Leo Fender was born in 1909 in Anaheim, CA, the son of a farmer who never made it past the third grade. Young Leo…
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Today is the 60th anniversary of the iconic Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, the instrument that in the hands of Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, Buddy Guy, Hank B. Marvin, and many other virtuosi, shaped and guided rock music ever since. To celebrate the day, we are reprinting the tribute by Corey Greenberg, himself a Strat player, to the guitar's inventor, the late Leo Fender, that was published in our June 1991 issue.—Ed.
When people talk about "the Blue Note sound," they're talking about the sound of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers—or, more to the point, the sound of that band as captured by Rudy Van Gelder for Blue Note Records: the two- (later three-) horn harmonies arrayed across the stage, the drum kit's airy sizzling cymbals, the up-close intensity of the mix (Van Gelder pushed the levels beyond the point where most engineers feared to roam).
Two new releases by Music Matters Jazz—the audiophile company that specializes in reissuing Blue Note LPs, each title mastered at 45rpm, spread out on two…
Respighi: Church Windows
The Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Keith Clark conducting.
Reference Recordings RR-15 (LP). Tam Henderson, prod.; Keith Johnson, eng. AAA
The Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Keith Clark conducting.
Reference Recordings RR-15 (LP). Tam Henderson, prod.; Keith Johnson, eng. AAA
Some years ago, Harry Pearson, editor and publisher of That Other Magazine, announced his intention to help finance production of a no-holds-barred symphonic recording. The only question was, who would produce it?
Reference Recordings' Tam Henderson assures me he did not have HP's grant in mind when he conspired with the Pacific Symphony's conductor to record "something" in the Crystal Cathedral, a huge barn of a…
In 1974, in England, Australian Reverse-Pommy pianist and recording engineer Billy Woodman founded the Acoustic Transducer Co. (ATC) as a maker of loudspeaker drive-units. That makes ATC a few years younger than Spendor (1969) and a few years older than Harbeth (1977). When I mentioned all that to a quick-witted audio buddy, he immediately came back with "Middle Child Syndrome!"
It does seem that ATC has gotten less attention in the US than its older and younger British siblings. In an effort to rectify that, ATC is updating their loudspeaker designs and changing their US distribution…
The SCM7 v.3 measures 11.8" H by 7.9" W by 9" D and weighs 15.4 lbs. It's a solid, hefty little speaker that looks quite different from and far more up-to-date than its predecessors. The footprint is no longer square. The sides curve out and back in toward the rear, in the modern-speaker lute, canoe, or truncated Coke-bottle look wherein the rear panel is narrower than the front. The SCM7's drivers are now flush-mounted in a fully veneered front panel. The precision of the driver cutouts is impressive. The veneers are, as before, grain-matched across the left and right speakers.
The…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Two-way, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 5" woofer, 1" soft-dome tweeter. Frequency response: 60Hz–22kHz, ±6dB. Sensitivity: 84dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Recommended amplifier power: 50–200Wpc.
Dimensions: 11.8" H by 7.9" W by 9" D. Weight 15.4 lbs.
Serial number of review samples: 1001/1002.
Price: $1499/pair in Cherry or Black Ash veneer.
Manufacturer: ATC Loudspeaker Technology Ltd., Gypsy Lane, Aston Down, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL6 8HR, England, UK. Tel: (44) (0)128-576-0561. Fax: (44) (0)128-576-0683. Web: www.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
The associated equipment consisted of Parasound's Halo CD 1, used as both CD player and transport; Nordost's Silver Shadow digital cable; Bricasti's M1 DAC (since sent back); and Grace Design's full-size m905 studio Monitor Controller (the Grace m903's larger sibling, so to speak; report in thr April 2014 issue); and Cardas Clear Rev.2 interconnects and Clear speaker cables.
I did most of my listening with Lindell's AMPX class-A power amplifier. However, while the Lindell was going forth and back to John Atkinson for measuring (see January 2014, p.…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
John Marks sent me the review pair of this elegant British, sealed-box minimonitor to run through my loudspeaker test regime. I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the ATC's frequency response in the farfield (I measured serial no.1002), and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. All measurements were taken without the grille.
As expected from its diminutive size, the SCM7 v.3 is not very sensitive; my estimate of its voltage sensitivity came in at 82dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is 2dB below the specified 84dB. The…
Thumbing their collective nose at pundits who predict the imminent demise of physical media, Universal Music Group has begun reissuing select back catalog and new releases in Pure Audio (audio only) Blu-Ray 24/96 and/or 24/96 download formats. The first of the classical titles appeared in February, with more rolling out all the time.
To get the skinny on UMG's plans for Blu-ray and hi-res, I conducted two separate interviews with folks in the UK. The first, with Barry Holden, the extremely committed and highly articulate VP of Classical Catalogue at Universal Music, appears below. A…
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Such is the story of the Montreal Audio Show aka Salon Son et Image (SSI), which takes place this coming weekend, March 28–30. The Chester Group may be sponsoring the show for the first time, and longtime show organizer Michel Plante may have ceded the reins to his partner/wife, Sarah Tremblay, but both the location (the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel) and the show structure are pretty much the same.
Tremblay expects about 80 exhibitors—the same as last year—holding forth in 80–100 rooms. To please up to 7000 attendees, SSI will again join forces with…