How many times have you been told by parents and teachers that everything successful must be built on a strong foundation? It's true in music, where the low frequencies are the foundation the music rests on, like the basement framing a building. If you get that part wrong, where are you? Sitting in the mud, that's where. With no chance to address beauty in the midrange, texture and air above, or other tasty things.
Youngstown, Ohiobased loudspeaker manufacturer SVS made foundations its specialty, starting at the company's very beginning in 1998, when it started by designing subwoofers and only subwoofers. The company didn't start offering regular loudspeakers, with midranges and high frequencies, until 2012. Over time, SVS's high-value speakers got more ambitious until earlier this year, at AXPONA, it introduced its most ambitious loudspeaker yet, the full-range, three-way Ultra Evolution Pinnacle ($4999.98/pair).
In the August issue's As We See It, Tom Fine and I encouraged readers to hold on to their physical mediathose black and silver discseven if they're stashed away in a closet or attic, replaced by hi-rez streaming. An important reason we gave is that with physical media (in contrast to streaming), you know exactly what you're listening toor at least you can know, with a little work.
Also if you want to, you can do a lot of work, since there is much to know and to learn, especially about vinyl records (and shellacs), and learning about themabout the labels and those arcane codes in the runout groove areais a big part of the music-collecting hobby. Serious record collectors are likely to have several pressings of favorite albums and to know the provenance of each one. With streaming, you're limited to whichever version they end up with, and usually they don't bother to tell you which version it is. An example is Rock for Light by Bad Brains, which is considered by Robert Baird in this month's Aural Robert.
Starting in May, 2026, High End Munich is morphing into High End Vienna, with the first Vienna High End scheduled for May 28-31, 2026. The surprise move from Munich’s MOC to Vienna’s ACV (Austria Center Vienna) follows what is now understood as a trial run that drew 66 companies and approximately 4000 visitors to Vienna’s ACV in November 18-19, 2023.
Playing an astonishingly original mix of reggae and thrashy punk rock, Bad Brains released their self-titled, cassette-only 1982 debut on ROIR records. Punk rock is notorious for eschewing well-recorded music in favor of lo-fi murk, and that original tape fit the pattern. But the next year, the turbulent foursomeguitarist Dr. Know, bassist Darryl Jenifer, drummer Earl Hudson, and vocalist H.R.went into Synchro Sound in Boston with Ric Ocasek of The Cars and tracked Rock for Light, a huge step up in the quality of Bad Brains' recorded sound.
At the end of 2020, the Federal Trade Commission proposed eliminating what had come to be known as the "Amplifier Rule," which had been in effect since 1974. Then-FTC commissioner Christine S. Wilson wrote, "Freeing businesses from unnecessarily prescriptive requirements benefits consumers."
To me, that made no sense. Far from imposing "unnecessarily prescriptive requirements" on amplifier manufacturers, the Amplifier Rule had long forced manufacturers to clean up their acts.
As I wrote in an article published on the Stereophile website in 2021, in the hi-fi boom that began in the 1960s, the Institute of High Fidelity became alarmed by amplifier manufacturers exaggerating their products' output power. Such mystical numbers as "Peak Power" and "Music Power" were used willy-nilly to produce sales-oriented ratings with little to do with reality.
David Bowie: Rock'n'Roll Star; Joe Walsh: The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get; Richard Thompson: Ship to Shore; Fantastic Cat: Now That's What I Call Fantastic Cat; Robert Hunter: Tales of the Great Rum Runners (Deluxe Edition); The Fabulous Thunderbirds: Struck Down; Oliver Wood: Fat Cat Silhouette.
First comes the anticipation, that initial jet of warm water, that miraculous searching, finding the sweet spot, then heaven on earth as it cleans and caresses. As if by magic, warm, soothing wafts of air gently and sensuously dry my tush. I had forgotten just how wonderful Japanese toilets can be.
It was 5am in Tokyo. I was on my way to Hong Kong, but my ticket demanded a change of planes. Haneda Airport was empty, save for a woman driving a golf cart. She offered me a ride to the other side of the airport where some restaurants were. As we drove off, the cart started playing "Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon," filling the cavernous hall with echoes of John Wayne astride his horse, galloping through Monument Valley.
Duke Ellington's death 50 years ago was a massive loss for American music. Elegantly attired, beautifully spoken, and always the picture of sophistication, the African-American icon was one of the greatest composers of American music ever, regardless of genre.
Edward Kennedy Ellington led the Duke Ellington Orchestra (pointedly not a band) from the piano for more than 40 years, using hands and facial gestures instead of a baton. He used charm, flattery, and a deep understanding of human psychology to bind his virtuosos to the orchestra and get the sounds he wanted. Often in collaboration with arranger/composer Billy Strayhorn, the great unsung hero of Ellington's story, Ellington composed music of all lengths and for all occasions for the orchestra he toured the world with from the 1920s into the 1970s.