Cold Cave's new album, Cherish the Light Years will be available in similarly fine record shops on April 5th, but Matador Records has provided a free stream, so you can listen now.
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I resisted at first, but Cold Cave's Love Comes Close became one of my very favorite records of 2009. The album also led me to one of New York City's darkest, spookiest, and most welcoming record shops, Hospital Productions, a fantastic source of underground noise, industrial, and experimental work on CD, LP, and, good-god-almighty, cassette.
Has anyone here ever heard of Youn Sun Nah, or am I just out of it? She's a South Korean singer, 42 (though she looks 25), born to a musical family. She's spent the last decade or so in France and has built a strong reputation on the European concert tour the last couple years, but there have been no appearances or even press about her stateside, not that I know of anyway.
Well, let me get a ball rolling. Her new CD, Same Girl (on the German label ACT), is one of the most refreshing jazz vocal albums I've heard in a long while.
She has operatic range and amazing control, lacing a…
RAMEAU: Works for Harpsichord
Albert Fuller, harpsichord
Reference Recordings RR 27 (LP), RR 27-CD (CD*). J. Tamblyn Henderson, Jr., prod.; Keith O. Johnson, eng. AAA/DDD. TTs: 57:45, 63:57*
Albert Fuller, harpsichord
Reference Recordings RR 27 (LP), RR 27-CD (CD*). J. Tamblyn Henderson, Jr., prod.; Keith O. Johnson, eng. AAA/DDD. TTs: 57:45, 63:57*
I have to admit that I gave Reference Recordings' last Baroque release somewhat short shrift: I was disappointed enough in the performance that even KOJ's usual superb recording was insufficient to redeem things. Here, however, Albert Fuller (who was also present the last time out) is in fine fettle, giving as good an account of these works as we could wish. Clearly he is more sympathetic to…
On January 5, 2011, I was flying to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (footnote 1). On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced that he would pay a minimum of $5 to eligible employees who worked an eight-hour day. (At that time, a good wage was $2.50 for a workday of 10 hours.) Ford was not being altruistic; he wanted to motivate his employees both to become more productive and to stay loyal to their employer. And there were strings attached: A Ford employee "must show himself to be sober, saving, steady, industrious and must satisfy . . . staff that his money will not be wasted in…
Art Dudley, Robert Deutsch and John Atkinson report live from the show starting Thursday evening.
The April 2011 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. I’m especially excited about this one. In fact, I kinda wish I could create an enormous high-resolution, illuminated reproduction of the cover and drape it over one entire side of the Empire State Building. That’s how much I love this issue. Yesterday afternoon, I walked over to 4 Times Square and handed a copy of our April issue to my dear friend, Jaime, the photo editor for a very popular woman’s magazine. Jaime was equally impressed.
You see those warm, happy colors and those delicious, little loudspeakers on the cover…
Cycles can be seen in the fortunes of companies. Likewise cycles can be seen in the performance of companies' products. A particular range will appear to have got it just right, whatever "it" is. The designer may have hit a winning streak and thus steal a lead over the competition. C-J set a new state-of-the-art preamp standard in the late 1980s with their Premier Seven, and some of that expertise and experience are beginning to pay off in the shape of new high-performance preamplifiers at realistic prices. Two important products have emerged from all this in C-J's moderately priced FET…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: FET-based, full-function preamplifier: Input impedance: 47k ohms in parallel with 260pF (phono); 31k ohms in parallel with 100pF (line). Input sensitivity (for 500mV output): 0.48mV (phono); 50mV (line). Overall gain: 60dB (phono); 20dB, phase-inverting (line). Output impedance: 160 ohms.
Dimensions; 19" W by 3.5" H by 13.2" D.
Serial number of unit tested: 300100J.
Price: $1295 (1990); no longer available (2011). Approximate number of dealers: 100.
Manufacturer: Conrad-Johnson Design, 12733 Merrilee Drive, Fairfax, VA 22031. Tel: (…
Sidebar 2: System
Analog: Goldmund Studio T4/Koetsu RS 11, Linn Sondek LP12/Ekos/Troika, van den Hul MC2 high output, plus various step-ups.
CD players: Meridian 602–603 and Marantz CD80.
Preamplifiers: C-J Premier 7a, Audio Research LS1, Conrad-Johnson PF-1, and Krell KSP-7B.
Power amplifiers: Krell KSA-80B and KSA-250, ARC Classic 120.
Loudspeakers: Apogee Duetta Signature, Apogee Stage, Quad ESL-63, Spendor SP2.2, and Celestion SL-700.
Cable: custom silver/Teflon.—Martin Colloms
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The PF-1 is ostensibly a moving-magnet design with a confirmed 47k ohm, 260pF input impedance. Normally an input sensitivity of 1 or 2mV is available for an IHF standard output of 0.5V for such an input; the PF-1 delivered a 0.48mV sensitivity and an overall gain of 60dB. This was just sufficient for the loudest "low-output" moving-coils, and was well-suited to the "high-output" types which generally offer somewhat lower levels than the average moving-magnet.
Further consideration of the disc input is worthwhile to help understand the optimum matching…