The 2010 edition of the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, occupying parts of nine floors of the Denver Marriott Tech Center, is set to be the biggest and best RMAF yet. For now, guests, exhibitors, and press are enjoying "the calm before the storm." But that will soon change, and this quiet, sun-soaked hall will be one big blur of color and activity. Judging by the show's directory—which is obviously thicker than ever—we're in for some serious fun.
<I>Stereophile</I> will be reporting live from the show in Denver!
Tomorrow afternoon, John Atkinson, Jason Victor Serinus, and I will meet in Denver, Colorado, for the <a href="http://audiofest.net/2010/index.php">Rocky Mountain Audio Fest</a>. If you're at the show, please say hello.
La Stupenda is no more. The brilliant coloratura soprano Joan Sutherland, who died a thousand deaths onstage after emitting flawless high E-flats, died at her home near Montreux, Switzerland, on Sunday, October 10. Her death was confirmed by her frequent stage partner and friend, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne.
One of my favorite albums of the year comes from Brooklyn-based artist <a href="http://www.myspace.com/juliannabarwick">Julianna Barwick</a>. The album is called <i>Florine</i>. Michael Lavorgna <a href="http://www.twitteringmachines.com/2010/03/julianna-barwick/">told me about it</a>. It was months ago and I remember leaving work that day and rushing over to <a href="http://www.othermusic.com/">Other Music</a> to buy the album. I got one of the first 200, pressed on white vinyl. <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/last_night_in_other_music/">K…; congratulated me and told me that I’d be very happy with the music.
Michael Lavorgna’s October issue “As We See It” generated many more responses than we had space for in our December issue “Letters” section (a great bunch!), so we’ve appended all of the letters to the Web reprint, which you can find <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/why_music_matters_most/index.html"… here</a>.
There are two kinds of audiophiles: those who own original Quad ESL speakers and those who don't (footnote 1). This review is for the former, although the latter may find it of some interest. The Gradient SW-57 subwoofer attempts to do for the original Quad (footnote 2) what Gradient's SW-63 (footnote 3) does for the Quad ESL-63: supply the bottom octave while relieving the ESLs of the strain of reproducing low bass.
<B>Grinderman: <I>Grinderman 2</I></B><BR>
Anti- 87125 (CD). 2010. Grinderman, Nick Launay, prods; Launay, eng. AAD. TT: 41:19<BR>
Performance ****½<BR>
Sonics ****
<I>"Stanley, see this? This is this. This ain't something else. This is this."—Michael, in</i>The Deer Hunter