Edifier S350DB Loudspeaker System

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 August 2018

Reviewers' Choice When I received an e-mail from Jeff Fritz, SoundStage!’s editor-in-chief, asking if I was interested in reviewing Edifier’s S350DB 2.1-channel speaker system ($299.99 USD), a wave of nostalgia swept over me. From my senior year in high school, way back in 2003, through the end of college, I listened to my music through Klipsch’s ProMedia speaker systems -- first the 2.1, then the Ultra 5.1 (which I used in a 2.1 configuration). They were great computer speakers, with clean mids and highs, punchy bass, and terrific output for their size. With a simple 3.5mm input, I could plug my computer or iPod into them and get pretty killer sound. Fifteen years later, a descendant of the ProMedia 2.1 can still be had for $129, but there’s no way they could now live up to what they sound like in my memory.

Charles Lloyd & the Marvels + Lucinda Williams: "Vanished Gardens"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 August 2018

Blue Note B002843502
Format: CD

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At age 80, tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd is going strong. He’s done an album almost every year since 1989, and is still challenging himself and his listeners. In 2016 he released I Long to See You, featuring guitarists Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz, who introduced elements of folk and country into Lloyd’s jazz. That group, which also included Lloyd’s regular bassist and drummer, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland, was named Charles Lloyd & the Marvels, and returns in Vanished Gardens.

Freedom of Speech . . . for Better or Worse

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 August 2018

If you had told someone in 1918 that, 100 years hence, the world would be connected by a network that housed, broadly speaking, the sum total of all human knowledge, with access available to all but the poorest and most rural people, I’m betting you’d be met with disbelief. We now take the Internet for granted, but what is real power if not the possibility of omniscience? That the Internet is chock full of pornography, self-absorbed social-media and video content, and a multitude of other useless or depraved destinations shouldn’t detract from its potential, realized or otherwise. Concerns about net neutrality aside, the Internet remains one of humankind’s greatest achievements: an egalitarian tool of tremendous connective possibility.

NAD T777 V3 A/V Receiver

Details: Written by Vince Hanada; Created: 01 August 2018

NAD Electronics is part of the Lenbrook Group, which also owns PSB Speakers and Bluesound, the latter a maker of wireless multiroom music systems and related components. NAD has always been a bit different, offering value-oriented electronics with many of the unnecessary extras stripped away. Lately, their line of preamps and A/V receivers has provided value with add-on MDC modules to upgrade their products’ functionality -- users can buy a base model, then customize it to suit their needs and guard against obsolescence.

David Bowie: "Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78)"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 August 2018

Parlophone 0190295730260/CDBB 7782
Format: CD

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Welcome to the Blackout (Live London ’78) is a two-disc live set from David Bowie’s Isolar II: The 1978 World Tour, which drew heavily from two albums Bowie released in 1977, Low and “Heroes”. Those recordings were part of what Bowie would later call the Berlin Trilogy, which concluded with Lodger (1979). The three albums were another shift in direction in an ever-changing career.

NAD C 316BEE V2 Integrated Amplifier

Details: Written by Brent Butterworth; Created: 15 July 2018

As high-end audio shifts its focus to products costing four, five, or even six figures, we forget how great a simple, affordable system can sound. A basic integrated amplifier or stereo receiver hooked up to a good pair of bookshelf speakers can deliver realistic and satisfying reproduction of music, which is most -- perhaps even all -- of what most people want from an audio system. People who are just now getting into traditional stereo audio because of their interest in vinyl understand this, and it’s for them that NAD has produced the C 316BEE V2 ($399 USD), an integrated amp designed to deliver all the power and options a basic stereo system needs.

Grant Green: "Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes (1969-1970)" and "Slick! Live at Oil Can Harry's"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 July 2018

Grant Green: “Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes (1969-1970)”

Resonance/INA HCD2033
Format: CD

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Grant Green: “Slick! Live at Oil Can Harry’s”

Resonance HCD2034
Format: CD

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Grant Green (1935-1979), like his near contemporary Wes Montgomery (1923-1968), died while still in his 40s, and like Montgomery’s, Green’s later recordings are sometimes scorned by jazz purists. While toward the end of his life Montgomery leaned in the direction of easy listening, Green played funk. Beginning in 1969, when he returned to Blue Note after a few years with other labels, Green’s jazz showed the influence of then-current soul musicians James Brown and the Meters, both of whose compositions he covered that year on Carryin’ On.

The Backward-Thinking High End

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 July 2018

The speed of change in consumer electronics is breathtaking. Smartphones are rapidly supplanting computers as our default devices for most consumer activities, and my own practices are no exception. I deposit checks and verify transactions through my mobile banking app. I use my phone to communicate with family and friends, and for work using text and e-mail. I check my stock portfolio, fret over retirement funds, read the news, keep up to date on stupid memes, and ask Google all sorts of questions. A couple weeks back I bought a pair of aftermarket underseat subwoofers for my car through eBay’s app, and the same day, via an online car forum, found a buyer for my car’s stock underseat subs, to help defray the cost of that impulse buy.

Sumiko Oyster Rainier Moving-Magnet Phono Cartridge

Details: Written by Thom Moon; Created: 01 July 2018

Reviewers' Choice Sumiko, a longtime importer and distributor of high-quality audio equipment, is now owned by the McIntosh Group, formerly the Fine Sounds Group and owner of McIntosh Laboratory, Audio Research, Sonus Faber, Pryma, and Wadia. For years, Sumiko’s Oyster and Pearl moving-magnet and Blue Point moving-coil cartridges have been considered great values by many reviewers and audiophiles. Recently, they added three new low-priced MM models to their Oyster line, to fill the price gap between the Pearl (MM, $119 USD) and the Blue Point No.2 (MC, $449). The new models are the Rainier ($149), the Olympia ($199), and the Moonstone ($299), and Sumiko recently gave me the opportunity to check out all three. This review is of the least expensive, the Rainier.

Ry Cooder: "The Prodigal Son"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 July 2018

Perro Verde/Fantasy FAN00235
Format: CD

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The Prodigal Son, Ry Cooder’s 17th solo studio recording (not counting his many film scores), is his first such outing since Election Special (2012), and the first since Chávez Ravine (2005) that doesn’t overtly address political themes. While on his last five albums Cooder was the primary composer, on The Prodigal Son he returns to his role as interpreter of songs from America’s past. The emphasis is on old blues and country gospel, but Cooder also includes three of his own compositions that fit well with the vintage tunes he’s chosen.