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I said in my first story from this year’s Capital Audiofest, the third overall and the second to be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rockville, MD, July 13–16, that this wasn’t like other audio shows. On the positive side, CAF had a great atmosphere, friendly and collegial, with great organization from Gary Gill and his team. The hotel had a goodly number of rooms with manageable acoustics, and the hotel staff was friendly and supportive. The live music was superb. Every showgoer I spoke with said that they were having a great time at CAF, that the Metro Washington DC area really does need a…
Michael Kakadelis, known professionally as Mike Kay, the New York retailer who owned and ran Lyric for 45 years, died on Saturday, July 14 at age 89.
He was born in Greece on April 5, 1923, served in a World War II commando unit fighting Hitler’s forces while still in his teens, then earned an engineering degree, and helped build the Radio Station of Athens before emigrating to Canada in 1955. Mike learned English while laboring in a brickyard, and washing dishes in a Montreal restaurant, then went to work in an electronics store where, after a few months, he was rewarded with a 25% share…
It had been many years since Stephen or I had been to Irving Plaza, but an invitation from Klipsch would grant us another encounter. Performances that evening included neo-punk new wave group the Tom Tom Club featuring Tina Weymouth (bass) and Chris Frantz (drums), both of the Talking Heads, opening for headliner the Psychedelic Furs, a band iconic for their soundtrack chart-topper “Pretty in Pink”.
In a partnership with Live Nation, Irving Plaza, a Live Nation-owned venue, redubbed itself “Irving Plaza Powered by Klipsch” as we discovered on the billboard under the marquee.
…
Cosmogramma, Flying Lotus’s adventurous 2010 release felt, and still feels, like a sonic joyride, a fusion of jazz, pop, funk, and electronic music styles. Complex, playful, and sophisticated, Cosmogramma conjures 8-bit video games and Saturday morning cartoons as much as it does 1950s sci-fi, 1970s Impulse jazz, 1990s house—all while sounding entirely advanced, connected, soulful.
How do you follow up something like that? FlyLo calls Until the Quiet Comes “a collage of mystical states, dreams, sleep, and lullabies.”
The album, with contributions from Erykah Badu,…
The Marantz ST-74 tuner, reviewed in Vol.8 No.7, was described as having "butter-and-marmalade appearance and AM performance, but dry-toast FM." The latest offering from Marantz, the ST551 (footnote 1), has not quite as sweet AM or appearance, but its more palatable FM makes it one of the best-sounding tuners encountered. It doesn't lack features either—remote control of manual tuning, scan, band selection, and presets—all at a fairly low price.
A functional layout is used on the front panel. From left to right are the power switch, band selectors, combined mute-mono/stereo switch, four-…
Marantz ST-54 AM/FM tuner, from October 1989 (Vol.12 No.10):
The Marantz CD-94 CD player has become fairly popular in the best systems. For those interested in FM, there is a stunning, matching ST-54 tuner. Actually, the same basic tuner was reviewed four years ago in Vol.8 No.7 as the ST-74. The surface differences between the two tuners are that the latter has no remote control or timer-event recording provisions. Cosmetics have been enhanced by availability in black or gold at $319, with hand-rubbed rosewood end panels an additional $80. The gold/end-panel combination, in my opinion…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: FM stereo/AM tuner with digitally synthesized tuning. Usable sensitivity: 1.9µV/10.8dBf mono, 5.5µV/20dBf stereo. 50dB stereo quieting sensitivity: 35µV/36dBf. Capture ratio: 0.9dB. Selectivity: 60dB alternate channel, 4dB adjacent channel. S/N ratio at 65dBf: 82dB mono, 80dB stereo. Stereo THD: 0.1%. Separation: 53dB. SCA rejection: 40dB. AM suppression ratio: 60dB. 19 and 38kHz products: –40dB. Power consumption: 12W.
Dimensions: 16.5" W by 10.25" D by 2.375" H. Weight: 5 lbs.
Serial Number: 66U010199.
Price: $299.95 (1987); no longer…
Most audiophiles know Mobile Fidelity as the record company with the philosophy of resurrecting old, important, recorded performances and re-releasing them with (hopefully) the kind of sound they should have had in the first place. Few audiophiles are aware that Mobile Fidelity is also the name of a (different) recording company which collects sound effects in four channels for motion picture and television post-production (footnote 1).
"Post-production" is that phase of filmmaking which takes place after all the actors and cameramen have gone home. Most of it consists of the addition of…
Mobile Fidelity's president and founder, Brad Miller, got hooked on trains as a kid, and when his father bought one of the first home tape recorders, Brad started borrowing it. He soon became hooked on recording too, switching first to stereo, then to 4-channel sound as each offered an improvement in his ability to record trains the way they actually sound. Offering some of his recordings for public sale just seemed the next logical thing to do, and it subsidized his hobby. (He also organized a Muzak-style orchestra called "Mystic Moods," and issued some recordings in which he mixed music…
I had mentally marked three locations from where I could get great shots when the train hove into sight. But I was requested not to move when recording began, because "the mike is so sensitive, it will pick up rustling-grass sounds when you move." I selected what I felt to be the best spot, and vowed that I would stay put. (I lied.)
Finally, barely perceptibly, we heard the train whistle as it left the Chama station, almost 5 miles away. Many minutes later we heard it again, still a long way off. Joe didn't move. Again the whistle, a little closer still, this time followed by the…