Andre Previn and His Pals: West Side Story
Andre Previn, piano; Shelly Manne, drums; Red Mitchell, double bass.
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 1-095 (LP). Lester Koenig, prod. TT: 38:16
Aaron Copland has called jazz "contemporary chamber music," and this is certainly true of these improvisations by Previn and his friends. I consider this chamber jazz at its best, varying in mood and tempo but never losing interest. The program consists of eight variations on themes from Bernstein's well-known musical, and includes "Maria," "Jet Song," "I Feel Pretty," and "Something's Coming…
Natural sounds produce different waveshapes during their positive and negative phases, and playback-system polarity reversal often changes the reproduced sound. Does this mean our ears are phase-responsive, or is there something else here we've been overlooking?
There has been much discussion recently among perfectionists about the importance of what is called "absolute phase" in sound reproduction (footnote 1). Basically, the contention has been that, since many musical sounds are asymmetrical (having different waveforms during positive and negative phases), it is important that a…
To audiophiles who are aware that their household line voltage changes under varying loads, and have observed the absolutely fantastic differences in the sound of their system when the next-door neighbor turns on Junior's night light, it may come as a surprise to learn that there are folks out there who think you're full of crap. That's right, Virginia, they don't think you can really hear all those things you pretend to hear. (You are only pretending, aren't you?) They can't hear all those things, so how can you? Well, sometimes they can. They'll even admit that. But those tiny little…
Hi-fi firms have begun in garages. The English Spendor company was started in a bathtub. Or was it a kitchen sink?
By days in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Spencer Hughes worked as part of the BBC's loudspeaker research team. Among other accomplishments, he helped develop the 5" midrange/woofer for the fabled LS3/5A loudspeaker.
As speaker designers from Henry Kloss to Sonus Faber's Franco Serblin have told me, designing a successful 5" driver is "a doddle" (British for easy) compared to creating an 8" or larger cone. "It becomes harder to maintain clarity, focus, speed, and…
The D7s gave me the kind of imaging and image specificity I associate with small stand-mounted monitors. You know how Brits like to place their speakers close to the front wall; the D7s seemed to want some distance—at least 3'. They worked for me in the relative nearfield, toed in slightly. I suspect that the D7 owner has considerable leeway in positioning them. If your room is long and narrow, you might get away with placing them about 4' from the front wall and very close to the sidewalls.
Over the years, all sorts of materials have been tried for woofer cones. Doped paper. Plastic…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: 2.5-way, floorstanding speaker. Drive-units: 7" Kevlar-reinforced cone woofer, 7" plastic-cone mid/woofer; 7/8" (22mm) polyamide-dome tweeter. Crossover frequencies: 900Hz, 3.2kHz, Frequency range: 29Hz–25kHz. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Minimum impedance: 4.5 ohms.
Dimensions: 38" high (including spikes), by 7.5" wide by 12.5" deep. Weight: 46 lbs.
Price: $6495/pair (add $1000 for a premium finish).
Manufacturer: Spendor Audio Systems Ltd., G5 Ropemaker Park, South Road, Hailsham, East Sussex BN27 3GY, England, UK.…
Bethesda, MD retailer JS Audio (4919 St. Elmo Avenue) is having an open house Saturday November 22, 12pm–4pm to debut the new Audio Research Galileo Series amplifier and preamplifier with the Wilson Audio Alexandria XLF loudspeakers!
Audio Research's National Sales Manager Dave Gordon, joined by the Fine Sounds Group's David Stafford, will be introducing the new ARC Galileo Series, while McIntosh's Chris Smith and Michael Russo will discuss the past and future of McIntosh Labs, and will be demming the MC-275 tube mono amplifiers and C-2500 tube preamplifier with Wilson Audio Sasha Series…
Harry Pearson (left) with Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt (right) at a 1988 party in Sea Cliff, NY. Photo: Chris Yuin
I was shocked when I learned that my dear friend Harry Pearson had passed away, on November 4.
Harry founded the subjective audio magazine The Absolute Sound and published his first issue in 1972. He was enamored of what J. Gordon Holt had done in creating the first American subjective audio magazine, Stereophile, a decade earlier, but Harry wanted to take the concept to another level. In TAS, he and a small cadre of trusted writers reviewed all of the new high-…
The December issue is here and it features our annual "Products of the Year" (cutely referred to as "PotY" in-house). 67 products made it through to the final round of voting from the magazine's editors and reviewers—read Art Dudley's comments to find out who the winners are.
Featured on the December issue's cover is the twentieth-anniversary upgrade of Ayre's KX-R preamplifier. John Atkinson sums up his experience thusly: "While $27,500 is a high price to pay for a line preamplifier, the KX-R Twenty is as good as a preamplifier can get." Two very differently engineered D/A processors,…
Much as I love his music and respect the role he played in helping to create what became country rock, the belief that Gram Parsons is God has, like most religions, a number of holes. Yes, the ever expanding Parsons star–crossed mythology has it all: a wealthy dissolute southern upbringing, a semester at Harvard, rock star drug buddies like Keith Richards, the discovery of Emmylou Harris, and of course the fatal OD at Joshua Tree. And while he is often credited as the guy who single–handedly brainstormed the mix of pedal steel and rock drumming, thanks mainly to his two superb solo records, a…
