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After some thought, I got back to Bob with my ideas on miking and an offer to run tape for him. But what new group? Bob and I have been playing very occasional gigs in a jazz trio for the…

In 1968, I ran into Steve Lacy on the street in Rome. I took out my pocket tape recorder and asked him to describe in 15 seconds the difference between composition and improvisation. He answered: "In 15 seconds,…

The situation is similar in the frequency domain: modern rock recording techniques appear to demand that every instrument be…

Attention Screen Live at Merkin Hall Stereophile STPH018-2
Don Fiorino (guitar, lap steel, lotar, taro patch ukulele), Bob Reina (piano), Chris Jones (fretless electric bass guitar), Mark Flynn (drums)

Track Listing
[1] Mansour's Gift 9:52
[2] Fruit Forward 11:05
[3] Nell's Bells 10:35
[4] Bounced Again 10:56
[5] Blizzard Limbs 13:26
[6] Lap Dawg 10:52
Total Time: 66:50
All compositions by Attention Screen © 2007

CD Cover Image: Chris Jones
CD Booklet Design: Pip Tannenbaum
CD Booklet Photography…

Attention Screen draws on four lifetimes' worth of jazz, classical, and rock vocabulary to create unique, spontaneous compositions that blend disparate acoustic and electronic textures.

Don Fiorino (guitar, lap steel, lotar, taro patch ukulele) Don's improvised guitar phrasings range from rock'n'roll and acoustic bottleneck blues and electric slide to Middle Eastern and Indian fusions and jazz. He plays a variety of instruments, including guitar, banjo, lap steel, ukulele, and Moroccan lotar. Don is also an accomplished painter;…

"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."—Duke Ellington

My mother was visiting. "What exactly is a preamplifier?" she asked. I explained, in some detail with helpful use of analogy (though the fact that we were in one of Santa Fe's many excellent restaurants meant that I had to…

Sound
The No.23.5 served as one of the workhorse amplifiers during my last six months' worth of equipment reviews. As seems to be the fate of review samples, however, the No.23.5 suffered a fault in one channel a few weeks after delivery. An increase in distortion at low levels turned out to be due to a loose washer lodging itself where it could do most damage,…

Description: Solid-state stereo power amplifier. Rated power output: 200Wpc continuous into 8 ohms (23dBW) with less than 0.1% THD, 400Wpc continuous into 4 ohms (23dBW) with less than 0.2% THD, both from 20Hz–20kHz, both channels driven. Damping factor: greater than 600 at 50Hz, 8 ohms (equivalent to an output impedance of 0.013 ohms). Frequency response: 4Hz–140kHz, —dB. Input impedance: 50k ohms shunted by 1.5nF. Voltage gain: 26dB (load not defined). Input sensitivity: 141mV for 1W output.
Dimensions: 19" (483mm) W by 8.25" (210mm) H by 15.7" (399mm) D.…

Loudspeakers used during the evaluation of these amplifiers were mainly the Wilson WATTs and Puppies and KEF R107s, though Avalon Eclipses, Acoustat Spectra 1100s, MB Quart 490s, and Epos ES11s also made appearances. Front-end components consisted of a Linn Sondek/Lingo/Ekos/Troika setup sitting on an ArchiDee table to play LPs, a Revox PR99 to play 15ips master tapes, and, at various times, a Meridian 208 CD player, the Stax DAC-X1t and VTL Reference D/A processors driven by Meridian 602 and Wadia WT-3200 transports, or the Krell MD-1/SBP-64X combination…