Oh, Sleeveface
Oh, <a href="http://www.sleeveface.com/">Sleeveface</a>, how you do crack me up. (Thanks <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/1108awsi/">Ariel</a>.)
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HeadRoom/Cardas Fat Pipe headphone cables
When Audio Advisor's Wayne Schuurman contacted me about reviewing the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/1108vincent">Vincent Audio KHV-1pre</A> headphone amplifier, I felt confident that I had everything I needed to handle the task, owning, as I do, both the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/806akg">AKG K701</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/605fifth/index1.html">Sennhe… HD-650</A> headphones, which have long been my references. <I>That oughta get 'er done</I>, I thought.
Which do you prefer: A system that always creates beauty or one that can reveal the ugly truth?
Reader "dr.d" asks: "Is it better to have a decent system that allows all recordings to sound good, or to have a system that might make some not-so-hot recordings no fun to listen to?" What's your preference, a system that always creates beauty or one that can reveal the ugly truth?
Which composer or performer would you recommend as an introduction to jazz? Explain your reasons for your choice.
Continuing with the theme started with last week's question: Which single composer or performer would you recommend to introduce someone to jazz music? And why?
Modern R&B Beware
A hit abroad but relatively unknown at home. That describes Cheap Trick who I wrote about here recently and also, believe it or not, Otis Redding. He was a big hit in the U.K. and even it seems in Paris before he hit at home with his final single, “(Sittin’ on the) “Dock of the Bay.”
The Sun Smells Too Loud
The walls of the <i>Stereophile</i> offices have been shaking to the sounds of Mogwai's latest, <i><a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_hawk_is_howling/">The Hawk is Howling</a></i>. Yes, we know that hawks don't howl. (Or do they?) We also know the difference between a hawk and a bald eagle. (Sourpusses.)
Cary Audio Design CD 306 SACD Professional Version SACD/CD player
Some reviews take longer to gestate than others. But in the case of Cary's CD 306 SACD Professional Version SACD/CD player, it has taken me literally years to get this review into print. I had visited Cary's impressive facility in North Carolina just before Christmas 2005, when I'd been playing the high-resolution master files of some of my recordings at an event being promoted by Raleigh high-end dealer Audio Advice. Cary's head honcho, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/399">Dennis Had</A>, had been playing me music on a system featuring his Silver Oak loudspeakers, with the front-end one of the first samples of the original CD 306, playing discs through the two-chassis Cary SLP 05 preamplifier that Art Dudley <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/906cary">ended up reviewing</A> in the September 2006 issue. "Now <I>that's</I> a product I'd like to review!" I enthused, looking inside the CD 306, and I drove back to Brooklyn with a review sample.
Recording of November 2008: Guitars
<B>McCOY TYNER: <I>Guitars</I></b><BR>
McCoy Tyner, piano; Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, John Scofield, Derek Trucks, guitars; Béla Fleck, banjo; Ron Carter, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums<BR>
Half Note/McCoy Tyner Music 4537 (CD, DVD). 2008. John Snyder, prod.; Randy Funke, eng. DDD. TT: 74:16<BR>
Performance ****½<BR>
Sonics ****½
A Week in the Life of Listening, Part 1
We played Scrabble and listened to Brian Eno's Another Green World. The synthesizers were raw, saw-toothed, and gripping, and Eno's volume swells had never been truly appreciated till that night.
Even though he's heard me play the record about a million times, Kyle kept asking, "Who is this playing?"
I think it caught him by surprise this time around.
IRAKERE!
It was a certain sunless Sunday afternoon and we were listening to some records at the Brooklyn Navy Yard's <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/112206custom/">DeVore Fidelity factory</a>. Something had just come to an end, and I decided to take a look through a box of LPs to find something new. I found an album that was still sealed in its plastic wrapper. It was the seventh installment of Sonic Youth's SYR series, the album that <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/040808immediately/">started it all for me</a>. I was shocked. <i>Shocked</i>. I was all exclamation points and italics.