KEF and I go way back. As a very young man in the 1960s, I was obsessed with building speakers, and that was just about the time that KEF founder Raymond Cooke was revolutionizing driver design by using new synthetic materials for cones and surrounds, and experimenting with such innovations as transmission-line–loaded midrange drivers. I found it all very heady and, by direct import from the UK, obtained versions of the oval, flat-diaphragm B139 woofer, the Bextrene-coned B110 and B200 woofers, and the T-15 and T-22 dome tweeters. Fifty years ago, this was all cutting-edge speaker technology.

Zola Jesus - Seekir by sacredbones

Here’s a new track from Zola Jesus’ upcoming record, Conatus, to be released by Sacred Bones Records on October 4. The track is called “Seekir” and suggests a more polished sound for Miss Nika Rosa Danilova. Combining elements of goth, industrial, pop, opera, and noise, Danilova seems to still be searching for her voice, which is exactly as it should be for a 22-year old with an extremely promising future.

Let her keep searching. I'll follow wherever she goes.

The video for Colin Stetson’s “The Stars in His Head” (Dark Lights Remix), directed by Isaac Gale and Dan Huiting. Kinda lovely, kinda creepy, kinda perfect for this chilly, gray day.

Colin Stetson's powerful record, New History Warfare, Vol.2: Judges, available from Constellation Records, was reviewed in the July 2011 issue of Stereophile.

Today's New York Times carries a brief obituary notice of the passing of audio innovator, Peter Pritchard, on August 23 in Austin, Texas at the age of 83. Peter founded Audio Dynamics Corporation in New Milford, CT in the early 1960's. His original ADC-1 ("Tip mass: 0.6 mg. Compliance. 20x10^–6cm/dyne, all directions. Playing weight: 1 gram or less in top quality arms") was a breakthrough product. Indeed, all ADC pickups were notable for their extremely high compliance and low tracking forces and he pursued this approach through a series of successful designs including the well-known ADC-10, ADC-25 and XLM cartridges. They were all based on his "induced magnet" principle, which derived from the older GE variable-reluctance cartridges that had been game-changers for affordable magnetic phono pick-ups in the 1950s.