A Perfect Place to Work
Connecting to the Internet in my small room at the Park Inn—nothing fancy, but a perfect place to work.
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LATEST ADDITIONS
Welcome, Mr. Mejias
As I opened the door to my little room, I was greeted by the distinct buzz of television electricity. I wondered if someone was inside, waiting for me.
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No such luck, but I found something similarly delightful: A friendly greeting from the hotel, in charming, 8-bit glory.
Eroticland
As we climbed the stairs into the sunlight and ventured out onto Frankfurter Ring, we were happily surprised to find that our hotel was right next door to a curious place called Eroticland. Somehow, this seemed appropriate.
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Would this turn out to be a sexy hi-fi show?
The S1 to the U2
We took the S1 to the Feldmoching stop where we transferred to the U2. From there, Frankfurter Ring, and our lovely little Park Inn were just moments away.
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A Sign of Things to Come
As we raced to catch the bus that would take us from Manhattan to Newark Liberty Airport, Rosemarie Torcivia and I were caught in an incredible downpour—rain like we rarely see it in New York City. Our trip to Germany for the 2011 High End Show had gotten off to a soggy start. Was this a sign of things to come?
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Rega RP-1 record player
I tried to name a high-end audio product that's been recommended more often than the Rega Planar 3 turntable. I failed.
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The closest I could come was Rega's own RB300 tonearm, surely the best-selling perfectionist tonearm of all time. After that came the Rega Planar 2 turntable, a sample of which I owned and loved in the early 1980s. Next on my list was the original Rega Elys, a moving-magnet cartridge that sounded as chunky and direct as it was cheap and magenta.
Brinkmann Audio Bardo turntable
I won't debate here how to make a turntable's platter go around. Choose your favorite: belt vs direct drive, idler wheel vs belt, spring-windup vs wind power, whatever. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to debate. Each of these technologies has its pluses and minuses, but none can produce CD's accuracy of speed and inherent freedom from wow and flutter.
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The Nuge Goes Legit
Thirty six years ago, Ted Nugent just played guitar...
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To write intelligibly about the experience of seeing Ted Nugent sitting in with the Les Paul Triolet me repeat thatTed Nugent sitting in with the Les Paul Trio at The Iridium Jazz Club on Broadway and 51st Street just off Times Square on Monday May 16, I need to first explain two bits of context.
Bill Frisell's Sign of Life
Bill Frisell's Sign of Life (Savoy Jazz) is one of the most gorgeous new albums I've heard in a while. It's in the tradition of his "Americana" albums (Disfarmer; History, Mystery; Ghost Town; Gone, Just Like a Train; This Land), but here he burrows deeper into the roots. There are traces of folk, bluegrass, minimalism, western-blues, as well as certain modes and improvisational cadences of jazz. The ensemble is the 858 Quartet. . .
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Totem Dreamcatcher loudspeaker
The two-way, biwirable, rear-ported Dreamcatcher is designed and manufactured in Canada; its drive-units are designed by Totem, but made and assembled in Europe. The 1" titanium-dome tweeter, manufactured by German Acoustik, is mated to a 4" Scan-Speak woofer. Totem founder Vince Bruzzese feels very strongly about sourcing his drivers in the West. In the past, he got his small woofers from Peerless in Denmark, but switched to Scan-Speak when Peerless started manufacturing in China. Bruzzese also pointed out that the tweeter used in the Dreamcatcher costs him 16, more than 15 times as much as most similar Asian-made tweeters.
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