Rogier van Bakel
Contributing Editor, Stereophile
“Rogier’s room has absorptive and diffusive surfaces that make for a natural tonality and an immersive soundstage.”
A dedicated listening room for two-channel audio, with substantial isolation, acoustic treatments, and dedicated power.
The room replaces a century-old two-car attached garage. Its new shell uses double-thick drywall over Rockwool and mass-loaded vinyl. The hardwood floor sits over a layer of gravel, a 10-inch concrete slab, plywood, and rubber; a large wool rug over a thick felt pad covers about 80 percent of the floor. The walls are 10 feet tall, supporting a cathedral ceiling that rises to 16 feet. I wrote a Stereophile piece about what happened during and after construction, and why I feared I’d unleashed some Pet Sematary-style juju after digging up the old foundation.
Acoustic treatments include two eight-foot-tall range-limited soffit bass traps, two skyline diffusers, and more than a dozen wall- and ceiling-mounted absorption panels. Power comes from a dedicated line with 12-gauge wiring to the panel and 20-amp outlets.
The room and its acoustic treatments serve one purpose: to let the music unfold with as few sonic distractions as possible. One of those distractions is the room’s own tendency to keep sound alive after the source has stopped. A handclap lingers in a bare room; furnishings and treatments make it fade faster. Acousticians refer to that decay as RT60; it’s the time it takes the sound to fall by 60 decibels. RT60 varies with frequency, but the room’s overall change is clear. The bare shell measured around 1.7 seconds, making critical listening about as useful as reviewing a boombox in a stairwell. Once the room was furnished, the RT60 value had dropped to around 0.8 seconds. When we brought in panels and bass traps, it fell to 0.45.
The aim was never to create a dead-sounding room. I can’t stand those. I wanted to tame reflections and lingering bass without losing the music’s life and sparkle, with clarity and maximum intelligibility as the top goals.
There’s much more absorption than diffusion in the room. The absorbers remove excess sound energy and shorten its decay; the diffusers scatter reflections and help preserve a sense of space. Together, they let the music breathe and the room disappear.
Most of the components and speakers listed here are my personal reference gear, purchased with my own funds. Others are on extended loan or in for review and remain the property of their manufacturers. This list changes frequently.
My policies concerning review samples,
industry pricing, and potential
conflicts of interest are explained here.
Among the artists I’ve interviewed are Elvis Costello, Pete Townshend, Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, David Byrne, and Joe Jackson; plus designers (David Carson, Dieter Rams); scientists (Marvin Minsky, Oliver Sacks); actors (Isabella Rossellini, Jodie Foster); writers (John Irving, Art Spiegelman); photographers (Annie Leibovitz, Anton Corbijn); and hundreds of others.
Before joining Stereophile in 2021, I wrote for Wired, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times.
Below are some of my cover articles for the magazine. Click a cover to read the review.
My work for Stereophile also includes profiles of artists such as Lyle Lovett, Astrud Gilberto, the Police’s Andy Summers, Keb’ Mo’, Yello’s Boris Blank, and XTC’s Andy Partridge (coming soon). I’ve also interviewed audio-industry figures such as Andrew Jones, Alon Wolf, and Eelco Grimm.
October 2026
April 2026
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September 2025
April 2025
January 2025
June 2024
November 2023
August 2023
July 2023
Writing columns is another passion of mine. Some examples:
If you'd like to read more, all my contributions to Stereophile (including audio-show reports) are here, newest to oldest.
The commitments below are my own. I’ve drafted them as an extension of Stereophile’s editorial standards and principles, which you can read here. I also adhere to the guidelines of the Association of International Audiophile Publications (AIAP).
I neither know nor wish to know which brands advertise in Stereophile. I like it when manufacturers never identify themselves to me as current or future advertisers. If they do, it’s highly unlikely to positively influence what I write. Read my lips.
Stereophile pays me for my articles. No one else does. I won’t accept compensation or favors in exchange for a review, an interview, show coverage, etc. Likewise, to avoid conflicts of interest, I won’t perform any work (including writing, editing, consulting) for manufacturers, importers, or dealers. However, I may help them carry a heavy amplifier up a flight of stairs, entirely for free. It’s complicated.
I get review samples directly from the manufacturer or distributor, and typically keep a product for two to four months, until my article is finished and ready to go to press. All samples are returned then, unless I’ve made arrangements with the manufacturer for an extended loan. Per Stereophile policy, when a company asks for a product back, I comply promptly and return it in like-new condition. I do not sell review samples.
If I want to purchase an audio product, I'll either buy it at retail or straight from the manufacturer or importer for an accommodation price, if offered. Such pricing is not a special favor to reviewers; it is broadly available to people who work in the industry. Nor is it a gift: the company receives payment much as it would from a dealer sale, and that typically includes a profit margin. If I'm reviewing the product in question, I never discuss its purchase with the manufacturer or importer until after the review is finalized. I honor all resale restrictions on accommodation purchases, whether informal or contractual, including minimum hold periods. What I buy at a discount, I will not sell at a profit.
Once or twice a year, I'm invited to go on a factory tour whose expenses may be covered, in whole or in part, by my hosts. There are no quid pro quos: when I accept such a trip, I make it clear, pleasantly and appreciatively, that I don't guarantee coverage. Yes, I've visited companies I never wrote about, before or after.
I apply the same standards and criteria to each product I review. Admiration for a brand’s history or affection for the people on its team may shape my expectations, but neither entitles a product to leniency. The following is my policy alone, not Stereophile’s: I will not review products from companies whose principals have bullied writers, threatened reviewers over good-faith criticism, or otherwise demonstrated contempt for the people who cover them.
Continued use of borrowed equipment requires an ongoing relationship with the companies or individuals in question. Long-term loans, factory visits, and simple human warmth toward people I've come to know and like: all of these create the conditions for reciprocity bias. I actively guard against it, with the same confidence a man has that he doesn't snore.
Though I love high-end audio, not everything I write is a rave. An unenthusiastic assessment is not a personal attack. I will write critically when the product, in my subjective experience, falls short. Such an opinion is never intended to hurt the manufacturer, though it might; it is meant to serve the reader. I prefer a candid assessment over plaudits tossed around like confetti. Not every product should be quietly nudged toward “recommended.”
With affection toward all who make, sell, or report on superior hi-fi,
Rogier van Bakel
Contributing Editor, Stereophile