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Bartók's string quartets trace the composer's stylistic evolution from rhyth-mically fluid dissonance to a more aggressive, fragmented idiom, taking in musical gestures that, through overuse and in lesser hands, would later become new-music clichés. Interpretively, the Jerusalem Quartet has the full measure of these scores, pivoting across their tricky rhythmic scansions with assurance…

Still, piles of the awesome tunes that redeem that era beckon from every chapter, and with CD prices in free fall on Amazon.com, I started grabbing dozens of titles. Most could be had used, or even new,…

On the morning of Monday, the 18th, just hours after the 2010 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest had come to an end, I was feeling the post-show blues, dissatisfied with the number of exhibitor rooms I had covered and convinced that I had done a poor job with the rooms I had covered. On the evening before the show opened, Jason Victor Serinus, John Atkinson, and I met for a beer and tried to figure out how the three of us would be able to cover the show’s nine floors, 180 rooms, and 400 exhibitors. We decided to divide the show evenly, each of us taking three floors…

AC Nexus Advanced Power Distribution & Ground Enhancement System: $20,000 ★
Steve McCormack, once the proprietor of The Mod Squad, is the man who introduced the concept of accessory isolation feet—his Tiptoes were aluminum cones with flat tops and sharply pointed feet. Now he’s brought to market this passive AC-power filter, whose Panzerholz enclosure contains two fist-sized silver-conductor capacitors from Duelund. The IEC AC inlet is a Bocchino Audio Marriner10 and the AC outlets are four Furutech Nano Crystal Formula duplexes. Four Cardas ground posts of…

In 1938, American composer Roy Harris wrote a composition he called American Symphony, for trombonist Tommy Dorsey and his band. Jim Pugh, also a trombonist, made it his business to locate the work. He found it, or part of it, at the Library of Congress, and recorded two movements at a 1995 session engineered by longtime friend Jim Anderson. An all-star group of New…

Partnered here with the Renaissance Edition Bellina Pro battery-powered DAC ($2495), which offers a choice of 16/44.1 or 24/192 playback, and driving a pair of Harbeth Monitor 30.1 loudspeakers, the Signature 16 helped…

I regret that, to some, I came off as arrogant or condescending. It’s not that I have a golden ear; rather, I’ve had sufficient experience with the particular performers and compositions in the recordings used at…

I hear it's gonna be hot.

Tickets are on sale now, with single-day passes priced at $50 and three-day passes selling for an attractively discounted $120. But, taking into consideration the outstanding headliners and the well-rounded initial lineup, I suspect most music…

G2 models I saw included the Sonetto I ($…

Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, dCS Rossini Apex; EMM Labs DA2i DAC; Innuos Statement Music Server/Streamer; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS, Uptone Audio EtherRegen with AfterDark Giesemann Emperor Double Crown Master Clock, Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModules (2) and Deluxe opticalModule, Linksys router and Arris modem, all powered by HDPlex 300 (3) and HDPlex 200 linear power supplies (3); Nordost QNet Ethernet Switch; Nordost QSource linear power supplies (2); Apple 2017 iPad Pro and 2017 MacBook Pro laptop with 2.8 GHz Intel i7, SSD, 16GB RAM.…