The True Cost of Saving a Few Bucks: A Q&A with Emotiva's Dan Laufman

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 01 August 2021

Every article that you read on SoundStage! (or anywhere, for that matter), generally starts with a question. “Is this product good?” “Are tubes B.S.?” “What the heck are balanced armatures?” Something like that. The question that led to this article, though, was a bit of a sticky wicket: “Does the country in which your electronic gear is manufactured really matter?”

Musical Fidelity M6si Integrated Amplifier-DAC

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 01 August 2021

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

Longtime readers of SoundStage! Access with particularly good memories may be feeling some déjà vu right about now. Didn’t we already review the Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amplifier-DAC some years back, much closer to its release in 2014? We did.

Crowded House: "Dreamers Are Waiting"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 August 2021

Lester Records/BMG Rights Management (US) 538653062
Format: CD

Musical Performance

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It’s been 11 years since the Australian band Crowded House released its last album, Intriguer, but the group’s primary songwriter and singer, Neil Finn, has kept busy. The New Zealander added two solo albums to his discography, Dizzy Heights (2014) and Out of Silence (2017), as well as a collaboration with Australian songwriter Paul Kelly (Goin’ Your Way, 2013). In 2018, he made Lightsleeper with his eldest son, Liam Finn, and joined Fleetwood Mac after the band fired Lindsey Buckingham. Finn also released a digital live album, Live: Solo at the Seymour Centre, 2010, last year as a benefit for Support Act, an Australian charity providing crisis services for performers and other workers in the music industry.

Audio-Technica AT-PEQ30 Phono Preamplifier

Details: Written by Thom Moon; Created: 15 July 2021

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

Observers of the auto industry often speak of 1973 to 1983 as the “Malaise Era” of car design and manufacture, especially for General Motors. Styling was bland and undifferentiated, while acceleration, handling, and braking were lethargic. The results were cars no one especially liked or cared about.

Unboxing the Musical Fidelity M6si Integrated Amplifier

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 15 July 2021

Audio electronics reviews are weird things. Each review is, after all, a snapshot in time—an assessment of a product’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the current baseline. That’s perfect for TVs and A/V receivers and media streamers and the like, which are cranked out on something approaching an annual basis and packed with ever-newer features, formats, and performance enhancements. Other gear—like speakers and amps—doesn’t go through quite the same cycle of planned obsolescence. And somewhere in between those two extremes, you have a product like the Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amplifier ($2999, all prices USD).

Italian Elegance on a Budget: An Interview with Sonus Faber's Livio Cucuzza

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 01 July 2021

You’re sitting at your desk, minding your own business one fine April afternoon, when you get an e-mail from Sonus Faber’s PR and communications manager asking if you’d like to get an early look at a super-secret new speaker. It’s the new flagship of the company’s entry-level Lumina line. $2799 per pair (USD). Three-way floorstanding tower. Something something Hybrid IFF-Paracross crossover topology. You gloss over the rest. You’ve heard enough. This is totally in your wheelhouse. You fire off an enthusiastic reply—“Let’s do it!”—and then sit and wait for the speakers to arrive.

Sonus Faber Lumina V Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 01 July 2021

Reviewers' Choice I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that, after two decades in this industry, my experience with Sonus Faber speakers has been rather limited. Some of that comes down to happenstance, but a lot of it is a function of specialization. Given the choice between a $5000 preamp and a $5000 pair of speakers, most publishers are going to give me the preamp to review. Even the company’s affordable Sonetto line is a bit pricier than the territory in which I tend to stomp around. But a $2799/pair (all prices USD) tower speaker is totally my jam, so the Lumina V—the new flagship of Sonus Faber’s entry-level Lumina collection—has been my crash course in the company’s style and sound.

Chrissie Hynde: "Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 July 2021

BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd.
Format: 16-bit/44.1 kHz WAV download

Musical Performance

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Overall Enjoyment

Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer and primary songwriter of the Pretenders, has sung a few Bob Dylan songs over the years. She appeared with Dylan when he performed at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1984, and sang a stellar version of “I Shall Be Released” at the singer’s 30th anniversary celebration in Madison Square Garden in 1992. The Pretenders have covered “Forever Young” on recent tours, and Hynde has slipped other Dylan tunes into her solo performances.

Sonus Faber Unveils the Lumina V Loudspeaker

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 15 June 2021

I have a secret. Well, it’s not so much a secret anymore, now that Sonus Faber has let the cat out of the proverbial bag. But for the past few weeks, I’ve been rocking out to the company’s new Lumina V loudspeakers, which it publicly unveiled today.

Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M Digital-to-Analog Converter

Details: Written by Mark Phillips; Created: 15 June 2021

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

Cambridge Audio, founded in Cambridge, England, has been making hi-fi audio equipment for half a century now—a mere drop in the bucket compared to, say, Cambridge University, founded in 1209, but a long time in the world of hi-fi.