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Dinner with Natalie and Nicole was still three hours away and, thanks to the Okki Nokki record-cleaning machine that I wrote about last month, I had a half-dozen newly cleaned LPs begging to be played. A gray and listless day had somehow blossomed into a clear, brilliant night filled with promise and anticipation. Outside, tattooed against the dark violet sky, a strange, enormous moon hovered over Jersey City, and flooded my listening room with enchanting white light. It was time to enjoy my new records and better acquaint myself with the Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 loudspeakers ($350/pair), and…
Indeed, the Soft Machine seemed to have become a tighter unit, as if they'd been on the road for a couple of weeks honing their skills. In the process, however, they'd lost some of their power and urgency, forfeited some of the danger and madness that is essential to any good rock band. Through the Wharfedales, there was more nuance, detail, and resolution to the sound, but less rock'n'roll: The Soft Machine had become jazzy.
This was an interesting and unexpected development, and it wasn't exactly wrong—after all, the Soft Machine's sound contained jazz elements, most notably in Wyatt'…
But wait . . . Neeno is the name of Natalie's dog. I was definitely getting hungry. I checked the time: 45 minutes till dinner. I sent Natalie a text.
ME: I'm sitting here attempting to hear differences between two very similar turntables. Frustrating. Listening to a song called "Nero's Expedition," but I keep hearing "Neeno's Expedition."
NAT: Ha! You've got Neeno on your mind.
ME: It's true, but can you blame me?
NAT: Nope, he's always on my mind.
Goddammit, I thought, that Neeno is a lucky guy.
It was time to focus, and to do that, I would…
Sidebar: Contacts
PSB Speakers International, 633 Granite Court, Pickering, Ontario L1W 3K1, Canada. Tel: (888) 772-0000, (905) 831-6555. Fax: (905) 837-6357. Web: www.psbspeakers.com.
Rega Research Ltd., 6 Coppers Way, Temple Farm Industrial Estate, Sothend-on-Sea, Essex SS2 5TE, England, UK. Web: www.rega.co.uk. US distributor: The Sound Organisation, 1009 Oakmead Dr., Arlington, TX 76011. Tel: (972) 234-0182. Fax: (972) 234-0249. Web: www.soundorg.com.
Wharfedale, IAG UK Ltd., IAG House, Ermine Business Park, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE29 6XU, England, UK. Tel: (44) (…
Now in its second year, and almost double the size of its launch, AXPONA (Audio Expo North America) is set to make a major impact on East Coast audiophiles when it opens to the public on April 15. Sponsored by Stereophile, the annual show, which runs April 15–17 in the beautiful, centrally located Sheraton Downtown Atlanta, promises at least 70 exhibit rooms alive with gear from at least 250 individual manufacturers.
With quadruple last year's square footage, including three 10,000 sq. ft. ballrooms, the show promises an exhibit from Goldmine magazine; a special Analogue Ballroom showing…
Every few years, a young jazz musician comes along and sets off some buzz. Usually, the excitement soon cools—the kid can’t sustain the initial stir, he turns out to have more technique than depth—but now and then, it turns out there’s something really going on. In the past decade, Jason Moran has been the most prominent of these upstarts who’s the real thing. The latest, I’m pretty sure, is a trumpeter, just shy of 29 years old, named Ambrose Akinmusire.
His debut CD on Blue Note, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, is co-produced by Moran, who heard him play and urged the label’s…
Audio reviewers are kinda slutty. Not sexually, of course, but in the way we promiscuously go through equipment. Like the most popular girl in school, or Tiger Woods, we have our choice of any hot thing we want, whenever we want it. Heck, reviewers don't even have to pick up equipment at bars or clubs: the stuff is delivered right to our homes. We use the gear for a few months, then send it packing once the next hottie comes over to play in our room.
One of the dangers of being a sexually promiscuous person, besides strange spots on your privates, is that it can lead to a perpetual state…
That's the Power of Love
Setup was very straightforward: Lug the beast into place, attach the speaker and interconnect cables, select the mode and input, and switch on the main power toggle on the rear panel. The SA-103 turns on in muted standby mode. You then press the Mute button on the front panel; the SA-103 will now play music, but in class-A/B mode. You can also use Mute to swap out input and speaker cables while the amp is on—a nice tool for reviewers. To switch to class-A, hit the button so labeled. I listened to the SA-103 only in balanced stereo mode.
Setup was very straightforward: Lug the beast into place, attach the speaker and interconnect cables, select the mode and input, and switch on the main power toggle on the rear panel. The SA-103 turns on in muted standby mode. You then press the Mute button on the front panel; the SA-103 will now play music, but in class-A/B mode. You can also use Mute to swap out input and speaker cables while the amp is on—a nice tool for reviewers. To switch to class-A, hit the button so labeled. I listened to the SA-103 only in balanced stereo mode.
Plinius intends for…
The Plinius could also give me hell if I wanted it. My wife loves The Knife, but it has taken me a long time to get into the band's sound. I really like their songs and production, but they consistently use octavizers and pitch shifters on the voice of the already shrill-sounding Karin Dreijer-Andersson, and it gives me the willies—she sounds a bit like the Linda Blair character in The Exorcist and makes Bjîrk sound like Leontyne Price. The Plinius actually helped me better understand and appreciate what The Knife was going for in the chaotic studio treatment they gave the vocals on Deep…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state, two-channel power amplifier with an output stage that can be operated in either class-A or class-A/B. Maximum output power (both channels driven, 20Hz–20kHz, at <0.05% THD): 125Wpc into 8 ohms (21dBW), 220Wpc into 4 ohms (20.4dBW); switched to bridged mono mode, 400W into 8 ohms (26dBW), 730W into 4 ohms (25.6dBW). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.2dB, 0dB at 1Hz and –3dB at 70kHz. Distortion: typically <0.05% THD at rated power, 0.1% THD and IM worst case prior to clipping. Current output: 50A short-duration peak per channel.…