"I feel like it [the record business] is in really dire straights right now, but it…
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In Aural Robert in the April issue of Stereophile, Amoeba owner David Prinz and I discuss his label, Amoeba Records, and his ongoing program to reissue Gram Parsons live sets. Needless to say however, I also talked with him about the ever more bizarre situation that the record business now finds itself in. As the owner of the biggest and best independent record stores on planet Earth, his opinion carries more than a little weight. Here's a sampling of what he said about the biz and the specter of iTunes.
Art Dudley reviewed the original Arcam Solo CD receiver in our July 2005 issue. Art was impressed. He wrote:
Arcam's new Solo is the rare audiophile product that swims with, rather than against, the flow of mainstream consumerism—toward simplicity, convergence, and relative smallness.
With the new Solo Mini ($999), introduced in the US at January's Consumer Electronics Show, it seems as though Arcam is looking to take those values even further.
Simplicity: The Solo Mini is an all-in-one music system, combining a CD player, AM/FM tuner with an alarm clock…
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I knew nothing about high end hi-fi. Hard to believe, I know. But true. I didn't even know that the high end existed. My Magnavox boombox worked just fine. As a person grew older and gained the responsibilities and markings of an adult, I knew that his or her speakers and amplifiers grew larger and flashier and more expensive—like their houses and cars and debt—but I didn't equate those changes with better sound. I didn't even think about better sound.
I was lucky to find this job. I didn't know what I was getting…
Visitors to the 2008 International Auto Show, currently taking place at NYC's Jacob Javits Convention Center, might discover something different at the Bentley display: a high-end audio listening room. Bentley Motors and Naim have teamed up for the "Naim For Bentley" program, which will be offered as a sound package upgrade for all Bentley models by year's end.
"Bentley wanted to demonstrate the value of a real audio system to its customers," Naim's managing director Paul Stephenson told me. "So we suggested that we set up a real Naim system and allow people to hear what it is we…
I still sometimes forget that the year is 2008. It'll take me a few more months to get used to it. No doubt about it, though: 2007 is old news. I can tell by the copyright dates on my new CDs. It's 2008. The birdies are making all sorts of happy racket outside my kitchen window; the high temperatures are creeping up, up, slowly up; Opening Day is less than a week away.
Are you guys fans of Nick Cave? When I was younger, his music creeped me out. Maybe it was the spooky piano. Maybe it was the heavy brow and the dark, dark eyes. Maybe it was the wild hair, blacker than…
Have you guys seen those Vincent Audio ads? (See page 128 of the April issue, or page 130 of the March issue or, even better, page 183 of the January issue.) I love them all.
I want to meet the girl. I would talk to her like I was Johnny Gill. Don't tell me your name, honey. Just put on this red dress and slip on these high heels. And sit down on this faux leather couch and hold this plastic martini glass. Sit back and get all cozy right here next to this tube amplifier. Yes, that's good. No, wait—let me put this fake Stratocaster around your neck. Yeah, that'…
A few months ago, I reviewed Carla Bley’s wonderful CD, The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu, a deceptively Dada title that referred simply to the nature of the session—Bley’s quartet, called the Lost Chords, joined by the Sardinian trumpeter, Paolo Fresu. I praised Fresu’s “appealing” sound, its “clarion tone with a slight huff of breathiness,” but confessed that I’d never heard him before. Now comes a trio album, Mare Nostrum (on the German label, ACT), with Fresu as co-leader—along with the French-Italian accordionist, Richard Galliano, and the Swedish pianist, Jan Lundgen—and, though it’s not…
Jason Victor Serinus reported on it a couple of weeks ago, but in case you still haven't seen that American Express ad featuring hi-fi retailer MusicDirect, here it is.
I could watch this ad forever and ever. All it needs is the Vincent Audio girl. I love seeing hi-fi in the mainstream. MusicDirect received Plum Card number 4350 (out of the initial 10,000), and I can't wait to see what they do with it.
Those big, white headphones are AKG K 701s, in case you're wondering, and they're awesome. I will own them someday.
Someday, I will own them.
Was it really only yesterday? It feels like it was a hundred years ago.
I received a press release from Canton yesterday. It was about their new DSS 303 Digital Soundstation, designed specifically for the Apple iPod. I'm endlessly impressed by the fact that an entire world of products have risen from the popularity of the smart, little iPod.
Canton's DSS 303 seems similar to the many other iPod audio systems out there in that it combines an integrated iPod dock and charger with an AM/FM clock radio in a curvy, glossy black or white package.
It uses a 4"…