Between 3 and 5am the next morning, again using the Pye truck and the Neumann mikes, saxophonist Chris Mercer was recorded in the…
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Primarily tracked in June 1972 in Studio Two of Olympic Studios, in southwest London, on a 16-track machine, Nigel Lived is famous among audiophiles for its many live recordings made outside the studio. For the track "Religion," a male choir was recorded in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, using Pye Studios' 16-track mobile unit and four Neumann U87 microphones. While they were there, the church's pipe organ was recorded for use in "Pity the Poor Consumer."
A place in the country: everyone's ideal.—Bryan Ferry, "Mother of Pearl"
Even at full strength, my family didn't need 3000-plus square feet of living space, let alone four acres of outdoor frolicking space, much of it wooded. But in 2003 that's precisely what we bought, partly because our deal fell through on another, very different house, partly because living next to a dairy farm was an appealing novelty, and partly because the hill on which the house is poised seemed defensible. On our very first morning in our new home—a Saturday in early June—we awoke to gunfire and puffs of smoke…
The bass guitar on Editor's Choice had nice weight, but without the blurring of attacks that can happen with high-Q reflex speakers. However, over time I felt that the Magicos' bass was a little too fat with the Pass Labs amps. Substituting MBL Corona C15 monoblocks gave better control of the low frequencies. With "Another Brick in the Wall Parts 1 & 2," from Pink Floyd's The Wall (24-bit/96kHz FLAC files, Columbia), the MBL amps kept superb control of the Magicos' woofers without sacrificing low-frequency power. The speakers' clarity in this region made it possible for me to maximally…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker with sealed enclosure. Drive-units: 1.1" (26mm) diamond-coated beryllium-dome tweeter, 6" (152.4mm) graphene-coated Nano-Tec–cone midrange unit, two 10" (254mm) aluminum-cone woofers. Frequency range: 20Hz–50kHz. Sensitivity: 88dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Recommended amplification: 50–1000W.
Dimensions: 48" (1220mm) H by 15" (380mm) W by 14" (360mm) D. Weight: 220 lbs (100kg).
Finishes: Metallic gloss or high-gloss paint.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 00739, 00740.
Price: $38,000/…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Aurender N10 music server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; dCS Rossini CD player & Rossini Clock; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter; AudioQuest JitterBug, UpTone Audio ReGen USB cleaner-uppers; Mac mini running Vinyl Studio, Pure Music 3; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB and Benchmark ADC1 A/D converters.
Phono Preamplifiers: Linn Linto, Liberty Audio B2B-1, Channel D Seta L.
Power Amplifiers: MBL…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Magico S5 Mk.II's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and in-room responses. A complication was that the 220-lb loudspeaker was too bulky for me to move it outside for the testing, or to lift it onto my computer-controlled turntable. I therefore had to do the quasi-anechoic measurements in my listening room, where the proximity of room boundaries led to more than usually aggressive windowing of the time-domain data, which in turn reduced the…
Register to win a pair of AudioQuest NightOwl Carbon Headphones ($699.00 Retail Value) we are giving away.
According to the company:
A direct descendant of AudioQuest's award-winning NightHawk headphone, the closed-back NightOwl Carbon replaces its predecessor's biomimetic sound-diffusing grille with an intelligently designed aperiodic damping system for excellent isolation of external noise, ensuring privacy for the listener and those nearby.
NightOwl ships with two sets of earpads—Protein Leather Boost Pads for slightly enhanced treble clarity and Ultrasuede pads for…
The Swiss Radio Days series of CD releases on the TCB Records label has been around since the mid-1990s and while they always looked on paper to have the goods—potentially important and revelatory live performances recorded by Radio Television Suisse in the 50’s and 60s—the music therein never quite grabbed me as I hoped it might. While they had early success with a pair of Art Blakey Jazz Messenger shows from 1960, there were too many mediocre big bands past-their-prime releases along the way. And too many Oscar Peterson records which if you’ve heard one, you pretty much heard them all.…
On January 23, 2017, telecoms company Sprint acquired 33% of the Tidal music streaming service. According to the press release jointly issued by the two companies, the deal guarantees that Tidal, which now claims a catalog of over 42.5 million songs and 140,000 "high quality videos," will become available to Sprint's 45,000,000 retail customers, who will gain "unlimited access to exclusive artist content not available anywhere else."
Jay Z and Tidal's "artist-owners" will continue to run the service, while Sprint CEO, Marcelo Claure will join Tidal's Board of Directors. According to…
My first attempt at writing this piece began with a list of the Top Ten Audio Products I Wish Were Still in Production. Unfortunately, that proved unworkable. Although some of my selections—the Audio Research SP-6C preamplifier, the Stax ELS-F81 loudspeaker—were straightforward, it turned out that most of the others were burdened with complications. Examples: It's no longer feasible to mass-produce Bakelite headshells for a revival of the original Ortofon SPU or similar phono pickup. It's no longer possible to obtain the precisely correct vacuum tubes and other components required to return…