Welcome to The Abso!ute Sound online! We explore music and the reproduction of music in the home. We believe that the sound of music, unamplified, occurring in a real space is a philosophic absolute against which we may judge the performance of devices designed to reproduce music. Our goal is to provide the resources consumers need to judge how a component's sound either honors or departs from the music's truth, and to make sound purchasing decisions that maximize their experience of reproduced sound. Below is our Issue 147, April / May 2004 table of contents and editorial.

April / May 2004

Editorial

  

Viewpoints

4 - From The Editor 

6 - Letters 

123 - Manufacturer Comments

 

Columns

14 - Industry News 

16 - Absolute Analog
Chris Martens listens to five entry-level phono cartridges. 

75 - Cover Story: B&W 704 Loudspeaker
A long-time fan of B&W speakers, Sue Kraft listens to the British loud- speaker manufacturer’s new 704's and concludes that, in this case, the trickle-down theory does work. 

89 - TAS Roundtable — Tube vs. Solid-State
Join our roundtable as The Absolute Sound’s writers and editors ponder, discuss, and argue all things audio in the first of a new series of colloquia. This issue finds Robert Harley, Wayne Garcia, HP, Paul Seydor, and Jonathan Valin weighing in on the merits of tube versus solid-state electronics. 

22 - TAS Does Vegas
Come fly with us to that city in the desert for a gander at the coolest gear at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show. 

 

Equipment Reports

54 - Loudspeaker Cable Survey, Part Two
Brave souls Paul Seydor and Neil Gader conclude their survey of 
affordable speaker cables with models from Acoustic Zen, AudioQuest, Cardas, DH Labs, Nordost, PS Audio, Supra Ply, WireWorld, XLO, and... Home Depot! 

67 - Running the Gamut: A Survey of Four High-Resolution Disc Players from Arcam, Denon, Linn, and Sony
Shane Buettner listens to the latest batch of high-rez digital disc-spinners. 

78 - Krell KAV-400xi Integrated Amplifier
This cost-effective integrated amp is all-Krell all the way, says Wayne Garcia.

 

The Cutting Edge

81 - McIntosh in a New Century: Tubes and Transistors in Happy Harmony
Few companies have had equal success building both tube and solid-state gear. According to Paul Seydor, McIntosh is one of the best of them. 

98 - Redefining the State of the Art: Technical Audio Devices TAD Model-1 Reference Monitor
Anthony H. Cordesman listens to a contender for the state of the art in sound and technology. 

 

HP Workshop

107 - HP's Workshop
A digital giant killer? Harry Pearson finds one lurking in Italy. Also, moving-coil cartridges — a handful of the best, compared and rated.

 

The Music

125 - Jazz Norah Jones: Feels Like Home; El-P: High Water; The Bad Plus: Give; Evan Parker: The Snake Decides; Dom Minasi’s DDT+2: Time Will Tell; Curtis Amy: Curtis Amy SACD—Miles Davis Quintet: Relaxin’; “The Quintet”: Live at Massey Hall

135 - Classical RECORDING OF THE ISSUE: Bax: The Seven Symphonies; Ginastera: Estancia; Weinberg: Sinfonietta No 1; Natalie Dessay: French Opera Arias and Anna Netrebko: Opera Arias; Film Scores: The Last Samurai, House of Sand and Fog, Big Fish, Looney Tunes Back In Action, and LOTR: Return of the King SACD—Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (Harnoncourt); Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Volodos); Beethoven: String Quartets and Schubert: String Quintet DVD-A—Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Cecilia Bartoli: The Vivaldi Album, and Orff: Carmina burana

149 - Rock and Pop Tortoise: It's All Around You; Cee-Lo: Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine; John Mayall: 70th Birthday Concert; Emmylou Harris reissues on Rhino; New box sets: The Cure: Join the Dots, Doug Sahm: The Genuine Texas Groover, and David Bowie: Sound & Vision On the Fringe: Intriguing new albums from Dizzee Rascal, Air, Kinky, The Coral, Iron & Wine, and John Vanderslice SACD—James Taylor: Flag and Dad Loves His Work; The Who: Tommy DVD-A—Santana: Supernatural and Shaman; Outkast: Stankonia; Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy Theatre

162 - Absolute Audiophilia Bob Dylan on LP: Bob Dylan, John Wesley Harding, and Bootleg Series Vol. 5; Jerry Garcia & David Grisman: Been All Around This World; Thelonious Monk: Monk’s Music (45-rpm LP); David Chesky: The Body Acoustic; Sera Una Noche: La Segunda and Buenos Aires Madrigals; three JVC XRCDs: Chopin: Piano Sonata 2 and Scherzos, and Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

 

TAS Retrospective

168 - McIntosh: Then and Now
Paul Seydor reflects on a legend of the American high end.

 

Finale

211 - Classifieds

165 - Where To Buy The Absolute Sound

163 - Ad Index