dCS Puccini CD player, VPI Classic turntable, Mobile Fidelity record clamp, Ortofon Cadenza Black cartridge, PS Audio Stellar phono preamp, Simaudio Moon 740P line-stage preamp, Simaudio Moon 860A power amp, Revel Ultima Studio 2 speakers, AudioQuest Wild Blue Yonder and Nirvana S-X Ltd. interconnects, AudioQuest Robin Hood speaker cable, AudioQuest Hurricane power cords (AQ Thunder power cord for the Niagara 3000), Audiodesksysteme Vinyl Cleaner Pro record-cleaning machine.—Fred Kaplan
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Sidebar: Fred's Associated Equipment
Stereophile's August 2021 issue contained further looks and listens to two high-performance products: the Audio Research REF 6SE line preamplifier and the AudioQuest Niagara 3000 Low-Z Power Noise-Dissipation System.
In his November 2020 review, Jason Victor Serinus found that Audio Research's REF 6SE tubed preamplifier $17,000 was very sensitive to system tuning. John Atkinson took a listen to the REF 6SE and compared it with three topnotch preamplifiers: the MBL N11 ($14,600), the Pass Labs XP-32 ($17,500), and the Benchmark LA4 ($2599). He decided that the Audio Research was indeed a…
Technics' sudden decision, in October 2010, to stop making its iconic SL-1200 direct-drive turntable, then in its MK6 iteration, took vinyl fans by surprise. At the time, although sales of vinyl and turntables for home use were surging, their use in clubs was falling as DJs moved to the digits. According to Technics (a division of Panasonic), production of the SL-1200 was stopped not because professional sales dropped, but because the factory tooling for manufacturing them had worn out, and retooling wasn't cost-effective.
However, as the growth of the vinyl market exceeded even the most…
Technics can supply auxiliary armboards for 10 different tonearms, including Ortofon and SME models, but the Technics arm can't be swapped out for a different arm in the main position. The weight of the complete SL-1000R is 88.7 lb. Its dimensions are 20.9" wide by 7.4" high by 15.7" deep. The motor's control unit is 4.3" wide by 3.3" high by 13.8" deep and weighs 4.6lb.
Accessories include the mat, a 45rpm adapter, three auxiliary screw-on counterweights, an overhang gauge, tools, a dustcover, a power cord, and a very well-organized, multi-language manual.
Setup and Use
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Does the world need another audiophile reissue of Kind of Blue? This was the obvious question to ask upon news that Chad Kassem's Analogue Productions was joining the party. The album's arrival in the mail (yes, of course, I bought one) signaled that something special might be happening: the classy hard-box slip case with the wooden dowel spine, the Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket graced with well-reproduced session photos, a handsome booklet, and, finally, the LP: a 200gm UHQR pressing on off-white Clarity vinyl.
Does the package justify its lavishness? Is it worth the $100 price tag?…
Black Sabbath: Sabotage Super Deluxe
Rhino R1 645954 (4LP). 2021. Black Sabbath, Mike Butcher, Hugh Gilmour, prods.; Andy Pearce, Matt Wortham, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ***
Rhino R1 645954 (4LP). 2021. Black Sabbath, Mike Butcher, Hugh Gilmour, prods.; Andy Pearce, Matt Wortham, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ***
Black Sabbath's sixth album was birthed amid legal warfare between the group and their management. In an all-too-familiar music-biz story, management skimmed large sums and the group was left in deep debt, despite a half-decade of endless touring and rapidfire release of an oeuvre that invented and defined heavy metal music.
Slogging through 1973–75, the group battled in court, toured…
Gil Evans Orchestra: Out of the Cool
Gil Evans, piano, arrangements; Johnny Coles, Phil Sunkel, trumpets; Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson, Tony Studd, trombones; Ray Beckenstein, Eddie Caine, Budd Johnson, Bob Tricarico, reeds; Bill Barber, tuba; Ray Crawford, guitar; Ron Carter, bass; Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip, percussion
Impulse!/Universal/Acoustic Sounds (LP). Creed Taylor, prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, eng.; Ryan Smith, remastering.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Gil Evans, piano, arrangements; Johnny Coles, Phil Sunkel, trumpets; Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson, Tony Studd, trombones; Ray Beckenstein, Eddie Caine, Budd Johnson, Bob Tricarico, reeds; Bill Barber, tuba; Ray Crawford, guitar; Ron Carter, bass; Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip, percussion
Impulse!/Universal/Acoustic Sounds (LP). Creed Taylor, prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, eng.; Ryan Smith, remastering.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Out of the Cool is nearly as striking an album now as it must have been when it hit the bins in 1961. Not only is…
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites
Justin Pearson, cello; Pedro Silva, 5-string cello; Katherine Rockhill, piano
Chasing the Dragon VALLP014 (5LP). 2021. Mike and Franáoise Valentine, prods.; Matt Sartori, Petronel Butuc, John Webber, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
Justin Pearson, cello; Pedro Silva, 5-string cello; Katherine Rockhill, piano
Chasing the Dragon VALLP014 (5LP). 2021. Mike and Franáoise Valentine, prods.; Matt Sartori, Petronel Butuc, John Webber, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
Here, skilled musicians take a back seat and the recording takes the wheel: five LPs of solo (and near-solo) Bach recorded with a single stereo array of tubed, AKG C12 clones (by Flea), vintage Focusrite pres, and a Sony reel-to-reel connected up with Nordost cable. Lacquers were cut on a Neumann VMS 80 lathe and…
Despite one website's recent claim that "Vinyl's Revival Is Already Fading," Nielsen SoundScan recently announced that vinyl sales for the first half of 2018 were up 19.2% over 2017, led by Jack White's Boarding House Reach, with 37,000 copies sold so far (and we know that N/S misses a great deal of the action). While on the West Coast looking for business, a friend of mine who's about to open a major vinyl-pressing plant on the East Coast was told by everyone that they're experiencing "double-digit vinyl growth." No one was seeing a slowdown ahead.
Recently, when Marc Gomez, head of…
I approached this comparison skeptically, wondering in what ways this less costly aluminum version of the SAT arm would be less good—how could it possibly better the original SAT arm? I quickly got the answer. I'm not sure if Marc Gomez or those who, like me, bought an original SAT arm will like this, but the new, less costly LM-09 is everything I described in my review of the original SAT—except that everything in its reproduction of "Atlantic Bridge" was faster, cleaner, and better resolved, more "together"—particularly on the bottom, and especially in the bodhran attacks, the improvement…