Listening #96

Listening #96

Dec 20, 2010
When you play recorded music, you have before you a work of art with almost no physical existence at all; reconstituting it requires electricity, which will itself imitate the musical continuum represented by the bumps in the groove or the zeros in the datastream. When you listen to recorded music, you are listening to your household AC, and better AC equals better playback. That sounds obvious to me and you, even as it sends the technocodgers into paroxysms of puritanical indignation.

Book Review: The Cello Suites

Book Review: The Cello Suites

Dec 20, 2010
The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece, by Eric Siblin (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2009); hardcover, 318 pp. $24.

In his lifetime, J.S. Bach (1685–1750) was an obscure figure. He never lived in a major city, he didn't work in the musical form—opera—that in his era could propel a composer to stardom, and his style seemed antiquated to many. Bach saw a mere nine of his compositions published; when his consummate masterwork, The Art of the Fugue, appeared the year after he died, it sold just 30 copies.

Eric Siblin includes these and countless other facts in The Cello Suites, a book that will fascinate anyone who loves Bach's music. He notes, for instance, that Bach's four musical sons kept his work in circulation, that Mozart was mightily impressed by a motet he heard at a Leipzig church, and that the 12-year-old Beethoven raised some eyebrows when he performed The Well-Tempered Clavier in Vienna.

Monster Turbine In-Ear Speakers- $58.99 @ Amazon. Good buy?

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General Rants 'n' Raves
Submitted by theonlytime on

I saw that the Monster Turbine High-Performance In-Ear Speakers are on sale today only at Amazon for $58.99 (yesterday's price was $134.10). I'm looking for some new in-ear headphones and was wondering if anyone thinks this is a good pair? The reviews seem like they're great and just what i'm looking for (good quality and not too expensive).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Captain Beefheart: a Personal Memory

Captain Beefheart: a Personal Memory

Dec 19, 2010

The first part of a six-part BBC documentary narrated by the late John Peel

Born in January 1941, Don van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, died Friday, December 17, 2010, of complications related to multiple sclerosis.

Even though he gave up music in 1982 (beginning a successful career as a reclusive artist until hampered by the onset of multiple sclerosis), Captain Beefheart left an important and influential musical legacy.

Rookie iTunes questions with an iMAC one throw in

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General Rants 'n' Raves
Submitted by JIMV on

1. When I rip a CD to iTunes I often find that I get two or three separate files with the tracks spread about..How do I stop that and how do I put the errant tracks back in the one major file. Drag and drop does not work.

2. How does one rip a single track from a CD in iTunes. I am asked if I want to rip the entire thing but I am not sure how to limit the effort to a single track??

Congratulations Stephen!

Submitted by struts on

Haven't seen the January e-issue yet but I notice from this forum page that it looks like Stephen has finally got his own regular column in the print magazine. This is something some of us have been campaigning for for a while now.

Congratulations to Stephen and thanks to JA for making/allowing it to happen. The wheels of progress sure don't spin fast in the Stereophile batcave, but it's nice to see that they generally turn in the right direction.

More DAC Questions

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Digital Sources
Submitted by Tomdabomb09 on

In reviews and articles I've read for certain external DAC's like V-DAC or DacMagic, I've noticed the reviewer mention he tried the DAC connected to different CD players and had different results. It was my understanding that when a source is connected via digital out, that it is just that. A source. If no digital to analog conversion goes on in the source, than why is does the DAC sound different when connected to different sources?

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