Naim Supernait integrated amplifier
"We've tried making it more powerful. When I was away on holiday, some of our people cooked up a more powerful version and presented it to me on my return. It sounded awful."
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D'oh, a beer
The Melbourne Symphony plays music on VB bottles. My kind of musc.
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Audio Research Acquired by Quadrivio
Audio Research, one of the companies that created the Silver Age of American high-end audio 38 years ago, was acquired by Italian private equity firm Quadrivio SGR on January 25. Quadrivio, which acquired Sonus Faber in 2007, intends to keep Audio Research's current management team in place.
Advertisement for Myself
What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t be self-indulgent now and then? So allow me to plug my new book, <I>Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power</I> (Wiley & Sons). As the subtitle may suggest, it is not a biography of the Monkees but rather a journalistic dissection of <I>why</I> the United States’ global adventures and image have gone to hell in recent years. Some of you may know that I write a twice-weekly column in <I>Slate</I> about such matters. My book is <I>not</I> a compilation of my columns; it’s all new stuff. The official pub date is February 4, but it’s already in stock in many bookstores and on amazon.
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Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard
Steve Martin has just published an autobiography, <I>Born Standing Up</I>, in which he describes how he created his comedic persona by using logic. That was the easy part, next he had to figure out how to <A HREF="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/funny-martin-200802.html?c=y… it to the audience</A>.
CEA Launches Digital Downtown
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced that it will launch "a new consumer technology event," Digital Downtown (D2), 'to showcase the latest electronic lifestyle and workstyle products to residents and employees of Mahattan's Financial District." D2, which will be held from June 12–14 at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center, will be open to the public, unlike the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Smell the Diploma
Nigel Tufnel gets an <A HREF="http://chronicle.com/media/flash/v54/i18/guest/">honorary degree</A> at the Berklee College of Music.
VTL MB-450 Series II Signature monoblock power amplifier
Stop me if you've heard this one: Back in the early 1990s, just after the fall of the Soviet Union, I debated professor of music engineering and magazine columnist Ken Pohlmann on a talk show on the CBS radio network. The subject was analog sound vs digital sound, but I guess when Pohlmann felt I was getting the upper hand, he felt he needed to play the tube card. Derisively, he said, "I bet you're one of those tube guys, too, aren't you?" Before I could open my mouth, he continued: "You know, the Soviet Union's military gear, including the MIG fighters, ran on tube electronics, and look what happened to them!"
Brahms the Baby?
I was eating tagine with John Atkinson and Cantus' Erick Lichte a few nights ago and mentioned having read Anne Midgette's essay about her <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR20080…; towards Brahms.