you're listening toor at least you can know, with a little work.
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Sep 4, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Jim Austin
Detroit became a destination for migrating African Americans early, starting with the Underground Railroad; the city's proximity to Canada was convenient for those seeking to escape Southern slavery. The mass human movement accelerated with the Great Migration, which started about 1910, when millions of African Americans left the Jim Crow South for northern cities. The same human movement that brought the blues to Chicago and jazz to New York City took both to Detroit.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Jim Austin
The shops at the Shoppes at Columbus Circle include Hugo Boss, Eileen Fisher, and Floga, which sells furs, among less-exclusive brands, though even the less-exclusive stores look fancy. Upstairs from the Shoppes is the Mandarin Oriental New York Hotel, where rooms cost about $1k/night and up, and some notable restaurants, among them Thomas Keller's Per Se, and Masa, a three-star Michelin restaurant where dinner costs as much as a room at the Mandarin Oriental, per person.
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Jul 16, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Jim Austin |Tom Fine
When the CD is gone, and it will be soon, we'll miss it. New CD releases are winding down (footnote 1). In the classical world, the era of big, bargain-priced boxes of CDsa somewhat recent developmentis ending because, after a long, slow descent, retail sales have fallen off a cliff in the past year or so. In pop and rock, if you discover a new band you like, you may or may not be able to buy a CD.
