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X Marks the End

Photo by Frank Gargan

All bands dissolve eventually, for reasons ranging from commercial failure, personnel dynamics, and death to just running out of steam. The band X, beloved by its niche fanbase and highly influential in punk, hard rock, and even alt-country, decided to control the time and place of its end. Earlier this year, they announced "the final album," Smoke & Fiction. "The End Is Near" tour listed shows through October 2024 (footnote 1).

Singer Exene Cervenka and drummer D. J. Bonebrake, now in their late 60s, told me that touring is a mixed bag these days. "The…

Spin Doctor #18: Moonriver 505 Phono Stage, DS Audio E3 Optical Phono Cartridge System

I spent the second three-and-a-half years of my life living with my family in Sweden. Our home was on an island just outside of Stockholm called Lidingö, which locals tell me today is like the Beverly Hills of Stockholm, a fancy place where the rich and famous live. Fifty-nine years ago, it wasn't quite so fancy; it just seemed like a cool place for a little kid from New York City to grow up.

I can't honestly say I remember many details about my life between the ages of three and a half and seven, yet apparently some of that Swedish way of thinking ended up influencing my life view,…

Spin Doctor #18: Moonriver 505 Phono Stage, DS Audio E3 Optical Phono Cartridge System Page 2

Johnny Hartman's album Once in Every Life (Bee Hive Records BH 7012) has become an audiophile chestnut, but I give credit to my friend Brian Futterman for bringing this lovely record into the audiophile realm. Nearly 40 years ago, Brian brought it along to a dealer I was working at to audition some new speakers, and it soon became a demonstration favorite. "I Could Write a Book" is my go-to track, with its bouncy bass line played by Victor Gaskin accompanying Hartman's deep, rich voice. Sibilance can rear its ugly head with this record if the playback isn't top notch, but, assisted by the…

Electropop Pioneer Boris Blank's Blank Canvas

Yello's Boris Blank poses at an outdoor cafe in old town Zurich. (Photo by Rogier van Bakel.)

Boris Blank has a cold, and three days after meeting him in his hometown of Zurich, I do too. This seems apt. Metaphorically, he's been infecting me for decades.

For almost 45 years, Yello, the pioneering Swiss band that Blank formed with singer Dieter Meier, has created witty electropop that provokes joy and awe in attentive listeners. You can dance to most of this music, of course—it's often hard not to—but its allure, its spell, goes deeper. For one thing, Yello's music is delightfully…

Electropop Pioneer Boris Blank's Blank Canvas Page 2

Yello live at Kraftwerk Berlin, 2016. (Photo: Michael Wilfiling.)

Of Atmos and forensics
We finish our cappuccinos and climb into Blank's electric Volkswagen e-Up. About 10 years ago, he received it in lieu of cash for VW using his song "Electrified" in a commercial. We're headed for the town of Küsnacht, 15 minutes away. (It was once home to psychiatrist Carl Jung and soul belter Tina Turner, who died there about a year before I visited.) In a state-of-the-art sound studio next to Lake Zurich, Blank and studio owner Leo Gerteis are working on Dolby Atmos mixes of some older…

Capital Audiofest 2024, Rockville, Maryland

So there I was, in the parking lot of the Rockville Hilton, cigar smoke curling into the crisp autumn air, grilling Gary Gill about his brainchild, Capital Audio Fest (CAF). This East Coast audio extravaganza has grown into a monster, bursting at the seams of its Rockville venue.

“I’m up to around 125 rooms,” Gill explained, as Romeo y Julieta smoke rings circled into the autumn sunset. “I’m maxed out, totally maxed out. Our shipper, RG Logistics, has a ton more work than he did last year. I’m practically putting vendors into closets to fill the demand for space.”

To…

Fidelis Distribution Presents Pure Fidelity, Lab 12, and Argent Pur

Fidelis Distribution’s Walter Swanbon plays the long game. Like other legacy manufacturers—think Audio Note, Tannoy, Audio Research—Swanbon’s equipment offerings are classics: some in waiting, some long established as leaders.

One of those soon-to-be-classics is Pure Fidelity’s Harmony Turntable mated with a new Savant Tonearm ($13,995).

Swanbon brought another soon-to-be-classic brand, Lab 12, including the Lab 12 Melto 2 Tube Phono Preamplifier ($4600), Lab 12 DAC 1 non-oversampling DAC ($3300), Lab 12 Pre1 remote controlled Class A Tube Preamplifier…

Fern & Roby with Miyajima, ModWright, Black Cat Cable

Christopher Hildebrand, the man behind Fern & Roby, is a bit of a romantic. He's got that same sentimental streak I do, a deep appreciation for the simple things – music, books, and the love of family. It's no surprise, then, that he's poured his heart into his unique audio creations, honoring the memory of his grandmothers, Fern and Roby.

When I look at Hildebrand’s equipment—from his Montrose Heirloom Turntable with Schröder CB Ebony Tonearm ($16,500), Fern & Roby Amp No. 2 Integrated Amp ($6950/show special), driving Fern & Roby The Raven II loudspeakers (in Ash…

Fidelity Imports/The Listening Room

Compared to past years, Fidelity Imports and its stable of brands kept a lower profile at this year’s Capital Audiofest. It shared rooms with local dealer, The Listening Room (“Audio Systems of Distinction” since 1978), showing equipment I have become familiar with both from afar and up close, as in my recent review of the Michell TecnoDec at Analog Planet, and soon, the Union Research S6 integrated amplifier for Stereophile. It was alive and kicking in room 753, the two rooms manned by FE’s Erik Smith and The Listening Room’s Michael Hoatson.

In the Perlisten Room (750), The Listening…

Analog Corner #237: Ortofon MC A95 phono cartridge, Brinkmann Audio Spyder turntable and 12.1 tonearm

It's difficult to believe that more than five years have passed since Ortofon introduced its ground-breaking MC A90 moving-coil cartridge ($4200 when last available). The limited-edition MC A90, with its radically shaped body made of powdered stainless steel Selective Laser Melting (SLM), celebrated Ortofon's 90th year in business. The MC A95 ($6500), celebrating their 95th year, retains the A90's seductive shape, but the new body is built of powdered titanium, and thus is even more effectively self-damped (footnote 1).

At High End Mässan 2015, an audio show held in Stockholm in early…