The Audiophiliac

Back in the day, we built great cars and the best TVs. And our advanced engineering was the envy of the world.

That was a long time ago. Today "world-class" design and manufacturing is mostly sent off-shore to Europe and Asia. American companies market and distribute products made somewhere else. According to American Economic Alert, the U.S. has imported $250 billion worth of goods and services more than we exported so far this year.

(Credit: Audio Research)

High-end audio is one area where made in America products are still truly world class. While the major brands like Audio Research, Ayre, Cardas, Conrad-Johnson, McIntosh, Thiel, and Wilson Audio are only known here by audiophiles, these brands are major players in the global audiophile market. And with the U.S. dollar at record lows, exports sales are healthier than ever.

Audio Research reports strong sales surges in Italy, France, and the U.K. Russia has just recently become a major market for Audio Research's vacuum tube electronics. The company is still selling mostly two channel audio components; home theater products aren't a big part of their growth over the last few years. In the U.S., you can buy an Audio Research VSi 55 tube integrated amplifier for $3,495.

Thiel Audio, based in Lexington, Ky., is enjoying robust sales. "Our export business doubled in 2007, and is now about 40% of our gross revenues. The biggest increase has come from Europe. Fortunately for us, our domestic business is ... Read more

Your rebate can buy all American audio like this

(Credit: Outlaw Audio)

The Federal Economic Stimulus program checks are in the mail. When you get yours try and be a good consumer and spend it right away. That'll help our economy and remember the checks will do the most good if they're spent on made in America products. One of my favorite high-value, high-end audio brands, Outlaw Audio, would be a good place to start. Its multi-channel home theater power amplifiers are in fact proudly made in the USA. Outlaw sells direct on its website and all of their amps are now on sale--with free FedEx Ground shipping! If you're single and getting the $600 check you might want to pick up the $599 Model 7075. If you're married and lucky enough to get a $1,200 check the $899 Model 7125 would be even better. Hey, it's practically your patriotic duty to buy American audio.

Merely buying a great subwoofer is no guarantee you'll wind up with great bass. There are too many ways to squander its performance potential, that's why putting in the extra effort to achieve proper subwoofer setup is crucial. This two-part guide will tell you everything you need to know about getting the most from your subwoofer.

Part I: Placement & Positioning

Part II: Connectivity & Fine-tuning

Subwoofer Setup Part I:
Placement & Positioning

REL's $798 T2 sub

(Credit: REL)

Finding the right spot in your room can make a dramatic difference in the way your sub sounds. Corner placement is the de facto strategy for most people, possibly because it's out of the way and almost always produces the most bass, but corner placement may not yield the most accurate bass (and/or smoothest transition to the satellite speakers).

With small (8-inch tall or less) speakers it's best to keep the sub within three or four feet of the front left or right speakers. Once the sub is a lot further away it's just that much harder to maintain the illusion the bass is coming from the speakers and not the sub. And that goes double for small home theater in a box subwoofers, keep them as close as possible to the front speakers. Oh, ... Read more

Audiophile gear is always really expensive.

Not true. While there's no shortage of stupid expensive audio toys, there's lots of affordable stuff too, such as Rotel's beautifully built RA 1062 integrated amplifier ($699).

(Credit: Rotel)

Audiophiles rarely embrace new technology.

Guilty, with an explanation. Audiophiles don't jump on every new tech gizmo that comes down the pike, so we steered clear of iPods for the longest time. But now that we can get uncompressed digital directly out of the little buggers with devices like Wadia's 170iTransport, audiophiles are getting with the program. We were just waiting for them to sound decent.

All audiophiles are really old.

You got me, there are very few under 40 'philes, and I wish I knew why. That certainly wasn't true when I was in my early 20s. Please don't write and whine that younger people can't afford the good stuff. Good stuff was always expensive, but if you really wanted it, you found a way to buy some. Second hand high-end gear is a good way to get in.

Audiophiles are all anti-digital.

No way. Sure, there's a lot of hard-core vinyl junkies reveling in analog bliss, but at least three or four times as many audiophiles are into digital and steer clear of vinyl. Most stick with CD and some mix CD and SACD/DVD-Audio discs into their collections. Some go both ways, and savor the best of analog and digital.

Audiophiles are weird.... Read more

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

Even hardcore audiophiles have to face the music--brick and mortar record stores are fading fast--and it's starting to look like the CD is on its way out. Sure, no card carrying audiophile would be caught dead downloading MP3s or iTunes, the sonic sacrifices are too drastic. Well, what if there was a site that offered bona fide CD quality downloads, would audiophiles go for it? That's HDtracks' prime directive, but I don't think the high-resolution download store is just for audiophiles.

Then again I never understood why anyone would pay more or less the same price for a low quality download as for a CD. Well, now that iTunes has become the #1 U.S. music retailer I have to admit the answer must be that buyers put a higher value on convenience than sound. Well alright, HDtracks offers three higher-resolution download alternatives: "CD quality" UNcompressed AIFF and lossless FLAC files or 320kbps MP3s. All three are DRM free. Oh, and when you buy a complete album you also get the cover art and liner notes as a PDF. Complete albums go for $11.98, individual tracks, $1.49.

True, iTunes isn't in any immediate danger of losing market share--HDtracks is just starting up--so you're not going to find Radiohead, R.E.M., or the Rolling Stones' music there just yet. HDtracks' selection is quirkier, less mainstream, with folk, gospel, blues, jazz, Latin, pop, R&B, rock, classical and soundtracks from a ... Read more

I first became a huge Howard Stern fan when he was on WNBC here in New York. This was back in the early 1980s when he radically advanced the state of the art of humor on the radio. Despite his huge ratings he had endless clashes with the NBC brass, which led to his firing. Clearly, the hostile environment wasn't a radio "bit," it was real. Stern was always keeping it real. It was all such compelling radio Stern based his biopic movie, "Private Parts," mostly on that time period.

After the NBC canning the self-proclaimed "King of All Media" moved to another NYC station, WXRK, where he was more comfortable and still amazingly funny.

I'd say he jumped the shark when he divorced his wife Alison in 2001. After all of those years of lusting after his female guests he was a free man. Some male listeners expected to be in on Stern's exploits as a single man, but he clammed up. Or maybe it was when his head writer and sidekick Jackie Martling left the show, also in 2001. The energy level dropped a few more points.

If he didn't jump the shark after those losses, Stern surely did after the move to Sirius Satellite Radio. Great, he was rich and uncensored, but the edge was completely gone. To me at least, he seems like he'd rather be somewhere else, enjoying his wealth. He's in his 50s, and the shock jock schtick ... Read more

As reported in Bloomberg.com D & M Holdings Inc, makers of Denon, Marantz, McIntosh, Snell Acoustics, Boston Acoustics, and Escient, is on the sales block. I can't comment on the business aspects of the deal, but speaking as an audiophile I'm concerned. These companies are in the upper echelons of audio, the Marantz name goes back 50 years, McIntosh has been building some of the world's best electronics in Binghamton, New York for 60 years, I was a friend of Peter Snell, the founder of Snell Acoustics, and the D & M Holdings owned company still builds speakers with the same attention to detail as it did when Snell first started in the 1970s. D & M Holdings has treated these brands with respect, so now I can only keep my fingers crossed that if a buyer steps up, it will also leave well enough alone.

Audio today, as exemplified by the iPod, has become a mere commodity, most mainstream audio products are cranked out by anonymous subcontractors. What part(s) of an iPod was actually designed by Apple engineers? There's no there, there.

D & M Holdings products are different, they're designed and made by real people; when I visited the McIntosh factory a few years ago I was impressed by their dedication. McIntosh engineers still design McIntosh electronics, and the McIntosh workers don't merely assemble parts made by subcontractors, the make most of the things that go into a McIntosh in house. The workers actually ... Read more

Onkyo's HT-S5100 home theater in a box system.

(Credit: Onkyo)

Onkyo's home theater in a box systems have always been among our favorites, and now they've introduced three new entry-level home theater systems. Unlike some HTIBs that rely on underpowered DVD player/A/V receivers, these Onlyos come with bona-fide HDTV-capable receivers.

HTIB speakers, even some of the ones packed with upper end Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony systems don't always have tweeters on all of the speakers, but the Onkyo speakers are two-way, tweeter and woofer designs. If my past experiences with previous generations of Onkyo HTIBs apply, the new HT-S5100 ($579 SRP) 290 watt subwoofer will be vastly more capable than the subs packed with the competitor's systems.

The HT-S5100's seven-channel receiver has three 1080p compatible HDMI inputs and one output, and something rarely seen in HTIBs, a highly accurate auto speaker setup and calibration system--Audyssey's 2EQ. The receiver is also Sirius Satellite Radio ready; the HT-S5100 system also comes with an Onkyo iPod dock.

The more affordable Onkyo HT-S4100 and HT-S3100 are 5.1-channel systems with HDTV-capable component video switching.

Look for full CNET reviews soon.

Went to see Martin Scorsese's new concert film Shine A Light with the Rolling Stones, and I have to admit the aged rockers put on a good show. Sure, Mick and Keith's life-long love affair with the blues is still going strong, but their music has become strangely soulless. They jump around, make faces, and the energy level is high, but I didn't care. I've seen it all before, better--the Rolling Stones are now just a machine, reveling in their own outlaw, devil-may-care ethos, a mere simulation of their former selves. Kinda makes me glad the Beatles never got back together, that band stays forever young. The Beatles' music remains fully intact, pure, and blemish free.

The Beatles' film catalog is uneven all right, but as musical documents, they're all pretty amazing. A Hard Days Night remains a light romp; the tunes come fast and furious, the Beatles are having a blast. Help hasn't aged as well as a film, but the song sequences are still fantastic, Yellow Submarine is still trippy as all get out, Magical Mystery Tour is mostly awful cinema, redeemed with strong tunes. Let It Be has yet to make it to DVD, but even in the Beatles' twilight, the magic was still there.

If you want to see the Stones at their peak, check out Gimme Shelter, a documentary film covering the last days of their 1969 tour. Scorsese's high-speed editing of Shine A Light doesn't help ... Read more

Does anybody buying an iPod in 2008 expect to get more than a few years of use out of the thing? My five year old iPod still plays, but I can't get it to work in newer iPod docks or iPod speakers. My iPod is too old.

Linn's turntable has been around since 1972.

(Credit: Linn Products)

A good friend of mine plays his 30-year-old Linn LP-12 turntable almost every day. It was an expensive turntable in 1978 when it sold for around $1,200. But he's gotten 30 years of use out of the thing, and even now listens to a lot more vinyl than CD. So his $1,200 investment works out to around $40 a year to own the thing. Can you imagine anybody buying an iPod today still using it in 2038? 2028? OK, how about 2018? Hmm, I don't think so.

Linn still makes the LP-12 turntable, the model has been in continuous production since 1972, and most parts are readily available. How's that for customer service? My Linn LP-12 is almost brand new, it's just 13 years old.

OK, iPods aren't high-end devices, they're disposable technology. Fair enough, how much do you imagine you'll spend on iPods or their equivalents over the next 30 years? There was one guy who responded to my "How many iPods have you owned?" poll who has already bought 26. So he's already made Steve Jobs richer by ... Read more