And there’s a nice story to it, a story involving Hobson and Stereophile’s own Michael Fremer.
On a recent visit to Fremer’s house, Hobson heard a demo of the Furutech DeMag, a device that demagnetizes LPs.…
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It’s fair to ask how many audiophile pressings of John Coltrane’s Blue Train do we need? Yet Mike Hobson of Classic Records makes a compelling case for this answer: one more. Classic is putting out a whole new type of LP, and though its technical tweak seems preposterous—a parody of vinylphilic obsession—it really does yield a substantial improvement; it makes the head spin.
I've got to agree with my main man, Michael Lavorgna: Dale's Pale Ale from the Oskar Blues Brewery in Lyons, Colorado, wins the award for best beer of 2008.
It is hoppier than a bunny on crack. It comes in a manly can. A six-pack costs more than I want to mention, but I can buy it at my local liquor store. It was the beer we drank while listening to vinyl on the Rega P3. It provides the perfect hi-fi buzz.
John Atkinson is at home right now resting after a long day's work, his sore legs propped up, his hand wrapped tight around a glass of cold water—a man…
Sorry to be a humbug, but it seems that Christmas is becoming a magnet for musician death. This year Eartha Kitt, Robert Ward and Freddie Hubbard all expired around the holiday.
Kitt, well what can you say. She was like sex on two legs. She wasn’t chosen to portray the second Catwoman (after Julie Newmar) in the old Batman TV series for no reason. And you have to love the fact that she made Ladybird Johnson cry because she went to a White House luncheon and spoke her mind about the then-raging Vietnam War. That bit has always puzzled me. So a woman who was married to Lyndon Johnson…
These days, weekends seem to last entire lifetimes. Is it the same for you? So much happens that has almost nothing to do with Monday through Friday.
"Happy New Year, Steve! Welcome back."
"I never left."
The company gave us last Thursday and Friday off, but I came in anyhow because that's the kind of person I am, the kind of person I've always been—a bit obsessed, very dedicated, and always with the nagging feeling that I haven't done enough, that I'm forgetting something. What am I forgetting?
Last night, I crashed over Isaac and Anne-Marie's…
Ceramic Dog's Party Intellectuals wins the award for Best Album of 2008 That I Never Wrote Anything About.
I don't know why I never wrote about it. Probably because I couldn't. But Robert Baird wrote about it in our September 2008 issue, so you should read that. Robert filed it under "jazz," but it's not so much jazz as it is pretty straightforward New York City No Wave. I mean, as straightforward as No Wave can be, blending punk, funk, jazz, noise, and avant garde art, or whatever you want to call it.
Robert wrote:
About as close to jazz as anything…
I think you'll enjoy Tris McCall's 2008 Pop Music Abstract.
He shares his thoughts on pop music. All of it, from 50 Cent to Lykke Li to Weezer. For instance, this bit on Vampire Weekend:
Latest NYC export occasions as much animosity as the Strokes did, and for the same reason: they're a frat-rock band for wealthy postgraduates who believe themselves above frat-rock.Or this on Elvis Costello:
Cool beans: Steve Nieve has brought the Vox Continental out of mothballs. Homie can play anything with keys, of course, but it's always nice to dance with…
The show is about to begin, and John Atkinson is getting the annual Product of the Year awards ready for handout.
Last year PS Audio teased us with a prototype disc player called the memory link which never quite made it to production. Instead, the company evolved the idea further and created a new line of products branded PerfectWave.
First up is the PerfectWave Transport Memory Player, likely to run $2,999 when it hits the streets in March. The TMP is essentially an optical disc player that can play any resolution WAV file (including Reference Recordings' new high definition HRX format DVDs) and FLAC files. MP3 decoding may be added to the mix in the future, but SACD won't be possible, since…
PS Audio is also showing a prototype of the new PerfectWave DAC/pre, also slated for around $2999, and sporting a touch screen. There are four HDMI imputs on the back (only compatible with their I2S flavor of HDMI) and a touchscreen on the front for controlling volume and such.
On the back is a slot for the $500 "Bridge" which would enable the DAC/pre to interface with a NAS drive and iPhone/Touch controller and become a full-fledged music server. McGowan promises several future products to fillup the HDMI ports on the back.