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Checking the error-correction performance of the Mark Levinson No.37 transport with the Pierre Verany test disc indicated no problems through track 34, where it began to mistrack. This is a very good though not exceptional result. Track 27 is the required minimum CD standard.

The rest of the measurements presented are for the No.36S. Unless otherwise noted, all of the results are for the unbalanced output mode. (Selected measurements were repeated from the balanced output and were not significantly different from the results shown here.)

The…

Fig.6 Mark Levinson No.36S, waveform of undithered 1kHz sinewave at -90.31dBFS (16-bit data).

The noise modulation as a function of signal level vs frequency is plotted in fig.7. The more tightly clustered the results here—plotted for five low-level signals from -60dBFS…

To find the true genesis of ...Against the Dying of the Light, the new recording from Minnesotan-based male-voice choir Cantus available from this website's secure "Recordings" page, you'd have to journey back to the beginning of 2001. In January or February, the group had begun to grapple with the development of a new program. Cantus' discs are distillations of the programs they perform on tour, and for several years now, one of the ways the ensemble had distinguished itself from other men's choruses was in the way their concerts expanded on a…

"After our shows we stay and talk to anyone who would like to speak to us, and people were coming up to us and telling us how much our performances meant to them—particularly the Jennings settings of the Dylan Thomas poems. Obviously, many…

The Chapel of the Good Shepherd on the campus of Shattuck St. Mary's School in Faribault, Minnesota—Marlon Brando and Sylvester Stallone are alumni—was built in the English Gothic style in 1871. The interior features collegiate seating and a high wooden "A" ceiling, and the floor is of stone flags laid over a suspended wooden platform. The acoustic is quite reverberant for a fairly small space, but on the bright side overall, and Cantus in full song verged on overloading the acoustic.

Placing the chorus on the altar…

Cantus is: Brian Arreola, Michael Hanawalt, Albert Jordan, Lawrence Wiliford, Peter Zvanovec, tenors; Kelvin Chan, Adam Reinwald, Paul Wilson, baritones; Alan Dunbar, Erick Lichte, Timothy Takach, basses; with David Hagedorn, tam-tam (Tormis), and Charles Kemper, piano (Debussy).

[1] "Hymnus (Natus in curas)" Jean Sibelius; text, Fridolf Gustafsson
[2] "O Vos Omnes" Pablo Casals; text, Lamentations 1:12
[3-5] "Sunt Lacrimae Rerum" Carl Orff; texts, Orlando de Lassus, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Carl Orff
[6] "Varjele, Jumala,…

Cantus was founded in fall 1995 when a few college friends gathered on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, a place renowned for its virtual wellspring of activity in choral music. Their objective was to spend time away from the rigors of college life doing something they enjoyed: singing. During the next two years the ensemble grew to 12 members and began performing at venues on campus.

Cantus has performed more than 250 concerts in the nation during the past seven years, including appearances at AmericaFest, the American…

According to Erick Lichte, ...Against the Dying of the Light was not merely the most ambitious project Cantus had ever attempted, it was also the most difficult to accomplish. The recording was definitely born in pain. For one thing, noise from the Chapel of the Good Shepherd's heating system was incompatible with the recording process, so the group turned off the forced-air system during the sessions. But Good Shepherd is a stone building, and this was late winter in Minnesota. The interior…