The word “pono,” you may know, is Hawaiian for “righteous.” The player was created by Neil Young, who wants to “rescue an art form” from the throes of sonically degrading MP3 and the limitations of Red Book CD sound.
John…
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As if an impressive array of products, great seminars, and lots of other goodies were not enough, AXPONA capped its first day with an hour-long presentation by PONO CEO and confirmed audiophile, John Hamm (above). Even before the talk began, John walked through the audience, giving sneak peak, hi-resolution listens to attendees via Sennheiser HD650 headphones.
For the second year in a row, a fire alarm sounded in the middle of AXPONA's busiest afternoon. Although it seems that the warning didn't reach all floors, it sent some who did hear it scurrying. In my case, that meant grabbing my heavy jacket, computer, computer glasses, camera and monopod, and complete collection of show literature and notes and trudging down seven flights.
Thankfully, the alarm proved false. When the coast was clear, and I approached the back-in-service elevators to return upstairs, I spied a large group of people equally eager to get back to the floors they had left…
Thanks to musician and AXPONA founder Steve Davis, pianist John M. Yurick could be heard throughout the day in various locations on the lobby level of the Westin O'Hare. It's a shame that his piano's lid was closed in order to render his piano less obtrusive amidst the talking, because Yurick is an excellent musician who deserves more than "background music" attention. He also moves faster than my camera's flash-less "Night Setting" could accommodate.
To demonstrate the musical significance of this, we have posted an MP3 consisting of two excerpts of fast solo passagework beginning at bar 102 of the first movement (see image): first from the fast-and-sharp SACD, followed by the same snippet speed-corrected to A=440. Each excerpt is preceded by a sinewave tone: first 446.4, then 440Hz after a repeat of 446.4Hz.
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At 440Hz (excerpt 2), the passagework sounds to me like exceptionally fleet-fingered playing. In the speeded-up excerpt 1, I feel there is a disconnect between the…
Sidebar: The Dynatrack Conundrum
I am grateful to Richard Lane, Tom Fine, Bob Ludwig, and Dale Manquen for educating me about a fascinating footnote in the history of sound recording: 3M's Dynatrack tape machines of the 1960s.
Dynatrack was an ambitious, pre-Dolby noise-reduction scheme that recorded two tracks for each channel: an NAB-standard track, and a "boosted" track with fixed high-frequency pre-emphasis to overcome tape hiss. Therefore, a stereo recorder required four tracks, while a four-channel recorder required eight tracks.
The clever feature of Dynatrack was…
Though it was brief, The Silos had their indie rock flavor du jour moment. Now, their second record, Cuba, one of the quieter, semi-unknown masterpieces of what was then just starting to be called alternative rock (and so be doomed by imitators), has been re-released on white vinyl by Nashville’s Dualtone label who also reissued it on CD in 2002. This was once a fairly pricey item on the collectors market. Despite a slight edge warp in my copy and the fact that it was likely pressed at URP which can be problematic, this new LP is an improvement over any digital or ahem!, cassette version, I’…
It seems likely that Frank Sinatra, who famously stuck both feet in his mouth, by calling rock 'n' roll a “rancid-smelling aphrodisiac” created by “cretinous goons,” had a similar feeling about Bob Dylan: an uppity hippie poet with a nasal voice and unruly hair, who was music’s future and the antithesis of Frank’s 60s booze and broads-soaked Rat Pack. It also seems likely that along the way Bobby probably murmured a few unkind things about Frank and his establishment entourage. But if you live long enough…though in some ways it seems natural that Dylan, who’s never been shy about paying…
The March issue has arrived. And it’s an issue of contrasts. Featured on the cover is Theta’s Prometheus monoblock, a class-D tower of power offering 320W into 8 ohms. You’d think that at $12,000/pair the Prometheus was expensive, but its price pales in comparison to the $54,000 Boulder is asking for its state-of-the-art 2110 preamplifier! Fortunately, the 132-page March 2015 Stereophile also features reviews of a very affordable turntable from Pioneer and a high-value tower loudspeaker from DALI.
Couple all that with Art Dudley on the new version of Wilson’s Duette speaker and the…
Thursday, February 19, from 5–8pm: Sound World (3015 West Wisconsin Avenue, Appleton) will host a Music Matters event. Featured gear will include Cary Audio's new TL-300d tubed preamp, CAD-211FE monoblock power amplifiers, SA-500.1 monoblock power amplifiers, and DCM-600SE digital media center; MartinLogan's Neolith loudspeakers; NAD's Masters Series M12 preamp, M22 power amplifier, M17 processor, and M27 multichannel amplifier; and AudioQuest's NightHawk headphones.
Daryl Berk (Cary Audio), Dennis Chern (MartinLogan), Travis Huff (NAD), and Jim Scatena (AudioQuest) will be on hand to…
Keith Johnson is the man responsible for the records issued by Reference Recordings, from Professor Johnson's Astounding Sound Show through Tafelmusik—not to mention upcoming releases of Your Friendly Neighborhood Big Band and Respighi's Church Windows. As is frequently the case, Johnson's astounding recordings result from his intimate (molecular-level) knowledge of the process with which he deals and his ingenious adaptations to squeeze the most out of available (and not so available) technology. He is also one of the few critics of digital recording who has actually used a digital recorder…