Leclerc: ‘Sainz will be a terrific challenge for me’

Charles Leclerc believes he’ll be facing a “terrific challenge” next season when Carlos Sainz joins Ferrari, the Monegasque describing his future teammate as a “fabulous driver”.

The recent shock announcement of Sebastian Vettel’s exit from the Scuderia at the end of the season was followed by the news that Sainz will be ushered in as the German driver’s replacement.

Many believe the 25-year-old Spaniard will have some very big shoes to fill, but Leclerc will also prove a hard nut to crack for Sainz given the Monegasque’s superiority over Vettel in 2019 and his leading position at Ferrari.

    Domenicali calls on Alonso to help Sainz move to Ferrari

Yet Leclerc denies he’ll be the Scuderia’s number 1 driver in 2020, insisting Sainz will represent a genuine threat at the outset that he’ll need to contend with.

“I’m not going to be number one at Ferrari,” Leclerc told French daily L’Equipe.

“I think Carlos is a fabulous driver, and if that’s not yet obvious to people, he will prove it at Ferrari from 2021. It will be a terrific challenge for me.”

While Leclerc and Vettel found themselves at odds with each other last year, the former reiterated his praise of the latter and the knowledge gained alongside the four-time world champion.

“He taught me a lot. I can count myself lucky to have him as a stable companion because he is an extremely experienced pilot.”

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

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CFDA announces recipients of A Common Thread grant

The CFDA and Vogue have announced 44 recipients of A Common Thread
– a new initiative launched two months ago to provide aid to companies
within the fashion industry whose businesses have been negatively
impacted by COVID-19.

The CFDA has raised 5 million dollars to award grants, and over
1,000 applications from brands, retailers and factories in need of
aid.

The initiative is awarding 2.13 million dollars across 44
businesses for the first round. The recipients, which include 35
brands, seven retailers and two factories, were selected by a panel of
fashion industry experts. The 35 brand recipients include Bode,
Brother Vellies, Carol Hannah, Collina Strada, Eckhaus Latta, Gypsy
Sport, Rodarte, Prabal Gurung and Sandy Liang.

The grant money is expected to go towards rehiring furloughed
employees, rent payments, payments to factories or manufacturers, the
production of future collections and digital marketing and e-commerce
updates.

The CFDA and Vogue will continue to consider more recipients for
the second round of funding.

Photo courtesy of CFDA

Roche lance des essais cliniques avec Gilead pour une forme sévère de la Covid-19

Le groupe pharmaceutique suisse Roche va lancer des essais cliniques en partenariat avec le laboratoire américain Gilead pour évaluer l’efficacité de son traitement tocilizumab en association avec l’antiviral remdesivir contre la forme sévère de pneumonie de Covid-19, a-t-il annoncé jeudi.

Des essais de phase III, qui correspondent à la phase la plus avancée des essais cliniques, vont être lancés début juin dans le cadre d’une étude visant à réunir 450 patients aux Etats-Unis, au Canada et en Europe, a indiqué le groupe suisse dans un communiqué.L’étude doit permettre d’évaluer la sécurité et l’efficacité du tocilizumab en association avec l’antiviral expérimental remdesivir chez les patients hospitalisés avec une forme sévère de pneumonie. L’étude, appelée Remdacta, doit comparer les résultats obtenus chez les patients soignés avec remdesivir administré avec un placebo.”Associer un antiviral avec un modulateur immunitaire pourrait potentiellement être une approche efficace pour traiter les patients avec une forme sévère de la maladie“, a estimé Levi Garraway, médecin chef et directeur du développement de produits chez Roche, cité dans le communiqué.Commercialisé sous le nom d’Actemra ou de RoActemra selon les pays où il est vendu, le tocilizumab est un immuno-modulateur utilisé pour soigner la polyarthrite rhumatoïde.Il fait actuellement l’objet d’autres essais cliniques, lancés début avril, pour évaluer son efficacité pour prévenir “l’orage inflammatoire” chez les malades du nouveau coronavirus hospitalisés dans un état grave. Les résultats de ces essais séparés sont attendus pour l’été, a précisé Roche dans le communiqué.L’antiviral expérimental remdesivir a de son côté été approuvé dans l’urgence début mai par l’agence américaine des médicaments (FDA) et approuvé peu après au Japon.Initialement développé en vain contre la fièvre hémorragique Ebola, le remdesivir est la première thérapie à avoir démontré une certaine efficacité chez les patients hospitalisés pour la Covid-19 dans un essai clinique de taille significative, même si l’effet est considéré comme modeste.Click Here: Fjallraven Kanken Art Spring Landscape Backpacks

Edinburgh Woollen Mill hits back at BGMEA’s blacklist threat

Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group (EWM) has responded to a threat by the
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) to
blacklist the company over its supplier negotiations.

In a letter sent last week by BGMEA to EMW, the association said that EMW
should stop seeking discounts with suppliers and must pay due payments by 29 May or risk being placed
on a blacklist.

EMW, which owns brands Bonmarche, Peacocks and Jaeger, has called BGMEA’s approach “unproductive” and “uncollaborative”, and claiming
that the organisation did not verify the progress EMW had made prior to
publishing the letter.

The company said it has paid for the majority of future stock when the
crisis hit originally and has reached deals with the very vast majority of
suppliers on all outstanding stock.

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It said that it still has discussions with a “handful” of suppliers left
and that talks overall have been “positive and constructive”.

“Nobody planned this international crisis, and it is only by working
together constructively that we will be able to tackle a challenge as
unprecedented as coronavirus,” an EMW spokesperson said. “Our discussions
with the vast majority of suppliers have been positive, and they have
understood that we are trying to find a balanced way forward that matches
the immediate, urgent challenges faced by high-street stores nationally and
those of suppliers.

“We are left with a very bitter taste in our mouth over the sincerity of
this letter. We think their approach has been unproductive and
uncollaborative. This is the first time we have heard from the BGMEA, and
we question why they have not tried to engage us with constructively over
the last few months nor tried to confirm the facts about our discussions
with suppliers before sending this letter – something that we would have
actively welcomed.”

Photo credit: Bonmarché, Facebook

Confinement : 75% des Français ont fait du sport

Selon un nouveau sondage Ifop réalisé pour Fitness Magazine, plus de la moitié des Français a continué à pratiquer régulièrement du sport pendant le confinement. Les principales motivations évoquées sont la volonté de se maintenir en bonne santé et l’envie de "se défouler".

Avec la cuisine, la lecture, le visionnage de films et de séries, le sport a occupé une place de choix dans notre quotidien de confinés. Mais, les pratiques ont-elles vraiment augmenté chez les Français au cours de cette période ? Quelles étaient les principales motivations pour se bouger ? Une enquête Ifop commandée par Fitness Magazine tente de répondre à ces interrogations.Le sondage révèle une légère baisse pendant la mise en place du confinement, puisque 59% des Français ont déclaré pratiquer une activité physique ou sportive chaque semaine (dont 25% plusieurs fois par semaine), contre 61% en juin 2019. Les hommes seraient plus “actifs”, puisqu’ils sont 63% à pratiquer une activité physique ou sportive au moins une fois par semaine, contre 54% chez les femmes. Si le sport à la maison en suivant des cours sur internet a séduit près d’un quart des sondés, 24% ont toutefois préféré le sport en extérieur, principalement pour sortir de chez eux et prendre l’air (18%). Concernant les motivations, 75% des Français disent faire du sport pour rester en bonne santé, 42% pour “se défouler”, 29% pour se divertir et 25% dans l’espoir de perdre du poids.
L’envie de se défouler s’avère plus forte chez les 25-35 ans (45%) et chez les personnes confinées dans un logement de 50 m2 ou moins (47%). Quant à l’objectif de mincir, il se manifeste en premier lieu chez les personnes en surpoids (49%), les 35-49 ans (34%) et les femmes (29%). 
Pour une petite partie des Français, le déconfinement semble rimer avec reprise d’activité : 12% des Français affirment que leur niveau de pratique sportive a augmenté depuis le 11 mai.  Enquête menée auprès d’un échantillon de 1 012 personnes, représentatif de la population française âgée de 18 ans et plus, par questionnaire auto-administré en ligne du 15 au 18 Mai 2020.

Coronavirus Prison Deaths Rise In NJ: 'They Stole My Baby's Life'

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — “They stole my baby’s life.” This lamentation from a devastated mother – whose son died from coronavirus while awaiting furlough from a New Jersey prison – is just one of many heartbreaking tales of loss to emerge from the state’s penal system.

As of Wednesday, there were 515 inmates with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in state-run prisons. Of those, 41 deaths have been linked to the disease, a 7.9 percent fatality rate, according to a state database.

According to the ACLU of New Jersey, it’s the highest death rate of any state prison system in the nation, with numbers “exceeding most other states’ prison deaths combined.” It’s not just inmates who risk catching the virus; 599 people employed with the New Jersey Department of Corrections have been infected, too.

The rising death count has family members and advocates demanding action.

“People in prisons are terrified,” said the Rev. Charles Boyer of advocacy group Salvation and Social Justice.

“Their loved ones reach out every day to let us know how difficult and cruel it is to be confined in the midst of a pandemic,” Boyer stated. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, a jail or prison sentence can quickly turn into a death sentence.”

READ MORE: NJ Coronavirus Updates (Here’s What You Need To Know)

On Thursday, advocates held a town hall meeting via Zoom, inviting relatives of deceased inmates to speak about their losses. (Watch the video below)

Trena Parks said her brother, Darrell, 62, was “always happy” and a “good person.” He loved to fish, dance and spend time with his family.

About 29 years ago, he was handed down a lengthy prison sentence, but wasn’t bitter or angry about it. Instead, he accepted the consequences of what he’d done and was focused on “doing his time,” Parks said.

But when the coronavirus began hitting New Jersey’s prisons, for some reason, Parks – who had a compromised immune system – wasn’t moved out of harm’s way, his sister said.

On April 8, after staff found Parks unable to breathe, they transported him to a nearby hospital, where he died less than two weeks later.

“You were the executioners that decided what my brother’s last mile would be,” Parks commented when asked what she’d say to Gov. Phil Murphy and the officials who run New Jersey’s prison system.

“I can only imagine that last mile being a dark, dreary and lonely road,” Parks added, breaking down in tears.

Story continues below

‘THEY STOLE MY BABY’S LIFE’

On April 10 – fresh on the heels of a New Jersey Supreme Court order to release 1,000 inmates serving time in county prisons for minor crimes – Gov. Murphy announced the state was paving the way for thousands more to join them.

A short time afterward, Murphy signed an executive order that allowed some “low-risk” inmates in state prisons and halfway houses to be placed in temporary home confinement during the COVID-19 crisis. Released inmates will continue to be subject to Department of Corrections supervision.

To be eligible, inmates must face an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 because of their age or health status. Nobody convicted of a serious crime – such as murder, or sexual assault – will be considered, Murphy said.

But since then, activists allege that dismal progress has been made when it comes to actually getting inmates home. The numbers appear to support their claims.

According to New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) spokesperson Liz Velez, 3,080 inmates in state custody were deemed potentially eligible for home release under the terms of Murphy’s executive order.

But placement on a referral list doesn’t guarantee release, Velez added.

“The review committee must first determine if an individual can benefit from temporary emergency medical home confinement,” Velez told Patch. “As part of the process we conduct thorough home investigations to ensure it’s safe for the released and those in the dwelling. We also notify the prosecutors and victims and test those being released for COVID-19, among other steps that take into account the delicate balance between public health and public safety.”

It’s a gauntlet that many inmates don’t make it through. As of Thursday, just 116 inmates have been released. Another 41 are approved for release and awaiting the final go-ahead.

Meanwhile, dozens of people have died in state custody due to the virus, according to the ACLU of New Jersey. One of them was Bernice Ferguson’s son – her “first love.”

Speaking during Thursday’s news conference, Ferguson said her son, Rory, just turned 39 in March. He was a “joyous young man” with a laugh that could make anyone happy.

He was approved for home release and was scheduled to come home last Saturday. And he and his mother had “so much to do” when he returned, Ferguson recalled with tears in her eyes. But then she got a call that her son had been rushed to the hospital.

Now, the grieving mother will have to visit a grave to spend time with her first-born child.

“Sure, children make bad decisions,” Ferguson said. “We all do. But to take somebody’s life … that’s what they did … they stole my baby’s life.”

During Gov. Murphy’s daily coronavirus news conferences, he regularly mentions the names of people who have died of the disease. But he hasn’t given a single tribute to an inmate who died in state custody.

That needs to change, advocates say.

On Thursday, with the prison death count now reportedly up to 42, activists announced that a “#SayTheirNames Funeral Procession” will be held on May 28 in Trenton to pay respect to the unnamed deceased.

According to activists, those people include: Ricky James, Tonny Kock, Peter Shanley, Chart Chavalaporn, Frank Silvera, Michael Wilson, Abdul Aziz Farrakhan, William Prell, James Trotman, Carmelo Herrera, Timothy Moorman, Qahhar Saabir, Vito Nigro, Calvert Buchanan, Elias Chalet, Thomas DeGroat, William Conway, Roberto Rivera, Robert Livingston, N’namdi Azikiwe, David Brown, Darrell Parks, Morgan Youngblood, Candido Casarez, Michael Bright, Calvert McKenzie, Tiffany Mofield, Denise Nagrodski, Anthony Brown, Rory S. Price, Robert Brown, Kevin Ellington, Vincent Kurczewski, Charles Ullery, Larry Yellock, Andrew Dixon, Jose Roman, Ricardo Williamson and Artis Kato.

NJ HALFWAY HOUSES: ‘WE EARNED OUR WAY HERE’

Advocates say the situation is just as dire in the state’s residential community release program (RCRP) facilities, otherwise known as “halfway houses.”

The facilities are supposed to be places where prison inmates nearing the end of their sentences can find work, get help with substance abuse and rally hope for a successful reentry. But lately, they’ve become pits of despair due to the COVID-19 crisis, family members allege.

As of Wednesday, there have been 19 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among inmates at state halfway houses, with one death connected to the virus.

However, many family members and advocates have questioned the accuracy of the state’s totals, alleging that a lack of testing and a fear of being sent back to prison is skewing the numbers.

A 60-year-old inmate at Tully House in Newark – speaking to Patch on condition of anonymity – said the facility is “overcrowded” and is short of medical staff. There’s no possible way to social distance while trapped inside a halfway house, he said, a claim that many advocates have also made.

Like several other halfway houses in New Jersey, Tully House is overseen by the DOC and managed by private corporations: Education & Health Centers of America Inc. and the GEO Group.

“Why is it taking so long for halfway house residents to be released to home confinement?” he questioned. “We’re prime candidates for the executive order 124. We didn’t just reach a period of time in our sentences and transfer to the halfway house system. We earned our way here.”

Many inmates at halfway houses have demonstrated good behavior, finished clinical programs and have been allowed to go to work at job sites unsupervised before the outbreak, he said.

“We left the facility, caught public transportation and returned back to the facility for months and for some years without any incident,” he told Patch. “This is a no-brainer.”

Another resident at Tully House offered Patch the following statement about a fellow inmate who recently tested positive for COVID-19:

“He was scheduled to go … they are starting to test people before they go home now. So he got tested and sent back to the program, and then found out five days later that he was positive for COVID-19, which blew my mind because the test take 24 to 48 hours to come back. So he was in the program with a positive result and they just let him sit there. After they took him, they moved the rest of his room down to a room that emptied out and are labeling it as it is a quarantine room. But these guys come out the room at every count, and they escort them through the building which would contaminate the building, one would think. But they let them out for a smoke break and the use the vending machines, and none of this is being wiped down. It’s bad for those guys too, though, because now they have to use the bathroom every four to five hours in between us having our rec time.”

The two residents of Tully House aren’t alone in their sentiments; family members have been reaching out to Patch with their own worries for weeks.

Gee Santiago, a Burlington resident with a husband at Tully House, said he was approved for early release and was awaiting COVID-19 test results last week. But then he tested positive with asymptomatic results, and was sent to East Jersey State Prison.

“He is going to be tested again today, and will be quarantine for the next 14 days on the medical unit,” Santiago said last Thursday.

“When I heard about it, I couldn’t sleep or eat, and cried all day,” she recalled. “Why are these residents being treating inhumane? They are someone’s son, grandson, husband, uncle, father and sibling. They have families who love them and worry about their safety.”

“Yes, they aren’t perfect, but who is?” she added.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

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Music in the Round #99: Revel & exaSound

There is necessity as well as comfort in having a long-term reference recordings and, system. The necessity derives from the familiarity with the reference that allows for comparisons and contrasts with the equipment being tested. The comfort that comes from the familiarity lets me relax and enjoy recreational music, relieved from the need to focus my attention intently on the sound. I do relish getting my hands on lots of interesting audio equipment and getting to play it in my own home, but it’s like a two-month one-night stand: The new stuff usually goes back even if I am impressed. I don’t change my audio equipment often.


It is not until something truly disruptive comes along that I think about making changes. This occurred with the Benchmark AHB2 stereo power amplifier. After the initial review, I returned the amp and tried to move on but could not. Memories of what it did with the midrange of my Bowers & Wilkins 800 Diamond loudspeakers haunted me, and I had fantasies of what a trio of monoblock AHB2s would sound like.


I had already moved on to the B&W 802 D3 Diamond speakers and was in the process of auditioning other speakers when the three AHB2s arrived. I found that their midrange transparency and absence of noise was addictive on every recording I tried. I knew I had to keep them, so I bought them.


The next disruption was less an event and more of a process. Since my adoption, in early 2016, of the B&W 802 D3, I have reviewed about a dozen loudspeakers in the same room, but recently some of them have been so unusual that the mere experience of them has provoked pointed comparisons and considerations. Things seem to be changing.


The first of these speakers was Bang & Olufsen’s technology tour de force, the BeoLab 90, a huge, floorstanding, DSP-enabled, powered loudspeaker. These had it all: balanced tonality, extended and detailed bass, notable independence from room influences, and the ability to play with aplomb at any demanded volume. They made the 802 D3s (and every other speaker) sound ordinary, but even if I could afford a trio of these, three would not fit in my room. Still, they demonstrated a challenge in terms of how a speaker interacts with room acoustics.


Next up was a real disrupter, the Kii Audio Three, a stand-mounted, DSP-enabled, powered loudspeaker. To an amazing degree, the small Kii Three was as successful as the BeoLab 90 in freeing the speaker’s performance from the influence of room effects. In fact, because of its size, there was greater freedom in placing it to optimize imaging and soundstaging, while each B&O could go in only one spot in my room. Both models advanced the growing argument in my mind that conventional speakers will be facing fierce competition if the DSP/powered speaker paradigm becomes generally accepted in the audiophile market.


After that came the comparatively conventional Paradigm Persona 5F loudspeaker. I was impressed with its excellence on wide–dynamic-range recordings and, particularly, its low-frequency performance. In reviewing it for Stereophile, I drew a parallel between the between the Persona 5F’s performance and “speakers using DSP to minimize boundary interactions, such as the Kii Audio Three and the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90. The Paradigms accomplished much the same thing but without the bells and whistles.” However, its rising high-frequency response, distinct even to these aging ears, demanded tinkering with the toe-in to find an off-axis response that would sound flatter.


And then I visited Harman, where I enjoyed extended discussions with designer Kevin Voecks and other Revelers, as well as with author and Harman consultant Floyd Toole, whose book, Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms, Third Edition (Focal Press, 2017), should be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in audio. Their premise, backed up by blind listening tests, is that a speaker system that has a flat and smooth on-axis frequency curve and has off-axis output that is similarly smooth (measured in an anechoic chamber) will be minimally affected by the boundary reflections in a real listening room (footnote 1). This, of course, is one of the raisons d’être of DSP speakers, whose radiation pattern is determined through the use of dynamic signal processing and not just by the physical configuration of the drivers and enclosure.


I returned to New York to begin my audition of the Revel Performa F228Be, the latest product of the Revel philosophy. It was, pardon me, a revelation as a full-range passive loudspeaker. Placement was uncritical, as was toe-in, as long as the speakers were not very close to side walls. Audible resolution was strikingly detailed but without noticeable highlighting. In a real room—my room—they seemed to approach what the DSP speakers do.


What now?
Cards on the table: I was facing a critical choice. Do I continue to listen to traditional loudspeakers, or do I make the shift to DSP? The Kii Three is really appealing and affordable, but because of the uncertainty of its suitability for multichannel and its somewhat limited bass output power, I could not get myself to pull the trigger. Kii has addressed the latter issue with the release of their BXT bass module, which turns the stand-mounted Three into a floorstander, although at significant additional cost. The Dutch & Dutch 8c active loudspeaker ($12,500/ pair; see the review in the August 2019 Stereophile) is even more appealing in price and performance, but my wife and I dislike bulky boxes perched on stands. Imagine 5 of them!


Beyond that, I have a concern about service and maintenance for complex integrated products. With conventional speakers and amps, I can find backups if a device requires service. With these integrated products, would small part failures necessitate returning the entire speaker to the factory Will the firmware supplied with the speaker support changes in music formats and delivery systems And given the reliance of such products on proprietary operating firmware, how can they survive if the original manufacturer does not


Or maybe I’m just chicken. I try to convince myself that going to a DSP-based integrated system would complicate my reviewing responsibilities, and there’s a germ of truth in that. More critical for me is that managing multichannel playback is complicated enough when using devices and software that directly support multichannel; I’d rather not rely on devices from companies that are not yet addressing multichannel.


I filtered the wide range of options by insisting that any new speaker of mine must be a three-way design that’s up to 50″ tall; floorstanding; full-range; and visually pleasing in our living/listening room. The latter encompasses personal preferences for smooth contours, a slim shape, and a high-quality wood finish. I also insist on the availability of horizontal and vertical dispersion data from reviews (including John Atkinson’s reports) or from the manufacturer. It is surprising how few manufacturers will provide this data even though any serious loudspeaker company should have it.


If you could start all over . . .
After months of auditioning and soul-searching, I bought three Revel Ultima Studio2 loudspeakers ($15,998/pair) for my front L/C/R trio and a pair of Revel’s Performa3 F206 speakers ($3500/pair) for the surround channels. In the case of the Studio2s, it’s baffling to think that I purchased a speaker model I had reviewed more than a decade ago, but they were clearly my best option: Nothing else suited so well my auditory experience, aesthetic preferences, and my listening room, even at a significantly higher price. As for the F206, which is the F208’s little brother, it fit my room setup better than anything else I found. Besides, Revel designs all their speakers with the same goals—and the measured data supports this.

Footnote 1: This can be visualized in John Atkinson’s graphs of horizontal (and vertical) off-axis frequency response and in Harman’s Spinorama graphs.

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PS Audio Stellar Phono phono preamplifier

We usually save the question of value for the end of a review, but this time it’s worth mentioning up front, if only because PS Audio has been in the news lately. Late last August, the company announced they were switching from a traditional dealer network to a factory-direct sales model. So, to some readers, it might seem fair to judge the brand-new, full-featured Stellar Phono Preamplifier ($2500) against ones selling in stores for $5000.


Then again, to speak with the Stellar Phono’s talented designer, 30-something engineer and vinyl enthusiast Darren Myers, is to know that this is a product that will stand or fall on its own merits, regardless of price.


The Stellar Phono, designed and assembled in Boulder, Colorado, using globally sourced parts, is an attractive and unique-looking piece, available in both black and matte silver finishes with a curved/split front surface and a switch- free fascia. Any way you look at it, from any angle, the understated and entirely bling-free Stellar is a damn handsome, even fashionable piece of hi-fi. At 21.6lb, it’s also relatively heavy—and from the looks of its sleek outer skin, the weight of the approximately 17″ × 13″ × 3″ Stellar is mostly in its componentry, not its casework.


Apart from its rear-mounted master power switch, a pair of rear-mounted potentiometers for dialing in custom resistive loads, and its front-panel logo—I’ll come back to that last one in a moment—the Stellar Phono is operated entirely from its remote handset; a series of LEDs on the front panel alerts you to the selected operating status. The handset is encased in plastic and non-illuminated, but ergonomics are good, and it’s easy to use.


From the handset you can turn the Stellar Phono on and off, select MM or MC inputs—there’s one pair of each—toggle through various gain settings (44dB, 50dB, and 56dB for MM cartridges, 60dB, 66dB, and 72dB for MC), and select between buttons for four preset loads—60 ohms, 100 ohms, 200 ohms, or 47k ohms—or a button that enables the above- mentioned custom-setting knobs, which range from 1 ohm to 1k ohms. There’s also a Mute button that, when pressed, illuminates a red LED on the left side of the Stellar’s front panel; the rest of the indicator lights are blue. The identifying labels next to the latter aren’t illuminated, and the bright LEDs overwhelm the text, but it doesn’t really matter because those LEDs are logically grouped, their meanings easy to remember.


Around back are rear-panel–mounted, gold-plated MM and MC inputs (RCA), the latter separated by the custom loading knobs. There’s also one pair each of balanced (XLR) and single-ended (gold-plated RCA) jacks. A ground lug located between the MM and MC inputs is of the useful banana jack/threaded-screw type.


Circuit details
In the manual, designer Myers both describes the design and makes some bold claims. He writes, “It is inconvenient . . . to realize that measurements don’t always correlate with what we hear. Some of the most commonly used circuit topologies suffer from what I call overexposed sound—the edge transients lead with far too much high-frequency energy and the overall tonality has a grey sheen that washes out the tonal contrast. Many have claimed that this is what happens when a circuit is transparent and has low distortion. I beg to differ.”


That design philosophy led Myers to implement a fully discrete circuit that doesn’t rely upon high amounts of global feedback to lower distortion or increase bandwidth. “To the contrary,” he writes, “[the circuits] were designed to be innately transparent and present the music with a correct display of tonal balance.”


To that end, Myers designed a circuit that is “DC-coupled from input to output and doesn’t contain any complementary circuits.” The short signal path utilizes class-A–biased MOSFETs and JFETs. MC and MM inputs feature paralleled Toshiba JFETs, which are directly coupled to low-feedback, high-bandwidth discrete amplifiers. Each fully class-A output stage uses a single MOSFET output device; Myers says this approach produces “subjectively innocuous distortion products compared to complementary designs.” The passive RIAA EQ implementation uses Wilson Audio Specialties–manufactured REL film and foil capacitors.


The designer concludes by claiming, in the manual, “I ended up with a phono preamp that always presents the music in the correct light.” Of course, that’s what they all say! At least those who say anything like that.


Setup and use
The well-written, informative instruction manual makes several important points, including the suggestion that, if the choice is between a long AC power cord or long interconnects, go for the long, well-shielded power cord. The instructions aren’t afraid to claim “significant performance improvements” with the use of high-quality aftermarket power cords. In my view, anyone unwilling to try such a cord because they “just know” it can’t possibly make a differ- ence deserves the degraded sonic performance they will get.


Upon powering up, the front-panel PS Audio logo lights up and the unit loads the default settings: “mute,” “MM” and “47k ohms.” Pressing either the PS Audio logo or the remote’s On/Off button extinguishes the logo LEDs and puts the unit into “idle mode,” which retains all of your settings and deactivates the output relays. Holding down the PS Audio logo button for more than 3 seconds will activate or deactivate the “mute” function. You can still play music even if you lose the remote! This is an extremely well- thought-out operating system, making the feature-packed Stellar a most pleasant and configurable phono preamp. At this price point, you usually get either little adjustability or the dreaded adjustment-by-DIP-switch torture. One boldface caution in the manual: “Activate idle mode before powering down your unit using the rear panel master power switch.” It doesn’t say why, but I assume it’s to avoid a nasty “thump” through the speakers.


The instructions also offer useful load- and gain-setting guidance and advice on what to do if you hear whining, beeping, humming, buzzing, whistling, or any other kind of noising.


Darren Myers and PS Audio’s Bill Leebens delivered and installed the Stellar. I think they wanted to hear how a $2500 phono preamp would perform when driven by a $200,000 front end, itself driving a bigger rig than would most likely be used by most Stellar purchasers.


Tell me something I don’t already know
At the 2019 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, I got a preview listen to the Stellar phono preamp in the PS Audio room. The turntable there was VPI’s new HW-40 direct-drive model, combined with a VPI Fatboy tonearm ($15,000 together), on which was mounted a low-output MC cartridge. (It might have been an Ortofon A95—I forget.) The rest of the system was (of course) PS Audio electronics driving PS Audio loudspeakers. Though I was unfamiliar with much of the system, I felt by the end of the show that I could probably write the review then and there. (That’s a game I often play at shows listening through unfamiliar systems to gear I’m about to review at home.)

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Vimberg Mino loudspeaker

The priciest loudspeaker ever to have taken up residence in my listening room was the Akira from German company Tidal Audio (footnote 1), which I reviewed in the November 2018 issue of Stereophile. Designed by Tidal founder and CEO Jörn Janczak, the Akiras cost $215,000/pair! “The sheer resolution of the Akiras continued to astonish me throughout my auditioning,” I wrote in my review, concluding that “The Akiras are the best-looking, best-built, best-sounding speakers I have had in my listening room—as they should be at the price.”


Ah, the price. As good as the Tidal loudspeakers sounded and as heroically as they were engineered and built, I don’t think I ever really came to terms with what they cost. So my ears pricked up when I read in Robert Deutsch’s October 2018 report from the Toronto Audiofest that Janczak had launched Vimberg, a loudspeaker brand that, while still expensive in absolute terms, would be much less so than the Tidal models while preserving the Tidals’ sound quality. At $31,000/pair, the subject of this review, the Vimberg Mino, resembles the Akira in being a large three-way floorstander using Accuton drive-units from the German company Thiel & Partner, but is one-seventh its price.


The Mino
This is a fairly heavy tower, weighing 159lb. The high-density fiber laminate enclosure is deeper than it is wide and is extensively braced. It is first veneered, then finished in high-gloss black or white piano lacquer. (This lacquer coating is half the thickness of that used in the Tidal models but is still impressively thick.) The enclosure’s front baffle and rear panel slope back, which makes the speaker unstable until its complex-shaped outrigger stands have been bolted to its base. These are milled from aluminum, with the rear stand raising the back of the speaker a couple of inches higher than its front.


Mounted vertically in-line on the baffle, the three 6.6″ Accuton Cell long-throw woofers are fastened to aluminum mounting rings so that their convex aluminum-honeycomb cones stand proud. This alarmed me when I unpacked the speakers from their flight cases, so I took extra care in handling them, not to apply any force on those black woofer cones. The woofers are reflex loaded with a pair of flared ports, each 3″ in diameter. One port is positioned near the speaker’s base, the other 10″ below the top panel; the upper port can be blocked with a rubber plug, which has a spherical metal knob to facilitate removing it, to optimize bass performance in a particular room: just one sign of the attention to detail that characterizes the Mino’s design.


Above the woofers, a flush-mounted, polished aluminum insert carries the 3.55″ Accuton Cell midrange unit and the 1.18″ Accuton Cell tweeter, decoupling these drivers from the baffle. These both use ceramic diaphragms, specifically a porous material called “alpha corundum,” which is produced by heat-treating then anodizing a thin aluminum foil, so that it is completely oxidized, after which it is converted into its final form via a proprietary process. The result is a diaphragm that is light and stiff, but also well-damped—three properties that are necessary in a drive-unit. The Mino can also be ordered with diamond-diaphragm tweeters, these again sourced from Accuton, for an additional $8500/pair.


The crossover is mounted to a heavy plate at the base of the enclosure, using high-quality capacitors, resistors, and inductors from Mundorf and Duelund. The internal wiring is sourced from Mogami, and electrical connection is via a single pair of fiber-reinforced polymer Argento binding posts, just below the lower reflex port.


Overall, the Mino is an elegant-looking loudspeaker, impeccably finished and impressively engineered.


Setup
As the Mino is close in size to the Magico M2 that I reviewed in the February 2020 issue, and has a similar drive-unit array, I started with the loudspeakers in the same positions as the M2s. After some experimentation, I ended up with the Vimbergs’ woofers 72″ from the wall behind them and 125″ from my listening position. The left speaker was 33″ from the LPs that line the left sidewall, the right 42″ from the books that line the right sidewall. I then installed the bolts into the outrigger feet, adding the knurled knobs to their tops and screwing them in until their polished ends touched the wooden floor beneath my carpet.


Vimberg supplies machined aluminum coasters with Teflon-glider inlays that can be inserted beneath the bolts to protect floors that are higher in quality than mine, but I preferred the sound without these.


Listening
Once I had finalized the positions of the Vimberg Minos, I started my serious listening, driving the speakers with Lamm M1.2 monoblocks. With their upper ports blocked, the Minos reproduced the 1/3-octave warble tones on my Editor’s Choice CD (Stereophile STPH016-2) with full weight down to the 40Hz band. The 32Hz tone was boosted by the lowest-frequency mode in my room, the 25Hz warble was readily audible, and I could just hear the 20Hz tone. The warble tones sounded very clean, implying low distortion. Playing the tones again with the upper ports open, the 50Hz and 63Hz bands seemed a little higher in level than they had with only the bottom ports open. The half-step–spaced low-frequency tonebursts on Editor’s Choice spoke very cleanly down to 32Hz, with no emphasis of any of the tones. When I listened to the cabinet walls of both speakers with a stethoscope while these tones played, I could just hear some vibrational modes in the midrange, but the enclosure seemed extremely inert overall.

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Covid-19: des symptômes de stress post-traumatique chez 30% des internes

Un interne sur trois présente des symptômes de

stress post-traumatique depuis la crise du

coronavirus, selon une étude publiée vendredi par l’Intersyndicale nationale des internes (Isni), qui s’alarme de l’impact de l’épidémie sur la "santé mentale" des jeunes praticiens en médecine.

L’épidémie a été très anxiogène pour les internes“, souligne l’Isni dans cette enquête, réalisée entre le 20 mars et le 11 mai auprès de 892 médecins en formation, via un questionnaire basé sur des outils utilisés dans les études de psychiatrie.”L’arrivée d’un virus inconnu, la réalisation de nouvelles prise en charge de patients dans des états graves, la surcharge de travail, le manque d’encadrement, de tests de dépistage et de matériel de protection ont accru le stress de ces jeunes professionnels“, ajoute l’Isni.Au total, 47,1% des personnes interrogées présentaient à la mi-mai des symptômes d’anxiété, soit 15 points de plus qu’en 2017; 29,8% montraient des symptômes de stress post-traumatique, et 18,4% des symptômes dépressifs.”Cauchemars, impression de ne pas arriver à faire face, ne pas pouvoir en parler, irritabilité, colère, anxiété, tristesse… Cette étude montre que ces symptômes sont très présents“, souligne l’Insi, inquiète de l’impact de l’épidémie “sur la santé mentale des internes”.Les internes en médecine, futurs médecins employés à l’hôpital dans le cadre de stages de fin de cursus, se sont retrouvés en première ligne ces dernières semaines face au coronavirus dans de nombreux établissements. D’après l’Isni, ils représentent actuellement 44% des médecins hospitaliers.Click Here: Cheap France Rugby Jersey