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Pulse!

Are These the Last Days of the CD?

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Pulse!

September 2024

Each month, Stereophile magazine opens with an opinion column called “As We See It.” Usually editor Jim Austin writes the column, but occasionally he gives the space over to a guest writer. For the August 2024 issue, contributing editor Tom Fine joined Austin to write about the demise of the Compact Disc. They begin with a firm prognostication: “When the CD is gone, and it will be soon, we will miss it.”

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Record Store Day and Vinyl Culture

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Pulse!

August 2024

As I’ve noted many times in this space, I started collecting records when I was about 12 years old, and I’ve never stopped. I’ve also written on several occasions about my initial dislike of CDs and my continued commitment to vinyl—even when the experts proclaimed that CDs would banish LPs from the earth.

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A Trip to the Poconos to Visit Rogue Audio

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Pulse!

July 2024

A few weeks ago, my wife and I pulled into the parking lot of Rogue Audio, which is located in the Pocono Mountains region of Pennsylvania. We were camping at a nearby state park, and when I found out the park was only about a half hour from Rogue, I thought it would be a good idea to arrange a visit. I had purchased a Rogue Audio Sphinx v3 a few months earlier and wanted to see where my integrated amp was born.

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Buying Used LPs, On- and Offline

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Pulse!

May 2024

When CDs entered the marketplace in 1982, I was 26, and had been collecting LPs for 15 years. My record collection took up a good amount of space in my first, tiny apartment. I didn’t pay much attention to the new format at that point; CDs weren’t widely available, and my local hi-fi shops weren’t carrying CD players. A coworker showed me a story in the Wall Street Journal that predicted the demise of the LP and the fast-approaching dominance of the CD. I scoffed, recalling the promotional push for quadrophonic LPs and playback gear. That format died quickly.

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Rega Research Limited: A History

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Pulse!

April 2024

Rega Research Limited is a name audiophiles know, especially vinyl lovers. They hold Rega’s turntables and tonearms in high esteem, but the company’s speakers, CD players, amplifiers, and other gear have also received glowing reviews. The company is known for both quality and value, and for products that embody elegant design and musicality.

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Liverpool Diamonds: 60 Years of The Beatles

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Pulse!

February 2024

On February 9, 1964, 60 years ago this month, The Beatles appeared for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show. I remember the buzz that preceded the appearance because the older sisters of some of my friends were talking about it on the school bus. I was only seven, so whatever fuss the media were making about The Beatles didn’t get to my eyes or ears. My dad was working for a local radio station, but it didn’t play rock’n’roll and I don’t remember him or my mom talking about The Beatles.

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Sam First Bar / Sam First Records

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Pulse!

February 2024

Los Angeles real estate developer Paul Solomon was well established in the city when he began working on revitalizing a large office complex on Century Boulevard. The building is very close to Los Angeles International Airport, better known as LAX. Solomon decided to carve out an area in the 92,000 square feet available and put in a bar that would reflect his varied interests. “One of my passions is jazz,” Solomon notes on the website for the Sam First bar. “Another is architecture, another is photography. Those are my pictures all over the walls. As for the furniture, all the pieces that aren’t built-in are real vintage midcentury pieces, made by people like Herman Miller and Artemide.”

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Really Expensive Vinyl

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Pulse!

January 2024

I’ve been reading high-end audio mags for more than 25 years and collecting vinyl for more than twice as long. About 15 years ago, I began noticing the already high prices of the very best audio gear creeping up. A few years later, I began to wonder if reviewers were equating higher cost with greater enjoyment, especially when prices began to go from already high to there’s no way I or anyone I know can afford this stuff.

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Some Holiday Favorites

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Pulse!

December 2023

Every November, around Thanksgiving Day, I move my holiday music collection into the living room. It takes some effort, because I have to shift a couple of CD storage shelves down to the basement and bring my seasonal CD collection upstairs. Then I bring the holiday LPs up from the basement, and they displace the records I’ve been playing recently. I don’t know how much of my holiday music ends up hitting my turntable or CD player from late November through early January, but it takes up a good bit of living-room real estate.

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Reappraising . . . or Maybe, Just Enjoying

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Pulse!

November 2023

One of the best things about listening to and collecting music is that you get the chance to challenge old opinions and hear things with a fresh ear.

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  1. The Well-Tempered (Affordable) Turntable
  2. Rock’n’Roll Death Rattle
  3. Stupid Audiophile Tricks
  4. The Mobile Fidelity Settlement—an Update
  5. A Second Trek through the Vinyl Jungle with MoFi
  6. An Interview with Mastering Engineer Kevin Gray
  7. An Interview with Producer Joe Harley
  8. Vinyl's Growing (or Not Growing) Pains
  9. Experience "Xperience" Anew
  10. Making Records: Blue Sprocket Pressing Plant Tour
  11. What I Heard: 2022
  12. Fix It in the Mix: Mixing
  13. Fix It in the Mix: Recording a Rock Band
  14. Fix It in the Mix: A Seven Nation Army of Me
  15. Fix It in the Mix: All About Mike(s)
  16. Fix It in the Mix: The Plan
  17. The Gear You'll Need to Set Up Your Own Recording Studio
  18. Mark Phillips: Audiophile, Recording Engineer, and Now SoundStage! Contributor
  19. Dire Straits on MoFi Vinyl
  20. Best of the Decade in Jazz
  21. Wayne Shorter and Chick Corea Reissued in Blue Note's Tone Poet Series
  22. Bernie Grundman Remasters Frank Zappa
  23. Two I Missed the First Time Around: Judee Sill and Murray Head
  24. Newvelle Records' Subscription LP Service
  25. Is There Room for Taste in Audio?
  26. Is High-End Audio Still About Music?
  27. A Crisis in Headphone Measurement?
  28. What Does a Brand Mean in 2018?
  29. The Differences Between Home Theater and High-End Audio . . . Two Decades On
  30. The Problem with Blind Testing
  31. Is It Possible to Say Something Stupid About Audio?
  32. Do Digital Masters Ruin Vinyl Records?
  33. The Indispensable Headphones -- and What They Say About What Matters Most
  34. What We Really Need from New Audio Products
  35. Does Love of Physical Media Have Anything to Do With Love of Music?
  36. What Does Samsung's Purchase of Harman Portend?
  37. Can Headphone Measurements Get Better?
  38. Science, Belief, and Audio
  39. The Five Best New Headphones and Earphones from CES 2017
  40. Six Audio Predictions for 2017
  41. Can We Know What the Artist Intends?
  42. How Audio Products Are Really Designed
  43. Is It Valid to Say that an Audio Product Sucks?
  44. Four Rules for Getting Great In-Wall Sound
  45. Why Most Audio Products Don't Deserve Glowing Reviews
  46. What the USB-C Revolution Will Mean for Headphones
  47. The Future of Headphone Listening
  48. A Cheap Wireless Speaker Shows the Future of Audio
  49. A Shakeup at Sonos Shakes Up the Audio Industry
  50. Can You Trust Customer Reviews on Amazon?
  51. The Five Best New Headphones at CES 2016
  52. What We Can and Can't Tell from Measurements of Headphones
  53. Why Hi-Rez Audio Still Struggles
  54. The Five Best Noise-Canceling Headphones and Earphones (According to Me)
  55. Why Believing in Headphone Break-in Can Be Harmful
  56. The Most Promising (and Unexplored) Area in High-End Audio
  57. The Five Best Closed-Back, Over-Ear Headphones (According to Me)
  58. Does a Product's Backstory Matter?
  59. The Five Best Earphones (According to Me)
  60. Why Headphone Amps Drive Me Nuts
  61. We Need a New Definition of "Audiophile"
  62. How Bad are Digital Streams and Downloads?
  63. What CES 2015 Means for the Future of Audio
  64. The Biggest Audio Development of 2014
  65. Why Simpler Isn’t Always -- or Even Usually -- Better
  66. Audiophiles: Stop Hating on Science!
  67. Should You Listen to Someone Who Criticizes Your Taste in Headphones?
  68. Dolby Atmos: A Lot More than More Channels
  69. Do Subwoofers Have a Sound?
  70. Why Dynamic-Range Compression Is Not the Work of the Devil
  71. Why Designing Wireless Speakers and Soundbars Is So Different . . . and So Much Harder
  72. What Measurements Really Tell You About Headphones
  73. The Point People Are Missing About Pono
  74. Why You Shouldn’t Ridicule the Bluetooth Speaker
  75. Are Headphones for Serious Listening?
  76. Binaural Recordings
  77. A Modern A/V Receiver: The Onkyo TX-NR808
  78. Cheap Stuff Can Be Surprisingly Good
  79. All About the 6th-Generation Apple iPod Nano
  80. ThinkFlood RedEye Universal Remote Application and Transmitter
  81. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Home Audio
  82. Is Bipolar Dead?
  83. Media Players and Servers: Something for Everyone
  84. (Don’t) Look Before You Leap
  85. In Praise of 5.1
  86. 3D Home Theater: Should You Wait?
  87. iPod Touch Apps: Free is Good
  88. The Apple iPad and Alternatives
  89. New Integrated Amps Are Truly Integrated

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