That was called "love" for the workers in song;
probably still is, for those of them left.—Leonard Cohen
It started around 1950, as postwar economies boomed and commercial radio stations multiplied like bunnies: Broadcasters needed reliable, high-quality turntables, so Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing—an offshoot of Garrard & Co., England's first Crown Jeweler—took up the challenge. They brought their considerable engineering talent to bear on a new design, invested in the personnel and facilities required to make the thing, and released the model 301 motor unit in 1953. It…
If you're using my experiences more as a map than a guide, I suggest that you leave Lowe's with a few other things if you don't already have them: hole saws in 2" and 2¾" sizes, plus the mandrel required to use them in your electric drill; a ¾" Forstner bit (preferred) or wood bore; a 5/16" drill bit; a packet of 1"-diameter coarse sanding drums, plus mandrel; and one or more high-quality fine-cut jigsaw blades. I assume you already have access to a circular saw—needed only for rough-trimming the plywood sheets to size—and that you own a good electric drill and jigsaw, plus a straightedge, a…
A mix of bar, spool, and cam clamps worked well around the perimeter, while a trio of very deep-throated (no jokes) C-clamps did the trick from inside the motor-unit cutout. (Of course, that no longer proved viable when I added the solid layer 7.) Round scraps of plywood created by the hole saws were useful as clamping cauls, to protect the top surface from dents. Although I used the glue sparingly, a soft rag dampened with warm water helped clean up the inevitable squeeze-out.
And then, almost as suddenly as it had begun, the construction phase of my project was over: I now…
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.
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.
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*
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…
