[TONEPUB]

Hello all:

It's not on the website yet, (tomorrow morning) but you can download issue 11
of TONE Audio directly from the server with this link:

http://www.tonepublications.com/images/pdfs/TA_011.pdf

I'd also like to point out that we have now reached our goal of being
50% music and 50% gear, so whether you are a music lover or a gear
enthusiast, we probably have something for you!

As always we suggest that you download the PDF (40mb file) to your
computer and then open it up from your desktop.

I hope you enjoy the issue!!

[poseidonsvoice]

Jeff,

I really don't know what to say. You keep kicking ass with every issue . The photography leaves me scratching my head. What camera do you use btw?

Yes...I need to step up to the Squeezebox. My audio system is begging it. 
Thanks. Along with 6moons, your magazine is the Robb Report for the Audiophile  .

Anand.

[saisunil]

This is an amazing magazine and amazing issue -- all at no cost to the readers!
Thanks for providing great service to the audiophile community.

Reading and looking at your magazine is begging me to brush up my photography and layout skills and join your magazine and do some reviews...

Congratulations.

[TONEPUB]

Thanks for the compliments, glad you are enjoying it.

As for the cameras, I use a Canon EOS 5D as my primary
camera and the Olympus E-510.

Because of TONE Photo, I have a lot of cameras coming
our way for review, so often times as part of the review
I take the camera in the studio and shoot a couple of the
articles for audio, so the pictures over the last two years
have been shot by probably every major digital camera out
there.

Photography was my first career...

Again, thanks a lot for reading, we really appreciate it!

[bpape]

You got me as soon as I looked at the table of contents.  Who else would do an article on Fee Waybill!

Love it.

Bryan

[WGH]

Great issue. The 50/50 mix has me pulling out old albums. My Stereophonic copy of A Hard Road was purchased new in the late 60's an is still in almost perfect condition, pretty amazing considering the parties we had.

I wonder what happened (it's a 60's thing) to my Dynaco SCA-80, amazing to see one show up in your magazine. I would say it brought back memories, but...

And my favorites of the era, the JBL L100's. I bought the cheaper sibling, the L88, in 1972, then turned the 88's into L100's by adding the mid-range driver around 1981, and they still make music 8 hours a day in my shop!

A wonderful mix of old and new, I look forward to every issue.

Wayne

[TONEPUB]

Awesome, glad you are digging it.

Really everyone on the staff is a huge music lover and they all play
instruments (even some professionally) except for me.  I'm the only
one who can't play an instrument.

I've made the corporate decision to have everyone write about their
favorite kind of music, so I think that is helping.  Rather than me
saying "here's 10 CD"s to review, pick 4!"  Everyone is following their
favorite path, me included.

And we have some more surprises to come.  Ben Fong Torres, the
retired asst. editor from Rolling Stone called me the other day and
HE wants to become a contributor!  So I'm off to SF on Tues to hang
out with him for the day and see if we can afford him and what
he'd like to bring to the table...

That would be very cool indeed if he joins us too!

We will also have a permanent jazz column starting next issue. We
have a great lady who just retired at 58 as the entertainment liason
for the USO.  She's been listening to Jazz since she was about 3, when
her dad used to take her to see Miles Davis in NYC and bounce her
on his knee!

We also have another guy that is going to bounce in and out
with some hip hop and gospel music.

So, the music part of TONE is still expanding, because for me
it's always been about music.  Don't get me wrong, I love gear too,
but back in the old days we always got together to bring over what
new records we had bought and shared the new music.

Stay tuned to next issue.  It's our 2nd anniv. issue and should
be even bigger!

[Zero]

Good gear, good music, great layout - always sets a great 'tone'.  Another job well done Jeff.
 

[JLM]

I was really going on that music server until the $12,000 price tag came up at the end.    

I prefer reviews that start out with the high points: brief description, pros, cons, price, and vendor contact information.  Writing in the style of a mystery novel assumes we read for entertainment or general knowledge and don't mind spending our time reading about products beyond our means (at least of many readers).

I don't know how many still use dial-up and I do understand the value of PDF format, but perhaps a one page sort of summary prior to waiting for a 148 pages of PDF to download would also be valuable.

Very polished looking document, but was hoping to see the Rega Saturn review (something at the outskirts of my budget).  Along that thought, what is the average MSRP of a systems that we're listening too?

[vinyl anachronist]

I was really going on that music server until the $12,000 price tag came up at the end.    

I prefer reviews that start out with the high points: brief description, pros, cons, price, and vendor contact information.  Writing in the style of a mystery novel assumes we read for entertainment or general knowledge and don't mind spending our time reading about products beyond our means (at least of many readers).

I don't know how many still use dial-up and I do understand the value of PDF format, but perhaps a one page sort of summary prior to waiting for a 148 pages of PDF to download would also be valuable.

Very polished looking document, but was hoping to see the Rega Saturn review (something at the outskirts of my budget).  Along that thought, what is the average MSRP of a systems that we're listening too?

Well, we review a wide variety of products, at all different price points.  For instance, look at our rave reviews of the Onix x-ls speakers ($219 a pair) Rega P1 turntable ($350 with arm and cartridge) and the Audio-Technica PL-120 turntable (which you can find on line for $159).  I'm currently reviewing a wonderful speaker/subwoofer combo from Aperion that lists for just $1149.  I also gave high marks to the Valve Audio Exclame integrated ($1700) and the Exposure 2010S integrated ($2200).

Fact is, there is a lot of excitement at the high end of the spectrum.  Both the Sooloos music server and the Naim CD555 ($33,000) are noteworthy because they show us the future.  Prices will come down with time.

I may be biased, by I think that TONE does an excellent job a covering a wide spectrum of gear.

[TONEPUB]

I was really going on that music server until the $12,000 price tag came up at the end.    

I prefer reviews that start out with the high points: brief description, pros, cons, price, and vendor contact information.  Writing in the style of a mystery novel assumes we read for entertainment or general knowledge and don't mind spending our time reading about products beyond our means (at least of many readers).

I don't know how many still use dial-up and I do understand the value of PDF format, but perhaps a one page sort of summary prior to waiting for a 148 pages of PDF to download would also be valuable.

Very polished looking document, but was hoping to see the Rega Saturn review (something at the outskirts of my budget).  Along that thought, what is the average MSRP of a systems that we're listening too?

We are working on having a TOC for each issue, so that you can decide what's inside, but we kind of figure that seeing it's free, even if you only read a couple of articles, what's the harm?  It takes less time to download the issue than it does for me to walk to the mailbox and get my paper copy of the absolute sound.

The Saturn review should be online within the next two weeks.  And the Apollo will be shortly after that.  We also have upcoming reviews of the Meridian G08 ($3995) and the Ayre CX-7 ($2995)  All four are very good.

According to Google, 97% of our 75 thousand readers have a broadband connection, so it's working so far.

As for the format of the Sooloos article, it was not a formal review, but it was a feature story.  Hence we did not go into as much of the techie and related components as we normally do.  Sorry you felt hoodwinked into reading a mystery.  It wasn't intended to be a review and was not labeled as such.

As for related components, I use three systems to evaluate gear, depending on said piece of gears relative price and performance.  My main system is probably worth about 125K and is the reference by which I judge most things.  My second system is worth considerably less and my living room system is very modest: a pair of B&W 205S's  (the Vinyl Anachronist has my DeVore Gibbon Super 8's that used to be in my living room), a Valve Audio Predator, the Sooloos and whatever reasonable ($500-2000) CD player that happens to be in for review.

So, we try to evaluate components within a reasonable range of like things.  Sometimes I will put a thousand dollar component in my main system, just to see what it's ultimately capable of.

Also, my reviewers all have systems across the board from very budget to very expensive.  I have tried to make an effort to have everyone review gear that they are comfortable with performance and price wise, so that our readers don't get someone listening to a really expensive component for the first time and immediately proclaiming that "it's the best thing they have ever heard"....

Hope that answers some questions!

[zybar]

As for related components, I use three systems to evaluate gear, depending on said piece of gears relative price and performance.  My main system is probably worth about 125K and is the reference by which I judge most things.  My second system is worth considerably less and my living room system is very modest: a pair of B&W 205S's  (the Vinyl Anachronist has my DeVore Gibbon Super 8's that used to be in my living room), a Valve Audio Predator, the Sooloos and whatever reasonable ($500-2000) CD player that happens to be in for review.

Jeff,

I am sure you have already posted this or it is on your website, but could you list the gear in your reference system?

Thanks,

George

[TONEPUB]

hi george

I list my reference components in every review that I do for the magazine.