Various Artists: Woodstock: Back To The Garden - 50th Anniversary Experience
Rhino Records A 587817 (10 CD). 2019. Andy Zax, Brian Kehew, reissue prods; Dave Schultz, reissue mastering; Eddie Kramer, Lee Osborne, engs. TT: 12:42:23
Performance *****
Sonics ***
Fifty years, man! By the time you read this, the dates will have passed during which promoters had hoped to stage a 50th anniversary Woodstock Festivalsadly, they failed in their effortand Woodstock mania will have peaked and diedeven pieces of the Woodstock stage are available to buy (I have two!). And yet the artifact that will always remain at the center of the era-defining event is this extensive and amazing audio document that the organizers had the foresight to record.
On Friday, September 27, Apple Corps, Ltd./Capitol/UMe will release, in various analog and digital formats, a remixed and remastered version of the Beatles' Abbey Road, commissioned in honor of that album's 50th anniversary. And on Saturday, September 28, between 3:00pm and 6:00pmlocal timesover 40 perfectionist-audio retailers across the US and Canada, coast to coast, will mark the event by playing all 17 of the album's tracks, presumably on the finest imaginable playback systems. (It is a not-unreasonable expectation that at least some of these many playback sessions will take place at the same time, thus stimulating a great harmonic convergence. Or something.)
New York City is forever being born. Lately, transnational capitalists are turning Manhattan into both an investment vehicle and playground for their platinum-level appetites. As real estate developments blot the city's skyline with competing glass-and-metal towers, mom-and-pop businesses collapse under rising rents and a lack of protection from predatory landlordsall the while such New York institutions as the White Horse Tavern, Cafe Edison, Bleecker Bob's, the Plaza Hotel, the Paris Theatre, and the Chelsea Hotel undergo massive change or disappear altogether. (Thank God for Katz's Delicatessen!)
Products listed here have been formally reviewed in Stereophile, and we have determined them to be among the finest available in each of four or five quality classes. Whether a component is listed in Class A or Class D (or E), we consider it to be a genuinely recommendable product.
Each listing, in alphabetical order within classes, is followed by a brief description of its performance characteristics and a note indicating the issue of Stereophile in which its review, and in some cases its Follow-Up reports, have appearedie, "Vol.41 No.6" indicates our June 2018 issue. And so forth.
The era of streaming in CD-quality and hi-rez music has arrived at one of the world’s major subscription streaming services, complete with a free 90-day trial.
Yup, you're in a strange position, all right. You're in love with a girl who is no more.Haruki Murakami
The quote above, from Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore, is addressed to Kafka, a 15-year-old boy who has fallen in love with the teenage ghost of an older woman. The woman is still alive, but ever since the death of her lover many years before, she has existed separate from her spirit. Falling in love with ghosts is something I've done often, starting at about Kafka's age.
In Alfred Hitchcock's great film Vertigo, filmed in San Francisco in 1957, the protagonist, Scottie, played by James Stewart, becomes obsessed with Madeleine, played by Kim Novak. Scottie, a retired detective, suffers from a disabling case of acrophobia, which becomes a critical if tenuous plot point.
I once told Stereophile publisher Larry Archibald it might be worth, say, a 10% loss in sound quality with CD not to have to jump up and turn over the damned record. Sometimes a CD saves you from popping up twiceMahler's Fifth or Bruckner's Seventh on a single disc instead of three LP sidesor three timesMozart's Magic Flute on three CDs instead of 6 LP sides. That might be worth a 15% sacrifice.
The $799 Theorem was originally shown at the 1992 WCES in a very small chassis that prohibited adding features or upgrades. Sumo has since become more ambitious, putting the Theorem in a full-sized chassis and offering several upgrade options that would have been impossible in the truncated version.
One measure of a high-end product designer's talent is the musical success of his top-of-the-line product. This is his statement to the world of what he can accomplisha kind of "personal best" that defines the upper limits of his talent. Because he knows of no way to make the product better, the component stands as the ultimate testimonial to his skill.