Q Acoustics 3050i Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 February 2019

Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Though Q Acoustics has long been on the fringes of my consciousness, their products had never found their way into my listening room. My introduction to this British manufacturer was in 2013, when I visited electronics manufacturer Arcam in Cambridge, England, and found that they were using Q’s Concept 20 bookshelf speakers in their listening room. I was taken with the little speakers’ dynamics and overall clarity, and said as much to some of my SoundStage! Network colleagues.

The Good, the Bad & the Queen: "Merrie Land"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 February 2019

Studio 13 Studio13CD0001
Format: CD

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It’s been 11 years since the Good, the Bad & the Queen released its eponymous debut, perhaps because every member of the band had other things to do. Frontman Damon Albarn continued his work with Blur and Gorillaz, with help from Simon Tong, who’d been in the Verve but joined Blur in 2002. Bassist Paul Simonon, formerly of the Clash, kept himself busy with music, painting, and environmental activism, and drummer Tony Allen played on a number of albums, including two jazz recordings he led for release on Blue Note Records.

CES Is Dead: An Obligatory Missive

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 February 2019

To the surprise of no one, about 12 people -- including several derelicts, some tumblin’ tumbleweeds, and SoundStage!’s own Brent Butterworth -- attended the hi-fi segment of the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you haven’t visited Las Vegas, imagine a city codesigned by Louis XIV and a strip-mall developer, and fueled by a near-lethal combination of vodka, Red Bull, and poor decision-making, all tinged by the aroma of burnt tobacco. The high-end segment of CES has been on a slow decline for years, domestically usurped by the annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, and internationally by Munich’s annual High End. Despite this, this year’s CES was chock full of new and affordable audio gear.

Bowers & Wilkins 603 Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Philip Beaudette; Created: 01 February 2019

Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Bowers & Wilkins is a rarity in high-end audio. Founded in 1966 by John Bowers and Roy Wilkins, the British brand has in the five decades since built a loyal following of audiophiles. Other boutique audio companies have enjoyed this sort of staying power, but the list is relatively short, and few are known outside the high-end community. B&W’s roots go back to the year the Beach Boys released Pet Sounds, Syd Barrett was still the face of Pink Floyd’s psychedelic sound in the London underground, and the Beatles had yet to release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, arguably the beginning of their most interesting period of work (with apologies to those who claim that this began with Revolver, an exceptional album in its own right).

Marianne Faithfull: "Negative Capability"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 February 2019

Panta Rei/BMG France 538421712
Format: CD

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Marianne Faithfull was discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham, manager and producer of the Rolling Stones, who helped her achieve chart success with a series of singles in the mid-1960s. She was the first singer to record the Jagger-Richards song “As Tears Go By,” in 1964, and was a big part of the history of the early Stones and of the ’60s overall. Faithfull became romantically involved with Mick Jagger, and it’s hard to know if her later slide into addiction and anorexia stemmed from her association with the band or her with own bad decisions -- perhaps both.

MoFi Electronics StudioDeck+: StudioDeck Turntable with StudioTracker Cartridge

Details: Written by Thom Moon; Created: 15 January 2019

Since 1977, with a brief break around 2000, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab records have had a reputation for being some of the best vinyl available anywhere. BDA (Before Digital Audio), Mobile Fidelity’s half-speed-mastered SuperVinyl LPs had incredible dynamic range and superquiet surfaces. Finally, after all these years, Mobile Fidelity offers its own line of turntables, sold under its MoFi Electronics brand. I had the pleasure of auditioning their basic model, the StudioDeck.

The 1975: "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 January 2019

Dirty Hit/Interscope B0029121-02
Format: CD

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In the nearly three years since The 1975’s last release, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, Matt Healy, the band’s rhythm guitarist and lead singer, entered rehab to deal with a drug problem, while the rest of the band continued to write and record the music that has resulted in its third and newest album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. Healy’s experience seems to have affected the lyrics of these songs, but musically The 1975 continue to play with their combination of synth pop, alt-rock, and whatever other genre they take a fancy to.

Looking Backward, and Forward

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 January 2019

In the past 12 months the SoundStage! Network has undergone some major changes, including some shifts in editorial direction. The addition of Gordon Brockhouse to sister site SoundStage! Simplifi has proven a shrewd move -- Gordon is not only a great writer, his system is ideally suited for reviewing such progressive hi-fi endeavors as all-in-one-ish stereo loudspeakers like the DALI Callisto 2 C and Kii Audio Three, and KEF’s new LSX wireless loudspeaker (review in the works). In many ways, I envy Gordon’s position. For the last few years I’ve felt that if I were ever to depart from SoundStage!, I’d probably sell my traditional hi-fi rig of passive loudspeakers driven by a massive integrated amplifier-DAC, and grab a pair of Devialet Phantoms -- e.g., the Silver Phantoms I reviewed on Access a couple years ago.

MartinLogan Motion 4i Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Vince Hanada; Created: 01 January 2019

MartinLogan’s slogan is “Truth in Sound.” Like most speaker companies, they strive to make products that re-create the most complex musical passages as faithfully as possible. In their lines of large hybrid-electrostatic speakers, they try to do this by using an extremely thin, light membrane with excellent transient response. For optimal horizontal dispersion, the panel is curved. This panel is coupled to a conventional woofer cone to reproduce deep bass frequencies that the electrostatic panel cannot.

Neneh Cherry: "Broken Politics"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 January 2019

Smalltown Supersound STS343CD
Format: CD

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Neneh Cherry had a hit in 1989 with “Buffalo Stance,” a track from her first album, Raw Like Sushi, but since then her career has been eclectic and experimental. In addition to her solo recordings she’s been a member of the trip-hop band cirKus, and has worked with the Swedish jazz trio The Thing as well as the post-punk band The Slits. Her last album, Blank Project (2014), was bracing and complex, the kind of work that demands close attention and yields deep rewards.