James Ellroy on The Black Dahlia
And his mom, of course—and the upcoming movie. <I>The Virginia Quarterly</I>, which is rapidly becoming my favorite periodical, published Ellroy's afterword to the new edition of <I>The Black Dahlia</I>.
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Beer: Midwife of Civilization
Damn straight! <I>Hic!</I>
More Media, Less Info
<I>The Economist</I> tells us something we already know. <I>Wait a minute . . .</I>
Why Hemingway Is Chick-Lit
<I>Yes, we speak of things that matter,<BR>
With words that must be said,<BR>
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"<BR>
"Is the theater really dead?"</I>
Stand By Me
This is a really sweet video from Fast Focus' <I>Lennon Legend</I>. I've always loved Lennon's soulful version of this classic—what a great slow dance.
Acoustic Resonance Antigravity
You take a 600 Hz tone and adjust the amplitude and phase relationships among three speakers. My buddy Jeff swears he saw this done in Jersey with just two loudspeakers, but I think he was just listening at such high volume that his eyeballs were compressing.
Is there an audio company that offers exceptional customer support? Who are they and what do they do?
Some manufacturers just sell you a product through their retailers and are done with it. Others reach out and make you feel part of an extended family. Is there an audio company that offers exceptional customer support? Who are they and what do they do?
McIntosh C1000 preamplifier system
Still burning in my bank of childhood memories are misty images of the glowing green lettering on the McIntosh tube preamps and tuners that populated the windows of the audio stores that once lined lower Manhattan's Cortlandt Street. Leonard's and most of those other retailers are long gone—as are most of the audio brands that shared their windows with McIntosh, and that once symbolized the might of American innovation and manufacturing. Even the World Trade Center, the controversial complex that replaced Cortlandt Street's "Radio Row," where the hi-fi industry was born, is tragically gone.
Listening #44
<I>"Happy is he who gets to know the reasons for things."
—Virgil</I>
Graham Engineering Phantom B-44 tonearm
The <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tonearms/400">Graham Engineering 1.5</A> tonearm, originally introduced in 1990, was a thoughtfully executed design that logically addressed all of the basics of good tonearm performance—geometry, resonance control, rigidity, dynamic stability—with effective, sometimes ingenious ideas, while providing exceptional ease and flexibility of setup. Over time, designer Bob Graham came up with ways to significantly improve the 1.5's performance, including the replacement of its brass side weights with heavier ones of tungsten, an improved bearing with a more massive cap, various changes in internal wiring, a far more rigid and better-grounded mounting platform, and a new, sophisticated ceramic armwand. (The original wand had hardly been an afterthought: its heat-bonded, constrained-layer-damped design consisted of an inner tube of stainless steel and an outer tube of aluminum.) The arm's name changed from the 1.5 to the 1.5t (tungsten), then the 1.5t/c (ceramic), and on to the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tonearms/401">2.0</A>, 2.1, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tonearms/401/index7.html">2.2</A>.