Another great singer/songwriter at the Atrium Poolside was Audra Lee. Check her out on YouTube or her Facebook page. Gratitude to Richard Beers and Bob Levi for such great entertainment.
Cake Audio of San Clemente scored big by pairing the Rockport Technologies Atria loudspeakers ($21,500/pair) with the Balanced Audio Technologies (aka BAT) REX I preamplifier ($20,000) and VK-655SE amplifier ($16,500). Together with a new Brinkmann Balance turntable set-up ($35,500 total) allied to a Dynavector XV-1t phono cartridge ($9250) and Brinkmann Edison phono stage ($12,990), as well as…
Stephen Mejias, formerly of Stereophile, now VP of Communications at AudioQuest, performed a most convincing cable comparison using the company's top-of-the-line AudioQuest Diamond Ethernet cable ($695 for 0.75m, $1195 for 1.5m). In a system whose JRiver-equipped MacBook Pro fed CD-quality files to an Audio Research Reference DAC, Audio Research Reference 75 amplifier, and Vandersteen Treos outfitted with a double bi-wire pair of AQ WEL Signature cabling, Roy Orbison's "Crying" sounded one-dimensionally flat and a little bright on top via a generic Ethernet cable. When Stephen switched to the…
Speculation has it that a big reason for such large attendance at the Los Angeles & Orange County Audiophile Society meetings are their raffles of valuable cabling and electronics. T.H.E. Show Newport Beach followed suit, with hundreds of people gathering in the Hilton Courtyard at 2pm Sunday for the "must be present to win" opportunity to win over $25,000 worth of High-End Audio Give-Away goodies. This photo, which shows white-shirted publicist Lucette Nicoll snapping a photo of the raffle stage, only pictures part of the large crowd.
Assembled on the stage were (from left…
There I was, making my way room-to-room toward the end of the show when suddenly Jeffrey Catalano of New York City's "2 channel with attitude" High Water Sound appears.
"Aren't you coming to my room on the 10th floor?" asks a man who clearly has been hounding the hallways, asking everyone he knows if they've seen Jason Victor Serinus.
"OMG," says I. "I've already covered all the rooms I had time to cover on the 10th floor. Yours must have been so full that I gave up and skipped it."
Well, you know what happened next. Jeffrey's reputation for luring man and beast to his…
While it can be used when talking about any musician, having “chops” is a phrase that applies particularly to saxophonists. And never in the history of the tenor sax has anyone had quite the altissimo chops of Lenny Pickett. Most famous as part of the Saturday Night Live band which he still co–directs, Pickett, who also teaches at NYU, is also the guy who came up with the famous sax part in the show’s long running theme music. Although the SNL band has had its share of horn–playing luminaries, Randy Brecker, David Sanborn, and “Blue” Lou Marini to name a few, Pickett is the most interesting…
Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington
by Terry Teachout (New York: Gotham Books, 2013). 483 pp. Hardcover, $30.
According to Terry Teachout, Duke Ellington's story is one of "a somewhat better-than-average stride pianist largely devoid of formal musical training [who] managed to turn himself into a great composer." Ellington had ample help from his organization, which included the gifted composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn, who succinctly described his employer's modus operandi: "Each member of his band is to him a distinctive tone color and set of emotions, which he mixes with others…
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.—William Morris (1834–1896)
The Arts and Crafts movement, which took root in England in the late 1800s, was more than just a reaction to the poor working conditions and the soulless, shoddy, superfluously decorated wares associated with the early days of mass production. It was a rejection of Victorian attitudes toward class: of a mindset that promoted a chasm, in industry as in society, between the designer and the craftsman, the architect and the stonemason. Writer and designer William Morris,…
That last quality is especially relevant. While certain of the most expensive wares have a finite life—the car you drive, your kitchen appliances, perhaps even your computer and mobile phone and business suits—traditional consumer attitudes hold that most big-ticket items should be handed down from one generation to the next. Before mass production dominated the consumer marketplace, no one would spend a dime on a house, a piece of furniture, or even a set of tools without considering its potential as an heirloom. That was even truer of luxury goods, such as musical instruments, works of…
Were one in a whimsical mood, one could divide the history of hi-fi into the eras before and after Edgar Villchur (1917–2011), inventor of the sealed-box, air suspension (or acoustic suspension) bass-loading principle. It was Villchur's invention of the acoustic-suspension woofer that made possible affordable loudspeakers with deeper bass from a smaller cabinet (see Sidebar: "Sealed Boxes").
I don't know if hi-fi can claim any true Renaissance men, but Edgar Villchur is as close as anyone gets. As a student at New York's City College, he aspired to work as a theatrical set designer, and…
The SL mid/woofer, which debuted in 1998, was designed by ATC's founder, managing director, and head of engineering, Billy Woodman, who is also responsible for completing the industrial-design makeover. The speaker's tweeter and crossover are the work of R&D/transducer engineer Richard Newman.
The SCM19 v.2 measures 17.1" high by 10.3" wide by 11.7" D, and weighs 39 lbs. It's a handsome, solid, extremely hefty speaker available in satin-finished Cherry or Black Ash veneers. On the rear panel are two pairs of uninsulated binding posts for biwiring (jumpers provided). The SCM19s…
