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The Sheffield Track Record
Robbie Buchanan and James Newton Howard, keyboards; Lennie Castro, percussion; Nathan East, bass guitar; Mike Landau, guitar; Carlos Vega, drums. Ron Tutt, and Jim Keltner, drum solos. TT: 22:13.
Sheffield LAB-20.

What, a recording of rock backup tracks? Who could care less? Me, is who. Quibble over the program if you will (actually, it isn't all that dull, and two of the numbers are fun to listen to), but this wasn't released for the program material. You might call it a tantalizing sample of where a lot of rock sound begins, before it is fuzzed, reverbed, and cross-dubbed God knows how many times before the final mess is released for the edification of the peons. This has to be one of the most astonishing rock recordings ever issued! The Absolute Sound's Harry Pearson (who obviously got his before we got ours, as you are reading this 9 weeks after our copy arrived) is quoted on the jacket as declaring this to be "Absolutely the best-sounding rock record ever made." He's right.

Recently, we've been asking a representative sample of Stereophile subscribers for suggestions as to how the magazine could be improved. We got 'em, in droves. And the one thing that led every list of suggestions we received was: "Publish more often!" Second in importance was: "Do more reports on affordable components, and let's have more suggestions for cheap ways of improving existing systems."

Hi-Fi Centre, of Vancouver, BC, is pleased to announce the opening of a brand-new, 5000-sq.-ft. audio/video showroom, in the Gastown district. The grand opening event will take place on Friday, February 27, 2015, in the new store located in the newly renovated BC Electric Building, at 433 Carrall Street. The 30-year-old, family-owned Hi-Fi Centre, founded by Alex Kivritsky, represents some of the finest manufacturers of high-performance audio, home theater, whole-house audio, compact systems, and headphones.

Keith Johnson is the man responsible for the records issued by Reference Recordings, from Professor Johnson's Astounding Sound Show through Tafelmusik—not to mention upcoming releases of Your Friendly Neighborhood Big Band and Respighi's Church Windows. As is frequently the case, Johnson's astounding recordings result from his intimate (molecular-level) knowledge of the process with which he deals and his ingenious adaptations to squeeze the most out of available (and not so available) technology. He is also one of the few critics of digital recording who has actually used a digital recorder, who has run tests to specifically identify digital's problems, and who would welcome a digital format that works as perfectly as the claims would have us believe the current system works.—Larry Archibald

The March 2015 issue has arrived. And it’s an issue of contrasts. Featured on the cover is Theta’s Prometheus monoblock, a class-D tower of power offering 320W into 8 ohms. You’d think that at $12,000/pair the Prometheus was expensive, but its price pales in comparison to the $54,000 Boulder is asking for its state-of-the-art 2110 preamplifier! Fortunately, the 132-page March 2015 Stereophile also features reviews of a very affordable turntable from Pioneer and a high-value tower loudspeaker from DALI.

Back before the ring-a-ding-ding Reprise records, where the brass blew and the fingers snapped, Francis Albert made a lot of overtly sad records for Capitol.