Spanish Admirers
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...or maybe not!
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The Loft aka the room we all want but never get
If just seeing a room can make you mouth water...well, this was it.
As soon as I walked in the door...
I saw this prominently displayed...
If you had to pick one primary format for your music, what would it be?
Putting multi-format bundles aside for the moment, if you had to pick one primary format for your music, what would it be?
Aerial Acoustics 20T V2 loudspeaker
It was an audacious demonstration. For the launch of Aerial's 20T loudspeaker at the end of 2002, Aerial's head honcho and designer, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/467">Michael Kelly</A>, had arranged to compare the speakers reproducing the recorded sound of virtuoso violinist Arturo Delmoni with the <A HREF="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/467">real thing</A>. The setting was the ornate dining room of one of Newport, Rhode Island's many mansions, and, given the inevitable differences—due to the facts that a violin has a very different radiation pattern from a loudspeaker and thus excites the room differently, and that the recording inevitably gives the listener a double dose of the room's acoustic—the demo was successful. There was much subsequent argy-bargying between <I>Stereophile</I>'s reviewers about who would review the Aerial 20T, but it was Michael Fremer who eventually <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/404aerial">wrote about it</A> in April 2004.
HRT Music Streamer+ USB D/A Converter
Every now and then an affordable product comes along that's so good, even wealthy shoppers want it. Past examples in domestic audio include the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/184rega">Rega RB300</A> tonearm, the original Quicksilver Mono amplifier, the Grace F9E phono cartridge—even Sony's unwitting CD player, the original <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/708play">PlayStation</A>. Based on word of mouth alone, one might add the HRT Music Streamer+ to that lauded list.
Recording of November 2009: The Visitor
<B>Jim O'Rourke: <I>The Visitor</I></B><BR>
Drag City DC375CD (CD). 2009. Jim O'Rourke, prod., eng. AAD? TT: 38:03<BR>
Performance ****<BR>
Sonics ****
The Spaces Between the Notes
"Check it out." Music editor Robert Baird handed me a CD. "He's 70 years old, it's his 13th album, he got Don Was to produce it, and it's his best yet."
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What Happened In Puerto Rico?
<b>A Round of Shots</b><br>
<i>Friday, October 23, 9:35pm</i>
Concha Buika
Back at the Barcelona Jazz Festival, after many espressos, a hunk of Cod, potatoes with olive oil mayo and tomato sauce, grilled mushrooms, and some of the best cookies I’ve ever had (thumb sized sugar cookies with chocolate centers), I made the trip to several record stores including Jazz Messengers, which has perhaps the finest collection of live jazz CDs and some LPs, in the world. If you’re feeling strong, pay down a credit card and then check out their website, www.jazzmessengers.com. They ship to the States, I checked. I picked up a CD of <B>Clifford Brown</B>’s final concert in Norfolk, Virginia, which was recorded in 1956, the week before his tragic death at age 26 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The tenor player on the date was Sonny Rollins. Max Roach, Brownie’s friend and constant musical companion was on drums. It’s a legendary concert that has never been available in the US and needless to say I am thrilled to finally have a copy.