Survey of the Audio &
Home Theater Print Press
 
[Presented in cooperation with L.A. AUDIO FILE. If you can't find any of these magazines at your local audio salon or newsstand, complete details will be found here in our Audio Bibliography.]

WIDESCREEN REVIEW = for December is highly HDTV, with features on where it is headed, its pending turmoil, and a survey of the large variety of possible video connections for HDTV reception. Other features take you inside the Gladiator DTS DVD which is getting so much attention for its souped-up soundtrack, and in the workings of tactile sound - those transducers that shake your booty in the lowest frequencies. 64 DVDs are reviewed and there's a report on the CEDIA 2000 show. Other components covered: Quadscan Pro Video Scaler, Sony PFM 510/A2W, M&K 5.1 Active Speaker System.

THE AUDIO CRITIC = Will you look at that! We'd thought Peter Aczel's mag was defunct, but here it is again with a new publisher who is supposedly going to make everything hunky-dory and timely again. The large format issue has more color and is slicker than before, and the cover feature is The 10 Biggest Lies in Audio. What are they? OK: Expensive cables being better, Vacuum Tubes being better, Antidigital opinions, ABX Listening Tests being bad, Feedback being bad, Burn-in required, Bi-wiring required, power conditioners required, CD treatment required, and "The Golden Ear Lie." Other articles: Can a Car Radio Outperform a High End Tuner? (Blaupunkt's Alaska RDM 168), DSD and SACD, Power Amps and Outboard D/A Converters, Four Speaker Systems, Do You Need a Spectrum Analyzer? Other components reviewed: Bryston 9B ST 5-channel amp, Denon DVD 5000 and Toshiba SD-5109 DVD Players, Replay TV 2020 PVR, Sherbourn 5/1500 5-channel amp.

THE ABSOLUTE SOUND = The December 2000/January 2001 issue has Krell's FPB 650Mc Monoblock amps on the cover, along with features on Dynaudio's Evidence speakers, The Best Components and Recordings of 2000, Eight Easy Ways to Improve Your Sound, and Bootlegs and the Changing Face of Live Recordings. Hints for Tired Golden Ears is a guest editorial from Andrew Quint and J. Gordon Holt writes on What'll We Use the Surrounds For? Other components this issue: Benz Lukaschek PP-1 phono stage, Wyetech Opal preamp, Siltech cables, Atma-Sphere MA1MkII.2 amp, Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS line stage preamp, Rega Planar 3-2000 turntable, Harmonic Technology cables, Audio Physic Tempo III speaker.

THE SENSIBLE SOUND = The Nov/Dec issue observes the 23rd year of this smaller-format mag devoted to "helping audiophiles & music lovers to spend less & get more." Some of the article titles are Surveying the Soundscape and Loudspeaker Fixes, and over two dozen pages are devoted to jazz and classical CD reviews. A total of six pages are devoted to comparing various vinyl and CD versions of Jazz at the Pawnshop. Components covered this issue: FreePlay FPR2 Radio, Harman/Kardon Festival 60 Executive Music System, NAD Music System, Outlaw 750 5.1 Amp, Parasound AVC-2500 AV Controller, Rane ME-60 & THS-22 Equalizers, Rotel RSX965 AV Receiver, AR 302 & 338 speakers, Dynaudio Audience 60 speakers, Velodyne HGS-15 subwoofer.

SOUND & VISION = "It's a DVD World!" proclaims the cover of the December issue. Reviewers list their choice gear of the year and there's a Holiday Gift Guide. The first DVD Burners are reviewed, also Kenwood's 5-DVD Audio player, Sony's Playstation 2, Paradigm's Cinema Series home theater speaker system, Denon's Flagship AV Receiver, Toshiba's HDTV Monitor, and a Portable Jukebox from Creative Labs. In the software area, Mark Knopfler, Paul Simon, Madonna, American Beauty and Men in Black are among the artists and films covered.

HOME THEATER = presents 50 Great Holiday Gift Ideas in their December issue, along with another survey of the Recordable DVD units. Featured component reviews are Outlaw's 6.1 Receiver, MartinLogan's Prodigy speakers and the Proton HD Monitor. Articles: Do-It-Yourself Home Theater, PC Theater, Home Theater Boot Camp. Other components reviewed include: TMI Back Seat Theater, Myryad MDP500 Pre/Pro and MA240/360 power amps, EdgeAudio 502D Series III speakers, Evett & Shaw Flatte 50 amp, Elan transducers. The Hot Stuff column surveys the Terminator 2 DVD.

HI-FI NEWS = The spacey illustration on the cover is a portion of the new Chord Power Station amp, described as the "outer limits." A survey of stellar CD players includes those from Cyrus, Arcam, Marantz, Naim, Rotel and T+A. In High-End Heaven we are introduced to a man who has a £60,000 audio system in his bedroom. In the CD review section of the newly redesigned British publication Torleif Thedeen's version of the Bach Cello Suites is reviewed, and some of the jazz releases include Miles Davis, Ronnie Earl, Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong. Other components this time: Myryad Cameo System, Sony MiniDisc, Musical Fidelity integrated amp, Spendor mini-monitors, Primare A10 amp, Genelec HT208 active speaker, KEF Cresta speaker, Elac CL82 speaker, Orchid LWO speaker (using Heil's Air Motion tweeter).

POSITIVE FEEDBACK = The "Creative Forum for the Audio Arts" is creative about its month of issue, this just-received cover stating "Late Summer/Fall." Well, any audiophile who has ventured further than Stereo Review into his hobby's periodical literature should be forgiving of that sort of thing. There's reviews, tips, tweaks, controversial opinions and chat about audio and music here than you'll never read in the big commercial mags that come out a month or two ahead of the date on their covers. They include: more on the Delights of SACD, The Readers Respond, The Lundahl Armada DHT SET kit, CES 2000 and T.H.E. Show, Plinius SA 100 amp, Linn Limax Amp, Sahuaro Audio, BAT VK-50 Special Edition Preamp, Jolida JD-302B Integrated Tube Amp, Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference speaker, Analysis Plus Oval Nine cables, software reviews of recordings by Furtwangler and DMP's choral CD, Gaudeamus. Interesting articles: Where is Recorded Music Heading?, Three Little High End Speakers for the Impecunious Audiophile, Phono Stage Panacea!

SCHWANN INSIDE - Jazz & Classical = The December cover still persists in proclaiming The ONLY Jazz & Classical Review - ignoring AUDIOPHILE AUDITION and several other audio publications who have been doing that for some time now. The masthead also states the subscription rate is $55.95 per year - that can't be right; perhaps this monthly goes out automatically to those who subscribe to the quarterly OPUS or SPECTRUM catalogs of CDs. Anyway, grousing aside, there are several great articles this issue: a profile of unique reed jazz player Steve Lacy, a story on the late Sun Ra titled "Big Noise from Saturn," A Salute to Fischer-Dieskau, Scandinavian Smorgasbord of classical CDs, and a spotlight on the Knitting Factory label. All this in addition to over 20 pages of CD reviews.

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW = The November issue, just arrived in these parts, has Toscanini and Horowitz on the its cover and raves about a newly-released, newly-restored reissue CD of their collaboration on the Brahms Second Piano Concerto. Other feature review articles include alternate versions of Weber's Der Freischutz on disc, Beethoven violin sonatas played by Fritz Kreisler and CDs by Jordi Savall. The editorial concerns the increasing number of excellent low-price labels, and Ear to the Ground discusses MP3, Napster and MIniDisc. Components reviewed: Audio Note AZ-Three speakers, REL Stadium III subwoofer.

AUDIO ELECTRONICS = Just-arrived Issue Six for 2000 features articles on Filtering Pesky Treble Fuzz, Knocking out AV Hum (Now there's two really useful down-to-earth concerns for most audio buffs!), Testing for Balanced I/O, and Adding a better power supply for NAD's PP-1. Favorite CD tracks for system testing is another article, and the Assemblage DAC 2.6 and 3.0 kits are reviewed.

JOURNAL OF THE AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY = The Oct. Issue just received presents the usual four tech papers. The subjects are Controlled Radiation-Pattern Speakers, Improved DSP Equalized speakers, Low Frequency Horns Revisited, and Optimizing Music Synthesis Techniques. Part 2 on Global Audio Industry Paradigm Shifts and a directory of local AES section around the world are two of the features.

- John Sunier