Vegas Cat
On my travel day <I>to</I> Vegas, I awoke at 3am and flew six hours to the desert city. When I checked into my hotel, I stripped off my outerwear and napped.
LATEST ADDITIONS
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So Long, Flashy
For many years one of my most beloved guilty pleasures has been reading George MacDonald Frasier's books. Not just the Flashman Papers, which I have found delightful and from which I have learned a lot of 19<SUP>th</SUP> century history, but also his McAusland novels, his <I>Mr. American</I>,his spirited adventure novel <I>Candlemass Road</I> (which, at a taut 181 pages, is one of the finest examples of economical action writing ever), and his masterful history of the Scottish boarder wars, <I>The Steel Bonnets</I>.
Emerson Radio Corp. and Adcom LLC Announce Joint Venture
A few days ago, <I>Stereophile</I> reader Bill Taylor wrote, "I was just strolling down memory lane and took a look at the Adcom website...they just merged with Emerson."
Ohm Walsh 5 loudspeaker
The Ohm Walsh 5 displaces the Ohm F at the top of the Ohm line, and the current Walsh 5 production run represents a "limited edition" of 500 pairs worldwide. There's even a certificate of authenticity—hand-signed by Ohm Acoustics President John Strohbeen—packed with the speakers that makes it all official. I think that this is more than a clever marketing gesture and clearly demonstrates Ohm Acoustics' pride in their new flagship loudspeaker.
Passion, I said
It was a quarter to five on the last day of the show, and I was feeling good. I mentioned this to John Atkinson. He was sitting there beside me. The bus was empty but for us. We were waiting to go back to our hotel, waiting to leave the noise and smoke and lights of the crowded, extravagant Venetian. The place is madness. All of Vegas is madness.
Recording of January 2008: Chrome Dreams II
<B>NEIL YOUNG: <I>Chrome Dreams II</I></B><BR>
Reprise 311932-2 (CD). 2007. Neil Young, prod.; Niko Bolas, prod., eng.; John Hausmann, Rob Clark, Brent Walton, Tim McColm, Colin Suzuki, asst. engs. AAD? TT: 66:17<BR>
Performance ****<BR>
Sonics ****
Frank Kimbrough's Air
In my last blog, I referred to “my friend, the pianist Frank Kimbrough,” so some of you may be leery when I tell you in this entry that Kimbrough’s new CD, and his first solo work, <I>Air</I> (on Palmetto Records), is a terrific piece of work, one of the half-dozen or so great solo piano albums of the past few years. If your suspicions keep you from checking it out, well, your loss.
CES Countdown, part the twooth: 357 days to CES2009
In yesterday's <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/wesphillips/011307ces/">philippic about CES's petty annoyances</A>, I said that I continue to be a recidivist in spite of them. The reason? Pretty much that the high-end portion of the industry remains a fascinating, personal, and essentially civilized place.
Measurements, Maps & Precision
As I wrote in this space last month, test-equipment manufacturer Audio Precision has loaned Stereophile a sample of their top-of-the-line SYS2722 system, which has both significantly greater resolution and greater bandwidth than the Audio Precision System One Dual Domain we have been using since 1989. The reviews you can read in this issue include the first measurements I have performed with this impressive piece of gear, though there are still a number of graphs I produced using our System One. In fact, with the equipment I tested using the SYS2722, I performed duplicate sets of measurements using both the System One and the Miller Audio Research QC Suite in order to get a handle on how close the three systems agreed. (They did on the tests where the SYS2722's improved resolution was not a factor.)
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Pepsi Did It!
The shoes are now dropping all over the place. We have previously reported that Warner Music Group had dropped DRM on its downloads, <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/123107warner/">joining</A> Amazon.com's Download store. Ten days ago, we also reported that Sony BMG had announced <I>it</I> was <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/010508sonybmg/">dropping DRM</A>, although it declined to release any distribution details at the time.