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To get past this, I began climbing the steep learning curve necessary to assemble, configure, and use a more comprehensive solution. It consists of four parts: 1) remote networked storage to keep large, noisy drives far away; 2) updatable software with wide format support and a flexible GUI; 3) a silent networked computer with suitable digital outputs to run the software; and 4) multichannel or multiple DACs. I found this kind of DIY effort somewhat intimidating—it required real work and an education before I could assume the responsibility for getting all the disparate pieces to work…
Record business freebies are almost a thing of the past, but every once in a while, the formerly titanic enterprise still throws a fandango for music fans, none more exciting lately than the announcement that Universal Music is gonna throw a listening party, open the public, to preview the 14 LP The Beatles in Mono boxed set, at Electric Lady Studios in NY (Sept. 8) and the GRAMMY Museum in LA (Sept. 10). To get in you have to register using these links.
http://smarturl.it/BeatlesMonoLA and http://smarturl.it/BeatlesMonoNYC
Here’s an excerpt from the official press release:…
". . . seizing and incorporating . . . There is nothing about us which is more strongly primitive."—Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power
I am a collector. Books, records, art, music, knickknacks, old blurry anonymous photos, and more—hanging, sitting, standing, and shelved, they surround me where I sit and follow me around our home. In collecting, less is certainly not more, and I believe that part of its appeal is that our collections help define not only who we are but who we'd like to become—or, perhaps, how things are and how we'd like them to be.
I love my collection of LPs. I…
Other options include Crossfade Duration (within a range of 2–15 seconds, set with a sliding scale), Gapless Playback, Cache folder path, Cache max size (automatic 10% of free space, or set with a sliding scale from 1GB to a maximum value that will vary based on the amount of storage available on your computer), Playing buffer size, and Music Downloads Import Quality (320kbps or CD quality). I found that I had to adjust the buffer size when playing from my iMac, which connects to my network via WiFi. Once this was set, I experienced no dropouts or interrupts. (The rest of my desktop system…
And then there was Pono! Or not. Despite prompt denials by the folks at Pono, it now seems likely that the still mythical, high resolution music player will not be delivered to customers, who to date have kicked in $13 million via Crowdfunder and Kickstarter, until early 2015.
To those trusting souls, those Neil Young fans with more cash than sense, I say, go look up caveat emptor. You should have at least waited until the bugs were worked out. Or not.
Meanwhile, Young continues to stay musically relevant and cut his own completely unique path through the world. He and wife Pegi…
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner conducting.
RCA ".5 Series" ARP1-W27 (LP).
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner conducting.
RCA ".5 Series" ARP1-W27 (LP).
In case you didn't already know, ".5" is RCA's name for their half-speed-–mastered line of audiophile LPs, whose releases to date have included many recordings, as well as some real gems, from their archive of older stereo recordings.
Their choice of old recordings is interesting to say the least, as it shows a side of RCA's classical division that we thought had atrophied and blown away many years ago: musical judgment. Instead of going for their most…
No, we made no typos in the specifications sidebar. The weight of the Wilson Audio Modular Monitor (WAMM) speaker system is enough to make you consult a structural engineer before dropping it on your living room floor—fragile, 300-year old New England frame houses are probably out. And the recent price increase from $32,000 to $35,000 is enough by itself to buy a pair of Quad ESL-63s—which is not a bad speaker system. The WAMM represents an all-out assault on both the state of the art in speaker systems and on the limits to which wealthy audiophiles will go in order to have the best (footnote…
It is this acceleration of aural intensity which produces a kind of rapture in the music-lover—Do I wax too poetic? Are you checking the cover of your magazine to see if it's really Stereophile?—that the WAMMs do uniquely well. As you can see, I was bowled over. As an equipment reviewer I would like the WAMMs for their cleanness of presentation, their tonal neutrality; as a sensual human being I would like the WAMMs for their ability to present realistic orchestral dynamics.
It's hard to assign one specific cause to above effect. I suspect that the key decision was to use $8000 worth of…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Four-way, unusually full-range loudspeaker system. Drive-unit: 18" subwoofer; 7" by 9" mid-bass drivers (KEF B139); 4" midrange drivers; 1" dome mid- treble; Janzsen electrostatic array. Separate equalizer, electronic crossover, and passive crossovers included. Crossovers at 50, 500, and 3500Hz. Frequency response: 17Hz–30kHz ±3dB. Recommended amplifier power: 100 watts minimum (biamplification necessary).
Dimensions: 78" H by 24" W by 27½" D; weight: 450 lbs (subwoofer); 78" H by 19" W by 32" D; Weight: 500 lbs (full-range array).
Price: $35,…
Jim Austin wrote about the AX-5 in October 2014 (Vol.37 No.10):
These days, many audiophiles seem to prefer tube amplification to transistors. That was my impression as I prepared to write this review, and some informal research confirmed it: Most of the audiophiles I asked, in person and online, believe that music reproduced by a good tube amp has more heft, more texture, more blood. Transistors may amplify with less distortion, reproducing what's on the recording with greater fidelity, but tubes seem to more consistently facilitate an emotional connection with the music.
Why,…