Cue David Chesky's Rap Symphony 2.0, a reworking of Chesky's original release currently available in download and video form. Back in ancient times—2014 to be exact—Chesky penned the first iteration of his Rap Symphony with the thought of creating a new type of hybrid…
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Many of us enter the New Year with a mixture of sorrow for our losses and hope for what lies ahead. While there's no right way to celebrate 2019's symbolic new start, one approach to creating space for the new is to pause long enough to acknowledge our lives and environment for exactly what they are at the present moment.
Mahler: Symphony No.1 in D ("The Titan")
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, conductor
Columbia MS-6394 (LP). John McClure, prod. TT: 52:15
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, conductor
Columbia MS-6394 (LP). John McClure, prod. TT: 52:15
This is one of those rare combinations of a superb recording and a stunning performance. As far as I'm concerned, it is the best Mahler First that Bruno Walter committed to discs during his lifetime, including the last one that he made with the New York Philharmonic. And the fact that this recording is far superior to that accorded Walter when he conducted the New York Philharmonic does not detract one bit from my feeling about this…
Britten: Noye's Fludde
Owen Brannigan, Sheila Rex, Trevor Anthony, Children's Chorus, and East Suffolk Children's Orchestra, Members of the English Chamber Orchestra, Norman Del Mar, conductor
London OS-25331 (LP). Colin Graham, prod. Recording date, 1961-07-03. Recording venue, Orford Church, Suffolk. TT: 48:00
Owen Brannigan, Sheila Rex, Trevor Anthony, Children's Chorus, and East Suffolk Children's Orchestra, Members of the English Chamber Orchestra, Norman Del Mar, conductor
London OS-25331 (LP). Colin Graham, prod. Recording date, 1961-07-03. Recording venue, Orford Church, Suffolk. TT: 48:00
This musical setting of the Chester miracle play about Noah, his ark, and the problems attendant thereof, if one of the most movingly beautiful recorded works I have ever heard. Its simplicity and sincerity are a stinging rebuke to those contemporary composers who have…
Among the many bits of audio lore that never have and probably never will be aired in public is the story of the amp that ignited the reviewer's curtains. (I assume that at least some of you hoped I was going to say "pants.") I can't tell it in any great detail, partly because the reviewer in question is a friend (though not a Stereophile colleague), and I'm not sure how much of the story he wants out there. In any event, my object here is to offer a long-overdue apology, to all concerned, for having laughed at that story over the years, because it has now happened to me—not the part about…
Both cables, but especially SuperFlatline, sounded clarion-clear and pleasingly upfront in my system of the day, which included Spendor SP-100 loudspeakers and a variety of amplifiers of low to moderate power. I praised both Flatlines for their ability to conduct music with superior flow, dynamic ease, and "vibrant" tonal colors, and confessed that I preferred these entry-level Nordost speaker cables to a more expensive Nordost model that had also been submitted for review. In the years since, other models of Nordost speaker cables and interconnects, including some far more expensive ones,…
Saturday,January 5, 1:30–4:30pm, the Pacific Northwest Audio Society (Congregational Church, 4545 Island Crest Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040) is holding a J-Corder Technics event. The free analog source workshop will showcase the Reference Series 2018 products from Technics, including the SL-1000R Reference Class turntable and modified RS-1500 legacy open-reel tape recorder.
J-Corder's Jeff Jacobs says that attendees can bring their own quality vinyl for a spin on the SL-1000R mounted with an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze moving-coil cartridge and LH-9000 carbon-fiber headshell, or enjoy the…
On the first page of the owner's manual for iFi Audio's Pro iDSD tubed/solid-state multibit DAC and headphone amplifier, the British company unabashedly describes it as "a 'state of the art' reference digital to analog converter" and "a wireless hi-res network player or the central DAC in an expensive high-end home system." As if in an afterthought, it continues: "The on-board balanced headphone section means high-end headphones can also be directly connected to it." The manual doesn't describe the headphone "section" as "state of the art," so I'm deducing that the Pro iDSD is really more a…
Bruckner: String Quintet (arr. for Large Orchestra), Overture in g
Gerd Schaller, arr., cond.; Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Profil PH16036 (CD). 2018. Milan Puklický, prod.; Jan Lzicar, eng. DDD. TT: 57:12
Performance ***
Sonics ****
Gerd Schaller, arr., cond.; Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Profil PH16036 (CD). 2018. Milan Puklický, prod.; Jan Lzicar, eng. DDD. TT: 57:12
Performance ***
Sonics ****
Bruckner & Mahler: String Quintet (arr. for Chamber Orchestra) & Symphony 10: Adagio
Peter Stangel, arr., cond.; Pocket Philharmonic Orchestra
Edition Taschenphilharmonie/Sony ETP008 (CD). 2017. Sebastian Riederer von Paar, prod., eng., ed. DDD. TT: 59:12
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Bruckner's only mature…
Also, except when otherwise noted, I did most of my listening to the Pro iDSD in Bit-Perfect mode, with no filtering or oversampling—because it seemed the most natural, and I liked it that way.
Bit Packets in Space
In my realm, Sun Ra (1914–1993) is forever the boss of all hip cats. He is my art mentor from another planet. I think a lot of audiophile jazz fans overlook Sun Ra because he was a messy mash-up-making postmodernist. (Ra was doing postmodernism before it had a name.) Many jazz lovers dismiss Sun Ra because he chants and sings artful nonsense like, "They plan to put the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed/solid-state DAC/headphone amplifier. Tube complement: two GE5670. Inputs: USB, AES3 (XLR, single link), S/PDIF (coaxial/optical combo), BNC multifunction (S/PDIF in or sync input). Outputs (line-level): balanced (XLR), single-ended (RCA). Outputs (headphone): single-ended (3.5mm, 6.3mm), balanced (2.5mm). Output into 600 ohms, balanced/single-ended: >11.2V/>5.6V.
Dimensions: 8.7" (220mm) W by 2.5" (63mm) H by 8.4" (213mm) D. Weight: 4.4 lb (2kg).
Finish: Silver.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 3002000475 (listening),…