Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
Love those vintage Yamaha receivers. BTW, how is that Horace Silver "Song for my father" album? Any good? Saw it at Academy this past weekend.
Maybe too much fun.
Everyone is asked (or maybe expected, by this point) to bring records to the Monkeyhaus. Here’s my stack, with a gift from Michael Lavorgna at the front: John Prine’s self-titled debut, featuring such heartbreaking and heartwarming numbers as “Illegal Smile,” “Spanish Pipedream,” “Sam Stone,” “Far From Me,” “Angel From Montgomery,” “Donald and Lydia,” and “Six O’Clock News”it’s amazing that a single album could hold so many wonderful songs, isn’t it?
Some of the ’Haus collection.
DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 3XLs, the most affordable of all loudspeakers currently rated Class A (Restricted LF) in our “Recommended Components.”
There’s a view of Manhattan from the Monkeyhaus factory windows.
John DeVore’s got an enviable collection of vintage amps and receivers.
This particular Monkeyhaus was arranged specifically to greet DeVore’s Spanish distributor, Blas Oliva (left) of Broker Audio in Pamplona. Here we see Oliva smiling with Nori Komuro of Komuro Audio Labs.
I bet Michael Hurley drinks Dale’s Pale Ale, too.
From left: John DeVore plays DJ, while Michael Lavorgna and Blas Oliva share a laugh over cans of Dale’s.
Up close and personal with Tone Imports’ Jonathan Halpern.
One of the many great records we enjoyed: Sun City Girls’ Funeral Mariachi. Look for Robert Baird’s review of this outstanding album in our January 2011 issue.
George McGregor’s “Temptation Is Hard to Fight.” Ain’t that the truth?
Thanks Stephen--I just wanted to mention that the photo up top is of Pepper, a 40 year old chimp "retired" from lab testing at NYU and living now in Florida. Her riveting portrait is by Frank Noelker. Her story along with many other photos and stories can be seen at his website www.franknoelker.com
Drinking beer and getting looped are not the same thing now are they? The Good Book says "Thank you for the wine which makes me happy." That is as solid an endorsement as I need.But back to the music, that first Prine record is just amazing. It is difficult to listen to Sam Stone without crying just a bit. And Angel From Montgomery is transcendent, and even better when Bonnie Raitt covered it on Streetlights.I am thinking of starting a little Monkeyhaus here in Nashville once I get all set up in our house again. Sad thing is we can't smoke cigars in the house. But we can drink beer. I think we will start with a local favorite Yazoo's Dos Perros.
Hello Gatto,It is a Revox A-720. I actually got two of them to get one perfect one, and now have two nicely working samples, though one has broken FM meters. Of course I got it for the nixies-tube digital display, it's such a beauty.Cheers,John
Is that a Yamaha CA-800 integrated I see in the middle of the rack? I have had mine since 1977 and it is still purring along. It's been all over the country since I bought it. It is no light weight, coming in at 45 lbs or so and 45 watts rated but a measured output at rated THD of 83 watts.
It looks just like my CA-800 which also has the "Normal" or "Class A" switch. Great amp and built like a tank. I have it connected to a Technics SL-1200 Mk2 and powering some Large Advent Loudspeakers. I also run my iPod into it even though I think it is older than Apple itself it sounds great.