The Love Crowd
Last night at <a href="http://lepoissonrouge.com/">Le Poisson Rouge</a>,<br>
<a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/four_tet_there_is_love_in_you… Hebden</a> made all the kids<br>
slither and groove.
LATEST ADDITIONS
Dylan in the White House
It’s been nearly a week since PBS’ broadcast of the White House concert of music from the civil-rights era, and its sounds and images keep popping up in my brain.
Neuromonics Tinnitus Breakthrough?
Among the maladies to which music lovers are especially susceptible, hearing damage caused by prolonged exposure to loud sounds is perhaps the most pernicious. When you're young, you normally don't think about the consequences of cranking up the volume, but if you do that routinely, you are sure to suffer some form of hearing deficit in your later—or, in some cases, not so later—years.
Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player
Playback Designs was founded less than three years ago. However, with the release in 2008 of its MPS-5 Music Playback System—a slim, full-featured SACD/CD player and DAC that costs $15,000 and is built in the US—the company has since established itself as a significant player in high-performance digital audio.
John Fahey Reads
If you’re a fan of John Fahey—a fan of his music, his writing, his thoughts on life, whatever—and especially if you’re sort of sad, like I am, about having never met him, then you’ll enjoy this disc. The Three Day Band is Fahey and musician <a href="http://www.myspace.com/ayalsr">Ayal Senior</a> who, in addition to capturing Fahey on four-track here, also edited much of Fahey’s second collection of stories, <i><a href="http://www.dragcity.com/products/vampire-vultures">Vampire Vultures</a></i>. (Senior’s also got a bunch of good-looking cassettes available.)
Vienna Acoustics Klimt The Kiss loudspeaker
Almost every assumption you might make about Vienna Acoustics' Klimt The Kiss loudspeaker by looking at it would be wrong. It is <I>not</I> a stand-mounted two-way loudspeaker. It's a three-way, with a coincident tweeter-midrange. And that ain't no stand—it's an integral part of the speaker. It does <I>not</I> have a conventional cabinet—there are two separate enclosures, complete with micrometer control of both vertical and horizontal axes. And those sure aren't plain-vanilla drive-units—they're about as unique as they come.
A Proper Procedure
There is a proper procedure for taking advantage of any investment.<br>
Music, for example. Buying music is an investment.<br>
To get the maximum you must
Do you own, or have you ever owned and used an open-reel tape deck?
Clearly, many of you still cherish your cassette decks, but what about <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel-to-reel_audio_tape_recording" target="new">open- reel</A>? Do you own, or have you ever owned and used a reel-to-reel or open-reel tape deck?
Recording of February 2010: Orchestrion
<B>Pat Metheny <I>Orchestrion</I></B><BR>
Pat Metheny, guitars, orchestrion programming.<BR>
Nonesuch 516668-2/-1 (CD/LP). 2010. Pat Metheny, prod.; eng. AAD? TT: 52:06<BR>
Performance ****<BR>
Sonics ****
The Recording Angel
Back in the last century, I mused in this space about the essential difference between recorded sound and the real thing. I had been walking to dinner with friends when I heard the unmistakable sound of live music coming from a window. But here was the kicker: rather than the instruments being of the audiophile-approved acoustic variety, they were two amplified electric guitars. Their sounds were being reproduced by loudspeakers, yet it was unambiguously obvious that it was not a recording being played through those loudspeakers, but real instruments.
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