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Letters in response appeared in Vol.15 No.2, February 1992

Passive semantics
Editor:
My audiophile interest and activity date back to the time when a cactus thorn was the high-end stylus of choice, ca 1938. This predates the preamplifier by approximately ten years.

In its first embodiment, a preamp was just that: a self-powered extra stage of amplification between the phono cartridge and whatever amplifier was being used. This was made necessary by the very low voltage output of GE's new variable reluctance cartridge as it began to replace the crystal devices we…

"Dad-blamed Postal Service!" Elvis fumed, shooting up a Mitsubishi big-screen TV with his blue .357 and taking a pull off a Big Red. "Mah one chance tuh be awn a genyoowahn US stamp, an' they got me lookin' jes' like some cleenteen WIMP, man!" A smoking shard of the big-screen's control panel fell earthward. Elvis whirled, blew it into dust before it hit the ground.

Why was the King Of Rock And Roll in my dreams again? To holler about the…

I've always liked the various Kimber Kables (the AC cord on my preamp is a Kimber Power Kord), so I got hold of some of their silver KCAG interconnect; you know, that cool-looking white stuff with the three braided wires and no shield. Inside the preamp, I used it just like it's used for interconnect: one wire for signal, the other two tied together for ground. I…

But when I installed the dual-regulated power supply, the preamp was transformed. Bass lines just bounced out of the BUFs, deeper and tighter than I'd ever heard them over the mighty Muse subwoofer; the sense…

I The chapel is quiet. Early morning sunlight, tinted by stained glass, glares through the gloom. Golden dust-motes leap up at our entrance, flashing crimson, then cerulean as they dance among our rattling footsteps.

Silence is not emptiness, I muse, sitting in the deserted sanctuary. Even when still, the space is full of itself. The walls and roof are but a skin; what they contain is the thing itself.

II Hyperion Knight, drawn to the Steinway, begins to play, and the…

The chapel, even when quiet, is filled by its own sound. The rustling pops from the cooling boards pierce through it, simultaneously transforming and defining it. Is this what John Cage meant when he said, "There is no silence?"

VIII What sounds more hopeful than a stage-full of musicians honking, climbing scales,…

As can be seen from the diagram (fig.1), the piano and orchestra were laid out for the Rhapsody and Preludes sessions much as if we had been recording a Mozart concerto. This was appropriate, as pianist Hyperion Knight was directing the musicians—some of New Mexico's finest—from the piano for these performances. The 9' Steinway D piano had had its lid removed and was placed with the performer's back to the microphones. (Listeners should note that the bass notes of the piano will appear to come from left of center and the treble notes from the right, the…