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Recording of May 2012: <I>Centennial</I>

Ryan Truesdell: Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans
Ryan Truesdell, conductor; 35 musicians including those mentioned in text, plus: Scott Robinson, Charles Pillow, reeds; Greg Gisbert, trumpet; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Romero Lubambo, guitar; Lewis Nash, drums
ArtistShare AS0114 (CD). 2012. Ryan Truesdell, prod.; James Farber, eng. DAD. TT: 74:18
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

It is dreamlike when the opening track, "Punjab," begins so softly, with the tapping of a tabla. Exotic woodwinds, perhaps English horn and bassoon, murmur in the left channel, whisper in…

Occupy Avery Fisher Hall

Stop me if you've heard this: On January 10, at Avery Fisher Hall in New York's Lincoln Center, a performance of Mahler's Symphony 9, led by conductor Alan Gilbert, was stopped in its tracks by the ringing of an iPhone.

It wasn't just any part of the Mahler Ninth: It happened during the exceedingly quiet closing measures of the final movement.

It wasn't just any symphony orchestra: It was the New York Philharmonic, which Gustav Mahler directed during the last two years of his life.

It wasn't just any interruption: According to Paul Pelkonen, an insightful blogger on all…

Record Store Day 2012: The Haul

Steve Gritzan stands before the beautiful green gates of his shop, Iris Records, at 114 Brunswick Street in Jersey City, NJ.

Initially, I had planned on enjoying a low-key Record Store Day, visiting my local independent shop, Iris Records, and simply leaving it at that. But things never go the way I plan. The allure of J&R Music World in Lower Manhattan, just a short trip across the Hudson, was too great to resist. And if I was going to be in Manhattan, how could I not head over to In Living Stereo? The hi-fi shop was hosting an all-day event with live music, sales on used records,…

Loudon Wainwright III: a Biography in Song

Photo: Aiyana Elliott

Even when Loudon Wainwright III (left in photo with Ramblin' Jack Elliot) was a young man he was writing autobiographical songs, and his old themes of family, sex, and death resonate more deeply on his new record, Older Than My Old Man Now. He usually performs solo, armed with just an acoustic guitar or a banjo, but most of his recordings present more heavily produced versions of LWIII's music. When I chatted with LWIII in late April I wanted to explore that dichotomy and how those transformations take place.

Steve Guttenberg: The on-stage Loudon is a very…

B.M.C. Audio Amplifier C1 integrated amplifier

B.M.C. Audio GmbH (the initials stand for Balanced Music Concept) designs its high-performance audio products in Germany, where the company was founded in 2009, and has them manufactured in its own wholly owned factory in China. The design team is headed by Carlos Candeias, whose earlier designs included a belt-driven CD transport for C.E.C. and, for Aqvox, a high-performance, current-gain–based, balanced phono preamplifier that's reasonably priced. These have won him a lot of attention, and made him something of a celebrity in certain sectors of the audiophile world.

Candeias has…

B.M.C. Audio Amplifier C1 integrated amplifier Page 2

The result, he claims, is an amplifier with exceptional drive and control abilities: ie, one that can drive speakers that present complex loads. With high linearity comes very low distortion, obviating the need for correction circuits: no global feedback.

When I asked if the Amp C1 used any feedback at all, he said there's a problem with using the term local feedback—but he assured me that a type of feedback was used in the Amp C1, otherwise it would produce "crazy gains."

Candeias then talked about the difference between a standard attenuator and what he's done in the Amp C1: "…

B.M.C. Audio Amplifier C1 integrated amplifier Page 3

MoFi's superb new reissue of the Grateful Dead's Live/Dead (2 LPs, Warner Bros./Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 2-365) reproduces Phil Lesh's bass with greater clarity, muscle, and precision than does the original Warner Bros. pressing—which itself is damn good, but noisier. I'd been repeatedly listening to "Dark Star" before installing the Amp C1 in the system, so I had a pretty good handle on this set's sound. The Amp C1's rendering of Lesh's bass lost no weight, digging down deep, though it missed a bit of the initial transient "touch," as well as the delicacy of the decay. A few weeks…

B.M.C. Audio Amplifier C1 integrated amplifier Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Two-channel integrated amplifier. Line inputs: 2 balanced (XLR), 3 single-ended (RCA). Output power: 175Wpc into 8 ohms (22.4dBW), 330Wpc into 4 ohms (22.1dBW). Frequency range: 20Hz–20kHz. Bandwidth at 1W: 2Hz–180kHz –3dB. Total harmonic distortion+noise at 1W, 1kHz: 0.01%. Signal/noise at DIGM57 (relative to Pmax): 110dB. Input impedance: 50k ohms (RCA), 100k ohms (XLR).
Dimensions: 17.1" (435mm) W by 5.9" (138mm) H by 15.9" (405mm) D. Weight: 88 lbs (40kg).
Serial Number of Unit Reviewed: AC11010009309.
Price: $7990. Approximate…

B.M.C. Audio Amplifier C1 integrated amplifier Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable with Cobra tonearm & Castellon stand; Graham Phantom II, Kuzma 4Point tonearms; Ortofon A90, Lyra Atlas, Miyajima Labs Premium BE mono cartridges.
Preamplification: Ypsilon VPS-100 phono preamplifier, darTZeel NHB-18ns preamplifier.
Digital Sources: Simaudio Moon Evolution 650D DAC/CD player, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Meridian Sooloos Digital Media System, Pure Music software.
Power Amplifiers: darTZeel NHB-458 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio…

B.M.C. Audio Amplifier C1 integrated amplifier Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

To perform the measurements on the B.M.C. Amplifier C1, I used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before testing the B.M.C., I ran both channels at 1/3 the rated power into 8 ohms for 60 minutes, which thermally is the worst case for an amplifier with a class-A/B output stage. At the end of that time the C1's chassis was too hot to touch, at 145°F (62.9°C), but the amplifier was otherwise operating correctly.

The volume control operated in 66 accurate 1dB…