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Vinyl Apocalypse: the LP Shelving Dilemma

The three most traumatic events anyone can experience in life? The death of a loved one? A surprise audit by the IRS? Your entire LP collection purloined by a disgruntled ex-lover?

And, oh yes—moving.

As 2016 turned to 2017, my wife and I were forced to move from an apartment we wrongly assumed we'd never ever have to leave, which in New York City means a lot. Perhaps we were just a tad naïve?

In any case, moving meant not only throwing away shirts I hadn't worn since high school and deciding how many Led Zeppelin T-shirts was too many, but also packing up every last…

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"If designers or individuals want a custom job," Didaskalou says, "they specify a color on their own, we will match it and they can have their furniture finished in this color."

For LP collectors who have spaces where modularity is not a concern, Urbangreen also builds larger record cabinets that can be anywhere from two to five shelves high ($239–$789). Each bay holds 60–70 LPs. They can also make shelves for CDs, DVDs, and other physical media. Custom work for bigger jobs, which Didaskalou says are the bulk of his business, is also available. He's covered entire walls of New York…

Listening #176: MusiKraft Cartridge Bodies & EMIA Phono Transformer

How can you tell a classic product from the hi-fi hoi polloi? One sure sign is when third-party developers spring up around the thing, offering parts and service intended to maximize its performance—or just to keep it on the road. Thus regarded, a few true classics emerge: Quad's ESL and ESL-63 loudspeakers. Altec's 802 and 806 compression drivers. The Linn LP12 and Garrard 301/401 turntables. The Rega RB-300 tonearm and its direct descendants.

Younger than some of the above and a lot less British than most is the Denon DL-103 phono cartridge, which has been in continuous production…

Listening #176: MusiKraft Cartridge Bodies & EMIA Phono Transformer Page 2

Similarly, with my EMT cartridge, "Just Like You," from Roxy Music's Stranded (Japanese Polydor MPF 1142), was as captivating as could be. With the MusiKraft, it was perhaps 75% as captivating—again, not bad for less than half the price. With the MusiKraft, drummer Paul Thompson's floor toms weren't as deep or resonant, Bryan Ferry's electronically treated piano not as crisp and colorful and deliberate, the sound of his voice not as meaty and present, Eddie Jobson's violin Mellotron not as hypnotic—but it was still pretty damn good, and ultimately very charming and very involving.

…

Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960

Et tu, Thelonious? We've come to expect new discoveries from the vaults, annually or more often, by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, and Sonny Rollins. But who knew there were hidden gems by the gnomic Monk—and from a professionally recorded studio session, no less!

In 1959, Monk was commissioned to compose and play the score for a Roger Vadim film, Les Liaisons Dangereuses. By the time of the recording date (at Nola Penthouse Studio in New York), he hadn't written anything new (it was a particularly hard time for Monk, as an essay in the album's extensive booklet describes). But…

RIP New Vinyl (because the WSJ says so)

"Why Vinyl's Boom Is Over." Neil Shah's doom-laden piece with the booming headline in the July 22 edition of the Wall Street Journal triggered some thoughts.

"Folk music duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were frustrated by the quality of vinyl LPs being produced today. So they decided to cut their records themselves," writes Shah, quoting Rawlings as saying "What people do nowadays is take a digital file and just run vinyl off that." Neil, if you wanted to write a gush piece on Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, whom you clearly adore, then fine, I have no objections but don't append it…

William Parker Quartets, Meditation / Resurrection

William Parker, Bronx-born bassist-composer extraordinaire, is one of the few jazz musicians who came up through the avant-garde (making his first big marks as a sideman to Cecil Taylor and David S. Ware) yet manages to fuse its techniques and innovations with standard rhythms, a sense of blues that might have wafted up from the Delta, a dash of wit, and a seemingly effortless swing.

His new two-CD album, Meditation / Resurrection (on the AUM Fidelity label), was recorded in the course of a single day last October, at Brooklyn's System Two Studio by Michael Marciano, who also mixed it…

Rock'n'Roll Music

In a film full of great scenes, it's surely one of the best. Bruce Springsteen, grinning and giggling, recalls when he and the E Street Band were hired to back Chuck Berry and asked what songs they were gonna play?

"We're gonna play some Chuck Berry songs," was the reply.

That, in essence, is what Berry's final album, Chuck is also about: Chuck Berry songs. Although the man who created rock 'n' roll died in March 2017 at the age of 90, his spirit, completely undiminished by time and fluctuating fortunes, is vividly present on Chuck with the same lyrical concerns, same…

VTL/Manley Reference 350 power amplifier

Manley is not a new company; it's the last name of the president and chief designer of VTL, David Manley, whose Model 300 has been my reference standard power amp for the past two years. In fact, Manley is not even a new brand name; it's the name of VTL's "deluxe" line of electronics, built (ostensibly) to industrial standards of ruggedness and reliability.

It's customary to think of "the tube sound" as being warm, rich, weak through the deep bass, fat through the midbass, forward through the midrange, bright through the middle highs, and soft at the extreme top, with superb rendition of…

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Usually, the designer must play it conservative when it comes to feedback equalization, erring toward softness at the top with most loudspeakers in order to avoid instability, or outright oscillation with a relatively few "difficult" loads. Providing adjustable compensation (called "Slope" on the 350) makes much more sense, because it allows you to get the most open, unrestrained HF quality that your loudspeakers will allow.

Sound Quality
So, how does the 350 sound? A good question. I mentioned that I had been using VTL 300s as my reference amps for the last year or so. During that…