LATEST ADDITIONS

Within seconds after hitting play on the 2006 remaster of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," played back with the dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, what I thought would be a lovely opportunity to wax nostalgic morphed into something far deeper. The first few bars of the song grabbed us like nothing else we'd listened to over the past 10 days. Flack's complete calm, unwavering focus, and unapologetic intimacy took our breath away. The soundstage was wide, the silence profound, the presentation pristine. The beauty of Flack's voice and passion, enhanced by John Pizzarelli's guitar, Ron Carter's bass, and Ray Lucas's drums, transformed the music room into a holy sanctuary. Toward the end of the first verse, right before "To the dark and the endless skies," I rose long enough to turn off the lights. We sat together in silence, barely breathing.

Planned for KEF's 60th anniversary, much as the LS50 was planned for the company's 50th, the LS60 Wireless is a statement product that encompasses the premise of company founder Raymond Cooke that loudspeaker performance could be improved through the application of new materials and new technologies. Improvements in recent KEF designs include the refinement of the Uni-Q coaxial driver, Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT), force-canceling Uni-Core woofers with P-Flex surrounds, cabinets shaped to reduce diffraction, and the configuration and arrangement of drivers to create what KEF calls a Single Apparent Source.

Steely Dan: Countdown to Ecstasy
ABC/Geffen Records/UMG, Analogue Productions UHQR 0010-45 (2 LPs). 2022.
Gary Katz, Chad Kassem, prods.; Roger Nichols, Miss Natalie, Bernie Grundman, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****

They were elitist brainiacs. The lyrics were too obscure. Their rhythmic, irresistible pop confections resisted easy description. Yet their debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill, was a surprise hit. The band's response? Knowing that their sales success had bought them goodwill at ABC, their record label, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker went the integrity route. They forgot about hit singles, embraced risk, and fearlessly pushed the genre envelope in the direction of saxophone breaks, funk rhythms, and bluesy explorations.

The result was Countdown to Ecstasy.

Stereophile's March 2023 issue includes two follow-up reviews of high-performance digital playback products: the Benchmark DAC3 B D/A processor; and the Rotel Diamond Series DT-6000 DAC Transport (a CD player with digital inputs).

Although Swiss-based CH Precision is a relatively young company, its core design team has been involved in high-performance audio for many years. Their website doesn't state the company's age, but something there did provide a hint: Among the design team's previous activities was work for another Swiss company, Anagram Technologies...I hadn't made the connection between Anagram and CH Precision when Raphael Pasche, the latter's electronics design engineer, visited last fall to install CH Precision's P1 dual-mono phono stage and the optional X1, a discretely regulated, outboard linear power supply that's claimed to exhibit ultralow levels of noise. The P1 can be ordered as a stereo preamp for $31,000; add $17,000 for the identically sized X1 power supply. Or one mono P1 can be used for each channel, for $55,000 plus $34,000 for two X1s. Expensive stuff.

Scenes: Variable Clouds; Owen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center, Vol.1; Ahmad Jamal: Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse 1965–1966.

Ruby Hughes: Echo: Songs Across the Ages; Anne-Sophie Mutter: Brahms Double Concerto & Clara Schumann Piano Trio; Mozart in Milan; Ben-Haim: Symphony No.1; Weinberg: Symphonies Nos.3 & 7, Flute Concerto No.1.