search
In our February 2019 issue, when I reviewed a new integrated amplifier from Colorado-based Ayre Acoustics, I concluded that "the EX-8 Integrated Hub is a high-end contender at a competitive price" (footnote 1). In that review I promised a Follow-Up in which I would compare the EX-8 with Cambridge Audio's Edge A integrated amplifier, which Ken Micallef had positively reviewed in our January 2019 issue (footnote 2). While I'd enjoyed my time with the EX-8, I'd found its balance rather on the light side, and that it projected voices somewhat forward on the soundstage. KM had commented that the…
I will never forget.
In 1988 I had my first experience with Western Electric 300B tubes. It took place on a quiet, streetlights-and-snow night at my friend Ryoichi's apartment on Riverside Drive, in Manhattan.
I had never heard of the late Japanese amplifier designer Ken Shindo, of Shindo Laboratory. But that evening, Ryo's audio system was all Shindo: a hammertone gray Shindo-restored, grease-bearing Garrard 301 turntable sitting on a Shindo plinth of glossy wood, with a Shindo-modified Ortofon tonearm and SPU cartridge, a Shindo moving-coil step-up transformer, and a Shindo…
The TU-8600R is obviously not your father's—or Hiroyasu Kondo's, or Ken Shindo's—300B amplifier. When I realized this, I took a slow breath and remembered what all wise philosophers say—"condemnation without examination is prejudice"—and proceeded with my examination.
At least the TU-8600R's case and chassis are old-school. It measures 15.2" wide by 8.5" high by 12.8" deep and weighs 28.2 lb. Its black, crinkle-paint transformer cover and tube cage are definitely old-school. On the brushed-aluminum faceplate is a on/off toggle switch with a little blue On light, a ¼" jack that connects…
Sidebar: Contacts
EleKit, EK Japan Co., Ltd.. Tofuro-minami 2-19-30, Dazaifu-city, Fukuoka, 818-0105, Japan. Tel: (81) 92-923-8235 Web: www.elekit.co.jp. North American importer: VK Music, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Tel: (604) 931-8844: Web: www.vkmusic.ca
Deutsche Elektronenröhren Manufaktur GmbH, Robert-Bosch-Strasse 26a, D-88131 Lindau, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)173-3773747. Web: www.elrog.com
"I have an organic approach toward music but I've always been interested in electronics," says Jean-Michel Jarre, whose luxurious electronic pop conquered the world in 1976 with his hit album Oxygène. Even today, Oxygène's bubbling tones and saturated textures provide a blissful sonic experience. "I love jazz because of its organic approach to sound, and I've been influenced by that. I always thought that jazz and electronic music have much more in common than we think."
After planting his electronic-music flag, Jarre has enjoyed a level of success shared by few, having sold 80 million…
Micallef: What are some of those vintage pieces on the album?
Jarre: I used the Memory Moog, and I just received the new Moog One, the polyphonic synthesizer. This is going to be one of the Stradivariuses of electronic music. It has that very deep analog sound, it has real polyphony, and it's three synths in one. And I'm using lots of plugins also. I used the very classic machines, like the modular Moog and modular ARP, the EMS VCS 3, and a granular-synthesis synthesizer from a young guy [Tasty Chips Electronics] in the Netherlands, the GR-1 Granular Synthesizer. You can do granular…
Philip Glass (b. 1937) may not quite be a household name in America, but he's surely as well-known as any living classical composer, and the repetitive minimalism that is the hallmark of his music has influenced everything from rock music to TV commercials. Still, after 5 decades of composing, it took a commission from Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion for Glass to write his first concerto for percussion ensemble, Perpetulum—"What took them so long to ask me?" Glass has said about the commission. TCP has just released the premiere recording of the 21:23 minute concerto on their new 2-CD…
One evening late last summer I took the most expensive workout of my life. In my hurry to meet a friend at the gym, I left the house, leaving my computer and hi-fi on despite the ominous look of the sky. In the South, experience teaches you to dash about disconnecting everything at the first sign of a thunderstorm. Usually I do, but this time my mind was elsewhere.
I headed across town toward my favorite gym. Stopped at a hilltop intersection, I saw one of the new office towers take the biggest lightning strike I have ever seen. The building, 40-some stories of Gothic Modern topped by a…
Had I been desperate and/or gullible enough to be talked into buying a new computer, add $800–$1600. Then figure in the hours of hassling with service people and salesmen. An obvious question at this point is, "Why didn't you make an insurance claim?" The answer is that I had let our policy lapse and had been "too busy" to call our agent. Human oversights and mistakes can combine with natural disasters to yield costly, and sometimes deadly, results.
I had hoped, in researching this article, to produce some "shocking" statistics regarding the dollar value of electronic products damaged or…
Sidebar: More Information
Sources for lightning protection hardware
Delta Lightning Arrestors, Inc., P.O. Box 1084, Big Springs, TX 79721.
PolyPhaser Corp., P.O. Box 9000, Minden, NV 89423-9000.
Cushcraft Corporation, P.O. Box 4680, 48 Perimeter Road, Manchester, NH 03108.
Information sources
Insurance Information Institute.
Edison Electric Institute.
Lightning Protection Institute.
Underwriters Laboratory.
National Fire Protection Association/
Books available at your public library:
All About…