Metheny is one of the best-selling jazz artists ever. He has three gold albums, several Downbeat awards (including in 2020 as best guitarist and for the best jazz album, for From This Place), and 20 Grammy Awards: He's the only person ever to win…
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When Pat Metheny was growing up in the small Missouri town of Lee's Summit, his family's home stood within can't-even-hear-yourself-shouting distance of the Missouri Pacific railroad. trains, tornadoes, freezing winters, hot summers, small-town isolation—all fed an imagination that (combined with plenty of practice) fed a legendary music career.
Micallef: Instruments always sound great on your records; the music has a consistently deep and wide soundstage. You must be demanding as to final product.
Metheny: My main role is as a bandleader. To the degree that the result is what it is, whatever it takes, however that shows up, that is the one consistent thing across everything. The bandleader thing includes who's going to master the record, where it's going to get pressed. I'm extremely hands-on with every single thing, to the point where there's that fine line between whatever that is and flat-out mental illness! I'm somewhere…
Sidebar: Select recordings by Pat Metheny
Bright Size Life (ECM, 1976)
With bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses on his ECM debut, 21-year-old Metheny blasts off with an original sound and compositional style, performing original compositions plus Ornette Coleman's "Round Trip/Broadway Blues." The freshness, hardcore swing, and clear-headed inventiveness of Bright Size Life landed it at the National Recording Registry—a literal treasure.
80/81 (ECM, 1980)
If there was any doubt as to Metheny's status as a brilliant jazz guitarist and composer, 80…
First, a power update: The generator and transfer switch bypass plan has been solidified, the town permit has arrived, and the work will commence soon. I'm pretty sure what I've learned through this debacle will help other audiophiles improve both their power and their system's sound.
Now, on to this month's column: Revisiting an updated product from a small company can be a rewarding experience. For startups in our competitive, niche marketplace, just remaining in business is a challenge. Many under-capitalized startups founded by well-meaning idealists/hobbyists disappear in just a few…
The third and fourth toggle switches, located in a box labeled "Equalization," let you choose the desired EQ curve. The left-hand, three-position switch labeled "G2-RIAA-G1" selects RIAA in its center position and either G1 (pre-RIAA) or G2 (pre-RIAA 78) in the two other positions. Once in either G1 or G2 position, the rightmost toggle switch lets you choose between EQ1 (Columbia) and EQ2 (Decca/ffrr).
That's five equalization choices (RIAA and four additional ones). DSA should include a handy card describing all this that can be kept under the unit.
The instruction manual…
Last week, I had a puzzling dream. When I woke, the vision remaining from the dreamscape was of a single thread of conversation, almost oracular, with no context. Ringo was telling me, "That was actually John singing on that one, mate."
I searched for a hidden message. Maybe it was one of those naked-in-public dreams, the Beatles drummer chastising me for misidentifying the singer in some review I wrote. I soon forgot about it.
Then, out of the blue, I was sent a copy of the 50th anniversary edition of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: The Ultimate Collection, Lennon's first post-…
In my world, the quiet ritual of choosing a record and placing it carefully on the platter is always followed by a sequence of three rough sounds.
With the volume at listening level, I hear the bristle-by-bristle rasping of my stylus brush as it drags across the exposed tip of the cartridge cantilever. Next, as I dip the diamond in Onzow gel, I hear a little suction cup pop and feel the compliance of the cantilever's rubber-tire suspension. Finally, my brain registers that sizzle sound as the stylus contacts the grooved surface. These sounds are tattooed on my brain. They "cue up" my…
The spherical-tipped Zu/DL-103 sounded less refined than the Koetsu or My Sonic Lab cartridges, but it compensated by making recordings sound bigger and bolder and perhaps even more exciting. It sounded less refined because its spherical stylus profile recovered less nanodata, and because it glared some in the presence region.
This presence-region brightness disappeared almost completely when I reduced the load to 100 ohms. But that wasn't all: Soundspace volume and midrange acuity increased dramatically. At 100 ohms, the Denon could stomp and breathe deeply. At that setting, Evensong…
Founded in 1995 by Uwe Bartel, Vincent Audio is owned by Sintron Distribution GmbH. Vincent launched its LS-1 preamplifier and D-150 hybrid stereo power amplifier the year the company was founded.
Vincent "offers two 'electrical concepts,'" states the Vincent website. "One side is solid state transistor products. The other is a hybrid technology featuring vacuum tubes on the input stages combined with solid state transistors in the output stage."
The Vincent Audio SV-737 integrated amplifier ($3499.95) is on the hybrid side. It has a "class-A/AB" output stage—biased to deliver 10W…
Well, not so fast: First, some fine-tuning of the setup was necessary. Out of the box, the Vincent wowed with crisp transients, detailed treble, neutral upper mids, rich, lush lower midrange, and powerful bass.
At first, in fact, the bass was too much of a good thing; with the Vincent in the system, room modes in my smallish room were excited more than usual. I sorted that, mostly, with a bit of repositioning and some well-placed absorption. Three A/V RoomService 2"-square Equipment Vibration Protectors (EVPs) under amp and speakers helped further focus the low end; four more under the…