Photo: Lourdes Delgado
All this week, the Jazz Standard in New York will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Jazz Composers Collective, the brainchild of five musicians who formed five distinct bands: the personnel would remain the same, but each player would lead his own band and compose all of its music.
Both concepts were unusual at the time: the continuity of players and the insistence on original compositions. Back then, jazz musicians rotated in and out of bands, not the other way around; and the emphasis was on covering standards or blowing improvisations.
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Thursday, November 8, 4–8pm: Audio High (165 Moffett Boulevard, Mountain View, CA) will host John Franks of Chord Electronics. Franks will introduce the latest edition to Chord’s Reference line, the DSX1000 network player. For more info, e-mail jez@audiohigh.com, call (650) 964-4000, or visit the Audio High website.
It was around 7pm on Tuesday evening when I bumped into Nicole and Ms. Little on Newark Avenue, in downtown Jersey City. The girls were on their way to Kristen's shop, Kanibal Home, for their weekly book-club meeting. (Or was it Writing Club? Knitting? Screen printing? Butterfly pinning? I can never keep track.) I was on my way home, not to read, write, or listen to music, but . . .
"Hi, honey," Ms. Little said. "Going home to play with your cartridge?"
I made a face, nodded, sighed. Sensing some sharp-witted remark forming in Nicole's filthy mind, I beat her to the punch: "Yup,…
The very first 10X was released in 1978. (JA used to own one.) Over the years, improvements have been made to the cartridge's magnet material, coil design, and structure. Today's DV 10X5 weighs 7.3gm, and has an elliptical stylus tip and an aluminum cantilever. The recommended load impedance is anything greater than 1000 ohms, meaning the standard 47k ohm load will work just fine. Recommended tracking force is 1.8–2.2gm. For use on my Rega P3-24, Pranka suggested I set the tracking force at 1.9–2.0gm; for use on the VPI Traveler, VPI's Harry Weisfeld recommended a tracking force of 2.2gm. I…
Sidebar Contacts
Dynavector Systems, Ltd., 2-16-15 Iwamoto-cho Chiyoda-ku. Tokyo, Japan 101-0032. Tel: 81 (0)3-3861-4341. Fax: 81 (0)3-3862-1650. Web: www.dynavector.co.jp.
US distributor: Dynavector USA, 8116 Gravois Road, St. Louis, MO 63123. Tel: (314) 454-9966. Web: www.dynavector-usa.com.
Music Direct, 318 N. Laflin Street, Chicago, IL 60607. Tel: (312) 433-0200. Fax: (312) 433-0011. Web: www.musicdirect.com
Over at AnalogPlanet, Michael Fremer has kept us up to date on the highly anticipated remastered Beatles LPs. While the reemergence of the Beatles catalog on vinyl is exciting news for many music lovers, audiophiles are most curious about how these new editions will sound.
Get ready to find out.
Beginning Monday, November 19, and continuing through Friday, December 7, Capitol Records/Apple Corps will host in-store listening events at high-end audio retailers in 10 major US markets. As if that wasn’t cool enough, each event will feature a guest speaker involved in the remastering…
Recently, I thought about all the audio shows I've attended over the last 27 years, looking for any pattern that all of them might have shared. I came up with a handful of audio manufacturers that have earned at shows a reputation for getting, year after year, consistently good sound—rooms in which I could reliably depend on being able to chill out and enjoy music in good, involving sound. Those companies include Audio Research, Music Hall (distributor of Creek and Epos), Vandersteen Audio—and Definitive Technology. Since their founding, in 1990, Maryland-based DefTech has been a major…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, biwirable, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" aluminum-dome tweeter, 6.5" BDSS cast-basket mid/woofer reflex loaded by a 6"-by-10" passive radiator. Frequency range: 32Hz–30kHz. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Sensitivity: 90dB/w/m. Recommended amplification: 20–225W.
Dimensions: 13" (329mm) H by 77/8" (200mm) W by 123/8" (310mm) D. Weight: 15.5 lbs (7kg).
Finish: Matte-black wood-grain vinyl.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: Mgba0112ta00281, '499.
Price: $598/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 150.
Manufacturer:…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV, Rega Planar 3 turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Koetsu Urushi, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridges.
Digital Sources: Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D, Creek Destiny phono stages; Audio Valve Eclipse line stage.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 110.
Integrated Amplifier: Creek Destiny.
Loudspeakers: Epos ELS3 & M5i, Wharfedale Diamond 10.1.
Cables: Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG Terminator.…
