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Recording of October 1983: The Stranger

Billy Joel: The Stranger
CBS CD 35DP2 (CD) and JC34987 (digitally mastered, CX-encoded LP).

This is one of four recordings we now have on hand in both the CD and digital-mastered LP formats, and all reviews of these will be parallel reviews. In the case of the CBS discs, there is no "conventional" version, as all of their recent LP releases are CX-encoded. Thus, I will be comparing decoded CXed CBS LPs (footnote 1) with their CD equivalents.

The Stranger was among the first CDs we got from Sony/CBS for review, and was part of the reason we noted early on that some pop releases…

Norman Chesky of HDtracks and Chesky Records

Both Chesky Records and HDtracks have a pair of co-founding partners, but the music-minded press has perpetually focused on one of them, pianist and composer David Chesky, while ignoring his younger brother, Norman. Mainstream reporters and photographers did converge on Norman Chesky once, when they spotted him rolling a bulky, rough-hewn, wooden artifact from the 2009 auction at which Bernard Madoff's personal effects were sold for the benefit of bilked investors. Leading newspapers ran photos of Norman with the tree-trunk table he'd bought after happening on the sale, and the New York…

Norman Chesky of HDtracks and Chesky Records Page 2

Lander: Tell us about the genesis of HDtracks.

Chesky: Napster was like an atomic bomb falling on the record business. Suddenly, millions of kids learned how to share music on the Internet without paying for it, and the scary part was that it was all happening so fast they didn't even understand they were stealing. And the situation just kept getting worse.

Lander: I expect the iTunes Store, which opened in April 2003, exacerbated the situation considerably.

Chesky: Before iTunes started, David and I got invited to a presentation about it, with all the independent…

It's the Real Thing!

We are aware that much of what we have to say about reproduced sound in these pages goes completely over the heads of a lot of our readers, simply because they have not heard live, un-amplified music recently enough (if ever) to relate their own listening experiences to our observations. These are the people who tend to have developed a strong mental image of what hi-fi ought to sound like, and it is not surprising that that image should bear little if any resemblance to reality. In most cases, this image of hypothetical perfection involves a broadly sweeping sense of spaciousness, awesome…

Billy Sedlmayr's Charmed Life

Musicians whose careers were derailed by personal demons is a very old tale. Write about music and after a couple decades they all begin to have a similar ring: someone got addicted to something and began blowing off gigs, trashing friendships, and generally lying to themselves and everyone close to them. It usually doesn’t end well. And after they’re gone, “far too soon” (to use the usual bromide), everyone thinks about their own issues while tsk tsk’ing about what could have been done and how awash in self-loathing and focused on ending it all the deceased had eventually become.

Every…

Sentec EQ11 phono preamplifier

With quiet elegance, the Sentec EQ11 phono stage and equalizer entered my expanding world of gramophone dreams. The EQ11 ($2500) is a modestly sized, tubed phono stage with the industry-standard RIAA phono equalization and five other EQ curves. These additional curves are for records pressed by companies that did not fully or promptly comply with the new, supposedly global industry standard introduced by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1954.

Before 1955, every record company chose and applied its own version of recording equalization; there were over 100…

Sentec EQ11 phono preamplifier Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Low-gain, tubed moving-magnet phono premplifier with multiple equalization settings and wall-wart power supply. Tube complement: 2 JAN G.E. 5751 (special 12AX7), 2 JAN Philips 6189W tubes. Measured voltage gain at 1kHz: 29.5–30.6dB, depending on EQ. Measured input impedance at 1kHz: 45k ohms. Measured output impedance at 1kHz: 2k ohms. Measured S/N ratio: 72.6dB (A-weighted) ref. 1kHz at 5mV.
Serial number of review sample: "Made in Sweden."
Price: $2500.
Manufacturer: Sentec, Sweden. US distributor: Tone Imports. Web: www.toneimports.…

Sentec EQ11 phono preamplifier Measurements

Sidebar 2: Measurements

I measured the Sentec EQ11 using my top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com, and the January 2008 "As We See It."). With all settings of its front-panel knob, the EQ11 preserved absolute polarity (ie, was non-inverting). Its input impedance was 45k ohms at low and middle frequencies, dropping to 33k ohms at the top of the audioband. The treble and midrange output impedances were high, at 2k ohms, rising to 5k ohms in the low bass.

As well as RIAA phono equalization, labeled "RIAA, New Ortho" on the Sentec's front panel, the EQ11…

Toronto Show Starts Friday

New location, new features, and a more inclusive, consumer electronics-orientated approach: that's the word on the fourth annual Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show (TAVES). Now ensconced in the Sheraton Centre Hotel in downtown Toronto, which offers far more large exhibit rooms than did TAVES' former venue, the three-day show opens on Friday, October 31 with four floors' worth of audio, video and consumer electronics-oriented exhibits.

"I am even more excited about this edition of the show than I was for our first year," show co-founder and publisher of Canada Hi-Fi writer Suave Kajko…

Recording of November 2014: Music for Peter Gunn

Henry Mancini: Music for Peter Gunn
Steven Richman, Harmonie Ensemble/New York (22-piece orchestra)
Harmonia Mundi HMU907624 (CD). 2014. Steven Richman, prod.; Adam Abeshouse, prod., eng., mastering; Bill Siegmund, asst. prod., ed.; Andy Rider, eng. DDD? TT: 51:04
Performance ****½
Sonics ****

To get the full benefit of this album, you must be old enough to remember 1959. Detective shows were the rage. Your parents let you stay up for Richard Diamond, Private Detective, starring David Janssen, and Peter Gunn, starring Craig Stevens. They were the first TV dramas with their…