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Richard had sent the latest issue of Stereophile along with the box set, and I paged through it with distaste; they'd gotten themselves a new hotshot, some kid named Dan Pussey. Real funny guy; the readers ate him up. Well, young Dan Pussey would learn what it's really all about sooner or later...I opened up the Stax box and looked inside. Jesus, nine CDs?! I couldn't remember any of the names...Otis? Carla Thomas? Eddie Floyd? Who were these people?! And what kind of a name for a label was Stax/Volt? It reminded me of the voltage I'd turned loose on the boy earlier, and I laughed out loud…
But I couldn't stop listening to it; that was the problem. As much as I hated the way it made me feel like dancing, I became perversely fascinated with it as an exercise in self-flagellation, much like seeing how long one can hold a red-hot coal. At first I only listened for a few songs at a time, then I eventually put the whole set into the multi-player and set it for infinite repeat, letting the awful noise bounce off my Spic'n'Spanned walls 24 hours a day. I couldn't sleep. I began walking the halls nude with a flyswatter. Every time I passed a mirror I smashed it with my bare fist. The…
Have you seen that advertisement running on the Arts & Entertainment channel? A girl and her brother are arguing in front of their TV: "Are not." "Are so." "Are not." Etc., etc. Finally, she punts: "Mom! He's calling me a neo-fatalist again!" From off-screen: "Do I have to come in there and demonstrate your free will?"
Fatalists believe that the future is inevitable. No one can change what will happen or what they will do; no one has free will to do anything unexpected or unpredictable. That's why the brother's whispered closing shot is the best: "I knew you were going to do that…
If you shivered at the words "degraded and distorted," then you're a member of the True Church of Audiophilia. Music itself, in all its undistorted purity, looms as a remote, immaterial god. Try as we may, we'll never fully reproduce it in our listening rooms. We've fallen, cursed with original distortion. Music is good, equipment is evil. Your D/A converter, your amp, speakers, and cables—they're all just expensive distortion-introducing devices. Some are better than others, of course, but none are completely benign.
We've all seen this logic run amok, and it's not pretty. The worst…
Kathleen and I went to France for a week to visit her brother.
Here's all you need to know about Pierre: He's got a Harley-Davidson Q-Ship he rides to work—it looks a bit tatty and attracts zero attention, but the suspension and motor are tweaked to the nines. He's also got a Royal Enfield (in the garage, where else?) and a Jag sedan. He's in prêt-à-porter.
Pierre's no Philistine. In fact, back in the mid-'80s, he was the first guy who ever played me an amp with 300B tubes (and efficient speakers). The Chinese tubes popped like fireworks on turnoff.
Pierre was moving, and…
One reason I have never felt the need to invest in a high-end home-theater system is that it is all too easy for me to go 'round to Tom Norton's house. As well as contributing the amplifier measurements and the all-too-rare component review for Stereophile, Tom is technical editor of our companion book, Stereophile Guide to Home Theater (footnote 1). As you might expect, he has access to video equipment that the rest of us can only dream about.
On a Thursday night last November, for example, new Stereophile publisher John Gourlay and I spent a pleasant evening watching DVDs on a system…
JANE MONHEIT: Come Dream With Me
N-Coded Music NC-4219-2 (CD) 2001. Joel Dorn, prod.; Carl Griffin exec. prod.; Todd Parker, eng.; Steve Mazur, asst. eng.; Gene Paul, sonic supervision. AAD? TT: 52:49
Performance****
Sonics*****
N-Coded Music NC-4219-2 (CD) 2001. Joel Dorn, prod.; Carl Griffin exec. prod.; Todd Parker, eng.; Steve Mazur, asst. eng.; Gene Paul, sonic supervision. AAD? TT: 52:49
Performance****
Sonics*****
In the world of vocal music, it's all been about one song as of late: Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's heartwrenching 1939 showstopper, "Over the Rainbow." Forever associated with Judy Garland thanks to the definitive version she delivered in the film, not to mention her countless subsequent live performances of it—a towering legacy that's no doubt…
The L2 Reference sits at the top of Lamm Industries' preamplifier line. According to the manual, its "unique" circuitry uses specially selected, superlinear, high-voltage MOSFET transistors that ensure class-A operation from input to output, with no overall negative feedback at any stage. All stages, including the high-current output buffers, are single-ended.
The L2 has a separate power supply that features a choke filter—an old technology that is once again popular in high-end circles—and vacuum-tube rectification and voltage regulation. According to Grand Lamm Vladimir…
The Direct inputs route the signal directly to the volume potentiometers, bypassing the Line 1/Line 2 and monitor Tape/Source switches. In that way, the L2 reminded me a lot of the YBA Signature 6 Chassis, which has a similar dual-mono topology with a direct input bypassing some switching: rather than convenience, purism in the service of the music.
The Lamm L2 is not remote-controlled; you have to heave your audiophile butt outa that listening chair to select inputs and make changes in volume. The exercise will do you good.
Setup and Tweakage
Tweakage at $13,690…
While I found the best sound using all Synergistic Research Designer's Reference interconnects, single-ended and balanced, for the long run to the Krells, AudioQuest Everest speaker cable sounded fabulous with these amps. This was unexpected—I'd let it lie around while waiting for more of AQ's Amazon interconnect to try. (The first batch was wired the wrong way around, so everything played backwards. Just a joke...)
Sound on the Lamm
Describing the sound of the Lamm L2 is not hard at all. Now, you might think that's bad: "Oh, it has a sound of its own. It shouldn't—especially at…