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…
Classical and jazz notwithstanding, an awful lot of new music is highly compressed, processed, and harsh, and it's about time we got used to it. Musicians, producers, and engineers are, in large part, on board with the sound, and any suggestion of making less-compressed recordings, with a wider dynamic range, is met with confused stares, or worse. One superstar producer didn't take kindly to my suggestion that he make two mixes for his new project: the standard compressed one, and another, less-crushed version. That didn't fly; he said there could be only one, the mix approved by him and the…
Editor: I just wanted to add a brief comment to Steve Guttenberg's editorial in the November issue of Stereophile. I think he misunderstood Bob Katz, or maybe Bob and I didn't get it across well enough: Nobody will prevent you from squashing or clipping the sound. The only thing loudness-normalization does is to take away any loudness "advantage" you typically also get from applying such processing. Therefore, compression, limiting, clipping etc. still should and will remain an artistic decision.
Today, the guy applying such processing just ought to compare results loudness-normalized, ie…
Do you travel? Commute, perhaps? Just like to listen to music privately around the house? No matter—the Astell&Kern AK240 is the luxury choice in high-resolution portable music players (footnote 1). It even comes with a lovely leather case that beautifully cradles its angular beauty. The AK240 can play all of your PCM files, up to a resolution of 24-bit/192kHz, as well as DXD and single- and double-rate DSD, natively, and can do so from its internal storage, from a microSD card, or from your computer via WiFi or a wired connection. It can also function as a DAC or USB-to-TosLink…
The AK240 came preloaded with a bunch of music, including Led Zeppelin's II in 24/192, and the flipping and fading from one channel to the other in "Whole Lotta Love" was pure head-spinning pleasure. While I've heard more lush, ripe presentations, the AK240-Viso combination delivered every last ounce of detail and nuance. Upper frequencies were finely detailed, yet never edgy or too sharp. Engaging the preloaded Pro EQ setting helped fill out the midrange with a bit more body, which I found preferable to the flat, default EQ setting. You can also create custom equalizations by entering EQ…
For a reviewer, deciding which products to write about is a tricky business. You want to do a professional job of evaluation, but you also want to be able to wrest maximum enjoyment from your music while you do so. Attending audio shows is where reviewers perform sonic triage, weeding out the products that aren't ready for prime time, and making a note of those they wish to invite home after the show.
Jason Victor Serinus and I had both been impressed by the sound of Nola's Metro Grand Reference Gold speakers at the 2013 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, and Jason had repeated that positive…
I followed the Widor with a CD that I bought following Sam Tellig's recommendation in his July "Sam's Space" column: a recital from London's Wigmore Hall by cellist Antonio Meneses and pianist Maria-João Pires (CD, Deutsche Grammophon 4790965). Pires's empathetic performance of Brahms's Op.117 Intermezzi has displaced my own recording, Intermezzo, of Robert Silverman performing these delicate piano works (CD, Stereophile STPH003-2). Again I was impressed by the Nola's bottom-octave clarity—the Metro Grand readily differentiated the pitches of the piano's octave-spaced B-flats below the bass…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, four-driver, floorstanding loudspeaker with vented enclosure. Drive-units: 2.5" by 0.4" (63.5 by 10mm) ribbon tweeter; 4" (100mm) coated pulp-cone midrange unit; two 6.3" (160mm) magnesium-cone woofers with alnico magnets. Frequency range: 25Hz–100kHz. Sensitivity: 87dB/2.83V/m. Impedance: 8 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum.
Dimensions: 45" (1154mm) H by 11.5" (295mm) W by 13.5" (346mm) D (all with plinth). Weight: 95 lbs (43.2kg).
Finishes: True Piano Rosewood with True Piano Black bases. Piano Black and other finishes available by…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini running OS10.9.3, iTunes 11, Pure Music 1.89 & 2.0, Audirvana Plus 1.5.10; Auralic Vega, PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A processors; dCS Vivaldi upsampling D/A system; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Preamplification: Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier; Pass Labs XP-30, Ayre Acoustics KX-R Twenty line preamplifiers.
…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Nola Metro Grand Reference Gold's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and spatially averaged room responses. My estimate of the Nola's voltage sensitivity was 83.5dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is both low in absolute terms and significantly lower than the manufacturer's specification of 87dB. Despite a combination of 5.7 ohms and –45° phase angle at 87Hz, the Metro Grand's plot of impedance magnitude and electrical phase against frequency (fig.1)…
