Here are some LPs that I've gotten in recently and I want to bring to your attention. Espresso, Bob James Trio, EVLP023, from Tappan Zee Records. 2018, Featuring Bob James, Billy Kilson, and Michael Palazzolo. $32.99. Tracks Recorded by Ken Freeman, KFP Studios, Bethlehem, PA. Tracks Recorded at Stagg Studios, Van Nuys, CA.. Assisted by Josh Frank. Mastered by Steve Vavagiaskis for Bang... Read More »
Continuing... ZYX UNIverse Optimum X MC What a year for phono cartridges 2018 has been. I've already extolled the seductive charms of the Air Tight PC-1 coda and the return of the van den Hul Colibri Signature Stradivarius in this year's Brutus Awards. Magnificent achievements, both of these, whose awards were richly deserved. But there... Read More »
van den Hul Colibri Signature Stradivarius (the second coming!) Late in 2017, Randy Forman…he of Finest Fidelity distribution fame, and a jolly good gent…got me a van den Hul Colibri Signature Stradivarius (CSS). It got its break-in and fun run-out in the later days of the class vintage professional turntable, the direct-drive EMT 948's visit... Read More »
In 2018, I made the jump from a passable desktop audio system into the big leagues. Because of that, I'm ready to hand out some Brutus awards, I think for the first time ever! It's not often that I need to listen to things as I work at my desk, but I find myself listening... Read More »
Unbelievably enough, it's the end of the year 2018…already! I know that I say this every year, but every year it's worse and worse; time whizzes by faster and faster, and the final quarter always arrives long before I'm ready for it. The Earth rotates, and faithfully follows its annual orbit around yon Sun, so... Read More »
Sweetbeats Productions, Digital download available at Apple Music and Google Music $8.99 I know I've raved about recordings in reviews, even in the last year, where I remarked that I put it in my CD player or an LP on my turntable and I didn't take it out/off for a very long time. That's a... Read More »
On December 11, 2018, PS Audio announced download availability of the newest Operating System for the PS Audio DirectStream Junior DAC. Named after another of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks, Snowmass, this update to PSA's DirectStream digital converters is likely to be judged a significant step up in sound quality. Handwritten for the DirectStream Junior's Field-Programmable Gate Array... Read More »
It is a great honor and pleasure for us to present our new Anniversary-Turntable, the Ortofon Century. 100 Years Ortofon Our long-time partners and friends of Ortofon have the incredible jubilee of 100 years. Not many companies can say that they have been the industry leader in their field and managed to exist for such... Read More »
Miramar, FL—December 11, 2018—JL Audio, an innovator in high-end audio solutions, now shipping an 8-inch version of their Fathom® IWS in-wall subwoofer systems with additional enclosure option for in-ceiling applications. The new 8-inch Fathom® IWS and ICS systems join a previous model, with a 13.5-inch driver, in the Fathom® IWS lineup. “We are excited about the potential of... Read More »
MQA Support Now Available on the SP1000, Coming Via Firmware Update on December 12 to SP1000M, SE100 and SR15 Players Irvine, CA – Astell&Kern, a global leader in portable high-resolution audio players, announces new firmware updates that will add MQA support for the A&ultima SP1000M, A&futura SE100 and A&norma SR15 on December 12, 2018. MQA... Read More »
Last weekend I traveled to Buena Park, CA, to attend the 25th Anniversary Gala Weekend for the Los Angeles and Orange County (LAOC) Audio Society. Some background: The LAOC was founded originally with the help of two of my partners at Positive Feedback, Carol and Dave Clark. They recently told the story of that development... Read More »
I first became aware of Mr. Ken Ishiguro's Acoustic Revive products in 2007 when they were recommended to me by Mr. Yoshi Hontani (The MuSon Project, Osaka, Japan), who exports hifi exotica from the Leben Hi-Fi Stereo Company, the Spec Corporation, fo. Q, Audio Replas, KRYNA, SFORZAT, Murasakino Ltd, and of course, the subject of this article, Acoustic Revive. This is Chapter... Read More »
ORA Singers: The Mystery of Christmas. Music of Allain, Anonymous, Byrd, Hall, Hyde, Lauridsen, Macmillan, McDowall, Peacock, Rowarth, Rutter, Samitz, Sixten, Tallis, Williams, and Weir. CD Harmonia Mundi HMM 905303. Downloads (24-bit/96kHz stereo AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, and WAV) available from HDTracks. Streaming available from Tidal. Recorded at St. Augustine's Church, Kilburn, London, January 23-28 and August 7-12, 2017. Nicholas Parker (all... Read More »
Great First Impressions I'll never forget the look on Greg Weaver's face the moment he and I got to hear (at the AXPONA 2018 high end show) what Studio Electric and chief designer Dave McPherson's latest thinking on what small loudspeakers, the diminutive M4, could do. Greg had that classic "I told you so" grin... Read More »
So, yeah… I buy a lot of music every year and little if any of it will ever be mistaken for that of the typical audiophile genres: jazz, female vocals, classical, or whatever. No, the music I buy tends to fall way outside what is heard at audio shows or seen in various audiophile magazines…... Read More »
Saariaho and Koh. Jennifer Koh, violin. Nicolas Hodges, piano. Hsin-Yun Huang, viola. Wilhelmena Smith, cello. Anssi Kaarttunen, cello, Curtis 20/21 Ensemble, Conner Gray Covington, conductor. Çedille CDR 90000183. There is some contemporary music we listen to because we just want to know what's going on. This is not the same as keeping up with fashion,... Read More »
The Beginner's Guide to Vinyl: How to Build, Maintain, and Experience a Music Collection in Analog, by Jenna Miles. ISBN-10: 1440598967. ISBN-13: 978-1440598968. Published by Adams Media (2017) Rating Global Appreciation: 8.5. Presentation: straightforward, non-deluxe. Category: music, vinyl record guide. Format: paperback book. 5.5 x 8.5 inches approx. 256 pages all B&W except for 8 semi-gloss colored pages located... Read More »
High-end headphones and Personal Fi. I've evaluated a goodly handful of 'phones and headphone amps over many years, with some excellent results. Some were large cost-no-object designs, built for home, listening room, or office use only; others were compact and portable, for the music lover on the go. (I do a fair amount of flying,... Read More »
ORGM-1030, LP $24, available at https://orgmusic.merchnow.com/products/v2/276626/softly-black-vinyl This one threw me for a loop, as my mom likes to say when she's thrown for a loop. I took one look at the cover and thought, "Oh, here's another wonderful ORG reissue from the Golden Age of Jazz." I know of Shirley Horn, but I'm not that... Read More »
Music Lovers will host two special listening events this weekend, November 30 and December 1, to celebrate the debut of Wilson Audio Specialties’ Sasha DAW loudspeaker. Featured guests will include Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio, Bob McConnell of Transparent Audio, and Jeff Sigmund of Luxman. Attendees will have two listening opportunities to choose from: one... Read More »
When Less Offers More In Issue 96 (this review has taken far too long, about which more in Part 2), I previewed several knockout products that had taken up temporary residence here at the Lounge (HERE). One of the new arrivals, Ron Sutherland's knockout 20/20 phono preamp, a unit that has been available to music... Read More »
The premise is simple enough: I key in on seven albums that are brand new to me. They could have been released at any point and time throughout history. Their format may be CD, Vinyl, Cassette Tape, or Streaming…who cares?! The albums may technically be singles or they may be EPs…again, who cares?! This is... Read More »
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Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave Clark (and Carol Clark) had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award. The Gizmo... Read More »
Roger Skoff at the LAOC Audio Society Gala Banquet, 2018: a portrait by David W. Robinson In Part 1 of this two-part article, I pointed out that we audiophiles are the only fan group I know of who argue, not just about which stuff is better, but about whether, for some products, there's any difference... Read More »
At Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2018, I was asked to participate in a panel titled Why We Listen: Music Changes Lives. I didn't realize what they meant is that they wanted me to moderate the panel. To ease the stress of moderating my first audio show panel, I was given the opportunity to choose the... Read More »
It seems like such a long time ago since I last dropped in and shared my audio adventures with you guys. Well, I got a good one for ya in this episode of Wayne's World. I don't quite remember how it all got started, but more than likely I was bragging to David Robinson about... Read More »
The following video is from RMAF 2018 where we discussed ways to increase the diversity in the audiophile community. Not only shows, but consumers as well. A lot to digest, to distill, and to build upon. Look for an article summarizing what we discussed soon, but till then.... stop denigrating people (age, gender, etc.) for their... Read More »
With over 250 headphone models supported, Award-Winning True-Fi software is poised to be the ultimate gift for music lovers this holiday season Riga, Latvia — Innovative European audio software developer Sonarworks announced that it will offer a spectacular 40% Black Friday discount off of its groundbreaking True-Fi headphone calibration software. For four days only, between November 23 and November... Read More »
It is a great honor and pleasure for us to present our new Anniversary-Edition, the Phono Box ultra 500. The "500“ in the name as well as the general availability, worldwide limited to 500 pieces, celebrate the 500,000th Phono Box that Pro-Ject shipped in early 2018. We took this milestone as an occasion to create... Read More »
Roger Skoff writes about the ongoing war over cables and what really matters Roger Skoff at the LAOC Audio Society Gala Banquet, 2018: a portrait by David W. Robinson I've said it before, and you've seen it before: We audiophiles, unlike any other group of fans or hobbyists that I know of, are always at... Read More »
"Well, you can take a crosstown bus if it's cold or if it's raining, And the animals will love it if you do." - The Zoo, Simon and Garfunkel The Audio Engineering Society convention is a strange two-lobed thing with a scientific conference downstairs and a trade show upstairs. In the past few years they... Read More »
PS Audio improves industry-leading DAC, again - for free Boulder, CO: 11/12/2018 - PS Audio is proud to announce the availability of Snowmass, the sixth OS upgrade for our DirectStream DAC named after a Colorado Fourteener - the 53 peaks in the state that that rise above 14,000 feet in elevation. Snowmass Mountain is in the Elk Mountains, southwest of Aspen. Ted Smith,... Read More »
Award-winning, internationally acclaimed jazz vocalist Lyn Stanley follows her top-selling Moonlight Sessions albums with an ultimate tribute to Julie London, set for Valentine’s Day weekend release Lyn honors the Great American Songbook and reimagines 17 classic songs on her upcoming album, London Calling…A Toast To Julie London Sneak Peek: Special audiophile editions scheduled to drop... Read More »
Ye Olde Editor, late summer 2018: a portrait by John Robinson A late-year glance backwards. Memory, music, people, associations… "No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had... Read More »
John Marks' latest recommendation from his The Tannhauser Gate blog site follows. As always, his recommendations are worth noting. David W. Robinson, Ye Olde Editor Friday, November 9 (2018), Deutsche Grammophon will release the CD Light Eternal—The Choral Music of Morten Lauridsen. Amazon's pre-order price for the CD is $12.59, which is a truly excellent price. But... Read More »
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA NOVEMBER 2, 2018 Cary Audio is excited to announce two new network audio players/streamers/DACs, the DMS-550 and DMS-600. As a direct replacement for our award-winning DMS-500, the new DMS-550 incorporates the newest AMK4493EQ DAC chips. The AK4493EQ adopts much of AKM’s VELVET SOUND architecture, achieving higher performance than the previous AK4490EQ. Through this new circuit architecture and design,... Read More »
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