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1 week ago | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
About a dozen years ago, I found myself sitting across from a disheveled gentleman in a near-empty lounge at LAX Airport as we both waited for a delayed flight. A well-loved leather suitcase stood at his feet. To my amazement, he wore a pair of Stax SR-L700sfull-on electrostatics he powered with an unwieldy amplifier he held on his lap, a power cord snaking to the outlet near his seat. It was absurd. And magnificent.
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1 month ago | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
It's not unusual for audiophiles to have fond childhood recollections of the old family stereo, but Eelco Grimm's memory of his dad's audio system probably stands alone. It's not just that Piet Grimm, a professional pilot for the Dutch air defense (footnote 1), had a pair of very fine Infinity speakers, a Pioneer receiver, and a Technics turntable. Others surely did, too.
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2 months ago | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
"That's pretty odious," Andy Summers says to me. "An odious comparison." His blueish eyes darken. roughly an hour into our 90-minute face-to-face interview, I'd asked if it bothers him that in terms of reach and staying power, his solo oeuvre will never match his work with The Police. To me, the observation seemed factual and uncontroversial, like saying that the sun rises in the east. The Police sold more than 75 million records and played some of the largest venues in the world.
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2 months ago | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
I have a love-hate relationship with subwoofers. They tend to bring out my tweaky alter ego. Perhaps one of these sorry personae lives within you too: the perennially neurotic Mr. Hyde to your more obliging Dr. Jekyll. Hyde is the tense, never-satisfied fault-sniffer who zeroes in on sonic details that are perhaps slightly off, even when other people in the room are enjoying themselves. With subwoofers, he's at his worst.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
The dogma of separates has long reigned supreme among audiophiles: If you're serious about sound quality, you're supposed to need a dedicated preamp and power amp. The logic goes that separates reduce interference and offer maximum control over your sound. But there's an argument to be made that integrated amplifiers are more practical ... and potentially better-sounding. The beauty of an integrated amp lies in its synergy.
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Aug 30, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
It's funny how we discover some music in unexpected, twisting ways. A friend recently sent me the real estate listing for a beautiful home in Deer Isle, Maine, about an hour from where I live. I gawked at the pictures and calculated I'd need to work for Stereophile for another 127 years before I'd have enough dough to buy it. Then I noticed something unusual on one of the walls of the place: lots of gold records.
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Jun 28, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
A few summers ago, I briefly got it in my head that I could become a wine connoisseur. This was due to a very generous and unexpected gift. A local acquaintance had passed away, and his wife wanted to rid her basement of his small wine collection. I don't know why I was chosen as the lucky recipient, but after stammering half a dozen thank-yous, I suddenly owned about 150 fine wines. A few carried four-figure price tags. Reliably telling a Pinot Grigio from a Chardonnay isn't part of my skill set.
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Jun 23, 2024 | 
galavante.com | Rogier van Bakel
In mid-April, I visited AXPONA in Chicago, the biggest yearly audio expo in North America. There were many state-of-the-art hifi systems there that cost half a million dollars or more. Those are fantastic of course, but for this article, I was on the lookout for great audio that you can travel with — and easily afford. What’s new that’s small enough to fit in a pocket or a bag, yet sounds good enough to help you find your groove?
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May 31, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
There was a period in the 1970s when many pop ballads that should have had understated arrangements instead turned grandiose and even maudlin. Take Gilbert O'Sullivan's sensational single "Nothing Rhymed" (a track that went deep for a pop hit, referencing famine, duty, and morality). Soon after the start, O'Sullivan's piano is overshadowed by a loud, saccharine string section. Another example is "Lotte," German singer Stephan Sulke's portrayal of a dying love affair.
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May 20, 2024 | 
stereophile.com | Rogier van Bakel
On the final day of High End Munich, a couple of hours before closing time, I sent the visiting Stereophile crew a message about the new speakers in the YG Acoustics room: “Should you have time and you haven’t visited yet, go listen. Both the passive and active systems there sound phenomenal.”It’s true: the YG space was electrifying, even in an environment where the world’s high-end audio brands strut their finest stuff (and where it’s easy to get jaded).
