I sat to the side of the room while Bryan finished his…
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Long lines flooded out of the MBL room on the 18th Floor of the Waldorf=Astoria all weekend long, so I arrived at 9:30am on Sunday morning to see if I could get a good listen to the MBL system by myself. Upon arrival, MBL North America’s representative, Jeremy Bryan, was still setting up his smaller speakers, the mbl 120 Radialstrahler ($21,400/pair, without stands) along with their mbl C21 stereo power amplifier ($9200), mbl C11 preamplifier ($8,800), and mbl C31 CD player ($9,200), all members of their Corona line of electronics.
The MBL room was the last room I visited at the NY Audio & AV Show. I sat down in the sweet spot, on the couch midway between the MBL 101E Mk.2 "radialstrahler" speakers, each driven by a 9011 monoblock; Jeremy Bryan cued up a hi-rez file of Peter Gabriel singing "Wallflower," from his New Blood album; and OMG. This was true virtual reality! Then Jeremy explained what he had to do to tame the room's acoustics—see Ariel Bitran's blog following this one. All I can say is that it was worth the effort!
Prior to the onset of the Chester Group’s New York Audio & AV Show, there had been some controversy in regards to big-time local dealers Stereo Exchange and Lyric hosting their own events the weekend of the show. These events brought in big brands such as Totem, McIntosh, B&W, and Audio Research, who would be presenting exclusively at their stores. Would these dealer events keep participants away from the New York Audio & AV Show? How would these coinciding events affect one another? Were these signs that the show organizers had not done the work necessary to motivate exhibitors…
The big guns: Sonus Faber’s new flagship loudspeaker, the Aida, with electronics from Audio Research.
The early bird catches the worm, but the well-warmed playback system is another thing altogether: So it was when I visited New York’s Stereo Exchange on the morning of April 13, mere minutes after they opened their doors for the day. Nevertheless, the ever-genial David Wasserman and his staff hit the ground running, cheek-to-jowl with eager customers and representatives from 11 equipment suppliers, whose presence had at least something to do with the New York Audio and AV Show.
…
Stephen Mejias: On Thursday, April 12, Stereophile’s editorial assistant, Ariel Bitran, and I left the office at around 5pm, walked over to Grand Central, hopped on the 6 train, and made our way to New York City’s Lyric Hi-Fi.
As Ariel discussed last week, Lyric was one of two premier NYC dealers—the other was Stereo Exchange—that opted against participating in the New York Audio & AV Show, and instead held their own events.
Because both Lyric and Stereo Exchange are successful operations, run by smart people, we figured they must have good reasons for doing…
Innovative's Elliot Fishkin (center) flanked by Wilson Audio Specialties' Peter McGrath (left) and VTL's Luke Manley (right).
As we reported below, Manhattan retailers Lyric and Stereo Exchange decided not to participate in the New York Audio & AV Show, instead holding standalone events at their stores. There are valid reasons for this decision, not the least of which is that the manufacturers are spared the crapshoot of setting up their systems in rooms with unknowable acoustics. By contrast, every dem room at a retailer is, or should be, an optimized machine for making audio…
In 1862, skepticism among the educated was exemplified by the medical establishment, which ridiculed Joseph Lister's notion of "animals in the air." By contrast, the professional skeptic of 2012—yes, it's now possible to make a comfortable living in the field—finds himself inconvenienced by 150 years of discovery, and makes do with ridiculing Lister for his Quaker faith. I guess that passes for progress in some circles.
By all means, it is the scientist's job to doubt. Yet while science's greatest discoveries also seem to have been precipitated by imagination, the latter quality is…
Dudley: And in an engineering endeavor that's not driven by empiricism, such a thing is really not going to be pursued . . .
Belt: Right.
Dudley: What do you make of something like the Acoustic Revive RR-77 [see Stereophile, November 2011, p.43]—which, by the way, is the one "anomalous" audio accessory of my experience that has made the biggest difference—
Belt: Yes!
Dudley: —what do you make of something like that? Do you suppose its effect is also purely on perception, or do you think a device such as that could have an effect on the hardware?
Belt: I don…
Sidebar: List of the Month
Ten tweaks that appear to have been abandoned by the reviewers who once hailed them as "indispensable" (* indicates my own culpability)
1. Bedini CD Clarifier
2. Symposium Acoustics Rollerblocks
3. CD Stoplight pen
4. Sumiko Tweak contact enhancer
5. StyLAST stylus treatment
6. Mod Squad TipToes
7. Shakti Stones
8. Mana Acoustics* and Sound Organisation* stands for the Linn LP12 turntable
9. WonderSolder
10. Anything made of Sorbothane
Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice
By Tad Hershorn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. 470pp. Hardcover, $34.95.
By Tad Hershorn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. 470pp. Hardcover, $34.95.
One night in 1942, Billie Holiday was singing at a Los Angeles nightclub. Between sets, she crossed the street to have a drink with Norman Granz. She was in tears because some black friends who had come to hear her had been turned away.
Granz was then 23, on the cusp of a career that would make him one of the jazz world's most important concert promoters and record producers, as well as an effective advance man for racial integration. He…