No, this blog isn't about slaughter. It's about the components in Seattle Hi-Fi of Redmond, WA's room, some of which were displayed on Butcher Block Acoustics shelving.
Nor was there anything about the sound Burt Goodman drew from his system deserving of slaughter. True, the music selections were all standard audiophile fare from previous generations, but the sound was here, now, and excellent. Diana Krall's "Let’s Fall in Love" was bright, lovely, clean, colorful, and fully detailed.
Given how crowded the loudspeaker manufacturing space has always been, I am always surprised when a new brand not only springs into being but does so with new speakers that sound and measure well. Take the UK's Q Acoustics, for example. The company didn't exist before 2006 and didn't have a presence in the US until 2018.
What a great way to start a show. I don't know what impelled me to choose my CD of Patricia Barber's Higher, but the combination of Constellation's smooth-talking Pictor line stage with DC blocker ($24,500) and DC filter ($8000) with the company's Centaur II 500 amplifier ($80,000) and Magico S5 MkII loudspeakers ($45,500/pair) was perfect for Barber's cool, no-nonsense presentation. This was one smooth, toned-down, ultra-clean system that all but guaranteed non-fatiguing listening for hours and hours upon end.
Stop the presses! The wittiest of Stereophile's legacy posters, our very own Anton, has returned to the audio show realm. Once again ensconced in his unique NFS roomNFS stands for "Not for Sale"Anton has rented a penthouse suite at PAF in which to seduce showgoers with mood lighting, a vintage/homebrewed system, and lots and lots of hard brew (as in alcohol).
Spied in the hallway the night before the show opened was Lou Hinkley, PAF co-organizer (with Gary Gill of the Capital Audio fest). Since Lou also owns/designs WA State-based Daedalus Audio's speakers and will be running that room, who knows what shape he'll be in by end of Day 3. But when I discovered him at 6:30pm, he let on that assisting/troubleshooting/and reassuring exhibitors on the day before was one of the most humbling experiences of his life.
The first high-end audio show in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), the Pacific Audio Fest, runs FridaySunday, July 2830, in the Doubletree Hilton near SEATAC airport. Opening times are 10am6pm Friday and Saturday, 10am4pm Sunday.
Like many fans of music on vinyl, I've grown accustomed to waiting for preordered records. For several years, record-pressing plants have been oversubscribed; there just aren't enough presses to keep up with demand. When vinyl declined in the 1980sreplaced first by cassette tape and then by CDold presses were abandoned, falling to rust and disrepair before the vinyl revival, leaving the industry with limited capacity.
My little corner of Brooklyn happens to have a terrific little record shop. I like it for the usual reasons: well-chosen merchandise, fair prices, fun music on the speakers while you browse. But I like it just as much because great record stores tend to resemble one another in more idiosyncratic ways, and this one has the earmarks of the great record stores of my youth.
Whenever I do turntable-setup seminars, I complain to the participants about the lack of cartridge-pin diameter and clip-opening standards. Anyone who does their own setup has experienced it: The connection is too tight or too loose. Forcing the clip onto the pin usually results in a broken-off clip that most end users don't have the soldering skills needed to repair; in the worst case, it can even result in damage to the cartridge when you try to remove the clip from the pin.
Characteristically, the email from Kal Rubinson got straight to the point: "I have a WiiM Mini that I have played with, but I am not the right one to review this as I am not sufficiently interested in or knowledgeable about wireless streaming. It ... can handle uncompressed PCM via its DACs." "I'll review it," I replied, intrigued by a $99 D/A processor that can stream hi-rez audio via Wi-Fi and that also has an analog input so it can act as a preamplifier.