Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B phono cartridge.
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP & DX-5 universal players; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini laptop running OS10.7, iTunes 10, Pure Music 1.86; Shuttle PC with Lynx AES16 soundcard & dual-core AMD Athlon processor running Windows 7, Foobar 2000, Adobe Audition 3.0; Halide DAC HD, dCS Debussy, Benchmark DAC1, Logitech Transporter, Mark Levinson No.30.6 D/A converters; Empirical Audio Off-Ramp4; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Classé CP-800 with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"); for some tests, I also used my vintage Audio Precision System One Dual Domain.
Looking first at the CP-800's performance via its digital inputs, with the volume control locked to unity analog gain or "0.0" with the Input Passthrough setting and in Analog Bypass mode, the AES/EBU and S/PDIF inputs successfully locked to data with sample rates ranging from 32 to 192kHz. However, as can be seen…
Photo: Laura Leif and Amber Phelps Bondaroff
My latest addiction is “Stuff I’ve Been Reading,” Nick Hornby’s column for The Believer. I know: It's very hipster/nerdy of me to be reading this stuff; you might even think I live in nerdy Brooklyn. But, I swear, I live in Jersey City, and I have completely sincere and profound reasons for reading The Believer and "Stuff."
Not only does it remind me of how much I admire and enjoy Hornby’s writing—he’s clear, deep, funny, and extremely likable even when he’s being snarky and clever—but it also fuels my passion for reading. And when I…
Aboveground Records, obligatory cedar shingles and all.
The Massachusetts island called Martha's Vineyard, a tourist destination with a year-round population of only 18,000, is home to at least a hundred T-shirt shops, scores of seafood shacks (the calamari at Nancy's is amazing), dozens of ice-cream parlors, and three unpleasant cute-tiques called The Black Dog. Residents and vacationers alike are also served by an excellent store called Aboveground Records (8 Great Harbor Triangle, Edgartown, MA 02539). Having been on the Vineyard with my family for the past few days, working diligently…
Drip.FM offers an interesting new way for music lovers to connect with their favorite record labels. The platform is free to participating labels, with no sign-up costs or usage fees; Drip.FM makes money when the participating labels make money, through a revenue share on sales. Labels set their own user-fees for access to a Drip.FM account. While content varies depending on the label, fans can expect to receive digital files (MP3 and WAV) of new titles on the day they are released (or sooner); randomly selected back-catalog titles; and plenty of enticing perks, such as exclusive,…
Photo: Magico LLC
Saturday, September 29, 11am–6pm: David Michael Audio (4341 Delemere Court, Royal Oak, MI) will host a demonstration of the Magico S5 loudspeaker ($28,600/pair), which had impressed John Atkinson at the 2012 Newport Beach Show. Irv Gross, Magico’s director of sales, will be on hand to present the speaker and answer any questions. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited. For more info, call (586) 244-8479. RSVP: info@davidmichaelaudio.com.
I will not pretend to understand the concept behind The Ganzfeld EP, electronic duo Matmos’ upcoming release, but I will simply say that I dig it, deeply. From the press release, because I can’t say it any better:
The EP and the album [The Marriage of True Minds, available early 2013] have the same conceptual basis: telepathy.
Telepathy!
For the past four years the band have been conducting parapsychological experiments based upon the classic Ganzfeld (“total field”) experiment, but with a twist: instead of sending and receiving simple graphic patterns, test…
My review of Flying Lotus' fourth full-length album, Until the Quiet Comes, is scheduled to appear in our November issue, but this short film, directed by Kahlil Joseph, does a fine job of depicting the record.
The film uses pieces of three Quiet tracks: "See Thru to U" (featuring Erykah Badu), "Hunger" (featuring Niki Randa), and "Getting There" (also featuring Niki Randa).
Until the Quiet Comes will be released by Warp Records on October 2.
John Cage, Indeterminacy, C.F. Peters No.68142. Copyright 2009, by Henmar Press, Inc. Reprinted by agreement with Wesleyan University Press and the John Cage Trust.
When I began my junior year at Fairleigh Dickinson University, in Teaneck, New Jersey, I'd already fulfilled the main requirements for graduation, but still had a number of credits to put toward elective studies. The courses in yoga and bowling were already closed, so I devised an independent course in experimental music. Thinking about it now, it seems a strange miracle that the university allowed me to come up with such a…
Learning firsthand about Barton's process was fascinating, but paled in comparison to simply standing quietly in the chamber with my eyes closed. People had told me to be careful—strange things happen in anechoic chambers, I might go crazy or something—but I loved it from the start. As I stepped onto the grate, I felt a tightening in my ears and a pressure above my eyes. The silence was staggering—exquisite, profound. The sound of our voices was absolutely pure. I quickly developed a headache as my mind and ears attempted to latch on to the silence but were confounded by our discussion—a…