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Of course, any city with a maritime history has pirate history, too. In recent years, Salem has skewed more towards witches than pirates, but some traditions remain, including Beavis and Butthead tavern—or in this case, liquor store—names.
After the Nubble, we switched cars and I got to ride in the rear right seat of a Continental Flying Spur with a "Comfort" package. That means better leather, a rear-seat entertainment package (including DVD player and noise suppressing headphones with a Bentley logo) and a lumbar-massaging seat, which really made being driven an even better experience.
The downside of the rear seat position, however, is that the woofer, which is mounted in the boot and ports its sound into the cabin through the parcel shelf, doesn't quite blend seamlessly with the other 14 cabin-mounted speakers.…
The pack o'Bentleys drove out of Boston and east to the Maine coast, following the twisty shore roads up to Port Neddick and the Nubble Lighthouse, purported to have been featured on more post cards than any other lighthouse. I didn't know where that was, so I followed along in the middle of the pack, playing my uncompressed ALC files through the Naim system.
The sound was superb—from the driver's seat, at least. The DSP really did keep the music sounding the same at any speed and the control system was unfussy and straightforward. Best car sound ever? I have heard some systems at…
Naturally, this NY resident, who doesn't own a car, was given a Speed for a starter car. No problem—as it turns out people get out of the way when they see eight Bentleys coming at them. As a result, I managed not to hit any pedestrians or guardrails—only the road.
Another cool aspect to the 2009 Bentleys: Adaptive Cruise Control, which uses a grille-mounted radar sensor to monitor the upcoming roadway, If a slow driver cuts in front of you, refusing to yield right-of-way to a person of your class, the cruise control will automatically keep your car a preset distance from it. Best…
The Continental Flying Spur was demonstrated in two varieties: The "regular" Flying Spur, which has 19" tires and a 48-valve, 552bhp W12 engine, and the "Speed," which put the Flying Spur on 20" rims, and a 600bhp version of that W12—and outfits it with Bentley's carbon/silicon carbide brakes.
While the Naim for Bentley system has a six-disc changer, I found its glove-box mounted iPod cradle awfully useful. It has the MFI (made for iPod) authentication chip, so all of your iPod's playlists, titles, and other metadata are displayed on the GPS touchscreen in the center of the console. All iPod functions can be controlled through the touchscreen, including scrolling though all selections or leaving a playlist for shuffle.
Adjusting the EQ for every 1km change in speed, the Dynamic EQ has over 300 settings. Other fun tricks include various EQ "modes," allowing the system to be voiced for the driver's position or for the rear right passenger's seat. ("Home James, and give me the sweet spot!")
You can also choose an "audiophile " mode that doesn't monkey with spatial reorientation—not that I reckon Bentley owners for hair-shirt audiophiles.
In July, I received an invitation from Bentley to participate in a "driving event" involving the 2009 model Continental Flying Spur and Continental Flying Spur Speed. How come? Because the 2009 Bentleys have the Naim For Bentley music system and, in addition to debuting it for the automotive press, Bentley wanted some hi-fi writers along for the, umm, ride.
Most name brand car audio systems are either constructed out of parts supplied by OEM divisions over in the automotive sector or utilize a few brand-specific parts such as drivers or DSP, but the Naim For Bentley project started…
Uncle Isaac is building a new house. When he asked me how he might go about getting music to play throughout several different rooms of his home, the first thing that came to mind was Sonos. (Of course, if it was my house, I'd have a different-colored turntable in each room: Colonel Mustard in the library, Professor Plum in the study, Mr. Green in the billiards room, Miss Scarlet in the kitchen (wink wink)….)
Last week, the dudes from Sonos stopped by the office to share their latest news. They were excited.
Sonos' Bundle 150 includes their new ZonePlayers (ZP 120 and ZP…
It’s appropriate that I’d be listening to Irma Thomas’ new R&B record, Simply Grand when I heard that Jerry Wexler had died.
To paraphrase what Edwin Stanton said about Lincoln (actually it’s his own revision of what he actually said), “Now, Atlantic Records belongs to the ages.” Neshui (1989), Tom Dowd (2002), Ahmet (2006) and now, Wexler, who died at age 91 at 3:45 this morning (Friday, August 15, 2008) are all gone. What an incredible creative vision this trio of unlikely collaborators had. At the risk of sounding maudlin and doomy, the music world will never again see the…