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Michael Kiwanuka, Love & Hate Polydor B0024912-01 2 LPs – $24.99 Purchased at The Sound Garden in Syracuse, NY   Tidal strikes again. Just a few weeks since I accidentally played The Avalanches' Wildflower on the streaming music service and discovered a mind-bending, sensibility-changing masterwork, I've done it a second time. Hmmm…Michael Kiwanuka…wonder who this is,... Read More »

I first seriously embraced the advantages inherent in computer audio when Linn released their first iterations of the DS range of ethernet based streamers and dropped CD players altogether. I felt instantly liberated with access to my entire digital library at the hands of my iPad. At first my brain went into complete overdrive as... Read More »

[UPDATED VERSION with new purchase links for NativeDSD.com included at the end of the review.] For quite a while now I've been sitting on an advance copy of an important Quad DSD recording, waiting for it to be released commercially. Now, I'm glad to say, the time has come…at last! The album is music by... Read More »

MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Pierre Boulez Deutsche Grammophon 289 457 581-2 TT: 79.46 The death of Pierre Boulez earlier this year provides as good an opportunity as any other to consider his recorded legacy, as well as giving me an excuse to check out this 1995 Mahler Ninth, which I'd somehow managed to... Read More »

Defying Expectations   For some time now, I have hinted that the Bryston Limited 4B³ Stereo Power Amplifier (pronounced "Four Bee Cubed") is not your father's Bryston (to wit, neutral, quiet, and highly linear, but also somewhat lacking in air, instrumental body and overall transparency). In my 2016 AXPONA show report, I described the updated... Read More »

J.S. Bach, The Art of Fugue. Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque. Channel Classics CCS SA38316. There was a time, which for some may still be the time, when J.S. Bach's 24 Preludes and Fugues for solo keyboard (Well Tempered Clavier), six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, six Cello Suites, and The Art of Fugue were... Read More »

If anyone out there has been following my reviews, you may know that I like active powered loudspeakers (such as the ATC SCM19AT reviewed here). My leanings in this direction are mainly technical, but backed up by certain exemplary sonic characteristics. By technical I mean that active loudspeakers where amplifiers, cables, crossovers, and speakers are... Read More »

LP Gear is an online vendor of analogue products and accessories based in Nevada. After spending few moments browsing their vast array of offerings, I began to think of LP Gear as the Amazon of vinyl. Unlike other on-line analogue vendors, however, LP Gear has researched, developed, and marketed their own brand of products beginning... Read More »

No matter what type of hi-fi component currently makes a splash, whether it is headphones or network-based storage systems, shortly after they have popped up, the respective companies have added the required cables to their portfolio. No wonder that even Cardas Audio now is offering high-quality network cables. And they have, to my understanding, a... Read More »

Language is a very imprecise tool. But also thanks to it the evolution of apes resulted in an Aristotle, Michelangelo and Fangor. Still, however, we struggle with ambiguities, gaps, misunderstandings. Often, we ourselves are to blame, because the economics of language causes simplification of a lot of things, eliminating what is not commonly used, similar... Read More »

Well, right on, John Marks! Here's a real classic from the trove of audio loot. This week's album from The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com) brings back a pile of memories from my junior year in high school, which was a time of ferment and fervor in my life, there with friends and life in the East Bay sprawl-town of... Read More »

If you talk about music long enough, you tend to forget where you are coming from. I tend to talk about the succession of musical styles (baroque, late romanticism, modernism) while some others write about differences in formal technique, because for my amateur mind, the succession of styles is the history of music. And for... Read More »

This time around, John Marks introduces us to a recording by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Andris Nelsons. He points to the dicey realm of talented musical parents and the unknown musical outcomes of their children. Like the proverbial "pastor's kids," perhaps they will be inspired by parents...and perhaps not. An artist... Read More »

"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That's relativity." - Albert Einstein I have auditioned, reviewed, and owned several products from Pass Labs over the years and this quote from Mr. Einstein... Read More »

With their headquarters based in sunny-side California, Ultimate Ears was initially founded in 1995 by Jerry and Mindy Harvey. The former of which has played such an influential role in the design of headphones that within just a few years of UE's induction, "The Rolling Stones", Enrique Iglesias, and Faith Hill were loyal customers. A... Read More »

Headed by Fried Reim, Violectric specialises in a wide number of reputable amplifiers which have caught the attention of many in the avid world of personal audio such as the Violectric V281 Amp under review here. Being the trademark and product line of German firm Lake People, the company develops and manufactures products for exhibition,... Read More »

Late '60s let's-make-lots-of-money British mainstream studio action flick here (The Italian Job), generally well regarded for the acting and the action. John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com) discards the husk of the film and enjoys the fruit of the opening credits theme song by Matt Monro. As always, his choices and commentary are a... Read More »

In this week's "Vault Treasures," our trusty musical guide John Marks shares with us a jazzic voice that I was not familiar with:  Blossom Margrete Dearie, AKA "Blossom Dearie." Last week's brief essay covered Julie London, a person of real renown; but this week's "Blossom Dearie" is likely to provoke a "Say what?!" even from... Read More »

Ivo Sparidaens, Concept Manager, and Paul Rassin, Marketing & Communications Manager, are members of a six person team of a Dutch company Aequo Audio that designed Ensis loudspeakers. It's the only product of this manufacturer (for now). Introduction of these loudspeakers to the market was preceded with five years of research, trials and errors and new... Read More »