Except that there are a lot more rings.
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In only its third year, T.H.E. Show Newport Beach has already become the largest consumer high-end/high-performance/fine-audio show in the United States. Running May 31–June 2 in the Hilton and Atrium Hotels, directly across the street from southern California's surprisingly low-key Orange County/John Wayne airport, the booked-to-the-max show promises 140 active exhibit rooms, an estimated 450 manufacturers from around the globe, and enough ancillary events to rival a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey three-ring circus.
Rune Skov shows off the new Nordost Valhalla 2 interconnect ($9799/2m pair) next to his sweet Nordost tattoo.
On Tuesday May 28th, 2013, Nordost premiered the Valhalla 2 cable lineup at Lyric Hi-Fi in New York City. Rune Skov, International Product Training & Sales Support Manager for Nordost, gave a demonstration to a garrulous group of audiophiles who joyfully suggested what differences they heard as Skov switched out each old Valhalla cable for the new one.
The first iteration of the Valhalla is a 13-year old technology. Skov stated the Valhalla “really put Nordost on the…
I have a hunch that the overwhelming majority of Stereophile readers have pretty decent hi-fis, but they probably listen to a lot more music in their cars, or through computer speakers, or on the go with headphones. I'm in that last group, and log more hours listening to Jerry Harvey's astonishing JH13 Freqphase custom-molded in-ear 'phones than to my Magnepan MG3.7 speakers—but music moves me more through the 3.7s. I can fully savor the White Stripes only when I'm on the couch, letting Jack White's blistering guitar and Meg White's pounding drums rearrange my brain. I'm not just talking…
Aidan Baker: Already Drowning
Gizeh GZH 043CD/LP (CD/LP). 2013. Aidan Baker, prod.; Baker, Jonathan Demers, engs.; James Plotkin, mastering. ADD/AAA. TT: 54:54
Performance *****
Sonics **½
Gizeh GZH 043CD/LP (CD/LP). 2013. Aidan Baker, prod.; Baker, Jonathan Demers, engs.; James Plotkin, mastering. ADD/AAA. TT: 54:54
Performance *****
Sonics **½
Though classically trained in flute and exceedingly capable on a wide range of other instruments, including drums, trombone, piano, and various electronics, Aidan Baker is best known for his work on acoustic and electric guitar. A perusal of his unofficial discography on Discogs.com reveals some 80 full-length albums, and another couple dozen singles, EPs, and compilation credits. Beyond…
Listen, I rarely recommend some hazy, over-saturated indie rock played by a Crayola-hair-colored, geometric-patterned-vinyl-jacket-wearing, wide-eyed goon drinking a glass of red kool-aid to wash away his reverb and irony soaked introspection, but I think there's something special here. Something magical. Trevor Powers of Youth Lagoon might even be a wizard.
Just wait for the elevating chorus. He sets it up perfectly. There is both anticipation and nostalgia in his heavily-delayed vocals and warbling synth pads, and once he realizes you've had enough of his repetition and slight…
It's not easy to get Roy Gandy to look back. "I'm not a past person, I don't reminisce," he says. "But right at this moment I'm feeling very happy. We've not quite completed the launch of a whole new range of turntables and a new range of electronics, and I'm feeling elated."
As Rega Research plans to celebrate its 40th anniversary, Gandy has good reason to feel that way. Things have never looked better for the company he founded in June 1973 and still owns. Rega is a major beneficiary of what we still must call the vinyl revival, though that's only part of the story.
Rega began…
"So you've got this big rotating flywheel, rotating as a whole mass at the most constant possible speed. To make it do that, it needs to be stiff, hard, and heavy. If it's too heavy, it starts to affect the bearing. If it's too light, the bearing friction overtakes it and you start to get speed inconsistencies."
The platters in the more upmarket RP6 and RP8 turntables are made from Rega's traditional material, glass, but with a new approach. There'd been a long and happy relationship with the original supplier, but that ended when he retired. When Gandy found a new supplier, he also…
Aidan Baker. Photos: Leah Buckareff.
Aidan Baker’s Already Drowning is our “Recording of the Month” for June 2013. In preparation for our review, I asked Baker a few questions about the album. We discussed literary and musical influences, the songwriting and recording process, and the importance of sound.—SM
Stephen Mejias: The liner notes state that “lyrical conceits” were “gleaned from various folktales.” I haven’t read any of the books or stories mentioned in the liner notes. Can you tell me whether specific songs were inspired by specific books? If so, how?
…
This guy cares a lot about his headphones. Though ludicrous, the Beats tattoo is admirable. He's saying, “Music runs through my veins and the Beats pumps that blood.” Would you tattoo “Vandersteen” in cholo lettering in an arch across your back? Would you inscribe “S-O-U-N-D” and “S-T-A-G-E” on each of your knuckles so that if someone insulted your system, your beat-down would arrive in stereo?
How much do you care about your hi-fi?
This is a stupid question. Why? Because it does not put you in front of your system. Or in a record store. Or out with friends enjoying life outside…
Readers of this space know of my near-boundless admiration for Maria Schneider, the most accomplished and imaginative big-band composer of our time and high up in the pantheon for all time. Her swaying lyricism, muscular rhythms, and kaleidoscopic harmonic voicings—accented with both a Latin tinge and an airiness as spacious as her native Minnesota—rival and, in some ways, exceed the heights of erstwhile mentors, Bob Brookmeyer and Gil Evans.
Now, with Winter Morning Walks, Schneider leaps to still loftier terrain, fusing her jazz sensibility with classical idioms, while staying true to…