Recording of April 1994: Under the Pink
<B>TORI AMOS: <I>Under the Pink</I></B><BR> Atlantic 82567-2 (CD). John Beverly Jones, Paul McKenna, Eric Rosse, engs.; Eric Rosse, Tori Amos, prods. AAD? TT: 56:52
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Recording of March 1994: Pärt: Te Deum, etc.
<B>PÄRT: <I>Te Deum</I>, <I>Silouans Song</I>, <I>Magnificat</I>, <I>Berliner Messe</I></B><BR> Tõnu Kaljuste, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Talinn Chamber Orchestra<BR> ECM 1505 (CD only). Manfred Eicher, prod.; Peter Laenger, Andreas Neubronner, engs. DDD. TT: 66:01
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Stereophile Consulting technical editor Robert Harley and I were walking down Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue trying to remember where we'd parked our rental car. We were in town for the Fall 1993 Audio Engineering Society Convention, and had just had dinner with record reviewer Beth Jacques.
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Space...the Final Frontier
High-end audiophiles are space freaks---we relish the warmth and spaciousness of a fine, old performing hall almost as much as we do the music recorded in it. But my attendance at a series of orchestral concerts held last summer brought home to me---as never before---the sad fact that our search for the ultimate soundstage is doomed to failure: we're trying to reproduce three-dimensional space from a two-dimensional system, and it simply can't be done.
1994 Records To Die For
Here we go again---the usual <I>Stereophile</I> suspects rounding up some very <I>un</I>usual suspects of their own, and all collected in "Records To Die For," the highest annual concentration of surprising recommendations in the biz. Reviewers of wares soft and hard pick their absolute most favoritest recordings, each of which must be a) a topnotch performance in b) topnotch stereo sound. But be warned: some of us cheat (if we can get away with it).
Recording of February 1994: The Yellow Shark
<B>ZAPPA: <I>The Yellow Shark</I></B><BR> Ensemble Modern; Peter Rundel, Frank Zappa, conductors<BR> Barking Pumpkin R2 71600 (CD only). Frank Zappa, prod.; Spencer Chrislu, Harry Andronis, Dave Dondorf, engs.; Todd Yvega, Synclavier asst. DDD. TT: 72:00
1992 Records To Die For
Letters? Boy, did we get letters last year when we ran the very first "Records to Die For": subscription renewals, subscription cancellations, groveling gratitude, death threats, paeans, pans, madness, ecstasy, invitations to any number of sanity hearings (we sent our regrets)---and that was just from our own staff. How could we <I>not</I> do it again?
The Shun Mook Affair
<I>Editor's note: When Jonathan Scull reviewed the Shun Mook devices back in 1994, he unleashed a hailstorm of controversy that continues to this day. Below is his original report along with some of the follow-up articles and fallout.</I>
Why a Preamp?
That was the question asked by a reader who was perfectly happy with his CD-based system. He was using the gain control provided by the variable output of his CD player and was apparently in no need of phono playback or greater flexibility. He asked us to answer this question, ignoring for the moment the obvious functions of switching, volume and tone control, and phono preamplification. With those hardly trivial qualifiers—and bearing in mind the high output available from many of today's line sources, CD players in particular—do you really need the added expense and complexity of a preamplifier?
"I have heard the future of audio...and it is digital."
Two recent listening experiences of mine echoed the overblown praise Jon Landau lavished upon Bruce Springsteen after he heard <I>The Wild, the Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle</I>. But all hype aside, Landau was right: Springsteen <I>was</I> the future of rock'n'roll—or at least what passed for the future of traditional rock in those pre-MTV, pre-techno, pre-house, pre-gangsta, pre-rap, pre-hip-hop, pre-grunge, pre-Mariah Carey, pre-Garth Brooks, pre-sampling, pre-digital days. And I believe that, Landau-like, I too will be right. I have heard the future of audio, and it is digital—digital technology has finally surpassed the sound quality of analog.