In an unfortunate coincidence, a few nights before the Cabasse team arrived to install the company's unusual-looking La Sphère powered speaker system, VOOM HD Networks, Monster HD channel, which is exclusively devoted to B horror movies, broadcast <I>The Crawling Eye</I> (aka <I>The Trollenberg Terror</I>), a 1958 black-and-white howler starring Forrest Tucker. I watched.
Those of you in New York City this weekend should have no trouble finding a bit of music to enjoy. In fact, it might prove difficult to avoid. You may even find yourself dancing—wildly, uncontrollably—as you stroll along one of the city's many great stretches of sidewalk. The sidewalks themselves will vibrate like drum heads, bend like strings.
BillB brings up a good point. He writes:
Last year, when Epos importer Music Hall contacted me about reviewing the then-new M16 floorstanding loudspeaker, I hesitated. I had been very impressed with the M16's little bookshelf brother, the M5 (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/405epos">my review</A> in the April 2005 <I>Stereophile</I>, Vol.28 No.4), which I found uncolored, detailed, and a great value. Most of all, the M5 had an incredible balance of performance. But several times in the past, having been seduced by a wonderfully balanced bookshelf speaker, I've then been disappointed by one of its costlier, floorstanding brethren. The larger speaker might share the bookshelf's overall character, have deeper bass, and play louder with less strain, but too often that magical sense of balance that I had so enjoyed in the smaller speaker would be absent.
The Jazz Journalists Association announced the winners of its 2008 awards today. Here’s most of them—followed, in parentheses by how I voted:
The Fourier 6 has the special ability to generate large coherent sonic fields, from a box small enough to slip into an ordinary shopping bag. At $499/pair, the 6 competes directly with another remarkable-imaging, compact American speaker, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/446">Spica TC-50</A> ($420/pair).
<I>The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia</I>? Now in its second revised and updated printing? Does any one person, even a momentous artist who now seems determined to die on the stage (to steal a quote from the great <I>Midnight Cowboy</I>) really need or deserve their own encyclopedia?
Back in March 1998, Revel's Ultima Salon1 floorstanding loudspeaker generated quite a stir at <I>Stereophile</I> (<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/96">Vol.22 No.3</A>). Our reviewers were impressed by its seven designed-from-scratch drive-units, its ultramodern enclosure with curved rosewood side panels, exposed front tweeter and midrange, rear-facing reflex port and tweeter, and a flying grille over the mid-woofer and woofers. In the December issue (Vol.22 No.12), the Ultima Salon1 ($16,000/pair) was named <I>Stereophile</I>'s "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/features/178/index1.html">Joint Speaker of 1999</A>" for its "big bass, timbral accuracy, low distortion, dynamics, lack of compression, and best fit'n'finish."
Oh, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/060308criteria/">I forgot to mention</a>: For really dirty records, like those that have been through my many unfortunate basement floods or those that I've picked up from the flea market on 17th Street, I've developed a two-part cleaning process.
At Waterstone's website, <A HREF="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=1575">Neil Gaiman interviews Terry Pratchett</A>. If that isn't enough to whet your interest, the interview is accompanied by excellent Paul Kidby illustrations.