search

Sonny Rollins, Live at 80, on CD

Photo: John Abbott

A year ago, almost to the day, I raved in this space about Sonny Rollins' 80th birthday concert, which I'd seen the night before at the Beacon Theater in New York City. I wrote: "A few thousand jazz fans are feeling lightheaded this morning," still "marveling" at having finally seen "a concert that made them tremble and that people will be talking about years from now."

This week, Rollins released a new CD, Road Shows, Vol. 2, which consists mainly of highlights from this concert, and I opened the package with some trepidation. Would the music, as a purely audio…

EarsNova Opens Its New Manhattan Store

Photo: Laurie Srebnick

As we announced last month, this past weekend saw the grand opening of EarsNova's new store at 3 East 28th Street, in Manhattan. Founded in 1979 by Joshua Cohn (right in photo), the store's new location is on the second floor of a solidly constructed 1920s building, with high ceilings and the space to present high-end audio products and systems under ideal circumstances. The listening rooms, for example, have floors and walls that are isolated from the building's structure. Not only does this prevent sound from the audio systems being demmed leaking into the other…

Video: My Brightest Diamond’s “Be Brave”

Shara Worden, My Brightest Diamond’s enchanting vocalist, explains: “In November, the great composer Gorecki died and I remember that weekend clearly, listening to the work and reading the lyrics in his beautiful Symphony No.3, the lament of a mother who has lost her son in war. This was the context in which I started writing ‘Be Brave.’”

“Be Brave” is the first single from My Brightest Diamond’s upcoming album, All Things Will Unwind, Worden’s response “to a world unwinding.” With the video, we gain a look into the recording process, but also a look into Worden’s heart and mind.

…

Remembering Kurt Sanderling

Kurt Sanderling died on September 17 in Berlin, just two days shy of his 99th birthday—of "old age," according to his eldest son Stefan. Sanderling was the last of a generation of conductors displaced by Hitler—an exodus that included Otto Klemperer, Josef Krips, Sir George Solti, Erich Leinsdorf, Bruno Walter, who all went West. (Never mind that Klemperer had converted to Catholicism and that Krips was half-Jewish.) Sanderling fled East, to the Soviet Union.

He was born in Ays, East Prussia (now Orzysz, Poland), on September 19, 1912, studied piano in Berln, became a rehearsal director…

Conrad-Johnson Premier Four power amplifier

It says something for the state of technology that, after a quarter of a century, there still is no authoritative explanation for why so many high-end audiophiles prefer tubes. Tubes not only refuse to die, they seem to be coming back. The number of US and British firms making high-end tube equipment is growing steadily, and an increasing number of comparatively low-priced units are becoming available. There is a large market in renovated or used tube equipment—I must confess to owning a converted McIntosh MR-71 tuner—and there are even some indications that tube manufacturers are improving…

Conrad-Johson Premier Four power amplifier Editor's Addendum

Sidebar 1: Editor's Addendum

While tubed and solid-state components are definitely sounding more like one another these days, I have yet to hear any tubed power amplifier that has as much extreme high-end energy as a good solid-state amp. Not only that, the character of the high end will be different. The amount of high end heard will depend on the loudspeaker's HF characteristics, but even when HF "quantity" sounds the same the tubes always seem to have a rather sweeter, more "consonant" quality than the transistors. The transistor amps seem better able to reproduce sharp attacks.…

Conrad-Johson Premier Four power amplifier Specifications

Sidebar 2: Specifications

Description: Tubed stereo power amplifier. Output power: 100Wpc into 8 ohms (20dBW). Frequency response: 8Hz–48kHz, +0, –3 dB, full power. Weight: 92 lbs.
Serial number of review sample: 5201018.
Price: $2950 (1984); no longer availabe (2011).
Manufacturer: Conrad-Johnson Design, Inc., 2733 Merrilee Drive, Fairfax, VA 22031. Tel: (703) 698-8581. Fax: (703) 560-5360. Web www.conradjohnson.com.

Audio Research D-160B power amplifier

The Audio Research D-160B has been heavily modified since the D-160A, and uses the same technology as the D-70, D-115, and D-250. It embodies William Z. Johnson's latest transformer and power supply designs, his latest choice of capacitors and resistors, and the same independent regulation of screens, drivers, and front end. D-160s and D-160As can be converted to D-160Bs for $1500.

In terms of physical layout, the D-160B is large and impressive-looking. It is quasi rack-mountable—you need braces to support the back. The D-160B uses quiet fans and has an LED power readout which is useful…

Audio Research D-160B power amplifier Review System

Sidebar 1: Review System

I tested the Audio Research D-160B using top-quality turntables like the Goldmund and SOTA-Sumiko arm combination, top quality cartridges, and speakers like the modified Quad ESL-63s, Thiel CS3s, Spica TC-50s, and Fuselier 3.3s. Preamplifier was the Audio Research SP-10. I have used them with Compact Discs and a wide range of FM Tuners. I have mixed and matched cables, including the Straightwire, Petersen, Discrete Technology, Audiosource, and Monster Cable Interlink Reference.—Anthony H. Cordesman

Audio Research D-160B power amplifier Specifications

Sidebar 2: Specifications

Description: Tubed stereo power amplifier. Maximum power: 160Wpc. Frequency response: 10Hz–50kHz, +0, –3dB, full power.
Weight: 115 lbs.
Serial number: of review sample: 32024017.
Price $6000 (1984); no longer available (2011).
Manufacturer: Audio Research Corporation, Minneapolis, MN 55430 (1984); Audio Research Corporation, 3900 Annapolis Lane N., Plymouth, MN 55447-5447 (2011). Tel: (763) 577-9700. Fax: (763) 577-0323. Web: www.audioresearch.com.