Recorded live last year at the Windham Civic Center Concert Hall, in New York's Hudson Valley, Solo (on the Palmetto label), features, like most of Hersch's albums, a mix of originals and standards—the latter by Jobim, Ellington, Monk, and Joni…
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With Solo, his 49th album as a leader (or co-leader) and 10th as a soloist, Fred Hersch nails his standing as one of the premier jazz musicians of our time, a pianist of subtle touch and propulsive flow, something like Keith Jarrett but more focused, less rhapsodic—Ravel to KJ's Liszt or Rachmaninoff (not that there's anything wrong with either).
Multiple product premieres take place at Berkeley, CA store Music Lovers Audio (2116 Blake Street), Saturday December 5, from 1pm–6pm. Philip O’Hanlon of On A Higher Note is presenting the North American premiere of the Vivid B1 Decade, 10th Anniversary, limited-edition loudspeaker (above). John Quick of dCS will show the new dCS Rossini D/A processor, and Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio Specialties will present the Wilson Sabrina loudspeakers in a system featuring the Spectral DMC-30SV Super Veloce preamplifier.
Stereophile’s Jason Victor Serinus will there. More details can be found here…
I don't think Americans dislike the French a tenth as much as the corporate media, in their endless struggle to sell our pettiest ideas back to us in cartoon form, suggests we do. Our nations' histories are intertwined, to our great mutual benefit. Americans envy the French their centuries of cultural accomplishments, the French envy Americans their sense of industry and their wide-open spaces. (That one's a tie.) We turn to them for wine, they turn to us for blue jeans. (A point for France.) We watch their films about law-breaking hipsters, they watch our films about law-breaking gangsters…
The 2015 T.H.E. Show in Southern California clashed with my having to be in the office to ship our August issue to the printer, so I wasn't able to attend. But in devouring the online coverage on www.stereophile.com and its sister sites, on InnerFidelity.com I found a report by Tyll Hertsens about two new hi-rez portable players that made their debuts at T.H.E. Show: Questyle Audio Technology's QP1 ($599) and QP1R ($899).
Questyle was a name new to me. The company, based in China, has its products manufactured by Foxconn, of iPhone fame, but its North American operation is headed up by…
One evening, I armed myself with a few good recordings—including Robert Silverman's CD of Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonatas 1 and 2 (Stereophile STPH019-2), and Sir Adrian Boult and the New Philharmonia's spectacular performance of Vaughan Williams's Symphony 4 (LP, EMI ASD 2375)—and sat down to determine whether or not the Orchestra Reference inverted signal polarity. Repeatedly, I listened for a short time, then got up from my chair and swapped red for black on both channels, then sat back down and listened some more—yet every time I got up to make the change, those bastard musicians would…
Consistent throughout my auditioning of the QP1R was a sense of ease to the sound, coupled with clarity. I never got the feeling that recorded detail was being unnaturally spotlit, but I could hear deep into recordings. Alto saxophonist Paul Desmond's clam in the second verse of "Blue Rondo à la Turk," from the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out (DSD64 file, CBS Legacy/Acoustic Sounds), was more audible than I'm used to—I have never understood why this take was used for the master (footnote 1), given this problem, nor have I read anyone commenting on it. Similarly, there's a clumsy high-register…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Portable music player with 32GB internal memory and 2 microSD slots, each capable of accepting up to 128GB. Compatible file formats: FLAC ALAC, WAV, AIFF, AAC (unprotected), MP3. Compatible sample rates: up to 192kHz and DSD128. Compatible bit depths: 16–24. Outputs: headphone (3.5mm jack), line/TosLink (3.5mm dual jack). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.1dB. THD+N: 0.0006%. Output impedance: 0.15 ohm. Maximum output level: 1.9V (High), 1V (Middle), 530mV (Low). Power supply: 3300mAH rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Supplied accessories:…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-channel tubed, class-AB integrated amplifier. Tube complement: four EL34, two ECC83. Inputs: 5 single-ended (RCA). Outputs: 1 single-ended (RCA), two pairs of binding posts. Rated output power at 1kHz: 40Wpc (16dBW). Input impedance: >100k ohms. Input sensitivity for nominal output power: 250mV RMS. Frequency response: 5Hz–60kHz, –3dB.
Dimensions: 20.7" (530mm) W by 7.8" (200mm) H by 10.5" (270mm) D. Weight: 44 lbs (20kg).
Serial number of unit reviewed: 3819.
Price: $4795; remote control, add $350. Approximate number of dealers: 8.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Astell&Kern AK100, Pono Music PonoPlayer portable players.
Headphone Amplifiers: Aurender Flow, Meridian Prime.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, AudioQuest NightHawk, Ultimate Ears 18 Pro.—John Atkinson
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124 turntables; Abis SA-1.2, EMT 997 tonearms; EMT OFD 25 & OFD 15 & TSD 15 pickup heads; Denon DL-103, Miyajima Premium BE Mono II cartridges.
Digital Sources: Halide Designs DAC HD USB D/A converter; Apple iMac G5 computer running Audirvana Plus 1.5.12; Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Hommage T2 step-up transformer, Shindo Laboratory Aurieges Equalizer Amplifier phono preamplifier & Masseto preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Laboratory Corton-Charlemagne monoblocks.
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