It was the best of times. It was the not-best-of-times. But whatever it was, and wherever it lies on the Arc of Interesting, 2014 saw some pretty amazing stuff and some truly inspiring stories, and was also draped with melancholy and sadness.
This year saw the passing of one of the greats, Harry Pearson. I really wish I had known him. To all reports, he was “a character”, where that phrase is meant to evoke some mythic larger-than-life personality, some force that crashed against the rocks of the industry, sweeping away the old and shattering itself in the process.
I fear that many have taken his passing as a harbinger of many bad things to come. For whatever it might be worth, I’ve chosen not to. Things have surely changed, without doubt, and they will continue to do so. That’s what things do, after all. They change. Some fast. But some not so much. And the quest for awesome sound quality, at least, seems to be continuing unabated. I think HP would appreciate that.
About a year ago, I borrowed a soapbox and held forth about the Coming Doom of audio’s high-end and how it related to the Headphone Apocalypse. I mocked. I poked. I cajoled. But I also painted things in a rather stark, but not negative light. I’m happy to say that here we are, plus one year, and as I suspected, no one has imploded and no industries have fallen. That’s a fine thing, I’d say. In fact, one could argue, that it’s been a banner friggin’ year for audio’s high-end. Vinyl sales are up, Taylor Swift is no longer stream-able, and no one listening to Tidal HiFi cares about either fact. These are good things! On a personal note, I’ve seen and heard some of the most amazing bits of audio art yet, and I know that next year there will be a boatload more. Huzzah!
Here at Part-Time Audiophile, we’ve had a ball. We saw the launch of The Audio Traveler, our partner-site dedicated to all things audio show. We saw a whole new look and feel for this site, too. Readership was way up and our international numbers are going bananas. It’s been fun.
It’s not been all fun and games. I mean, there has been work. Over 400 articles hit the sites this year since our Best of 2013 Round Up. Several hundred thousand words spent on audio in 2014! In other news, The Absolute Sound and I parted ways this summer. Stereophile still has yet to offer me a spot on staff. And yes, that damn Lotto Fairy is cheerfully avoiding my phone calls. Ah, well.
So, here to close out 2014 are our Choice Cuts from 2014. Note that the * indicates an “Honorable Mention” as no review was planned. I mean, not that we’re opposed to a review. Hint hint. It’s just that we were just so impressed that we couldn’t not say something!
On with the show ….
Digital
What you can get today is so much better than what you could have purchased 10 or 20 years ago that the difference is almost magic. And before you get all “so what”, just remember than vinyl playback hasn’t seen a revolutionary surge in decades — digital is seeing them almost quarterly. New clocking, better output stages, support for new and interesting file formats — something. It’s always something! And that’s exciting.
Calyx M
There are a lot of super-budget audio players on the market today and almost all of them actually sound like it. Pono is a clear step up from that lot, and the Calyx M is another clear step up from that. The form factor is a bit more pocket-friendly, but still not tiny. What you get, however, is a full-face interactive screen with a reasonably intuitive OS interface. While it is as big as 3 iPhones stacked, the sound quality is remarkable for its quality and its wide-ranging compatibility. While the Pono may be somewhat limited in its universal compatibility, the Calyx is not only friendly to most headphones in terms of sheer grunty power, the sound signature is where the grins come in. It’s actually voiced warm. Which means your IEMs are suddenly much more interesting, and ditto anything from AKG or Sennheiser. The M makes way more headphones into a fully pleasing system than any other player I can think of. Review forthcoming.
Scot Hull
It was the best of times. It was the not-best-of-times. But whatever it was, and wherever it lies on the Arc of Interesting, 2014 saw some pretty amazing stuff and some truly inspiring stories, and was also draped with melancholy and sadness.
I fear that many have taken his passing as a harbinger of many bad things to come. For whatever it might be worth, I’ve chosen not to. Things have surely changed, without doubt, and they will continue to do so. That’s what things do, after all. They change. Some fast. But some not so much. And the quest for awesome sound quality, at least, seems to be continuing unabated. I think HP would appreciate that.
About a year ago, I borrowed a soapbox and held forth about the Coming Doom of audio’s high-end and how it related to the Headphone Apocalypse. I mocked. I poked. I cajoled. But I also painted things in a rather stark, but not negative light. I’m happy to say that here we are, plus one year, and as I suspected, no one has imploded and no industries have fallen. That’s a fine thing, I’d say. In fact, one could argue, that it’s been a banner friggin’ year for audio’s high-end. Vinyl sales are up, Taylor Swift is no longer stream-able, and no one listening to Tidal HiFi cares about either fact. These are good things! On a personal note, I’ve seen and heard some of the most amazing bits of audio art yet, and I know that next year there will be a boatload more. Huzzah!
Here at Part-Time Audiophile, we’ve had a ball. We saw the launch of The Audio Traveler, our partner-site dedicated to all things audio show. We saw a whole new look and feel for this site, too. Readership was way up and our international numbers are going bananas. It’s been fun.
It’s not been all fun and games. I mean, there has been work. Over 400 articles hit the sites this year since our Best of 2013 Round Up. Several hundred thousand words spent on audio in 2014! In other news, The Absolute Sound and I parted ways this summer. Stereophile still has yet to offer me a spot on staff. And yes, that damn Lotto Fairy is cheerfully avoiding my phone calls. Ah, well.
So, here to close out 2014 are our Choice Cuts from 2014. Note that the * indicates an “Honorable Mention” as no review was planned. I mean, not that we’re opposed to a review. Hint hint. It’s just that we were just so impressed that we couldn’t not say something!
On with the show ….
Digital
What you can get today is so much better than what you could have purchased 10 or 20 years ago that the difference is almost magic. And before you get all “so what”, just remember than vinyl playback hasn’t seen a revolutionary surge in decades — digital is seeing them almost quarterly. New clocking, better output stages, support for new and interesting file formats — something. It’s always something! And that’s exciting.
Calyx M
There are a lot of super-budget audio players on the market today and almost all of them actually sound like it. Pono is a clear step up from that lot, and the Calyx M is another clear step up from that. The form factor is a bit more pocket-friendly, but still not tiny. What you get, however, is a full-face interactive screen with a reasonably intuitive OS interface. While it is as big as 3 iPhones stacked, the sound quality is remarkable for its quality and its wide-ranging compatibility. While the Pono may be somewhat limited in its universal compatibility, the Calyx is not only friendly to most headphones in terms of sheer grunty power, the sound signature is where the grins come in. It’s actually voiced warm. Which means your IEMs are suddenly much more interesting, and ditto anything from AKG or Sennheiser. The M makes way more headphones into a fully pleasing system than any other player I can think of. Review forthcoming.
Scot Hull