search

BARTÓK: Rhapsodies 1 & 2 for Violin & Orchestra, Violin Concerto 2
Includes alternative versions of movements.
Barnabás Kelemen, violin; Zoltán Kocsis, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Hungaroton HSACD 32509 (SACD)

Every time I hear of a new release in Hungaroton's "Bartók New Series" I expect something special, and this disc is further fulfillment of that expectation. Although these releases do not feature performers with the biggest names, the musicians recorded do come with unquestioned credentials for this music…

Diagnosed over a year ago, Figueras continued to record and perform through August. She died at her home in Bellaterra, Spain, with her husband and children Arianna and Ferran at her side.

A strikingly beautiful woman, Figueras was possessed of a clear, shining…

Occupying the entire second floor of 242 West 27th Street, Sound By Singer offers three listening rooms with gear from respected brands such as Clearaudio, Harbeth, LFD, Luxman, Musical Fidelity, VPI, Zanden, and more.

In the image above, we see Bluebird Music’s Jay Rein, in Singer’s largest listening room, providing a demonstration of a cost-no-object system incorporating Peak Consult loudspeakers.

Business hours are by…

Van Etten’s voice is strong and provocative, her phrasing clever and compelling, the mood she conjures reminiscent of Chan Marshall’s early passion and longing, but more urgent, more dangerous. Van Etten sounds as though she’s been through some difficult, unhappy things, but has freed herself; she’s aware of her sadness, yet…

To judge from the $6400 Mimesis 8, Goldmund walks its own way when it comes to power amplifier design. High-end solid-state amplifiers from US companies like Krell, Mark Levinson, Threshold, and the Jeff Rowland Design Group marry massive power supplies to large numbers of output devices (these often heavily biased to run in class-A), built on chassis of such…

This sense of spatial realism was repeated with Stereophile's Intermezzo LP. Again the Steinway just hung at…

Loudspeakers used during the evaluation of these amplifiers were mainly the Wilson WATTs and Puppies and KEF R107s, though Avalon Eclipses, Acoustat Spectra 1100s, MB Quart 490s, and Epos ES11s also made appearances. Front-end components consisted of a Linn Sondek/Lingo/Ekos/Troika setup sitting on an ArchiDee table to play LPs, a Revox PR99 to play 15ips master tapes, and, at various times, a Meridian 208 CD player, the Stax DAC-X1t and VTL Reference D/A processors driven by Meridian 602 and Wadia WT-3200 transports, or the Krell MD-1/SBP-64X combination…

The Goldmund's rated power specification leaves me a bit puzzled, as it is an unusual, current-limited amplifier that delivers the same output power into 2, 4, and 8 ohms. That this is not true of the Mimesis 8 is shown by fig.1, which plots the distortion and noise against output power for a 1kHz signal into 8, 4, and 2 ohm loads with one channel driven. The 1% distortion point was reached at 185W into 8 ohms (22.7dBW), 260W into 4 ohms (21.1dBW), and 305W into 2 ohms (18.8dBW), revealing rather a higher power-supply impedance than the Levinson No.23.5. With both…

Description: Solid-state stereo power amplifier. Rated power output: 125Wpc into 2 to 8 ohms (15–21dBW), 100Wpc into 1 and 16 ohms (11 & 23dBW), 250Wpc into 3 ohms (maximum) (19.7dBW), both channels driven. Maximum voltage swing: 45V peak, both channels driven. Maximum current swing: 30A peak, both channels driven. Transient Intermodulation Distortion (TID): less than 0.01% (–80dB) up to 25V output into 8 ohms. Total Harmonic Distortion (THD): less than 0.01% (–80dB) up to 25V output into 8 ohms. Frequency response: DC–100kHz, ±0.1dB; DC–400kHz, ±1dB; DC–…

Obviously, I’ve been listening to a lot of CDs lately; and, while I have started to long for my LPs, I haven’t really gone crazy or anything. Listening to CDs can be fun, too&#151especially when the discs hold music by the likes of…