Hegel H150 Integrated Amplifier Officially Announced

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FiiO M27 Headphone DAC Amplifier Released

Audio Advice Acquires The Sound Room

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Stephen Mejias

Video: Ryan Teague's "Cascades"

Stephen Mejias Jun 11, 2012

Here’s the video for “Cascades” from Ryan Teague’s Field Drawings.

Directed and produced by Craig Ward, the video is enchanting, magical, strange. What are those delicate white lines? Icicles? Spider webs? Crystals? The press release offers only a cryptic explanation: “The movements of a music-box ballerina are reinterpreted in a groundbreaking video for British composer Ryan Teague using electromagnetic fields, subzero temperatures, and 2000 volts of electricity.”

A behind-the-scenes look offers more clues:

Stephen Mejias

Stream Baby Stream: The Cherry Thing

Stephen Mejias Jun 11, 2012

Courtesy Neneh Cherry and The Thing

The Cherry Thing, the surprising album from vocalist Neneh Cherry and free-jazz trio The Thing (Mats Gustafsson on saxophones, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, Paal Nilssen-Love on drums) will be released by Smalltown Supersound on June 19th.

We listened to “Dream Baby Dream” and watched the video for “Accordion,” and now, thanks to NPR’s First Listen series, we can stream The Cherry Thing in its entirety.

Fred Kaplan

Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green on Blue Note 45

Fred Kaplan Jun 10, 2012

Three great new offerings from Music Matters Jazz, the house that reissues Blue Note classics on gatefold-covered, double-disc vinyl 45rpm LPs: Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil, Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles, and Grant Green's Street of Dreams. All were recorded in 1964: the first two are among the best titles in Blue Note's catalogs; the third is one of the more purely pleasurable.

T.H.E. Show Newport 2012

What A Show!

Jason Victor Serinus Jun 09, 2012

This was a very special show. It was a joy to be there.

T.H.E. Show Newport 2012

Balance is Critical: Speaker Designers and their Philosophies on Sound

Stephen Mejias Jun 09, 2012

On Sunday afternoon, the last day of the Newport Beach Show, Peter Roth of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (seated second from right) moderated a panel of loudspeaker designers, including (from left): John DeVore (DeVore Fidelity), Kevin Malmgren (Evolution Acoustics), Yoav Geva (YG Acoustics), and Albert Von Schweikert (Von Schweikert Audio). Thanks to Peter’s excellent questions and the panel’s forthright answers, it was a fun and fascinating sessionand one of my favorite events of the show.

T.H.E. Show Newport 2012

Cruising, Orange County Style

Jason Victor Serinus Jun 09, 2012

It may seem strange to introduce a huge show reportactually my final blog, since, in time-honored biblical fashion, the last shall always be first in the blogisphere with a photo of a Bentley Mulsanne (over $400,000). But inside this gorgeously outfitted automobile, a machine that even closes its doors for you should you be too occupied trading stocks via iPhone to pull the handle, is a custom-enhanced sound system by Reus Systems of Orange. (It was part of the exotic car exhibition that was part of T.H.E. Show.)

T.H.E. Show Newport 2012

You Can't Beat the Real Thing!

John Atkinson Jun 09, 2012

"That sound real," I thought as I approached the room shared by Oracle, Burmester, and Genesis. "It sounds just like Canadian singer Anne Bisson," whom I had heard live at an SSI concert in Montreal a couple of years ago.

Stepping into the room, I was confronted by, yes, the real Anne Bisson, who was duetting with herself on one of the tracks from her Blue Mind LP on Fidelio.

T.H.E. Show Newport 2012

All I Want for Xmas is an MBL

Jason Victor Serinus Jun 09, 2012

Oh, Santa. Santa Baby. Dear Santa Baby. Please make that a Reference Line Combination D ($259,700 total). I won't even ask you to sit on my lap, if only you and Rudolph bring me a pair of MBL 101E Mk.II Radialstrahler speakers, along with an MBL 1621 A CD transport, 1611 F D/A converter, 6010 D preamplifier, and 9011 power amplifier. In snow white, please, just as in the photo. This same Combo platter received my hands up and down "Best of Show" at AXPONA 2012 in Jacksonville. Here it sounded almost as good.

T.H.E. Show Newport 2012

MBL's Corona System

John Atkinson Jun 09, 2012

I still remember the chills that ran down my spine when I saw the band Rufus, with a young, slim Chaka Khan, performing "Tell Me Something Good" at a small English club more years ago than I care to recall. So when I went into the smaller MBL room at the Irvine Hilton and Jeremy Bryan started playing a live version of the same song, I got a similar thrill.

T.H.E. Show Newport 2012

The Scaena Sensation

Jason Victor Serinus Jun 09, 2012

Scaena's imposing systems never fail to provide one of the highlights of the Show experience. Once the flashing light show on the VAC tube equipment was turned off, I was able to settle in and enjoy sensational sound through the Scaena Spiritus 3.6 System with Trifecta subwoofers ($130,000), VAC Statement 450 monoblock amplifiers ($78,000, presumably for the pair), VAC Signature MK2a preamp with phono option ($19,500), Audience Adept aR-12-TSS power conditioner ($10,000) and, for analog, the Kronos counter-rotating dual platter turntable ($28,000) with Graham Phantom Supreme 12" arm ($6000), Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement cartridge ($15,000), and Audio Research Ref phono 2 ($11,995).