Analog Sources: Spiral Groove SG-2 turntable & Centroid tonearm; Triplanar Precision Mk.VII tonearm; Lyra Titan i, Grado Signature Reference cartridges.
Digital Sources: Primare CD 31, Vincent C-60 CD players.
Preamplification: Sutherland PhD phono preamplifier; Sutherland Direct, Placette Active line stages.
Power Amplifiers: VTL MB750 Signature, Mark Levinson No.20.6.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia II.
Cables: Audience Au-24 e, Stereovox, Nordost Valhalla, Nirvana SL interconnects and speaker cables. AC: Audience…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Sutherland 20/20 with Stereophile's loan sample of the Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It" and www.ap.com). Floating the unbalanced generator gave the lowest level of measured noise; although I tried connecting the chassis of the Audio Precision and the Sutherland with a separate wire, this didn't improve the signal/noise ratios.
But before I could test the Sutherland, I had to power it up, which had me scratching my head. Although each channel has its own 48V power supply—a single-ended, switch-mode wall wart…
The Complete Art Pepper at Ronnie Scott's Club, London, June 1980, a 7-LP boxed set released by Pure Pleasure Records, is a total surprise and a sheer delight.
Art Pepper, who died in 1982 at the age of 56, was not only one of the great alto saxophonists of his era but a self-transformer to boot. In the early 1950s, he routinely ranked No. 2 in Downbeat polls (beat only by Charlie Parker), then vanished in the '60s (locked up in various prisons on drug charges), only to emerge in the mid-'70s with a totally different sound.
On his early albums, the best of which were recorded by…
I ignored my own advice and did not attend Sunday’s Collect-i-Bowl record show at Brooklyn Bowl. (Robert Baird was there, though, and says it was a great and delicious time.) I did, however, attend Saturday’s Record Riot in Jersey City, sponsored in part by Steve Gritzan of Jersey City’s own vinyl speakeasy, Iris Records. Because I’ve been spending so much money on records lately, I told myself that I would not spend more than $20. Well, you know how it goes: $20 soon became $40, and so on.
But, whatever: I’m richer in vinyl.
I picked up unloved copies of Fred Frith’s wildly…
Courtesy of ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.
The tides of the digital audio industry are turning as hi-rez audio downloads are pushed further into the mainstream. On March 2, 2011, HDTracks welcome ABKCO's Remastered Series of the Rolling Stones to their catalog, available at 176kHz/24-bit and 88kHz/24-bit. Now available for download are FLAC files for The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones No. 2, 12 X 5, and Through the Past Darkly.
Teri Landi, archivist and engineer at ABKCO Music & Records details, "Many years of research went into locating the original mono and stereo…
Music producer and mastering engineer Ian Shepherd at Production Advice has created a holiday, and even the folks B&W, Shure, and console manufacturer Solid State Logic are celebrating. On March 25th, interested parties can join Shepherd in his commemoration of rich and sonically inviting recordings by participating in Dynamic Range Day. The message of the event is "Dynamic Music Sounds Better," and Shepherd hopes to spread the word by making people aware of the dangers of the Loudness Wars and encouraging dynamic recordings.
Part of the event is a sponsored competition, where…
KEITH JARRETT: Dark Intervals
Keith Jarrett, piano
ECM 1379 (837 342-1, LP; -2, CD). Kimio Oikawa, eng.; Manfred Eicher, prod. DDA/DDD. TT: 58:22
Keith Jarrett, piano
ECM 1379 (837 342-1, LP; -2, CD). Kimio Oikawa, eng.; Manfred Eicher, prod. DDA/DDD. TT: 58:22
After a five-year hiatus in which he explored jazz standards, classical music, the clavichord, and the unclassifiable Spirits, Keith Jarrett has returned, however briefly, to the form that gained him his widest reputation: solo piano improvisations. But with a difference—only a single LP this time (instead of two, three, or ten), that LP composed of eight short sections, each with a title. This is a far cry from unbroken piano improvs…
But first some new music. In his excellent liner notes for Polyphonic Dialogues, his new disc of music by Dmitri Shostakovich and Rodion Shchedrin (SACD/CD, 2L 2L63), pianist Joachim Kwetzinsky recounts two exchanges between the composers. The first took place in 1965, when both were vacationing in Armenia. Shostakovich asked Shchedrin the Desert Island Score question: Were Shchedrin to be exiled to a deserted island and could bring only one score with him, which would it be? Shchedrin's answer was prompt: J.S. Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge.
When Shchedrin then turned the question on him,…
I have a lot of ground to cover, and so I have space to give only a brief but equally enthusiastic recommendation of tenor Mark Padmore and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout's new Dichterliebe: settings of Heinrich Heine verses by Robert Schumann and Franz Paul Lachner (CD, Harmonia Mundi HMU 907521, footnote 1). This one's a no-brainer—if you're familiar with Padmore's singing, you'll want this disc; if you're not, you should hear it. If you know Schumann's Liederkreis and Dichterliebe, you'll want this disc; if you don't, you should hear it. Amazon.com has sound bites up. Listen to the…