MUSIC IS THE

JAN GARBAREK: Challenging listening, to say the least – but certainly worth the £3.00 I paid.

Yes, its Jan Garbarek time again. Another of my £3.00 bargain bin finds. Not what you might call ‘easily accessible ‘ – but it did survive the 3-in-a-row consecutive plays on my office system last Saturday by quite a high margin. Perhaps I was in the right mood for a bit of ‘ethereal’? Anyway – […]

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NIKKO: Gamma V FM tuner test review

Howard Popeck writes: Only a mini test for this one I’m afraid. My notes from that time are not very comprehensive. Anyway … Built in 1978, the Gamma V is a very sensitive and selective rack-mount style digital tuner. It cost around £400 when new, as best I can recall. Construction is all frame and […]

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APOGEE: Amplifiers suitable for 1 ohm Scintilla loudspeakers

Howard – help please! WHICH vintage Krell? Certainly. I sold many pairs of these magnificent but tricky-to-drive speakers when I ran Subjective Audio. I was, so I’m told Apogee’s most successful UK retailer. i mention this because I have a lot of direct, personal hands-on experience. The simple part of my 2-part answer is re […]

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Exactly the way it happened folks: A small piece of education, at the hands of a customer

Howard Popeck … It’s with considerable embarrassment that I recall both my musical ignorance and my inverse snobbery about musical styles. Styles that I neither understood nor wanted to understand, for no good reason at all in the early days of Subjective Audio. I call those days my irrational time. They’ve been a recurring event […]

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From the archives – when UK Vat was 17.5%. Ask an expert: Why are UK prices so much higher than US for the same audiphile gear?

Gentlemen. The Manley Stingray looks fabulous does it sound as good as it looks? In the past you have queried the difference in US and UK prices and I notice the Stingray is nearly £500 dearer in the UK than the states, but what happens the other way round when a British manufacturer sells to […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

Buying stereos and avoiding really dumb decisions 005- for £16 or less

Hopefully: 1.  You’ll agree that it’s essential that your amplifier or amplifiers being auditioned should be as close to tonally consistent across the spl (volume) band as possible i.e. no bass, or mid or treble emphasis (or dropout) as the volume is changed. 2.  That the only fair comparison between any two components (amps in […]

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Buying stereos and avoiding really dumb decisions 004

Previously So hopefully you’ve agreed that logically the two amplifiers must at all times be compared at identical SPLs? Good. Now then I’m not suggesting that you are exposed to a fixed spl throughout demo – unless you want to. Before revealing a simple strategy to bypass this all too common problem let’s consider how […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

ACCIDENTAL MAGIC: What does it mean in practice?

Neil McCauley asks Howard Popeck Howard, Historically, what did you mean by ‘accidental magic’? Well …….. a combination of equipment that previously you’d not encountered and which sounds right immediately. Unusual combinations. Amps and speakers that just by chance sound magical together – even though the makers probably hadn’t used each other’s equipment. That kinda […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

SERIOUSLY? A proposed audiophile start up in a saturated market

Hi. A well known valve supplier and I have discussed putting (a new valve amplifier line) into production. Given your experiences with valve amplification would you be interested in selling same amps? Well, I think it fair to say and with some regret too that currently the economic situation facing the UK audiophile industry in […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

THE AUDIO INSIDER: Buying stereos and avoiding really dumb decisions 002

  Welcome back. Starting work on part #2 I now face a decision. Should I outline some of the inconvenient and self-administered psychological problems involved in making decisions about anything in general and stereo in particular? Or should I address one per day with a strategy of how to address each – or should I […]

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HP’s PERFECT VINYL COLLECTION #012: Robert Palmer – ‘Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley’

Out of my thousands of vinyl pressings the thought struck me that it might be interest, for me and perhaps for some of you to try and list my favourite 100. A big task, but not an unpleasant one. But for sanity’s sake I have to set a few limits. First, an era restriction. So, […]

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Quill

HP’s PERFECT VINYL COLLECTION #011: Smokey Robinson and The Miracles – ‘Anthology’

Out of my thousands of vinyl pressings the thought struck me that it might be interest, for me and perhaps for some of you to try and list my favourite 100. A big task, but not an unpleasant one. But for sanity’s sake I have to set a few limits. First, an era restriction. So, […]

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PAUL BURTON: Howard Popeck speaks at length to people with interesting things to say: Burton Somervell – marginalised magnificence

Howard Popeck writes: This is, as far as I know, the final interview with the late Colin Howard, former production director of BS Meridian, founder of London HiFi Services, innovator, designer and the co-founder of Burton Somervell speakers. I conducted this interview some years ago and only discovered it yesterday. It has never previously been […]

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