Select members of the audio press were invited to GTT Audio for the YG Acoustics Sonja XV speaker press event. Over the course of a week, each of us got to experience a personal listening session. Lynn and I were scheduled for the afternoon of the first day; Dr. David Robinson, ye olde editor at... Read More »
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 »
Dirk Sommer, with photographs by Helmut Baumgartner For everyone who takes a real interest in High End it's a truism that even the best equipment can't recreate a live impression. This alleged fact, however, while perhaps not refuted, would be at least seriously shaken by visiting the Audio Forum in Duisburg, Germany, the Acapella Audio... Read More »
Von Schweikert Audio Introduces the UniField 2 MkII Von Schweikert Audio is pleased to announce our newest loudspeaker, the UniField 2 MkIII. First introduced in 2006, the stand-mount designed UniField 2 has proven extremely popular. So much so, it’s earned the distinction of being the highest selling model of any Von Schweikert Audio design since... 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 »
AURALiC Introduce ARIES firmware 4.0 New playback engine brings massive sound quality improvement and exciting new features Beijing, China, 11th September, 2016 – AURALiC LIMTIED released version 4.0 of Lightning device firmware for ARIES, ARIES LE and ARIES MINI. The new firmware, which utilizes AURALiC’s latest Lightning Playback Engine V2, brings user several new... 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 »
FIRENZE, Italy: Gold Note - the Italian High-End manufacturer based in Firenze - is going to release Vasari in October, a new MM cartridge engineered to offer high quality at a competitive price. The cartridge will launch in two models: Vasari Red and Vasari Gold, both featuring a unique body design, fully machined from solid... Read More »
It was a glorious day for a Hudson River crossing, with clear skies and endless visibility, the kind of day that photographers love. Lynn and I were off to visit Distinctive Stereo in northern New Jersey. We boarded the New York Waterway ferry at West 39th Street. Eight minutes later we docked at Port Imperial/Weehawken,... Read More »
iPhone Headphone Jack Going Away? Your Headphones Won’t Have to With HRT’s i-dSp Accessory! The rumors have been flying: Apple may be introducing a new iPhone or two – and the new phones may not have a 3.5 mm headphone jack. No headphone jack? No worries: users will still be able to use their current... 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 »
The iSINE Series and LCD i3 are the Latest Innovations in Planar Magnetic Technology Costa Mesa, Calif. The Audeze iSINE 20 (USD $599.00) Audeze, the #1 manufacturer of high-end headphones, launches its first series of in-ear headphones. They Incorporate all the technology of the rave-reviewed LCD Collection, including patented Fluxor™ magnets, ultra-thin diaphragms and patented... Read More »
Nordost is excited to announce the launch of its newest product, the Sort Lift®. The Sort Lift® is the preeminent cable support in the consumer electronics industry, and is the perfect addition to Nordost’s line of Resonance Control Devices: the Sort System. Nordost’s Sort System is designed to allow components to resonate at their natural... Read More »
Great news! Positive Feedback and NativeDSD (http://www.nativeDSD.com) announce the release of a joint music project, the PF DSD Sampler, Volume 1. This project was done to celebrate NativeDSD.com's amazing achievement of passing 1000 albums at its site in early September of 2016. The PF DSD Sampler, Volume 1 is a collection of ten selections from... Read More »
In July, I visited all star music guru Quincy Jones at his mind-boggling hacienda near UCLA with its round ballroom's piano ready main gathering area looking out over Los Angeles. Description fails to capture the elegance and grandeur of Quincy's palace. Three Oscars sit here and there like Olympic paper weights. Q's two dozen-plus Grammy... Read More »
So here I am retired, and with lots of time. Time for music, beer, wine, the magazine… my art and more (like being on the Board of Directors for two non-profits here in LB—yikers what have I done?)... and time to listen to our music with the PS Audio BHK Signature Preamplifier and DirectStream DAC.... Read More »
The audio domain is a field which combines a few spheres of human activity, i.e. music, the art of recording and reproducing it. The most important aspects of music reproduction are: technical knowledge, musical sensitivity and attention to artistic design. The last of the three is (or rather used to be) especially controversial. It is... Read More »
Brief Impressions: From an Editor's Notebook In which our hero meditates… What a year it's been. There have been so many products and projects here at PF Central in 2016 that I'll be writing from here until the end of the bloody year to cover them all. Some of these will require a more extended... Read More »
Wyred 4 Sound Releases New Powerful Amplifier, The SX-1000R ATASCADERO, CA, Aug 2016— Wyred 4 Sound is pleased to announce the SX-1000R, the evolution of the multi-award-winning SX-1000 amplifier and Wyred 4 Sound’s most powerful amplifier. The SX-1000R can produce peaks in excess of 625W with 8Ω loads and 1225W with 4Ω loads. The new... 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 »
Playback Designs Announces the Production Release of their Pinot A/D Quad DSD Converter The Playback Designs Pinot Analog-to-Digital Quad DSD/PCM Converter Playback Design has announced the production release of their new Pinot A/Dconverter as part of their SONOMA series system incorporating the latest QUAD DSDFPGA technology. According to Andreas Koch, president and designer of Playback... Read More »
The DirectStream Junior DAC is my first in-home experience with a PS Audio product. It is also a brand-spanking new product, so my thanks to PS Audio's Marketing Director, Bill Leebens for making it happen. Having such a hot product on my review-plate does not happen to me that often. It's awesomely cool... It's Steve McQueen... Read More »
If one has to use the word "legendary" to describe a musician or band, then when applied to the King Crimson it would be relatively painless from where I stand. Founded in London in January 1969 still the same year, in October they released the album that, let's not start to be modest now, forever... Read More »
[The Boston Symphony Orchestra has been entangled with Tanglewood for decades. This outdoor setting of historical (for America) lineage has seen more than its share of great orchestral works over the years, thus affirming the blessing of the original benefaction given by the Tappan family back in 1936. John Marks, editor and writer at The Tannhauser... 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 »
[a]pendics.shuffle: The name jumped off the screen during some late-night online record shopping. One day I'll share about the site itself, as I'm on there often - but admittedly I'm very protective of the outfit: For selfish reasons of course: The spot's usually got wicked underground electronic tunes (on vinyl, CD and hi-rez downloads via FLAC & .WAV).
The Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest (RMAF) has been notified by the Marriott Denver Tech Center (DTC) that second phase renovations have been delayed (see attached statement from the Marriott) and will not be complete by the start of the 13th Annual RMAF in October. In response to this development, RMAF and the Marriott DTC... Read More »
Lavish HiFi in Santa Rosa, CA, is hosting a special free listening GamuT event from 4 to 8 p.m. on Friday, September 30th & Saturday October 1st, featuring the premiere of GamuT's new flagship speaker, The ZODIAC, along with guest appearances from GamuT’s chief designer Benno Baun Meldgaard and GamuT’s US president Michael Vamos. Both will on... Read More »
Oh damn!! There goes my new dedicated power supply!
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 »
Jimi Hendrix Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 Out September 30 On CD, 2 LP 180 Gram Vinyl, High Resolution SACD And Digital Historic Debut Concert of Band of Gypsys to Be Released in its Entirety For First Time Ever Experience Hendrix L.L.C. and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment,... Read More »
LP Gear®, a global analog resource specializing in phono cartridges, replacement styli, turntable belts, turntables, headphones, earphones, audio electronics and accessories, is happy to present the Vessel and BIN Cartridges. The Magic of Analog Most people would say they listen to music with their ears. But as you upgrade your system and resolution reaches some... Read More »
"On a cost vs. sound quality basis (alone), Digital Amplifier Company DAC DAC may be the best digital to analog converter to come along in 3 decades; all the way back to the extremely costly & extraordinary $12,000 Stax DAC-X1t Vacuum Tube Output Reference D/A Processor (1989)!" Introduction There are an extremely wide range of choices... Read More »
John Marks is a lover of fine music videos. In our generation, a major new blessing has been the marriage of high-quality audio with high-quality video to provide us with both the sights and sounds of major performers presenting us with their artistry. It started with videotape and NTSC resolution, but progressed to DVD, and... Read More »
HIFIMAN Updates Flagship HE1000 and Edition X Headphones with V2 Designation Highly Acclaimed Planar Magnetic Models Receive Styling and Ergonomic Improvements HIFIMAN, a leading designer/manufacturer of high performance headphones and portable audio products, announced important updates to their two top planar magnetic headphones. The highly acclaimed HE1000 and Edition X have undergone several styling and mechanical... Read More »
