Audio: Listen to this article.

JPLAY for iOS continues to get better. Two months ago I wrote about its fantastic, user friendly, customization options. Today I installed the 1.3.12 update before driving my daughter to school, so I could test JPLAY’s latest CarPlay integration. Based on one roundtrip to and from school, I have to say it works much better than Roon ARC. Like, much much better than ARC. Granted JPLAY for iOS doesn’t support streaming local content stored on one’s own server, but streaming from both Qobuz and Tidal worked flawlessly. 

Right when I opened JPLAY on my car’s display I saw the menu option I wanted, mirroring my customizations in the app, CarPlay displayed a Recently Added link at the top of the list. This mimics the JPLAY home screen I’ve setup on my iPhone. I tapped Recently Added and was presented the albums I recently added to Qobuz and Tidal. Exactly what I wanted as this is how I browse and listen to music. What more could I ask for. 

I guess there’s one more thing. After scraping the ice and snow off my windows, I wasn’t in the mood to fiddle with an app that didn’t work. Plus, as someone who refuses to pickup or look at a phone while driving, I needed it to work because I didn’t have time to troubleshoot or else we’d be late for school drop off. I just needed JPLAY’s CarPlay feature to work like a toaster. Fortunately, it worked without a hiccup. 

Here are some screenshots from my car, followed by the JPLAY of iOS press release. 

PRESS RELEASE:

JPLAY Introduces Major Update with Apple CarPlay Support

JPLAY, the premier software for audiophiles seeking ultimate sound quality, has released a new version of its music playback application, bringing one of the most requested features to users worldwide: full support for Apple CarPlay.

This significant addition allows JPLAY users to enjoy a safer, more seamless, and more intuitive music experience directly from their car’s built-in display.

With Apple CarPlay, JPLAY users can now browse their library, access playlists, view what’s playing, and control playback using the familiar car dashboard interface — all without needing to touch their phone. This integration enhances comfort, driving safety, and overall usability for music lovers who rely on JPLAY on the road.

Beyond CarPlay, the update includes several functional improvements designed to refine the user experience:

• Tag display added on album, playlist, and artist screens, offering clearer context and easier navigation.
• New “Last Played Period” filter, helping users quickly rediscover recently enjoyed music.
• Various bug fixes and performance enhancements for greater stability and responsiveness.

“Introducing Apple CarPlay support marks a major milestone for JPLAY,” said Marcin Ostapowicz, JPLAY Founder. “Our goal has always been to deliver a premium, intuitive listening experience — whether at home, in the studio, or now, seamlessly integrated into the driving environment.”

The update is available now on the App Store. The update is available free of charge for current subscribers.

About JPLAY app

JPLAY is a revolutionary hi-fi app designed to give music lovers and audiophiles the ultimate streaming experience. With JPLAY app, you can connect to nearly every streamer or network DAC on the market without needing a core, making it easy to enjoy your favorite music without the hassle of complicated connections.

JPLAY app offers seamless integration with Qobuz, Tidal, HQPlayer and local files (UPnP servers), allowing users to combine all their music in a single library or access each music server and streaming service separately. With lightning-fast context search and an intelligent radio feature, JPLAY app makes it easy to discover new music and check which songs have grabbed your attention.

The most significant advantage of JPLAY app is its extreme optimization and native iOS programming, which guarantees exceptional speed and responsiveness, unlike other hi-fi apps. JPLAY minimizes network traffic between the app and the audio endpoint, significantly reducing network noise and improving sound quality. With JPLAY, you can enjoy the purest sound possible, without unwanted noise.

JPLAY was designed by music lovers and extreme audiophiles who understand the importance of sound quality. It features a folder view for old-school users, always displays the quality and source of the music, and shows which artist is currently playing, among other exciting features.

"JPLAY for iOS is easily the best control point app I've used to date," said Chris Connaker, founder of Audiophile Style and a respected voice in the audiophile community.

JPLAY for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad and M CPU equipped Macs. 

JPLAY Certified Partners

To ensure the best possible user experience, JPLAY collaborates with selected manufacturers through the JPLAY Certified program. Certified devices are fully tested for stability, compatibility, and performance with the JPLAY app, guaranteeing seamless integration and the highest sound quality.

JPLAY offers flexible pricing options to suit the needs of every audiophile. The Yearly Subscription is available for $49, providing full access to all features and updates throughout the subscription period. To make it easy for new users to experience JPLAY, we offer a free two-week trial. For those who prefer a one-time purchase, the JPLAY Lifetime License is available for $199, with a special upgrade price of $149 for current subscribers.

JPLAY app is available in 15 languages. 

Further details at www.jplay.app

About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system

    Audio: Listen to this article.

I love music and what it does for me. I have a suspicion readers of Audiophile Style feel the same way. Music is magical and comes in all flavors. No flavor is better or worse than others. It’s art. Judging art is for fools. I prefer to listen to music because of the way it makes me feel. This means my listening habits can change with the seasons, my moods, or for reasons I should discuss with my therapist. 

Last week, and continuing into this week, two polar opposite albums thrilled me in very different ways. These two albums couldn’t be further apart. From the way in which they were recorded to the style of music to the mixing and mastering, the albums have little in common. Talented musicians doing what they love and delivering an experience to home listeners is about the extent of the commonalities. 

Willy Porter - Humans in a Room 

Let’s start with Willy Porter’s album Humans in a Room. Porter is often classified as a singer songwriter, writing and performing on acoustic guitar. The album name is incredibly appropriate because it literally features four humans sitting in a room, playing music together. From an audiophile perspective, it doesn’t get much more organic than acoustic instruments captured in real space. 

However, it gets better. This album was recorded using the Immersive Design Labs’s 7.0.4 Immersive Recording Array of microphones. This means seven instrument level microphones, and four height mics a few feet above those. According to Porter, “Our goal was to put the listener right in the middle of the performance as if we were playing around a campfire, and the listener is sitting where the fire would be. The IDL array captured that intimacy and space with stunning honesty.”

Reading about this album, I was reminded of the Sheffield Labs direct to disc albums that were cut in real time. While not that extreme, there were certainly some similar elements. “The part that’s so appealing to me is that you can’t really edit anything … this is a reintroduction of humans in a room. We really had to mix ourselves so that not one of us was dominating the sonic field. In that context, without monitoring, it was fun, and very liberating,” according to Porter.

I’ve been listening extensively to the immersive mix of the album, as that’s the closest representation to what the artists heard in the room and the raison d'être of the album. Fortunately, Humans in a Room is available in many formats including two channel stereo, two channel / binaural, Dolby Atmos streaming, and TrueHD Dolby Atmos via purchase / download. 

Humans in a Room is a low key, singer / songwriter album with limited production that puts the listener in the studio with Willy Porter, Mai Bloomfield, Carmen Nickerson, and Ryan Pearl. It’s a treat and a privilege to listen to this album and feel like I’m really sitting there with the musicians. Bravo to all involved in this one. 

More information can be found at the Immersive Design Labs site and Mix Online (Part 1, Part 2).

Humans in a Room can be purchased in stereo at Bandcamp and in TrueHD Dolby Atmos at Immersive Audio Album.

Animals as Leaders - Parrhesia

180 degrees in the opposite direction from Willy Porter and Humans in a Room is the band Animals as Leaders and its 2022 album Parrhesia. Animals as Leaders consists of Matt Garstka on drums, Tosin Abasi on guitar, and Javier Reyes on guitar. On Parrhesia bass guitarist Misha Mansoor joins the band for four tracks, but the band’s standard configuration is without a bass player. This is accomplished by Abasi and Reyes both playing eight stringed guitars. 

Whereas Humans in a Room is light, airy, and laidback, Parrhesia is heavy, compressed, and in your face. There is very little dynamic range on the Parrhesia tracks, as they mostly score 4s and 5s on the DR scale. I don’t have specific details about the Parrhesia recording process, but I guarantee it was vastly different from the Porter Humans album. There were probably more microphones used on Matt Garstka’s drum kit than the entire band on Porter’s album. Again, there is no right or wrong in art. 

Speaking of Garstka and his drums, he is a Berkelee grad with heavy jazz influences. After he joined Animals as Leaders, he had to convince Abasi and Reyes that recording his drums live was the only way to do it and anything else, such as preprogramming them, was heresy. It’s Garstka’s drumming, a former Tama and now DW artist, that first piqued my interest. He is a magician on the kit and I absolutely love the sound he gets. 

Readers who may be holding their noses right now at the thought of listening to progressive metal should really take a step back for a second. I hear you and understand your initial reaction. I love metal, but much of it now suffers from hyper masculine death growls that sound more like bad AI than a real human and are a major turn off to even those of us who love (almost) all music. This is where Animals as Leaders swoops in to save the day. Animals as Leaders is an instrumental band. No bad vocals or death growls here, just incredible musicianship. 

I’ve listened to Parrhesia on my Sennheiser ie900 earphones, my two channel Wilson Alexia V system, and my 12 channel Wilson speaker system. Each presents a different and highly enjoyable experience. The surprise of the bunch is how great this album sounds via earphones. I didn’t think it would pound as hard as it does, but boy was I wrong. Favorite tracks of mine are Monomyth, Red Miso, Gestaltzerfall, Thoughts and Prayers, and Gordian Naught. 

The two channel stereo version is fantastic, as dynamically crunched as it is. This is the version I’ve likely listened to most. Switching to the Dolby Atmos streaming version delivers an immersive experience that can at times leave the listener figuratively out of breath because of all the intense action in surround. I really wish Animals as Leaders would release Parrhesia in TrueHD Dolby Atmos as a purchase / download. I have a feeling this would take it to another level and be extraordinary.  

Parrhesia is available on all streaming platforms and for purchase at many retailers.

Wrap Up

Traditionally, fans of the aforementioned genres haven’t co-mingled at many summer music festivals. However, good music is good music, talent is seductive, and we should all get off that musical high horse once a while to try that which we previously disdained. Whether it’s acoustic instruments recorded in real space without any / much post processing or a heavily compressed million-mic’d metal performance, people love it for a reason. I encourage you to find your reasons for loving more music, or love it for no reason at all. As Sheryl Crow says, if it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad. 

About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system

    Audio: Listen to this article.

Have you ever read or listened to an audiobook, imagined the world in which the story took place and what each character looked like? Of course you have, unless you’ve never read a book. No judgement. The mind is incredibly powerful and capable of amazing creativity. 

How about seeing the movie or play after the aforementioned book experience? It’s never the same and it’s never as good as what you imagined in your own mind. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would watch a movie and tell my friends, that’s not what the city or characters look like!

Theater of the mind is the best way to experience vivid stories, just as it is to experience our favorite albums. Now, this experience can be taken to new heights by listening to immersive audiobooks through a HiFi system.  

Audiobooks have been available in Dolby Atmos for years. Playing these was often locked into mobile apps and “nobody” even knew how to play them on anything other than headphones. I remember talking to a mixing engineer who worked on these books and all he could say was, it should work. Delivery and playback was out of his hands, but he was very excited to know I was trying to play his immersive mixes on my HiFi system. 

This week I was informed by my wife and daughter that a new version of a Harry Potter audiobook, or the entire series, was released. I paid no attention really. Today I received a press release saying this new audiobook(s) was a full-cast edition recorded at London’s Air Studio with a sixty piece orchestra. My interested level increased. I thought, anything with a sixty piece orchestra was created with care because it had to cost a fortune.

Then I saw the last sentence, “Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.” Now we’re talking! I’ve never read any Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies. But, listening to a full-cast edition with sixty piece orchestra, in full Dolby Atmos, on my twelve channel HiFi system, sounded like something I must try. 

I downloaded the Audible app on my MacBook Pro, output the audio through Hang Loose Convolver for digital room correction, then on to my audio system. Wow, twelve channels of audio were playing, without needing to fiddle with anything. Amazing!

I’m a couple chapters into Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Full-Cast Edition) and I’m totally into it. Listening in Dolby Atmos is a great experience. Much of the main narration comes from the center channel, while other characters often come from front right / left or side right/left channels. Rear and ceiling/height channels are used appropriately for something off in the distance, bird chirps, or effects that one would expect from these locations. The immersive mix is masterfully done, enabling me to forget about the technology involved and get completely lost in the story. 

I highly recommend giving this type of listening experience a try, or introducing someone to the books and a great sounding immersive HiFI system this way. After only a couple chapters, I really don’t want to listen to this any other way. 

I can now easily describe each character’s appearance and the environments in which they’ve been living, based solely on this immersive mix. Whatever is shown in the movie is wrong :~)

From the Press Release:

"The beloved stories as you’ve never experienced them. Get ready to be transported to the world of Harry Potter in a captivating production that features hundreds of unique voices and immersive sound design that brings the wizarding world vividly to life in Dolby Atmos. You’ll hear footsteps echoing through the corridors of Hogwarts and the heart-racing whoosh of the Golden Snitch as it darts past your ears in the heat of a Quidditch match. Also featuring an electrifying new musical score, The Full-Cast Audio Editions present J.K. Rowling’s iconic series as a truly spellbinding listening event for the whole family.

Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H.’

Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!

Having become classics of our time, the Harry Potter stories never fail to bring comfort and escapism. With their message of hope, belonging and the enduring power of truth and love, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to delight generations of new listeners.

Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible."

More Information - Full Cast Editions

About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system

    Audio: Listen to this article.

This is what us crazy audiophiles always ask for, care in creation, provenance, sound quality, and good music. Much of the time we get one or two of these, and there is usually some question as to what really transpired before the music ended up on our hard drives. Now, we have all the information and even access to those who took so much care in creating and performing it. What more could we ask for? That’s a rhetorical question. 

I’ve been a fan of @Jerome Sabbagh (website) for a few years, after seeing him at audio shows and hearing about his album Vintage. I’ve become a bigger fan over the years because Jerome is such a nice guy, who also participates in this community, and one who cares about his music as much as I care about mine. Albeit he can actually play while I can only press play.

I recently found out about Jerome’s albums being available as DSD256 downloads and my eyes / ears perked up. I always want to hear what artists believe is the absolute best reproductions of their works, in digital form. In this case the albums were recorded directly to two-track tape, so the original tape is of course the best. One can’t improve an original. However, I’m not into playing tape or tape transferred to vinyl (to stay in the analog domain), as it just doesn’t do it for me or how I listen. 

Included with the DSD downloads is the following letter describing all the details.

"You are about to listen to a straight transfer made directly from the half-inch 30 ips analog master tape to DSD 256.

DSD is a great sounding format but it basically does not allow for any editing or mastering of any kind, contrary to PCM. A lot of times, DSD files are converted to DXD, which allows edits and sound manipulations, but really is PCM at 352.8KHz, then converted back to various DSD formats. As this record did not use EQ, we just made a straight transfer of it to DSD 256. The files you bought were not converted to DXD, except for the last few seconds of each song, when it fades out.

The Merging Pyramix soſtware, used a particular way, allows for fade outs to be done in DXD just for the duration of the fades, and leaves the bulk of the music untouched, in DSD 256. That is the method we used, the goal being to keep the music in DSD 256. We hired DSD specialist Andreas Meyer (Swan Studios) to do this work the correct way.

The analog to digital transfer for this record was made directly from the master tape by Jason Smith at Grey Matter Audio. We are using a Sony APR-5002 as a transport to play back the half-inch 30 ips master tape, but the sound is going through a Doshi Audio tube tape preamp instead of the stock electronics, and then to the Playback Designs converter, without limiting."

After reading and understanding the technical information, the only thing left to do is listen to the music. Available from Analog Tone Factory are Jerome Sabbagh’s albums Heart, Vintage, and No Filter, along with Keepers of the Eastern Door from Chris Cheek. 

I’m very familiar with Sabbagh’s album Vintage. It’s beautiful inside and out, and made even better with this latest transfer. The album I really got into, and one I hadn’t previously heard, is Sabbagh’s album Heart. I’ve now listened to this album at least 20 times, start to finish and I’ve had it playing on repeat while I write this article. The DSD256 transfer sounds fantastic, as does the music and musicianship. It’s superb. 

All the tracks from Duke Ellington and Wayne Shorter covers to Sabbagh’s original material, were recorded live to tape. Listening at home is like a personal concert, as the tracks flow from one to the next with wonderful fidelity, air, bloom, and even more important to me, emotion. Perhaps the albums name, Heart, is more appropriate than I would’ve guess. 

All of Sabbagh’s albums treated to new DSD256 transfers are sonic treats that should be tasted by anyone with even a passing interest. Sabbagh and the team at Analog Tone Factory have really delivered with these releases. Liner notes, recording studio images, file provenance, wonderful sound quality signed-off by the artist, music, and musicianship. Seriously, if this doesn’t thrill you, you may need a doctor rather than a new amazing album. 

The albums are available individually for $35 and immediate download, or as DSD 256 Bundle No. 01, for $100, from Analog Tone Factory. 

About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system

    Audio: Listen to this article.

As members of the Audiophile Style community may know, I’m a huge fan of Japanese jazz. I stumbled into it through the Three Blind Mice record label, and have been on a wonderful journey ever since. The TBM Supreme Collection 1500 was fun to collect and remains an enjoyable listen. 

Searching for more Japanese jazz I discovered an amazing book from BBE Music titled, J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz From Japan 1954-1988 by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, with a foreword by one of my favorite trumpeters Terumasa Hino. Hino’s album Live! (TBM-17) contains an incredible version of Stella By Starlight. 

The book arrived packaged in a very nice protective and decorative cardboard box. When I opened the box, I fell in love with the high quality pages, album art, and of course the OBI strip. The book contains a little history of Japanese jazz, musicians and record labels, among other things. 

I initially scanned it for Three Blind Mice related information and was pleased to see several mentions of TBM or artists that recorded on the label. Among them was Isao Suzuki, whose albums Blow Up, Orpheus, and Blue City are in frequent rotation in my listening room. 

About Suzuki the book’s authors say, “It is no surprise that Japan has produced some extraordinary rhythm players and among the greatest was bass player Isao Suzuki, a musician and composer who was so much more than anything those two simple terms can hope to embrace.”

Discussing TBM, the book says the following.

Among the most well-regarded of these boutique labels is Three Blind Mice, founded in June 1970 by producer Takeshi 'Tee' Fujii to "record music by underrated players" that he felt were not being served by the major labels. TBM soon became renowned for the audio quality of their recordings as well as the diverse range of material in the catalogue, from free jazz to standards and everything in between. Since 1970 TBM has released over 120 albums from a dazzling range of Japanese artists including Isao Suzuki, Masaru Imada, Hidefumi Toki, Hideo Ichikawa, and Kohsuke Mine.

However, like many of the indie labels that flourished in the 1970s, TBM was subsumed into a larger label, in this case Sony Music.

Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for my bank account, the book covers musicians, albums, and labels I’ve never heard of until now. The tough part, but one that I hope to turn into an enjoyable journey, is finding some of these albums to even give a cursory listen. Almost none of them are available from the main streaming services. It doesn’t surprise me that these albums are just like the TBM albums I’ve collected over the years, difficult to find, with some never released on any digital medium. 

Paging through this book, the high quality images of each album are really terrific. Tracking down copies good enough for imaging must have been a very long process, given the age of many releases. In addition to album art, the book lists information such as artist, album, record label, and year of release. I haven’t come close to finishing all 392 pages yet, as I’m taking my time and enjoying the discoveries while making lists of albums to find. 

If you’re interested in Japanese jazz as much as I am, or a new comer to the genre, I highly recommend picking up this book. 

Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz From Japan 1954-1988 (ISBN 978-1-399-6658-0) (link)

From BBE Music:

BBE Music is thrilled to present J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz From Japan 1954-1988, a remarkable large-format book covering some of the deepest, rarest, and most innovative jazz music released anywhere in the post-war era. Compiled by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, co-curators of BBE Music’s acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series, the book also features a foreword by Japanese jazz icon, Terumasa Hino.

This is the first time a book of this type has been has been published outside of Japan and the first anywhere of this size and scale. It is a unique collection of over 500 albums of free and modern jazz recorded and released in Japan during a period of radical transformation and constant reinvention. An era that saw Japan return from the ravages of World War Two to become a global economic power and emerge as both a technological leader and an international cultural force.

Through a unique gallery of albums, J Jazz charts the development of jazz in Japan from the first stirrings of the modern jazz scene in the mid to late 1950s and on through the hard bop and modal jazz of the 1960s. It steers the reader into the radical directions of the 1970s when free jazz, fusion, post-bop, and jazz-funk opened up a growing number of Japanese jazz artists to a new global audience before consolidating in the mid to late 1980s with a musical scene that laid the path for the contemporary jazz generation to follow.

Over 500 full-colour sleeves from many of the leading names in Japanese jazz sit alongside rare and private pressings that tell a story of constant change and musical exploration. J Jazz includes profiles of several leading record labels such as East Wind, Frasco, King Records, and Nippon Columbia as well as critical independents such as Three Blind Mice, ALM, and Aketa’s Disk. J Jazz includes interviews with celebrated jazz photographer Tadayuki Naito, and pianist Tohru Aizawa, bandleader on the totemic spiritual jazz album, Tachibana Vol 1, as well as free-jazz record collector and jazz musician Mats Gustafsson.

The book also features a chapter on albums by non-Japanese artists that only received a Japanese release, with collectible, rare, and obscure releases by figures such as Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, and Art Blakey. J Jazz includes Japanese jazz charts from some of the world’s leading jazz DJs including Gilles Peterson, Toshio Matsuura, Paul Murphy, and Shuya and Yoshihiro Okino. Among the specialist content is a feature on obi strips by record dealer and Japanese jazz expert, Yusuke Ogawa, plus a special article on Japanese Blue Note albums.

Across its 300-plus pages, J Jazz includes a detailed introduction contextualising the music, tracing the story of Japan’s fascination with jazz back before the war. It also features biographical information on many of the key artists involved in shaping the post- war Japanese jazz scene including Sadao Watanabe, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Masabumi Kikuchi, Masahiko Togashi, Terumasa Hino, Yosuke Yamashita, Fumio Itabashi, Masayuki Takayanagi, Takeo Moriyama, Isao Suzuki, and many more. 

CD Tracklist

1. Tohru Aizawa Quartet – Philosopher’s Stone
2. Kohsuke Mine – Love Talken
3. Hideto Sasaki, Toshiyuki Sekine Quartet + 1 – Little B’s Poem
4. Takeo Moriyama – Take
5. Makoto Terashita meets Harold Land – Takeuma
6. Miyasaka + 5 – Dog’s Dance
7. Shintaro Quintet – Future On You
8. Masaru Imada Trio + 1 – Blue Road
9. Koichi Matsukaze Trio + Toshiyuki Daitoku – Zekatsuma Selbst
10. Hideyasu Terakawa Quartet – Rerev (Extended Version – Live)

About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system

    Audio: Listen to this article.

You read the headline correctly, multichannel dCS Varèse music playback! This is the real deal, a full dCS Varèse system with six individual DAC channels, each housed in their own chassis. At the event, this 5.1 system will play commercially available music and music from recording engineer Peter McGrath’s private collection. Music from three channel Harry Belafonte, Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Nat King Cole, to four channel Peter McGrath recordings and quadraphonic ZZ Top, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath to hundreds of 5.1 albums like you’ve never heard them.  

The system will include Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX, Alexx V, Mezzo, and Lōkē loudspeakers and D’Agostino amplification, all connected to the dCS Varèse. I have a few terabytes of multichannel music loaded on a USB NVMe drive that I’m bringing to the event, and can’t wait to hear what’s possible through a system like this. Both Peter McGrath and I will be giving demonstrations throughout the event, of all kinds of music and different types of multichannel mixes. 

Do you know many of the RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence recordings were originally captured in three channels, then mixed down to two channels for stereo playback? At this event we’ll be playing the original three channel mixes, as envisioned by pioneering recording engineers like Bob Fine. How about Hary Belafonte Live at Carnegie Hall in three channel stereo? Done and done. We’ll listen as Belafonte sings with a 47 piece orchestra, reproduced exactly how it was recorded in 1959. 

What about all the new Dolby Atmos albums, can they be played on this Varese 5.1 system? I’m glad you asked. Yes, I have hundreds of TrueHD Dolby Atmos albums rendered to 5.1 PCM, using official Dolby tools, ready for playback at the event. 

In addition to the music and incredible world premiere of multichannel dCS Varèse, representatives from Wilson Audio, dCS, and of course our host for the event, Maier Shadi of The Audio Salon, will be on hand to talk about all things audio. 

Details:

When - Saturday, October 25, 2025 2:00 to 8:00PM. 

Where - The Audio Salon, Santa Monica, CA

How - Please RSVP to maier@theaudiosalon.com or call him directly (310) 863-0863

About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system

    Audio: Listen to this article.

The Rendu series of products continues to get better. In case readers forgot, I named these my Products of the Decade (link) as the calendar rolled from 2019 to 2020. I’ve been using a Rendu in one form or another forever. There’s always one in my system. Always. My current Signature Rendu SE Deluxe is the best Rendu ever released. 

In the last week or so @vortecjr announced Sonore’s launch of Qobuz Connect, in beta, for the Rendu series of products (link). Monday I finally had time to update to the latest version of the Sig Rendu’s operating system, including the beta update for Qobuz Connect, and give it a spin. By “give it a spin” I mean use it, listen to it, and test it to make sure it’s passing bit perfect data from Qobuz through to my DAC. 

Qobuz Connect features an incredibly direct path for our favorite music. Selecting a an album from within the Qobuz app, and selecting my Signature Rendu SE Deluxe as the Qobuz Connect endpoint, enables music to flow directly from Qobuz to the Rendu and on to my DAC. There’s no need for a music server or third party app such as Roon. 

However, listeners must keep the real world in mind when dreaming of such a simple system. Those with local music that’s not streamable (think MoFi, Audio Fidelity, 3 Blind Mice, DSD etc…), those who use room correction or any number of things that require local hardware, will be out of luck. 

Qobuz Connect is another option. That’s it. Some people who only stream their music, will be all set. Others, as I noted, will use it sparingly when the time is right. The great thing is that now we have the option on the Rendu series. 

Testing QC on the SR

I setup my Sig Rendu to output to a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB, which output to an Alpha DAC via AES, then on to the rest of my system. 

The testing is so simple, even a monkey could do it. I found albums on Qobuz that are HDCD encoded and selected them via my iPhone and MacBook Pro for playback directly to the Sig Rendu. If the audio is bit perfect, the HDCD indicator will illuminate on the DAC. If anything happens to the data between Qobuz and the DAC, this light will remain off. 

In my tests I successfully played 16 bit / 44.1 kHz, 24 bit / 176.4 and 24 bit / 192 kHz via Qobuz Connect to the Rendu. The audio path was perfect. What about 48 kHz and 96 kHz? Finding HDCD encoded material at those sample rates was too tough a task for me. Plus, if this process is bit perfect at both a 44.1 kHz base rate (44.1 and 176.4) and a 48 kHz base rate (192), I have no doubts it would be bit perfect at all sample rates in between. 

Wrap Up

Qobuz Connect on the Rendu series is yet another added value to all the Rendu units many of us have used for over a decade. Because of the rock solid hardware platform and incredibly flexible software, the Rendu series continues to get better with age. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the team at Sonore as one of the absolute best in HiFi when it comes to service, support, and updates for its products. 

Install Qobuz Connect today by following these instructions (link).

About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system

    Audio: Listen to this article.

I’ve been frustrated with music library and playback apps since the beginning of time, while simultaneously realizing that the history of recorded music is now at my fingertips through these apps. My frustration is a first world problem indeed. 

This frustration comes from the importance of music to my life, and the experience of browsing my library and playing this music. I want the app experience to increase my enjoyment of this wonderful hobby, not detract from that which brings many of us so much pleasure. Therein lies the issue. “So many of us,” each with our own tastes and preferences for how an app should work and present our music collections. I don’t envy any app developer trying to please all of us audiophiles. 

I’ve long advocated for modular apps that enable each of us to decide how the apps look and what appears within the apps. Until now, the closest we’ve got was dark or light mode, to change the entire appearance of the apps, and some very minor tweaks that enable/disable a few logos. Again, I don’t envy anyone developing an app with a million different possible combinations for how it looks and works, but we are nearing the end of 2025 and this isn’t rocket science. 

Yesterday @Marcin_gps dropped a fantastic update on us with JPLAY for iOS version 1.3.11. According to the release notes users can now, "Reorder & disable Home Screen sections — make the app truly yours! There’s a dedicated icon in the top-right corner of the Home screen — simply tap on it and customize the layout to your liking.”

Yes! This is what I’ve been talking about! I don’t want to see Daily Q, Weekly Q, or any playlists built by AI just for me. I don’t want to see what Tidal thinks I should listen to or anything that starts with the prefix “My” or “For You.” In fact, all these hyper specific recommendations are antithetical to what can make music so much fun with friends. If we all have our own playlists with nothing in common, it can be just like social media, isolating. I’ll save that for another day,

I realize I may be a bit strange with my dislike of playlists pushed upon me by streaming services, but the beauty is that now I can indulge this strangeness by disabling and rearranging what I see within JPLAY. This is fantastic. 

Here’s an example of what Tidal thinks I should listen to today. I may very well like Boss Bitch 2 located in the Uploads For You section, but Tidal’s track record of identifying anything I like is abysmal. 

Here’s a short screen recording of the new JPLAY for iOS interface and how easily it’s customized. 

This update has nothing to do with sound quality, and everything to do with enjoying one’s music playing experience even more. I had pretty much given up on my dream of a modular app for music, until the tiny team developing JPLAY for iOS released version 1.3.11 yesterday. I couldn’t be happier. 

About the author - https://audiophile.style/about
Author's Complete Audio System Details with Measurements - https://audiophile.style/system