I measured one of the Mark Levinson No.536 monoblocks (serial no.1250) with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before doing any testing of a power amplifier, I precondition it by running it at one-third its specified power into 8 ohms for 60 minutes. (This power level results in the highest thermal stress on the output devices of an amplifier having a class-B or -AB output stage.) After an hour driving 133W into 8 ohms, the temperature of the No.536's heatsinks was fairly hot, at 114.8°F (46°C), and its top panel was warm, at…
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At the Los Angeles Audio Show, held June 2–4, John Atkinson spoke with Zu Audio's founder, owner, and chief engineer Sean Casey about the Zu Audio Druid (pictured), Sean's background and his "unconventional" approach, and historic speaker designs. And toward the end of the video, Sean Casey turns the tables on JA by interviewing him about the role of the audio reviewer!
Stereophile's most recent Zu review was published in June 2016, when Herb Reichert reviewed Zu's Soul Supreme loudspeaker, while Art Dudley reviewed Zu's Essence loudspeaker in October 2009.
JA also spoke with…
For his fourth Schumann disc since the 1998 Dichterliebe; Liederkreis collaboration with Vladimir Ashkenazy, the great German baritone Matthias Goerne joins pianist Markus Hinterhäuser in a 19-gem collection of heart-touching songs by Robert Schumann entitled Einsamkeit (Solitude). The singing on the Harmonia Mundi recital is gorgeous throughout, and the repertoire deeply communicative. This is especially the case in hi-rez from HDtracks, where the duo's artistic brilliance shines strongest.
Einsamkeit's repertoire choices are less anguished than on many of Goerne's Schubert Edition…
The musicians and music that you love. Mostly it's all about timing. Whether it reminds you of a happy(ier) time in life or a much-younger, more-energetic version of yourself, certain music can inspire a devotion that does not easily die.
It was with this kind of expectation that I joyfully approached the 25th anniversary LP re-release of Buffalo Tom's Let Me Come Over. My story with them is simple: they were a baby band (which is a term I now realize has become part of music history) and I was, well, a baby music writer. After seeing them more times than is healthy, we were forever…
This video is about Jeffrey Catalano and his shop High Water Sound, located in Manhattan's South Street Seaport, right under the Brooklyn Bridge. Though it was my first time meeting Jeffrey, I had long been familiar with his name—often associated with good sound at audio shows and a true appreciation for music. He distributes a selection of artisanal, analog pieces, including TW-Acustic turntables, Cessaro horn speakers, and Tron Electric amplifiers.
While filming and touring High Water Sound, I learned that Herb and Jeffrey go way back— in fact, so far back that Jeffrey knew Herb before…
New Age. Most of it was acoustic. While there were vocals here and there, much of it featured instrumentalists playing solo or in groups. Some of it was meant to alleviate stress. Some of it was marginally connected to a similarly named movement in spirituality. Environmentalism and respect for nature were constant themes. Some New Age artists created moody, ambient sounds that were intended as background music, to promote healing and relaxation.
As the genre grew, some might say by attracting marginally talented musicians who were searching for musical direction, record labels…
Sometimes I feign interest in living in the Soviet Union of the 1950s and '60s. This happens mostly when I'm shopping for toothpaste at my local supermarket, where the toothpaste aisle is as long as a football field. "I don't want so many choices," I say in my Abe Simpson voice, "because all these choices are stupid. I wish I lived in the USSR: Shopping for toothpaste wouldn't take so long." But I'm only kidding.
Now I see dozens of high-end audio manufacturers popping up every year, with new turntable companies leading the charge. Virtually all of them offer at least a half-dozen…
To help answer that last question, Winston has formed a close partnership with sound engineer Howard Johnston, who's recorded Van Morrison, Gene Clark, Bill Frisell, and Primus, among many others. It's been crucial to his career. When I pose questions about how he records his music, Winston's standard answer is "Ask Howard." Johnston has been recording Winston since the 1984 piano-and-voice recording Winston made with actress Meryl Streep telling the children's story The Velveteen Rabbit. Johnston says he uses an analog path to record Winston, but digital gear and software for editing and…
The very last chore was to fit the platter with the supplied cork platter mat, which brings me to the second thing that impressed me about the Kubrick: Its platter bearing and platter are so beautifully machined that, looking at the platter from the side, I couldn't tell when it was spinning. I could detect no platter wobble—zero. To put into proper context this often underemphasized aspect of turntable construction: Lack of unwanted movement in a device whose sole job is to measure, at correct and steady speed, bumps in the record groove that range in size down to that of dust-mite feces…
Geri Allen, one of the great jazz pianists, died on Tuesday, of cancer, at the terribly young age of 60. She made wondrous, rousing, deeply felt music from all eras and styles, with collaborators of all stripes or solo. She could be raucous or elegant, bluesy or lyrical, sometimes all four at once.
Ornette Coleman played with only a handful of pianists through his long and adventurous career (he didn't want to be bound by chords), but in the mid-1990s, he made an album, Sound Museum with a quartet that included a piano part (for the first time in nearly 40 years), and he asked Allen to…