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2015 Records to Die For Page 3

BRIAN DAMKROGER

The Smithereens: Especially for You
Enigma ST-73208 (LP). 1986. Don Dixon, prod.; James A. Ball, Gray Russell, Carol Cafiero, Paul Special, Frank Pekoc, engs. AAA. TT: 44:14

Especially for You isn't just a great and great-sounding rock album, it might just be the rock album. "Blood and Roses" got all the attention, and yes, it truly does reach in and grab your soul. But the real stunners are the two cuts that precede it, "In a Lonely Place" and "Behind the Wall of Sleep." Suzanne Vega's background vocal in the former is spectacular, and…

2015 Records to Die For Page 4

STEVE GUTTENBERG

The Spencer Davis Group: The Best of the Spencer Davis Group
EMI America CDP 7 46598 2 (CD). 1987. AAD? TT: 34:06

If you've had your fill of Auto-Tuned and/or Pro Tooled tunes and crave musical authenticity, travel back to mid-'60s British R&B—specifically, to this collection. It may have been guitarist Spencer Davis's group, but it was Steve Winwood's singing and keyboards that put the band over the top with two Stateside megahits, "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'm a Man." The formula for all 12 tracks here is simple enough: The group pours…

2015 Records to Die For Page 5

RICHARD LEHNERT

Molly Drake: Molly Drake
Squirrel Thing ST-4 (mono CD). 2012. Recorded by Rodney Drake; John Wood, Cally, prods.; Simon Heyworth, mastering. A–D. TT: 37:31

In my small town is a shop, less an antique shop than a compendium of ephemera—things not valued in their own time, or ever intended to be kept or cherished. The shopkeeper sometimes binds together similar items—postcards, concert programs, tickets—in small albums of plastic sleeves. I once opened one of these tiny volumes to find a series of strips of thin, colored pasteboard, each the…

2015 Records to Die For Page 6

PAUL MESSENGER

Was (Not Was): Born to Laugh at Tornadoes
Geffen GEF 25592 (UK LP). 1983. Don Was, prod., mix; Jack Tann, David Was, prods.; Robert Kinkel, asst. eng.; Duane Bradley, Ken Collier, mix. AAA. TT: 35:31

I don't know how this LP found its way into my collection in the early 1980s, but I've no regrets. Having lost it for years, I've now rediscovered what turns out to be a real gem. It's beautifully recorded throughout, and shows such great variety in both style and personnel that categorization is impossible. Each track comes as a fresh surprise, and none more than…

2015 Records to Die For Page 7

MARKUS SAUER

Vincent Segal: T-Bone Guarnerius
Vincent Segal, electric & acoustic cello; Magic Malik, flute, vocals; Glenn Ferris, trombone; Gilles Coronado, Seb Martel, guitar; Piers Faccini, guitar, vocals; Vic Mona, mandolin; Pascal Palisco, accordion; Mama Chandja, vocals
Label Bleu LBLC 6646 (CD). 2003. Pierre Walfisz, prod.; Philippe Teissier Du Cros, eng. ADD? TT: 66:06

Hot on the heels of my selection for R2D4 2014 of Chamber Music, his collaboration with Ballaké Sissoko, let me introduce you to another Vincent Segal album. T-Bone Guarnerius…

Surrounded by Benson

Call me stuck in the 1970s, or stuck in two-channel audio, but for me surround sound still conjures the idea of quadraphonic sound, which if I’m not mistaken was kind of like LaserDisc, or DVD-A: ideas whose time never came. To be fair, I also live in a New York apartment and the chance of me optimizing my environment to take full advantage of 5.1 recordings is nil. I have heard 5.1 recordings, recorded in surround which is key, played on a proper rig, that have been a very pleasurable listening experience, and one very different, though not necessarily better, that those in the two-channel…

Joe Grado (19252015)

Hats off and heads down. Let Joe Grado's passing fill our collective hearts with enduring feelings of gratitude (for what Joe brought to the quality and character of the audio industry over six decades) and respect (for his myriad inventions and human fortitude that delivered musical joy and aural insights to countless listeners and audio professionals throughout the world).

Joe Grado was a mechanic, an engineer, an inventor (with scores of patents), an inveterate tinkerer, an artist, an operatic tenor, and an old-school American entrepreneur. Joe Grado and Saul Marantz can legitimately…

The Bay Area's Unique Audiophile-Jazz Partnership

In what may be the first collaboration of its kind, the San Francisco Audiophile Society (SFAS) has partnered with a major urban arts presenter, the SFJAZZ Center, to offer its members a prime block of "audiophile-approved" seats to major SFJAZZ Center events. The instant success of the SFAS Concert Series collaboration is reflected in the fact that all 30 tickets to the first event, a March 1 concert with Taj Mahal, sold out in four hours. In fact, SFAS "chief troublemaker" Alón Sagee was forced to cut the waiting list off at 20, lest even more people get their hopes up for seats that would…

Dayton Audio B652 loudspeaker the B652-AIR

John Atkinson wrote about the Dayton B652-AIR in February 2014 (Vol.38 No.2):

Stephen Mejias reviewed the Dayton Audio B652 bookshelf loudspeaker in Stereophile's January 2013 issue. Sold direct by Parts Express as well as by Amazon, and priced at just $39.80/pair (including two 9½'-long 20AWG speaker cables), the B652 is by far the cheapest speaker we have reviewed. The B652 is still available, but has been joined by a new version, the B652-AIR ($59.80/pair, footnote 1). Like the earlier speaker, the 'AIR is a small, two-way, sealed-cabinet design with a 6.5" polypropylene mid/woofer and…

Dayton Audio B652 loudspeaker Listening to the AIR

Listening to the AIRs
I auditioned the Daytons with my usual high-end rig. It is a fair criticism that no one will use these speakers in a system costing upward of $50,000, but it's important to change as little as possible when inserting a new component in a reviewer's reference system. Connection is via a pair of spring-clip speaker terminals; to connect the Daytons to my usual speaker cables, I used pigtails with bare wire at one end and dual banana plugs at the other. The Daytons were used well out in the room, though it's fair to note that they could well benefit from some boundary…