So, I admired the look of the retro-…
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I counted more than 40 audio products in the big MoFi Distribution display in the Schaumburg B ballroom. How to cover such a cornucopia? Making my job easier was that only eight of them were hooked up and ready to play. The others were there to be oohed and aahed over, perhaps prodded and poked, but they’d (re)produce no music at the show. Makes sense. If you value your hearing, and your sanity, you can’t have multiple systems playing in a room all at once. Plus, many of these products could be heard elsewhere at the show—just head upstairs.
The popular history of quadraphonics (4-channel sound from LP records, tapes, and radio broadcasts) chronicles a spectacular failure. The major record labels, led by CBS/Columbia and JVC/RCA, invested millions in ill-fated schemes to convince music lovers to ditch 2-channel stereo for 4-channel surround sound. The concept was killed, so the story goes, by competing and incompatible LP formats, high prices on the better-sounding discrete-channel reel tapes, and a collective shrug by the buying public.
That story is mostly true, though the format thrived for a while in Japan and Germany,…
Here's a list of my favorite quad reissues so far, all still available as of March 2024:
Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Rhino BA2 3104 BD). An old favorite, the seminal heavy metal album (footnote 4) sounds fresh, different, and even more menacing with distinct four-channel mixes.
Santana: Abraxas (Sony Japan SICP 10135 SACD). The quad mix for this classic rock album is quite different from the familiar stereo. Carlos Santana's blistering guitar solo on "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" flies around the four speakers, suggesting a voodoo caldron of sound.
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In 2022, Tom Waits decided it was time to remaster the albums he made during his stint at Island Records. The Waits classics Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985), Franks Wild Years (1987), Bone Machine (1992), and the Waits (with Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs) musical fable The Black Rider (1993) are the first new remasters to be released.
Remastered from the original tapes (except one, for which a digital source was used), all five are available on LP and CD as well as streaming and download. At TomWaits.com and UDiscover Music, the LP versions are available in colored-…
Alex Abrash of AA Mastering was brought in by Universal to cut the lacquers.
For Abrash, who cut the new lacquers for the UMG reissues, matching the sound characteristics of the original DMM Waits masters made for a uniquely challenging job. "So my thing was, could I reverse engineer the DMM cuts? I studied the groove spacing. They look very good under a microscope. They're very thin, very narrow grooves. The plus thing is that you don't have pre- and post-echo," Abrash said. "For me it was about trying to match the cutting levels as close as I could to the original, not alter the…
John Leventhal: Rumble Strip
RumbleStrip Records (auditioned as CD). 2024. Leventhal, prod.; Leventhal, Jim Price, Mark Cordell, Gavin Lurssen, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
RumbleStrip Records (auditioned as CD). 2024. Leventhal, prod.; Leventhal, Jim Price, Mark Cordell, Gavin Lurssen, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Across John Leventhal's 45-year career, he has produced records that won close to 20 Grammy Awards, written songs performed by artists from Joe Cocker to Shawn Colvin, and worked in the studio with musicians as varied as Jackson Browne and Johnny Cash. But until now, he has never occupied the role of "solo artist." That changes with the release of Rumble Strip.
The record combines Leventhal's…
Takács Assad Labro: Pieces for bandoneón, string quartet, piano, and voice
Takács String Quartet, Clarice Assad (piano and voice), Julien Labro (bandoneón)
Yarlung YAR59691 (24/88.2 download). 2024. Bob Attiyeh, J and Helen Schlicting, prods.; Bob Attiyeh, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Takács String Quartet, Clarice Assad (piano and voice), Julien Labro (bandoneón)
Yarlung YAR59691 (24/88.2 download). 2024. Bob Attiyeh, J and Helen Schlicting, prods.; Bob Attiyeh, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Yarlung's latest "audiophile" recording is a breath of fresh air in every respect. Offering seven accessible, beguilingly fresh works, all composed within the last 53 years (and several quite new), it brings together stellar artistic forces: the 49-year-old Takács String Quartet;…
Rufus Reid and Caelan Cardello: Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello
Liam Records ARF-1 (180gm LP). 2023. Michael Fremer, Robin Wyatt, exec. prods.; Duke Markos, eng.
Performance ***½
Sonics *****
Liam Records ARF-1 (180gm LP). 2023. Michael Fremer, Robin Wyatt, exec. prods.; Duke Markos, eng.
Performance ***½
Sonics *****
The jazz piano world is filled with contenders these days, and Caelan Cardello is a name to watch.
This relaxed set, a duo with veteran bassist Rufus Reid, was impeccably recorded at 24/96 resolution at the small venue inside New York City's Klavierhaus, a piano restoration specialist business. The recording is unadulterated; according to the liner notes, engineer Markos only…
“Hitting the ground running” is a suspicious phrase at High End Munich. The show is humongous, a beast, four large buildings with three floors apiece crammed to the rafters with every imaginable audio brand, many unknown to me and most American hi-fi fans. Thankfully, a smart app and a well-organized show prevented total meltdown on day one.
AudioNec? I wanted to say “oh my aching neck” after a long flight, but this room with its massive dual computer server/DAC and substantial modular floor-standing speakers put my body at ease.
The setup included the world premiere of…
Walking around this show, your brain blurs. So much information. So little time. But occasionally, a flash of light reflecting a gold hardware detail catches your eye. Consider, for example, amplification products from HSE Swiss Huber, which are beautiful to behold and beautifully made.
Brand Ambassador Johnnes Farkas showed the HSE Swiss Master Line 7 Phono Preamp, the HSE Swiss Master Line 8 Preamp, and the dual HSE Swiss Reference Phono Preamp and Power Supply. All prices include 10% VAT.
The dual mono Master Line 7 Phono Preamp (€81,500) is a stunning piece of class…