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Good Work

"I love hard work," John Atkinson had said earlier. "I can watch it all day long."

And there he stood, watching while I maneuvered the large Acapella High Violoncello II loudspeaker from corner to corner.

"Wanna take a photo of this, John?"

I hadn't meant it as a joke, but JB Stanton Communication's Bryan Stanton thought for sure that I was taking the piss.

"No, seriously. For the blog!"

On Saturday morning, I went to John Atkinson’s home to help pack up the Acapella High Violoncello II loudspeakers.

Here you see me tilting the loudspeaker…

Jenny Scheinman's got it going on

I’ve been following Jenny Scheinman for a few years now: her frequent Tuesday night sets at Barbes, a small Brooklyn bar and sometimes-jazzclub not far from my house; her side gigs with the likes of Bill Frisell, Jason Moran, and Ben Allison at various clubs in Manhattan; her wry CDs, most notably 12 Songs.

But I’ve never seen her so fiery, so fluent across so many musical styles, or just having so much damn fun as last night at the Village Vanguard, leading a quartet she calls Mayhem & Mischief.

Scheinman’s music has always blended jazz, folk, bluegrass, and blues, with the…

Let's Get Physical: The Magico Q5

Yesterday morning, John Atkinson and I drove out to Mikey Fremer’s place to perform a set of test measurements on the Magico Q5 (review scheduled for our November issue). While JA set up his gear for the in-room measurements, I got to listen to music. Mikey was my personal DJ. He played some sultry Julie London, some angry Gil Scott-Heron, and some soothing Nat “King” Cole. All three, thanks to the outstanding recordings and thanks to the outstanding system, sounded very much alive.

Once JA was all set-up, we got out of his way and let him work. Here’s what it looked like:…

Old Souls

One of the many musical sawhorses that I often put the spurs to—being a pain the bass just comes with the territory I’m afraid7#151;is the whole bit about why labels who are all hurtin’ right now don’t spend more time digging in their vaults and hauling out treasure in the form of unreleased studio material and especially live shows. Well, the emerging empire that is Concord Records (proud owners of the catalogs of Telarc, Fantasy and now, Rounder Records), a label whose judgment I have questioned in the recent past (Stax Does the Beatles, WTF?), released a killer record earlier this…

She Wants Something Better

YouTube user, sharanelani, posted this excellent and hilarious video, detailing a day at the high end audio shop.

How can the high end audio industry address the problem depicted in the video? What high quality audio products can be offered as true alternatives to the Bose Wave Radio?

Buried

You might say that brown boxes serve as a metaphor for our lives here at Stereophile. Some days are fuller than others. Right now, I’m buried.

Brown boxes come, and they go. These are going. When they are gone, I will feel a little happy bit of relief.

To be returned to their homes:

dCS Puccini SACD player
dCS Puccini U-Clock
McIntosh C2300 preamplifier
McIntosh MC275 power amplifier
Einstein Audio The Tube preamplifier (with separate box for remote control unit?!)
Peachtree Audio iDecco integrated amplifier

Now On Newsstands: <i>Stereophile</i>, Vol.33 No.8

The August 2010 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. The cover, with its mellow tones, is one of my favorites. To a greater degree than any other cover we’ve released, this one got a buzz going around the office. People would walk by and say nice things. I hope the cover works the same magic for people browsing the newsstands.

The cute Gradient Helsinki lends itself to elegance and simplicity. But did Art enjoy his time spent living with it?

Some think yes, some think no. I would guess a bit of both. Art had an extremely tough time finding the places in his…

Phiaton's New Website

Phiaton, maker of sexy headphones for sexy people, has a nice new website filled with pictures of attractive young adults, set in clean, chic surroundings, looking very deeply engaged with what they’re doing, whether at work or at play or getting ready for a big date, while wearing Phiaton headphones. Check it out.

The woman seen here is deep into her listening experience with Phiaton’s PS210. You can read John Atkinson’s review of the PS200 here. Wes Phillips reviewed the MS400. And I compared the MS400 to the highly fashionable Beats by Dr. Dre.

New Products from Marantz

Marantz has introduced four new, relatively affordable products: two integrated amplifiers and two disc players. All carry on the sleek, attractive design of the company’s reference components, featuring the classic Marantz star logo (cool), sculpted faceplates, and solid-looking build.

I’m most interested in the cheap stuff.

The CD5004 CD player uses a Cirrus Logic CS4392 D/A converter capable of handling high-resolution 24-bit/196kHz PCM signals. But the player can also read CD-R and CD-RW discs with MP3 and WMA files. Interestingly, there’s also a front panel…

Best Coast Coming Soooooooooon

Remember this rad video?

Best Coast's full-length debut, Crazy For You, will be released by the awesome Mexican Summer label on July 27th. (That's just a few days away!)