Herb Reichert
Mascara Quartet: Barco Negro
Polona Udovic, vocal, violin; Timi Krajnc, guitar; Matjaz BoZo Banovic, bandone¢n; Mitja Rezman, bass guitar; Vid Usenicnik, percussion; Bozo Banovic, Peter Urek, Sasa Bastallec, arr.
Sazas Biem VVE LP 001 (LP). 2017. AAA. TT: 43:03
Imagine Argentine tango, Portuguese fado, and Latin milonga, all wrapped in artful musical extrapolations—from Slovenia. Picture the tall, enchanting presence of Polona Udovic doing her best to channel the sorrowful spirit of renowned fadista Amália Rodrigues singing "Barco Negro."…
"Richard Vandersteen doesn't look like a typical loudspeaker designer," wrote Ken Kessler when he interviewed Vandersteen in the July 1988 issue of Stereophile, adding "His presence suggests somebody who'd be played by Gene Hackman." But Richard Vandersteen is one of the most successful loudspeaker designers working in high-performance audio. His Model 2, in its various incarnations, has been a best-seller since its introduction in 1977 and the Model 7 Mk.II, which John Atkinson reviewed in May 2016, is a ground-breaking, full-range design.
JA talked speakers with Richard at the 2018…
In 2016, when I received Oh Boy!, the first solo album from mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa, I thought, "What a cute title for a compilation of male operatic roles that were written for female singers"—"trouser roles" in operatic parlance—and put it aside. Now, having heard Crebassa's newest album, Secrets: French Songs, I realize that I made a big mistake. Crebassa is a major artist, with a sound and temperament that make Secrets a must-listen for lovers of vocal artistry.
Crebassa's superbly vocalized rendition of Debussy's disarmingly sensual Trois Chansons de Bilitis (Three Songs of…
It is a given these days that the Grammy Awards telecast has devolved into a not very interesting TV variety show. And that most of the really interesting awards are given out off-camera the day before. Entertainers rather than musicians have become the focus of the entire affair. And while the annual grumbling about who did and did not deserve their award is nothing new; trends over the past several years are growing downright embarrassing. Bruno Mars over Kendrick Lamar? And Leonard Cohen winning Best Rock Performance?
In the They-Got-It-Right category, War on Drugs deserved the Best…
After I'd concluded my critical listening sessions with the PS Audio Stellar M700s that I review elsewhere in this issue, I got a call from Dave Morrison of IsoAcoustics, in Markham, Ontario, makers of the Gaia loudspeaker isolation feet. He told me that they had a new product, the Orea, that applies to audio electronics—preamps, power amps, DACs—the isolation technology used in the Gaia. (Orea is a simplified form of Ourea, for the nine primordial mountain gods of Greek mythology, all progeny of Gaia: the Earth.) He suggested that I try the Oreas under the Stellar M700s. My experience with…
In my youth, I unwittingly trained myself in the art of deferred pleasure. I did this by investing my allowance in every mail-order product that caught my eye—things I saw in the back pages of the magazines and comic books I loved—then settling in for a wait that always seemed interminable. This happened most often in summer months, when extra chores brought extra cash, and when school didn't interfere with keeping vigil at the mailbox. Surely the screen door of our old house still bears the imprint of my nose, stamped as I waited for the mailman to deliver booklets on the secrets of the…
Yesterday, before Barbirolli's Mahler, I played my favorite Jethro Tull album, Stand Up (Island ILPS 9103), partly to enjoy the music, partly to compare that newly acquired (first pressing!) UK copy with my tried-and-true US copy (Reprise 6360). The GrooveMaster II was notable for presenting Ian Anderson's voice as tonally uncolored and spatially present as does my more expensive EMT 997 tonearm, and for being no less effective at allowing the recording's more percussive sounds—Clive Bunker's bongos and the note attacks of Anderson's balalaika in "Fat Man"—to stand proud of the mix. And,…
"How natural the sound," wrote Jonathan Scull in March 1994, in his Follow-Up on the original Jadis JA 200 monoblock amplifier, which then cost $18,990/pair. "How easy it was to follow the musical line and fall into the music. How deep, controlled, tight, and satisfying the bass. How magnifique the midrange—the traditional strength of the Jadis presentation. How full and satisfying the lower midrange. How open, airy, how right the highs—not at all hard, but very extended and natural. How involving their presentation. How full, how harmonically correct, how wonderfully compelling. How magical…
Although Monsieur Scull went to great lengths to position the JA 200s' amplifier and power-supply chassis some distance apart and at right angles to each other, M. Calmettes had no such concerns. We simply placed the pairs of enclosures side by side, a few feet apart: Each channel's power supply sat on the floor, supported by Grand Prix Apex feet, with its corresponding mono amplifier resting 4" above it, on a Grand Prix Monaco stand. A 15-amp Nordost Odin 2 power cord fed each power supply, and Odin 2 speaker cables were attached to one of the two sets of binding posts on amp's rear.
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed, push-pull monoblock power amplifier with separate power supply. Inputs: can be ordered unbalanced (RCA) or balanced (XLR). Tube complement: ten 6CA7, KT88, KT120, or KT150 (choice of matched tubes on request, requires internal modification at factory); one 12AU7 (ECC82); one 12AX7 (ECC83) in driver stage. Outputs: 2 pairs binding posts in parallel to permit biwiring. Output power: 170W at 1kHz, 3% THD. Output impedance: 4–8 ohms, set at factory, adjustable by internal coupling from 1 to 16 ohms. Input impedance: >100k ohms. Bandwidth: 20Hz…
