My pal Jon, a singer-songwriter now living in Sweden, responded to the emailed link. "This…
search
When I read the news that songwriter and guitarist Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson had passed, I forwarded a link to the obituary in the New York Times to my friends Doug and Jon. They were with me in the balcony of the Berkeley Community Theater on the evening of January 31, 1970, to hear a performance by The Band. We were juniors at Berkeley High School that year and lived and breathed that music every day. I recall sitting around with them outdoors, singing songs from The Band's first two albums.
In a scene from The Silence of the Lambs—a film that for all of its camp happens to be nearly perfect—FBI cadet Clarice Starling asks caged psychopath Hannibal Lecter for help in figuring out a serial killer's motives. "Do we seek out things to covet?" Lecter responds, following Starling with his eyes as though she were his next meal. "No," he continues, "we begin by coveting what we see every day." Lecter's astute observation applies equally well to audiophilia. Much of this hobby consists of coveting: before we own a component, we usually spend a long while imagining all the ways it will…
Of more interest to me was the upstairs bar, described as a "lounge and listening space ... with bespoke cocktails and nightly selectors." During my visit there a few nights later, I spotted no selectors but did see a lovely looking and quite massive pair of speakers designed for the space by Devon Turnbull of OJAS. The enclosures resembled those of a 1950s Altec Voice of the Theatre. Turnbull told me that he built them with rare and sought-after components, like a pair of vintage Altec 288 compression drivers per side firing into 1803 sectional horns with double throats. Two cabinets, each…
Often it seems we're living at a time of hi-fi–industry contraction—that expansion in retail, if it exists at all, is online, and the number of real-world dealerships is shrinking. But at least two California dealerships, San Diego's Alma Audio (top photo) and Pasadena's Audio Element (bottom photo), are expanding in the actual, offline world.
Why expand? For the reasons you'd expect. The two dealerships want to expand their reach and capitalize better on the advantages that brick-and-mortar retail affords, especially when it comes to selling more expensive goods. They are aiming to reach…
The news zipped across the interwebs like lightning just after 9AM Eastern Time today (it went live here first). "Now & Then," a new-old song by The Beatles made with modern technology, bringing the band back together once more across time and space, will be released November 2. The evening prior, at 7PM London time, the BBC will broadcast "Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song," a short documentary directed by Oliver Murray, describing how the song was made. It will appear on the Beatles' YouTube channel at 8:30PM London time November 1, 3:30PM Eastern US time. There will also be a radio…
Sidebar: The Beatles Remixing History
Until The Beatles Love soundtrack album in 2006, the group's songs stood pretty much as they were recorded and mixed between1962 and 1970. There had been original LP releases—both EMI's "official" mono and stereo versions and Capitol's USA mono and stereo versions. The first CD releases, in 1987 by EMI, were UK sequences and from "official" master tapes. The non-album singles and EP tracks were collected into two Past Masters anthologies.
To produce the sound for the Cirque de Soleil's 2006 Beatles-themed Love show, the band's…
When I think about landmark years in the history of British hi-fi, 1973 sticks out. Three companies got their start in the first half of that year that went on to become cornerstones of the British audio scene: Linn Products, Naim Audio, and Rega Research. That means they're all celebrating their 50th anniversaries in 2023.
The parallels among the three companies don't end with their British origins and founding year. Each was started by someone born in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The late Julian Vereker of Naim, eldest of the three by a few months, was born on the very day…
Rega has not said that the 50th Anniversary Planar 3 will be limited to a certain number of units, only that production will cease at the end of 2023. Given what's on offer, I expect demand is strong. For $1695, you get a fully loaded Planar 3 in a special "walnut effect" finish with a 50th Anniversary model badge and a retro-style tinted dust cover. The package also includes the Neo PSU MK2 power supply (an option on other P3s), the Exact (Rega's best moving magnet cartridge), the aluminum motor-drive pulley from the Planar 6, and the Reference EBLT drive-belt upgrade. Normally, a…
Saturday November 4th, 10am–4pm. Listening sessions and open house at Audio Element's Carlsbad location: 5235 Avenida Encinas Suite A, Carlsbad, California. In attendance will be representatives of Cardas Audio, Dan D’Agostino, dCS Audio, Musical Surroundings, Transparent Audio, VTL Amplifiers, and Wilson Audio Specialties.
For more information, call (760) 814-8009. Please RSVP at Constant Contact
Beatles Red and Blue At 50: The New Track Sequences
For the golden anniversary editions of 1962-1966, aka The Red Album, and 1967-1970, aka The Blue Album, every song has been remixed since 2015 and extra songs were added to the original 1973 tracklists. The anthologies will be available as 3LP (colored or black vinyl) and 2CD sets. Also, the two anthologies will be packaged together as 6LP or 4CD sets. The song sequences are different: the LP sets maintain the original 1973 sides A-D sequences, and the extra songs are on sides E-F; the CD sets embed the new tunes in chronological order.…