LATEST ADDITIONS

Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Pat Sansone at the Solid Sound Festival, North Adams, Mass. August 14th, 2010. Photo in this and the preceding entry by Charles Harris.

It may be time to begin appending the words “The Great,” in front of the name of Wilco. At least that’s my unvarnished reaction to their headlining performance at the inaugural edition of their own Solid Sound Festival, held last weekend in North Adams Massachusetts. Where in the hell is North Adams you may ask, why across the Mohawk Trail is the answer. I once had a friend, upper crust Brahmin Bostonian he was, and his mother used to rhapsodize about “motoring along the Mohawk Trail. She must have been speaking about the end of the trail (otherwise known as Mass Highway 2), nearer to Boston because getting to N. Adams from Interstate 91 is an exercise in going up one side of a mountain (granted in Massachusetts mountains top out at like 900 feet above sea level so we’re not talking friggin’ K2 here), and down the other. It’s not a road for older ladies for whom cucumber sandwiches with the crusts left on is a big step.

I’m so much more impressed by good, <i>affordable</i> systems than I am by those costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. I find it difficult to concentrate on music when I’m overwhelmed by the high prices of the gear delivering it. Price should never be the most impressive aspect of hi-fi.

The minuscule electrical output of an analog signal from a moving-coil cartridge needs to be boosted before it can be converted to digital and equalized in the digital domain. Of course, you could use your current phono preamplifier and record an equalized signal to hard disk, but then you wouldn't get to experience <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/computeraudio/pure_vinyl_lp_recording_amp_ed… Vinyl</A>'s digital RIAA correction&#151;nor would you be able to avail yourself of all the equalization curves provide by Pure Vinyl, of which there are almost too many to count.

The minuscule electrical output of an analog signal from a moving-coil cartridge needs to be boosted before it can be converted to digital and equalized in the digital domain. Of course, you could use your current phono preamplifier and record an equalized signal to hard disk, but then you wouldn't get to experience Pure Vinyl's digital RIAA correction&#151;nor would you be able to avail yourself of all the equalization curves provide by <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/computeraudio/pure_vinyl_lp_recording_amp_ed… Vinyl</A>, of which there are almost too many to count.

Just like me, Belle and Sebastian write about love. The band’s new album is due out here in the States on October 12. It will be mine. You can listen to a clip on <a href="http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/2010/08/16/belle-sebastian-write… Matablog</a>. The song, “I Want the World to Stop,” sounds just as dark and groovy and infectious as you might imagine. I’ve listened to it about 69 times already.

The October issue of <i>Stereophile</i> shipped to press yesterday afternoon. (Hallelujah.) We are already deep into the November issue, while our new editorial assistant, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_young_guy/">Ariel Bitran</a>, is tackling the <i>2011 Buyer’s Guide</i>. In addition to all of that, and on top of the regular stuff, the entire office is in <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/boltz_cd_rack/">the process of moving</a> onto the 6th floor of our 261 Madison Avenue location. Construction crews are tearing down walls and building new cubicles, painters are turning white and gray into blue and cream, movers are carrying tables and desks up flights of stairs. My office is cramped with <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/buried/">boxes</a&gt;, but this time they’re moving boxes.