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To a certain breed of music collector, the longer the tale, the fewer records sold, the greater the hunger and given the twisted saga of Ice or the Lafayette Afro-Rock band, it’s no wonder they have over the years been the object of fevered funk/soul music crate diggers everywhere. Originally from Long Island, NY and led by singer Bobby Boyd, the septet, then called the Bobby Boyd Congress, moved to Paris in 1971 and recorded under several names, including Ice and Krispie and Co.. Late in their career, they also recorded with jazz pianist Mal Waldron and bluesman Sunnyland Slim before…
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Blockbuster debut records are a curse and blessing and in the case of Norah Jones, who’s new record Day Breaks I have been listening to on vinyl, she’s someone who, call me distracted, has never quite equaled the passionate delivery nor the easy-to-like pop material of her first record, 2002’s Come Away With Me. While its followup, Feels Like Home was good, surprisingly flecked with country leanings, and containing covers of tunes by Townes Van Zandt, Duke Ellington and Tom Waits, 2007’s home-recorded Not Too Late seemed like a letdown, and the Jacquire King-produced The Fall (2009) and her…
Eighteen years after 21-year old Matthew Shepard was robbed and beaten by two men who lured him to their truck, tied him to a fence in a field outside Laramie, WY, and left him to die, Harmonia Mundi has released a two-hybrid SACD set of Craig Hella Johnson's touching requiem, Considering Matthew Shepard. Johnson's sweet tribute, an apt reminder of the consequences of homophobia, is lovingly performed by Johnson's excellent, Grammy-winning Austin-based choir, Conspirare, and an occasionally augmented group of eight acoustic instrumentalists.
Considering Matthew Shepard was superbly…
With three weeks left in 2016, all music fans must ask themselves THE question: can this year end soon enough?
The term “slaughterhouse” is often used in connection with sanguine events like the American Civil War, but 2016 qualifies as well when you consider the decimation of musicians that has occurred over this year. There’s been so much death among musicians this year that it’s tempting to call for a world conference to be held and a decision reached to put Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonder, Angus Young, Sonny Rollins and the remaining essentials into a giant calamity-proof…
Jason Victor Serinus compared the Rossini D/A processor with the Puccini SACD player in January 2017 (Vol.40 No.1):
For three years, until the dCS Rossini DAC came on the scene, my reference source for digital playback was its predecessor, a dCS Puccini SACD/CD player connected to a dCS Scarlatti clock. As soon as I connected the Rossini DAC ($23,999) to the rest of my reference system (footnote 1), I knew there was no turning back.
Other than not having a CD transport mechanism, the Rossini DAC is identical to the Rossini Player that John Atkinson reviewed in the December 2016…
At the end of November, I spent a couple days in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, getting a first look at Marantz's New Reference series audio components. During my brief visit to D+M's European HQ, I was fortunate enough to spend 40 minutes of one-on-one chat time with Ken Ishiwata, Marantz's famed Brand Ambassador, and a key component to Marantz's success for nearly 40 years. I was originally only scheduled to have 10 minutes with him, but thankfully, due to a last-minute adjustment, we were able to talk for longer.
Ken's chic green robe and delicate patterned scarf intrigued me from the…
Wednesday December 14, starting at 4pm, Utah Audio (77 East 10600 South, Sandy, UT) will be demonstrating a complete Dan D'Agostino system featuring the new Progression Mono amplifiers driving the Wilson Alexx loudspeakers. Bill McKiegan, president of Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems, and Bill Peugh from Wilson Audio will be on hand.
Saturday December 17, from 1pm–4pm, at Esoteric Audio (111 West Monroe Street, Suite 100, Phoenix, AZ), Dan D'Agostino and Bill McKiegan will be on hand for listening and discussion of the company's latest products, including the Momentum and…
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.—William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the exquisite meanings.—Walt Whitman, "That Music Always Round Me," from Leaves of Grass
These two statements, to me, express the core perspective shared by Stereophile's contributors. When I encountered both of them within a span of 30 days, they spoke so strongly that I felt impelled to hook up the biggest, baddest loudspeakers I could find…
It's no secret that deputy editor Art Dudley is an anachrophile (footnote 1). After expounding on the virtues of vintage audio gear in his October 2016 Listening" column, he spent no fewer than seven pages of our November issue raving about the sound quality of Auditorium 23's expensive Hommage Cinema loudspeaker, from Germany. (The Hommage Cinema costs $49,995/pair, plus $5495 for the necessary AcousticPlan NT-1 field-coil power supply.)
Auditorium 23's floorstanding Hommage Cinema comprises a bass bin with twin powered woofers—a 7" mounted above a 12"—atop which sits an elegant folded…