It's a familiar story with a predictable ending. About four or five years ago, VTL was following this script to a "T." But their ending has a twist. Not only have they survived, they've muscled their way into the small group of companies defining the state of the art. Their spectacular showings at hi-fi…
search
Brilliant designs, spectacular initial success, rave reviews, explosive growth that stretches resources way beyond limits, too much attention to technology and too little to manufacturing and business practices, long hours, quality problems, conflicts between partners, and finally...
"We disagreed vehemently about whether or not to sell direct. We both knew that we had to split up. Dad was ready to move into his new building, so he took the Manley Studio division and the ViTaL Records division, and I kept VTL. We basically split the company down the middle; we split the inventory, the employees—he took the Manley people and I kept the VTL people—everything."
Since the split, Luke has been steadily re-engineering the company and products. One of the first things he did was to spend time with dealers to find out what the company needed to do in terms of products and to…
In the Fall of 1989, Stereophile magazine released its first recording, of Gary Woodward and Brooks Smith playing flute sonatas by Prokofiev and Reinecke, and a work by American composer Griffes that gave the LP its title: Poem (footnote 1). The full story was published in the September 1989 issue (p.66). We wanted to offer our readers an LP of acoustic music made with the minimum of electronics and processing—the sounds of the instruments would be as true to reality as possible. The images of the instruments were also captured with a purist microphone technique so that, with even a halfway…
Joint First-Prize Winner
Bernard Shaw, in correspondence to The Musical Digest for 1948, described Prokofiev's Flute Sonata, the principal work here, as "a humorous masterpiece of authentic violin music." Apparently that keen-music-critic-turned-dewy-eyed-socialist fell prey to Opus 94a (commissioned by David Oistrakh). But Shaw may be forgiven, since the original version failed to gain currency until well into the LP era.
Israel Nestyev, Prokofiev's biographer, termed Opus 94 "an effusion of pure lyricism following the stark images of the Seventh Sonata, the Second String…
First Runner-Up
As loyal readers know, the selections on the first LP produced by Stereophile magazine consist of works for flute and piano by Griffes, Reinecke, and Prokofiev, as played by Gary Woodward and Brooks Smith. This album is a quite pleasant listening experience, though I personally find the compositions to be somewhat dull fare. The performance seems to be well-executed, however, and lovers of this musical idiom will most likely find much to enjoy within these grooves.
In terms of reproduced sound, the soundstage is true to the photographs in the Stereophile article,…
Second Runner-Up
I walked alone down the darkening streets of Santa Fe; walked until I came to the deserted railroad tracks covered with rust, and watched my lengthening shadow play upon the wall of the old Depot Station. The crunch of the gravel beneath my feet reminded me that I'd been here before; and reminded me of the reason I'd come back.
I walked back up the winding street until I came to the house; knocked three times at the door, and waited.
"Yes?" a voice said.
"Joe sent me," I answered.
The door opened slowly; the tall man in the tattered straw…
Third Runner-Up
What is good music? What is a good recording? The music should awaken some emotion in you and bring your soul to life. The recording provides transportation for the music. It can be a Volkswagen or a Rolls-Royce, the difference being the comfort of the trip. Who left the window open? And who is eating Rice Krispies in the back seat?
Crackle is along for the ride on side one. (Pop and Snap decided to hang out at the used record store.) I even stopped at a car wash before the trip, but Crackle didn't seem to take the hint. Thank goodness he fell asleep before side…
Fourth Runner-Up
I feel as if I know you all personally after reading your prose religiously for three and a half years. "Stereophile cutting an LP!" I thought, "This is going to be one heck of a recording!" My copy of Poem arrived on February 17th. Oh, boy! I was so excited, I could hardly wait for it to get dark outside so that I could begin some serious listening. Night fell, and Poem lay on my trusty Well-Tempered Record Player (footnote 1). I lowered the arm into the lead-in groove and the Grado brought forth the first notes of side one. I turned out the lights and settled into my…
Fifth Runner-Up
Stereophile's initial effort to conceive and produce what it regards as an example of an audiophile LP of definitive quality has been a success from almost any technical perspective. The recording, entitled Poem, reproduces works for solo flute with piano accompaniment.
The sound of the record persuades a listener that it is possible to create a sonic impression of actuality. The superlative surfaces of the record provide such quiet as to approach that of a DDD compact disc. The soundstaging is dramatic, but happily constrained to dimensions commensurate with…
We received the following letter commenting on the release of the second edition of the Poem LP:
A Cause for Celebration
Editor: The cause for celebration is that I've now auditioned the "new" [190gm, one-step] Stereophile Poem album. I say "new" because I feel that it depicts clearly what you set out to do in the first place. That is, to clearly delineate the glorious sound of music in a real space at a given time. You have changed this record enormously—all for the better, but nonetheless it is not the same record as was delivered in December 1989.
I'll get right to the…