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Talk about the R.E.M. catalog with most music people and the conversation usually comes down to albums released during the years the band spent on its original label, the late, great I.R.S. Records. Although R.E.M. remains the label’s biggest claim to fame, Miles Copeland’s I.R.S. also had The Go–Go’s, Fine Young Cannibals, Concrete Blonde, The Alarm, Timbuk 3 and a number of other interesting if marginally successful acts on the label during its active years (1979-88), which not coincidentally are the years preceding R.E.M. being signed away by Warner Brothers in 1988.
This is absolutely outstanding. Please watch and listen as sound expert Julian Treasure offers strategies for re-tuning our ears.
Via TED. (Thanks for the link, SP.)
For awhile, we were at our wit’s end, feeling buried alive, but everything is okay now: We just finished shipping our massive October issue to pre-press. At 212 pages, it’s our largest issue since October 2008.
We’ll see the proofs on Monday. Until then, we can relax.
To help us do that, we have Cass McCombs’ “Buried Alive,” from the achingly beautiful Wit’s End.
This is one of Jaime's favorites, and Jaime is one of mine.
Cass McCombs' Wit's End is out now on Domino Records. The album is available on CD, LP, and cassette. (Yes, cassette!)
Most reviewers look for a "hook" or angle of some kind when it comes time to write a review. After all, how many ways are there to get excited about audio equipment? Kathleen and I like to focus on the human side of the High End. So it was with some amusement that I watched the obstacles swirl around what I thought would be a fairly straightforward review of the Vacuum Tube Logic MB-1250 Wotan monoblock power amplifier. My thought was to return from single-ended to push-pull with a bang! I'll say...
It all began at the January 1996 WCES, where I found my shorts positively welded to the…
Hmmm...I tried two or three wire changes, but it was obvious the cablage was not at fault. Not wanting to imagine it, I finally wired up Forsell's hulking The Statement and our own Jadis JA-200s. Both evinced not a whit of fuzz at either frequency extreme. Alas, all roads seemed to lead to Wotan. Frustrated with all the schlepping and hooking, I called Luke. "Oh yeah...that might be a problem with the value of the cap in the return leg of the feedback loop." Now he tells me!
So back he came. I'd go to work in the morning, he'd be there. I'd come back home in the evening, he'd still be…
There's something special that all really great amps do—they set up a big soundstage and disappear the speakers, even ones so imposing as the tweaked-out, tri-wired Avalon Ascents. On the big VTLs the Avalons well and truly evaporated. The sound was extremely transparent: huge, deeply layered, and detailed—"encompassing" springs to mind—all in the best tube sense. And, like the best tubes, the harmonics were lovely and engaging.
In fact, the Wotans developed harmonic information to the point where I found that the music regularly drew me in with that pleasantly human quality that we…
Pick up Spiritchaser, the new Dead Can Dance CD (4AD 46230-2). Track 2 starts out...actually, I can't imagine how to tell you. It sounds like John Cage on acid playing a didjeridu. Suddenly you find yourself in a sonic landscape of tremendous color and rich forest ambience, supported by vocals so well-delineated in space that—well, next to single-ended triodes, they got me as close to that be-there feeling as I've ever felt.
The frequency balance and linearity in the upper midrange and above, where female vocals lie, is key to the overall sound of many systems I've heard. Single-ended…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: All-tube monoblock amplifier with class-AB1, push-pull output stage. Tube complement per side: twenty-four 6550s, one 12AT7, two 6350s. Output power (20Hz–20kHz into 5 ohms): 1250W tetrode (28.9dBW), 600W triode (25.75dBW). Input impedance: 130k ohms. S/N ratio (both ref. specified output power): 95dB, 120Hz tetrode; 95dB, 120Hz, triode. Power consumption: 650W idle, 1800W full power.
Dimensions: 19" W by 21" H by 20" D. Weight: 240 lbs.
Serial numbers of units auditioned: 96131283, 96131284.
Price: $25,000/pair. Approximate number of…
Sidebar 2: The rest of the brew
In an altogether funny audiophile moment, Luke Manley apologized for not allowing enough room between the chassis to place Shakti Stones on the power transformers. (As have other manufacturers, Luke tells me he has found them to be effective.) I did try a pair on the output transformers up top, and even there—given less of a magnetic field to interact with—I noticed the bass tightened up a notch. More subtle improvements became evident over time.
Tweak-wise, I cosseted the small tubes with a combination of Bluenote Midas Tube Dampers and Ensemble…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
For logistic reasons, VTL provided us with a separate pair of MB-1250s from the ones reviewed by JS. The measurements below thus reflect the pair delivered to Santa Fe.
My initial intent, after eyeballing the 24 separate tube bias settings in each of these huge VTL monoblocks (VTL recommends checking the bias monthly!), was to not check the bias before the tests. After all, our test amplifiers had come directly from the factory. Presumably the bias had been set correctly—something a buyer has a reasonable right to expect. But to be certain, I ran a few…