It's his 19th album overall (as soloist and leader or co-leader of various ensembles), and you can hear the evolution. There's a schematic edge to Iyer's music, stemming perhaps from his education in math, physics, and cognitive sciences; he has long experimented with numerical patterns in his music (Steve Coleman is a key influence), and in some of his early work, you could hear the…
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With Break Stuff, his third trio album and his first on the ECM label, Vijay Iyer comes into his own as a master pianist, composer, and conceptualizer—one of the truly great jazz musicians of our time.
Powerful, massive, and expensive, Revel's Ultima Rhythm2 subwoofer ($10,000) swept me off my feet when I first saw it in Harman International's suite at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. It outsizes, by 49 lbs and 2.6 cubic feet, Revel's previous flagship model, the Ultima Sub30, which I reviewed in the November 2004 issue. Its specs read like no other sub's: 196 lbs; 18" cast-frame woofer; dual 4" voice-coils; 4kW peak power from twin internal amplifiers that generate 1kW RMS; 115dB peak acoustic output; a fully configurable, high-resolution, 10-band parametric equalizer (PEQ); an…
Because some internal crossovers produce audible effects, I checked to hear if the Rhythm2's internal electronic crossover was altering the sound of the high-pass signal driving the Salon2s. Try as I might, I couldn't hear the Rhythm2's crossover. Whether I ran the Salon2s full range and used the Rhythm2 for reinforcement, or passed the audio signal through the sub's crossover, the tonal characteristics of my system didn't change. I heard no discontinuities between the speakers and the subwoofer even with solo-piano recordings. The light, lyrical quality of Keith Jarrett's playing in "True…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Powered subwoofer in aperiodic enclosure. Drive-unit: 18", forward-firing aluminum cone with dual 4"-diameter voice coils, neodymium magnets, and cast frame. V-Max: 1.7". Rear-panel inputs: R & L, balanced (XLR) and single-ended (RCA), USB, 12V trigger. Rear-panel outputs: high-pass output (XLR & RCA), 12V trigger. Rear-panel controls: Gain, Power Mode (Auto/On/Trigger). Low- and high-pass filters: adjustable, 50–100Hz, in 1Hz steps. Slopes: first, second, fourth, or eighth-order Butterworth; fourth- or eighth-order Linkwitz-Riley, user-…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn Sondek turntable & Lingo power supply & Ittok tonearm; Spectral moving-coil cartridge; Day-Sequerra 25th Anniversary FM Reference tuner.
Digital Sources: Bryston BCD-1 CD player, BDP-2 media player, BDA-1 DAC.
Preamplifier: Bryston BP26, Bryston 10B-SUB outboard electronic crossover.
Power Amplifiers: Theta Digital Prometheus monoblocks, Mark Levinson No.334.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989, Revel Ultima Salon2.
Subwoofers: JL Audio Fathom f113, SVS SB13-Ultra, Velodyne DD-18+.
Cables: Digital: WireWorld…
During last September's Brooklyn Audio Show, a thoughtful and amiable hobbyist explained to me his views on the purpose of an audio system. It seems that, for a great many years, he was told—by the powers that be, the holy on high, the gurus du jour (whose jour seems to have ended without anyone really noticing)—that a home audio system should transport the listener to the concert hall. Yet now he has come to realize that the very best gear brings the performance venue into the listener's living room.
Or maybe it was the other way around: He might have said that the goal of an audio…
Purely electronic distortions are a different matter altogether, and here I'll make an unscientific observation: The simpler the device, the more benign the distortion. The electronic distortion products added to a music signal by a simple tube amplifier tend overwhelmingly to be the second harmonics of the affected frequencies. Add global feedback to the circuit and, despite a reduction in the amount of second-harmonic products, the far more objectionable odd-order harmonic products are not only left behind like audible driftwood but can actually increase in amplitude. Change the active…
I have to eat crow. I must retract a Record to Die For I handed out this time last year. [sigh] This has never happened before.
The pick in question is the recording, "remastered at Abbey Road" and bound as a book, of David Oistrakh playing the Brahms Violin Concerto and Double Concerto and Beethoven's Triple Concerto, with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, pianist Sviatoslav Richter, George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra (Brahms), and Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic (Beethoven) (2 SACD/CDs, EMI Signature Collection 9 55978 2).
Why take back an R2D4? I will…
David Bowie: Divine Symmetry (An Alternative Journey Through Hunky Dory)
Parlophone (4 CD Box Set + Blu-ray). 2022. Various prods., engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Parlophone (4 CD Box Set + Blu-ray). 2022. Various prods., engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
The David Bowie estate seems to raid more vaults than John Dillinger ever managed to. But then, if the quarry results in quality releases, why not?
Divine Symmetry certainly is a quality release. It's not just the title, which is great (although it's not the first time the "Quicksand" lyric has been used; there was also an unofficial release). Included in the box, alongside a lush book of essays and…
John Escreet: Seismic Shift
Escreet, piano; Eric Revis, bass; Damion Reid, drums
Whirlwind WR4793 (CD, available as download, LP). 2022. Escreet, prod.; Paul Tavenner, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
Escreet, piano; Eric Revis, bass; Damion Reid, drums
Whirlwind WR4793 (CD, available as download, LP). 2022. Escreet, prod.; Paul Tavenner, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½
The jazz piano trio has accurately been called "the minimum complete jazz orchestra." It is an instrumental format of infinite possibility. The range of what is achievable with a piano trio runs from the ethereal to the tumultuous, from reductive single-note Zen to vast complexity. John Escreet's trio with Eric Revis and Damion Reid leans strongly toward the tumultuous and…