Photo: 2010 by Steven Perilloux
Charlie Haden, one of the great jazz bassists, died this morning, at age 76, after a long illness.
I've written here often of Haden's prowess and creativity, most recently a review of Last Dance, his sublime (and—a lovely last treat—commercially successful) duet album with Keith Jarrett. You could find worse ways to spend a Friday night, emptying a nice bottle and listening to this disc and any other Haden albums you might have around (there's hardly a clunker in the catalog).
I will miss watching him play on the bandstand, leaning over his…
Two silly-expensive preamplifiers, from Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems and Lamm Industries, are featured in the August Stereophile and both offer sound quality and measured performance that are beyond reproach. Rounding out this issue's amplification theme are a tubed integrated amplifier form Octave Audio in Germany and a high-quality class-D integrated amplifier from the American Rogue company. Contrasting with the preamplifiers, the Rogue is affordably priced, as is a Tascam CD player that John Marks raves about in his "Fifth Element" column and the Musical Fidelity V90-DAC, which…
Take a break from the heat and dive in to some fine sounds. The Las Vegas Audio Club is delighted to announce that on Saturday July 19, 2–5pm, Philip O'Hanlon from On A Higher Note will present the Luxman DA-06 DAC, PD-171 turntable (both reviewed by Stereophile's Art Dudley) and the L-590aX integrated amplifier driving the Vivid B1 loudspeakers, reviewed by John Atkinson.
And for something completely different, Philip will also demo the Eclipse TD-M1, which he tell us is "probably the most satisfying and immediate sounding desktop system currently available and quite affordable too!"…
Bach-Malloch: The Art of Fuguing
The Sheffield Ensemble and California Boy's Choir, Lukas Foss, cond., recorded live at First Presbyterian Church, Hollywood.
Town Hall Records S-20 & S-21 (each 2 LPs, 1979), Sheffield Lab 10047-2-G (CD, 1995). Lincoln Mayorga, prod., Ron Hitchcock, eng., Lincoln Mayorga Doug Sax, CD mastering eng. AAA (LP), AAD (CD).
These 2-disc albums are of unusual interest for several reasons. First, although both are of exactly the same program material, there were recorded with completely different microphone techniques. One was done with the usual (for…
These are great times for hi-fi gear, especially loudspeakers.
I latched on pretty fast to Dynaudio's Excite X12, but I wasn't the first at Stereophile to discover that loudspeaker. That was Bob Reina.
Drat!
John Atkinson, too, is big on this little speaker. Here's what The Chief wrote about it in one of his less guarded moments, for "Recommended Components" (October 2011): "A well-engineered speaker like this makes it hard to justify spending more on a bookshelf speaker unless you can afford one of the cost-no-object models." [Harrumph, harrumph.]
Okay, JA. A…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Two-way stand-mounted, rear ported loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.1" (28mm) soft-dome tweeter, 6.7" (170mm) magnesium silicate polymer-cone (MSP) /woofer. Frequency response: 40Hz–35kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms.
Dimensions: 13.8" (350mm) H by 7.9" (202mm) W by 11.6" (294mm) D.
Finishes: Walnut, black ash, rosewood, maple, and black or white gloss lacquer.
Price: $2900/pair.
Manufacturer: Dynaudio International GmbH, Ohepark 2, 21224 Rosengarten, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)4108-4180-0. Fax: (49) (0)4108-4180…
Even casual music fans know the story: rock ‘n’ roll as “invented” by Elvis Presley and was just African American blues music set to a faster beat and in some cases with less salacious lyrics.
Yet as in most things musical, it’s not quite that simple. Many writers such as Nick Tosches (Unsung Heroes of Rock and Roll) and Robert Palmer (Rock & Roll: An Unruly History) have over the years attempted to explain the origins of one of America’s greatest home grown art forms. But Stereophile Contributing Editor Larry Birnbaum has found previous accounts to be lacking and so has devoted…
Wednesday, July 23, and Thursday, July 24, 6–9pm: Hosted by North Carolina’s Audio Advice, Digital Living 2014 will take place on Wednesday, July 23, in Raleigh (8621 Glenwood Avenue), and again on Thursday, July 24, in Charlotte (11409 Carolina Place Parkway, near Carolina Place Mall). Representatives from Sony, Sonance, Savant, Lutron, Classé, Bowers & Wilkins, and AudioQuest will present their latest products, all with the goal of simplifying, improving, and creating a more enjoyable modern digital home. AudioQuest’s Steve Silberman and Jett Logan will share the significant impact high…
$13,000! You could buy two Hyundai Excels for that kind of money. Or one 5-liter Ford Mustang. Or two-thirds of a Saab 900 Turbo. How could the purchase of this Accuphase two-box CD player be justified on any rational grounds? What if it did offer state-of-the-art sound quality? Would it really be 50 times better than a humble Magnavox? Would it even be 4.3 times better than the California Audio Labs Tempest II CD player? And would it approach the sound quality routinely offered from LP by the similarly priced Versa Dynamics 2.0 turntable?
Before turning to the answers to those questions…
But looking at the more fundamental aspects of reproduction, there are three main areas where, historically, CD sound has fallen down. First, and foremost, is the ability routinely offered by even modest LP players to communicate the musical values of a recording. CD playback too often leaves the listener sitting isolated from any feeling of "event" or performance. The music may be there but it is rendered, to an extent that differs widely from individual to individual, inaccessible. The sound is cold, the presentation soulless. The second aspect concerns the inability of many players to…
