Editorial for September 2010 1 Sep 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our September drawing/giveaway is from Mobile Fidelity Lab for a pair of their Limited Edition Original Master Hybrid SACDs. The great legacy of The Band goes beyond the country rock category even though the versatile quintet only recorded for five years. Their Northern Lights - Southern Cross album of 1975 is a classic. The other SACD reissue is an earlier collection of Ray Charles tracks titled The Genius Sings the Blues. Weʼve reviewed and raved...

Editorial for August 2010 1 Aug 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our August drawing/giveaway is for the compact DACport combination 96K/24bit USB DAC and Class A headphone amp, which makes the audiophile experience portable. Its cross-platform plug-and-play operation (no drivers required) sets new standards for portability, convenience and audio quality. No batteries - it takes its power from your laptop via USB. Hear 48K and 96K audio DVDs and downloads without downsampling by your computer, and using AdaptiWave 24-...

Editorial for July 2010 1 Jul 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 For our July drawing/giveaway Allegro Distributors is offering the Complete Bach Cantatas conducted by Ton Koopman on 67 CDs from the Challenge label. There are only a couple of complete Bach cantata sets, and this is one of the best. They were recorded in Holland over a space of about ten years. Koopman's versions are considered warmer and more empathic than those of a competing set on BIS. This will be a perfect award for one of our readers who has fo...

Editorial for June 2010 1 Jun 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 For June our drawing-giveaway is the Livio Pandora & Internet Wi-Fi Radio, which brings over 16,000 Internet stations, podcasts, and the free Pandora music service to any room of your home or via your home audio system. We reviewed the Livio Radio here.  With Pandora you can set up your own "stations," programming exactly the music you want, without commercials or announcements. There are "thumbs up or down" buttons on it to...

Editorial for May 2010 1 May 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 For May our drawing/giveaway is for two of the handy Aperion Home Audio Link Systems. They consist of a wireless transmitter and receiver that allow you to send stereo signals from your PC or Mac across the room to your audio system without wires. Or you can use them with portables or subwoofers. To be eligible as one of the two winners of the HAL Systems to be selected at the end of this month, Go Here to Register, and be sure to also give us your addr...

Editorial for April 2010 1 Apr 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 For April our drawing/giveaway is for two titles by the superb choral ensemble The Tallis Scholars.  Gimell Records will be awarding to five lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers two of their most popular CDs - The Lamentation of Jeremiah, by Victoria; and Missa Malheur me bat by Josquin de Pres. (Distributed by Harmonia mundi.)  Our reviewer said "You will rarely find an ensemble as carefully rehearsed or skillfully prepared for the repertor...

Editorial for March 2010 1 Mar 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 For March, our drawing/giveaway is for two titles from the audiophile label Groove Note: The Jung Trio in Dvorak's Piano Trio in F minor, and guitarist Anthony Wilson's Jack of Hearts album.  They come in both hybrid SACD and vinyl versions and the latter consists of two super-fidelity 45 rpm 12" discs.  The six winners we draw will each receive one of the titles in both formats, so tell us in the Comments whether you prefer jazz or class...

Editorial for February 2010 1 Feb 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our February 2010 drawing/giveaway is for two sets of the 8-DVD Jazz Icons Series 4 - the latest in the series of amazing European TV performances by leading U.S. jazz artists and bands in the 1960s. The stations were all government-owned and didn't have the commercial constraints of U.S. stations (who didn't present any jazz for decades). The videos are B&W and mono but of excellent quality since the stations were adept at recording live music;&nbs...

Editorial for January 2010 1 Jan 2010, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our January 2010 drawing/giveaway is for the Roku HD-XR Player, going to two lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers early next month. The digital multimedia receiver was already a good way to add Netflix and many other streaming Net capabilities to any SD or HDTV. But now it has new content channels - including many in HD - and faster Wi-Fi connectivity. We reviewed it here, and the press in general has raved about it.  To be considered for the drawing,...

Editorial for December 2009 1 Dec 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our December drawing/giveaway is for Harmonia mundi's new 30-CD Sacred Music Box set, which will go out to three lucky Audiophile Audition readers in early January. The Limited Box Edition (which we reviewed here) is a gift beyond compare, especially for lovers of vocal and choral music.  Just a small sampling of the performers: Andreas Scholl, Rene Jacobs, Ian Bostridge, Alfred Deller, William Christie, Paul Hillier, Kent Nagano and Philippe Herre...

Editorial for November 2009 1 Nov 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our November drawing/giveaway - for a dozen lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers - is a set of four hi-res discs from Norway's 2L label: Seven works by Edvard Grieg, including his Piano Concerto with Percy Grainger as the soloist via a Pianola piano roll with a full symphony orchestra. (At left is pianolist Rex Lawson operating a pianola at a Steinway grand.) Plus a 19-selection 2L compilation, The Nordic Sound, with works by Mozart, Vivaldi, Bartok, Haydn...

Editorial for October 2009 1 Oct 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our October drawing/giveaway - for a lucky three of our readers - is for the four-Blu-ray set from Naxos, The Virtual Haydn. This trail-blazing project is a fully interactive experience encompassing three audio-only Blu-ray discs and a fourth Blu-ray video on the making of the recordings - 18 hours worth with the documentary!  The audio thruout is a choice of lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio or stereo PCM.  (You must have a Blu-ray deck in ord...

Editorial for September 2009 1 Sep 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our September drawing/giveaway - for three of our readers - is for Audite's acclaimed 13-disc remastered collection of live recordings by the great Wilhelm Fürtwangler conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, from 1947 thru 1954. Violin soloists Yehudi Menuhin and Gerhard Taschner are heard, and the program includes Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth, Brahms' Third and Fourth, Bruckner's Eighth, Schubert's Eighth, the Beethoven Violin Concerto, Fortner's Violin Con...

Editorial for August 2009 1 Aug 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our August drawing/giveaway is for the acclaimed new BDP-83 truly universal Blu-ray disc player from Oppo.  It superbly handles not only Blu-ray and standard DVDs as well as standard CDs, but also multichannel SACDs, DVD-Audios, and 96K and 192K DVD-Rs. It transmits the native DSD datastream of SACDs directly to your HDMI-compatabile AV preamp or receiver or it will convert the multichannel signal to PCM.  The video section section uses Anchor B...

Editorial for July 2009 1 Jul 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our July drawing/giveaway is for one of the enhanced double-CD packages from Columbia/Legacy of The 50th Anniversary Editions of three great jazz classics: Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain, or Charles Mingus' Mungus Ah Um.  All three were landmark recorded jazz statements of 1959 - jazz's greatest year - and the Brubeck set comes with an exclusive DVD video of Dave, including a piano lesson. Six Audiophile Audition readers who ...

Editorial for June 2009 1 Jun 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our June drawing/giveaway is for the double-CD collection from Concord Music Group celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the long-time premium jazz label Prestige Records. “The Very Best of Prestige Records” features 25 essential tracks from the label’s catalog from 1949 thru 1969, and is packed with classic B&W photos of artists covering the 20-year span. A dozen lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers will be adding this collection to their collections if t...

Editorial for May 2009 1 May 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our May drawing/giveaway will award to a dozen AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers the new double-SACD recording by Richard Egarr of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1 thru 6.  Harmonia mundi is the label, and this was our Multichannel Disc of the Month in March. It is a sparkling interpretation in surround sound which could be part of your own collection if you are a reader who registers here on the site this month. The three lucky winners of last mont...

Editorial for April 2009 1 Apr 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our April drawing/giveway will quickly expand the collections of three lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the British classical label Chandos has released a lavish boxed set of 30 of some of the best CD titles they have drawn from their rich catalog. The Milestones Set includes such classics as Bax Symphonies, Hummel Piano Concertos and Masses, Symphonies of Vaughan Williams, The Grainger Edition, Handel’s Chados Anthems...

Editorial for February 2009 1 Feb 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our February drawing/giveaway is for Benchmark's reference-quality D-to-A converter which handles 192K/24-bit stereo audio and also features a high-current headphone amplifier with two headphone jacks. The DAC1 has an internal power supply and outputs its high-transparency analog signal via either balanced XLR or RCA jacks. Fill out our simple, non-intrusive registration form HERE to be considered for the AUDIOPHILE AUDITION reader who wins the DAC1 at th...

Editorial for March 2009 1 Feb 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 This month's drawing/giveaway will appeal to those readers who either have just recently discovered the joys of analog audio on vinyl for the first time, or never gave it up in their years of collecting. They are a pair of fascinating DVDs covering how to set up turntables, how records are pressed, how to clean them for even better sound, how to store and handle them and the fun of collecting. Hosting the DVDs is audiophile vinyl authority Michael Fremer,...

Editorial for January 2009 1 Jan 2009, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our January drawing/giveaway is for the first two acclaimed SACDs using the amazing Zenph Studios technology: Glenn Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations in 1955 and Art Tatum's Live at the Shrine concert of 1949. See our reviews of the Gould here, and the Tatum here. Also a feature on Zenph here.  Both discs contain multichannel performances newly recorded in DSD on a nine-foot concert grand, plus stereo SACD and stereo CD layers, plus separate...

Editorial for December 2008 1 Dec 2008, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 For December Brilliant Classics - one of the leading classical labels - will send two complete sets of their new Joseph Haydn most famous works - consisting of 150 CDs - to two Audiophile Audition readers who register on the site this month.  The set commemorates the 200th anniversary of the death of the composer who is considered the father of the symphony and the string quartet.  The set includes a CD-ROM with song texts and essays on Haydn’...

Editorial for November 2008 1 Nov 2008, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 For our November drawing-giveaway Concord Music Group is offering a pair of their classic vinyl discs to turntable-capable AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers. Vinyl is making a comeback in all genres of music; collectors have insisted for years that their analog sound is often better than that of digital recordings. Concord Jazz has again released 16 of their top albums in 12-inch vinyl versions, and ten winners will be selected from those who register on the ...

Editorial for October 2008 1 Oct 2008, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 An appropriate compact ClearStream HDTV antenna will be shipped to six AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers early next month for our October giveaway. (We reviewed some of the Antennas Direct antennas in April.) Model 1 is for Short Range reception, model 2 for Medium Range and model 3 for Long Range. The antennas are compact and omnidirectional, for indoor or outdoor use. We will check with the six names we select who have registered on the site this month as t...

Editorial for September 2008 1 Sep 2008, 12:00 am

Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6    Our Drawing/Giveaway for our September Tenth Anniversary Celebration is a dozen of the unique Blu-ray-only production Coastal Dawns, from Blue Marvel.  Shot in 1080p HD at beautiful oceanside settings in Hawaii and Maine, the program with natural sounds is part of a new type of meditational and relaxing "experiential HDTV." If you register on the site this month your name could well be one of the lucky dozen readers drawn to receive th...