Stereo consoles were all the rage in the ’60s. Every major TV company sold them—some with an integrated 25-inch screen, some without. Many were imposing pieces of furniture placed front and center in living rooms across America. I have vivid memories of paying $3 or $4 for my first album at the long-gone Jersey-based chain store Two Guys and promptly replacing the Engelbert Humperdinck LP on the platter of our Zenith console with Abbey Road.
15 Minutes with the Society for Information Display’s Dr. Taka Tsujimura
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the OLED display, we reached out to Dr. Taka Tsujimura at the Society for Information Display (SID) to discuss the past, present, and future of a TV technology whose future looks nearly as bright as it did three decades ago when researchers cobbled together the first practical OLED device.
When a music aficionado moved into his newly renovated 2,500-square-foot home in New York City’s trendy Soho neighborhood, he wanted crisp, clear sound and a way to easily control music and lighting throughout the house, so he hired a Manhattan-based audio/video design firm to make it happen.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Elegant design
Impeccable build quality
Compact form factor
Terrific sound quality
Minus
Limited streaming options
Expensive
THE VERDICT
The Mu-so Qb is pricey, but it’s impeccably built, offers a number of wired and wireless playback options, and is one of the best-sounding compact wireless speaker systems I’ve heard.
I was trolling for high-bit-rate internet radio stations when I stumbled upon Incubus performing “Love Hurts” on Alternative Times Radio out of Prague. I’d never heard the song before but was immediately captivated by the richness of Brandon Boyd’s voice and how realistic the kick drum and snare sounded. And the stream was only 128 kilobits per second…
AT A GLANCE Plus
Impeccable fit and finish
Streaming via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Excellent sound
Solid bass
Remote control
Minus
App could be more intuitive
Wish there was a display window
THE VERDICT
The Three melds retro style with modern sound in a beautifully crafted tabletop stereo.
I’m not gonna lie. When I first saw a press photo of the Three, I was immediately taken with its elegant retro styling—the wraparound grille, the walnut top…those copper control knobs. I wanted one.
Evoking what Klipsch calls the “mid-century” design legacy of its late founder Paul W. Klipsch, the Three boasts impeccably finished walnut panels, a knit grille, and a copper strip with two knobs—one
for volume, the other for source selection—plus something you don’t expect to see on modern gear: a toggle switch. Positively retro. Behind the classic façade is a stereo pair
of 2.25-inch drivers that flank a 5.25-inch woofer. Klipsch has also incorporated two 5.25-inch passive radiators—one on each end of the enclosure—to boost bass output.
You may not have heard of Bruno Putzeys but if you’re an audiophile and have purchased a high-performance power amplifier in the recent past, you might know his work. Putzey’s ground-breaking NCore Class D amplifier module, created under the aegis of Netherlands-based Hypex Electronics, is used in amplifiers from ATI, Marantz, Jeff Rowland, and Bel Canto, to name a few. That Morris Kessler, founder of ATI and long-time champion of Class AB amplification, chose NCore for his new AT527NC and AT524NC amplifiers, is telling. Both models received Sound & Vision’s Top Pick designation, earning five stars in the Performance category, suggesting designs that are a far cry from Class D devices of just a few years ago. We tracked down Putzeys, now CTO at Kii Audio, to learn more about the new Class D and the apparent revolution he has started.
John Mellencamp with Carlene Carter, guests in the latest installment of McIntosh and Republic Records’ Direct Connection interview series. Photo by Meredith Truax.
Lit cigarette in hand, pop-rock icon John Mellencamp sauntered to the front of the room in McIntosh’s swanky Soho townhouse. He had a serious look on his face. No hint of a smile. Maybe he’s nervous, I thought to myself as he sat on a stool with a large ashtray at his side. Or is it just that he’s the personification of cool and really doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what people think…
HiFiMan founder Dr. Fang Bian has been crafting fine headphones for more than a decade, collecting numerous awards along the way. In the past two years alone, five of his designs have been designated Top Picks in these pages. Despite this incredible success, Bian wanted more. He had a lifelong dream to fulfill: To create the “world’s best-sounding headphone.” As he put it, “While HiFiMan has made many good headphones, and people certainly enjoy them, none has ever fully satisfied that dream.”