LATEST ADDITIONS

Wes Phillips  |  Jun 26, 2007  |  0 comments
I'm with Calvin Trillin on this one: Never eat in a restaurant that rotates.
Fred Kaplan  |  Jun 25, 2007  |  First Published: Jun 26, 2007  |  4 comments
Lee Konitz, who turns 80 in October, ambled on stage last night at New York’s Zankel Hall, blew a note, asked his audience to hum it, then, as we all hummed it continuously like a dirge, he blew over it on his alto sax, an improvised solo, darting and weaving, choppy then breezy, sifting changes, shifting rhythms, and all so very cool. It lasted five minutes, it probably could have gone much longer. Then two old pals, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Paul Motian, joined him, and they played standards. Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano came out to trade fours and eights. They all left, and on came a string quartet, which played ballads and Debussy, Konitz cruising over the sweet strings in his signature airy tone, with its syncopated cadences and wry, insouciant swing.
Wes Phillips  |  Jun 25, 2007  |  0 comments
Conn and Hal's Iggulden's The Dangerous Book for Boys has been on my must-read list since it was published here in the States, but Conn's lovely essay, "In Praise of Skinned Knees and Grubby Faces," has catapulted it to the top of my list.
Wes Phillips  |  Jun 25, 2007  |  0 comments
When Franz Reuleaux created the "language of invention," he more or less invented the future we live in.
Wes Phillips  |  Jun 25, 2007  |  0 comments
Not bloody likely, says Michael Dirda. A scant 12 years after his death, you're unlikely to find even his most lauded novel, Lucky Jim in bookstores, libraries, or on friends' bookshelves.
Stereophile  |  Jun 24, 2007  |  46 comments

Audiophiles get a lot of ribbing at times for all kinds of reasons. Has anybody ever made fun of you for being an audiophile?

Has anybody ever made fun of you for being an audiophile?
Yes
49% (46 votes)
Kind of
23% (21 votes)
Not yet
28% (26 votes)
Total votes: 93
Art Dudley  |  Jun 24, 2007  |  0 comments
I was the member of the family on whom the others could depend for technical assistance: mending eyeglass frames, fixing the radio, replacing the lightbulb in the oven, getting the car to idle smoothly. No job too big or too small. House calls a specialty.
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 24, 2007  |  1 comments
With the introduction of the NHB-108 stereo amplifier, Swiss-based darTZeel quickly established a reputation for pristine, hand-built quality, fanciful industrial design, and elegant circuitry—all accompanied by a healthy jolt of sticker shock. (See John Marks' coverage in his September 2003 "Fifth Element" column, followed by Wes Phillips' full review in April 2005 .) The 100Wpc (into 8 ohms) NHB-108 costs more than $18,000. A lot of change for not a lot of power, but the reviews were unanimous in praising the amp's exceptional sound quality.
Robert Deutsch  |  Jun 24, 2007  |  0 comments
The naming of audio companies is a tricky business. Ideally, the name should be distinctive, so that people will remember it, and descriptive of the products. However, given the proliferation of audio manufacturers, it's getting more and more difficult to come up with a name that fulfills these criteria, and some names are similar enough to lead to confusion. In one of my show-report blog entries from the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, instead of correctly listing a company name as Divergent Technologies, I called it Definitive Technologies, which is the name of an another audio company—and was rightly chastised for it in a comment by a reader. I'll bet that no such confusion will occur in the case of Flying Mole Electronics. (As far as I know, there is no Flying Groundhog Electronics.)

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