Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord; Concerto Köln
Archiv Produktion 4794481 (CD). 2015. Christoph Classen, prod.; Michael Morawietz, eng. DDD. TT: 73:45
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
This razzle-dazzle release is remarkable on several levels, and I…
search
Mahan Esfahani: Time Present and Time Past
C.P.E. Bach: 12 Variations on "Les Folies d'Espagne." J.S. Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in d, BWV 1052. Geminiani: Concerto Grosso in d (after Corelli). Górecki: Harpsichord Concerto. Reich: Piano Phase for Two Pianos (harpsichord version: Esfahani). A. Scarlatti: Variations on "La Folia."
Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord; Concerto Köln
Archiv Produktion 4794481 (CD). 2015. Christoph Classen, prod.; Michael Morawietz, eng. DDD. TT: 73:45
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord; Concerto Köln
Archiv Produktion 4794481 (CD). 2015. Christoph Classen, prod.; Michael Morawietz, eng. DDD. TT: 73:45
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
I began working as a salesman of high-end audio gear in 1978. I was 29, and, as I recall, a healthy percentage of my customers were about my age. Most of the top high-end designers and entrepreneurs, too, were young: John Curl, Dan D'Agostino, Jon Dahlquist, Ray Kimber, Mark Levinson, Bill Low, Mike Moffat, Nelson Pass, Peter Snell, Bob Stuart, Jim Thiel, Ivor Tiefenbrun, A.J. van den Hul, Richard Vandersteen, Harry Weisfeld, David Wilson. The fact is, high-end audio's Golden Age—the late 1970s to the mid-1980s—was largely fueled by the under-40 set, and most high-end journalists were fellow…
Here comes another audiophile vinyl-reissue house, this one a bit of a head-scratcher. Analog Spark, the creation of Marc Piro (and a successor to his Razor & Tie label), debuted a few months back with The Sound of Music (missed it) and will soon come out with Glenn Gould's renditions of Bach's Goldberg Variations (the 1955 and 1981 versions), then a slew of Broadway cast albums (West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and A Chorus Line, among others). And, for now, it has a jazz album: Dave Brubeck's 1954 Jazz Goes to College.
If you asked me to pick just one jazz album to reissue on vinyl,…
After hearing the dramatic sonic differences between the original pressing of Errol Garner’s Concert by the Sea, (one of my father’s favorite records, I still have his LP copy) and the new reissue reviewed by David Sokol in the October issue of Stereophile, I thought a further demonstration of what was done to improve the sound would be instructive. Thanks to Jim Merlis of Big Hassle Media and Sony/Legacy, here’s an A/B link that is fairly dramatic. Steve Rosenthal who worked on the project at Magic Shop New York explains:
“The Concert By The Sea tapes were transferred and remastered at The…
There are dozens of music-playback programs for computers, touchpads, and smartphones, ranging from Amarra, Audirvana, JRiver, Pure Music, and VLC, which manage libraries or work with library software, to programs that are integrated with a specific distribution service: Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, and, of course, iTunes. Still others, such as Sonos, are integrated with a dedicated hardware product.
All such library management combinations and standalone solutions are designed to do the same job: help you sort through thousands of possible music choices and pick a tune to play right now, or…
And once you start somewhere, Roon can keep the show going until you pull the plug. The Radio feature uses metadata to create, in the words of Roon Labs, a "personalized station," in a manner similar to Pandora Radio's automated music-recommendation engine. To get started, you simply pick one or more tracks, then press the Radio button: Roon moves you around related music with a curated stream.
Sound quality
These days, I find that most music-playing apps sound so alike, the differences aren't worth sweating. It didn't used to be this way, but it is now: When I've properly set up…
When I began writing for Stereophile, I heard people whispering:
"Herb is one of those triode-horn guys."
Wrong. Most of my life, I've favored solid-state integrated amplifiers driving small, British-made speakers.
"I'm sure he hates digital."
Wrong again. I sold all my LPs some 12 years ago, and since then I've been filling my days with CDs and high-resolution downloads. (However, I am starting to collect vinyl again, because my vintage DNA still remembers how to worship at the Altar of Black Discs.)
"Reichert? He's a mono guy. He's not into imaging."…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Cloud-based music-playback software.
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 (10.10 recommended), Windows 7 (8.1 recommended), compatible players/streamers from partnering hardware manufacturers. File formats supported WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, OGG, DSF (built-in); MP3, AAC (OS-dependent).
Price: $119/year, $499/lifetime.
Manufacturer: Roon Labs LLC, 96 Round Hill Drive, Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510. Web: roonlabs.com.
But until I began the more serious critical listening required for this review, I never realized how classically well balanced the LM-518IA's sound actually is. I knew it sounded elegant, colorful, and exciting, but I hadn't known how capable it was of opening doors on hitherto hidden inner spaces of my music.
With the Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a
The Line Magnetic LM-518IA mated especially well with the Falcon LS3/5a that I reviewed in August. The amp's 16-ohm taps loved the 15-ohm Falcons, and the Falcons really let those 845 tubes strut their stuff: The bright emitters wrung every last…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Apple MacBook Pro computer (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) running OS 10.10.3, Amarra Computer Music Player, Audirvana Plus, iTunes, JRiver Media Center (v.19.0), Reaper, Songbird, VLC, XLD. Also used, to check compatibility: Android tablet, Apple Mac mini, Intel NUC (detailed in review), Sony laptop running Windows 7; Apple iPad Air, iPod Touch 1G, iPhone 6; Meridian Sooloos Digital Media System (Control 15, QNAP TS-669 Pro NAS); Oppo BDP-103 universal BD player; Western Digital 2TB NAS drive.
Digital Processors:…