If his name sounds familiar, in the early 1980s Steve McCormack, while at the helm of his first audio company, The Mod Squad, invented the Tiptoe. As far as I know, the Tiptoe was the first conical aftermarket footer for audio components. Everyone else since then has copied it. In an interview in this magazine (footnote 1), McCormack admitted, "To this day no…
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Why am I once again falling down the rabbit hole of alternating current? A while back, I committed to listening to SMc Audio's AC Nexus power conditioner, designed by SMc founder Steve McCormack and distributed by dealer Hi Fi One.
The Kuzma 4Point 9 ($3995, footnote 3) is indeed 9" long, with an effective length of 229mm: 212mm from pivot to spindle, plus 17mm of overhang. The headshell's offset angle is 23°, while the arm's effective mass is specified as 13gm. Its total mass is 920gm—which, because it doesn't include the "tower" housing the 11" 4Point's mechanism for adjusting a cartridge's vertical tracking angle (VTA), is less than half that arm's mass of 2050gm. This makes the 4Point 9 more compatible with spring-suspended turntables like the Linn Sondek LP12.
Nonetheless, VTA and stylus rake angle (SRA) are…
In poker, "tells" are subtle physical or verbal actions that give away the strength of players' hands.
I am not a poker player, but I am an audiophile, and I use a variety of "tells" as my prime tools in critical listening. You know my worn-out line: "You can't hear what you're not listening for."
I use tells extensively during speaker placement. I use them most extensively, though, when installing and aligning phono cartridges. In that process, tells are a necessity because achieving the best possible sound depends on knowing when I have achieved the best possible sound.
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What's the tell for azimuth? The tonearm designer I mentioned above gave me his. "A good record to test azimuth is [Barbra] Streisand's The Broadway Album (Columbia LP CK 40092): On 'Send In The Clowns,' Barbra's voice ought to come across as well-focused, as should the French horn in the background, with the reverb/hall acoustics even on both sides in terms of high frequency content and decay time."
VTA/SRA
Too many people think setting VTA/ SRA is like a tone control: Up is sharper and brighter, down is darker and duller. But how does one know when that sharper/duller…
In the mid-'60s, modern jazz pivoted. Charlie Parker, the previous era's key revolutionary, had been dead for a decade. "Hard bop," the soul-and-back-beat variant of Parker's bebop, was running out of steam. The Beatles were rocking the world, and jazz would never recover as a branch of "popular music." In response or indifference to these tough transitions, jazz musicians set sail on several experimental paths. In those first few years, the most adventurous voyages were mapped and carved out at Blue Note Records.
Two of the best—and most widely varying—of those ventures have just been…
Replay Sonus faber Webinar
LIVE: Thursday, December 16, 2021 - 12:00PM ET
Sonus faber’s American Branch Manager, William Kline, and Product Marketing and Experience Director, McIntosh Group, Joshua Dellinger, discuss how to extract the best bass performance from your loudspeaker system.
William and Joshua will offer tips and advice with Sonus faber’s proven method of loudspeaker placement, with a unique focus on bass performance. Q&A to follow.
UPDATE: This webinar is now available for replay!
Replay Sonus faber Webinar
Steely Dan Live: Northeast Corridor
Donald Fagen: The Nightfly Live
Donald Fagen, vocals, Fender Rhodes, melodica; Keith Carlock, drums; Jon Herington, Connor Kennedy, guitar; Freddie Washington, bass; Jim Beard, piano; Michael Leonhart, trumpet; Jim Pugh, trombone; Walt Weiskopf, Roger Rosenberg, sax; Carolyn Leonhart, Catherine Russell, La Tanya Hall, Jamie Leonhart, vocals, percussion.
UM (Steely Dan, CD/2LP; Fagen, CD/LP). Patrick Dillett, Fagen, prod.; Michael Conner, eng.; Dillett, mix; Bernie Grundman, mastering.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Donald Fagen: The Nightfly Live
Donald Fagen, vocals, Fender Rhodes, melodica; Keith Carlock, drums; Jon Herington, Connor Kennedy, guitar; Freddie Washington, bass; Jim Beard, piano; Michael Leonhart, trumpet; Jim Pugh, trombone; Walt Weiskopf, Roger Rosenberg, sax; Carolyn Leonhart, Catherine Russell, La Tanya Hall, Jamie Leonhart, vocals, percussion.
UM (Steely Dan, CD/2LP; Fagen, CD/LP). Patrick Dillett, Fagen, prod.; Michael Conner, eng.; Dillett, mix; Bernie Grundman, mastering.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
It's been nearly a…
The Cookers: Look Out!
David Weiss, trumpet, arrangements; six others
Gear Box GB1571CD (CD, available as download, LP). 2021. David Weiss, prod.; Maureen Sickler, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
David Weiss, trumpet, arrangements; six others
Gear Box GB1571CD (CD, available as download, LP). 2021. David Weiss, prod.; Maureen Sickler, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
In a perfect world, critics would hear a band live then write a review of their new album the following morning. It rarely works out that way, but it just did. The Cookers played Jazz Alley in Seattle last night. This review is underway 12 hours later.
In person, The Cookers, like most jazz bands, are looser and rougher and more expansive than on record. At Jazz Alley…
Brahms: Symphony No.4
Macmillan: Larghetto for Orchestra
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck, cond.
Reference Recordings FR-744 (CD). 2021. Dirk Sobotka, prod.; Mark Donahue, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
Macmillan: Larghetto for Orchestra
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck, cond.
Reference Recordings FR-744 (CD). 2021. Dirk Sobotka, prod.; Mark Donahue, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
From the Brahms symphony's soft-edged yet clean and transparent opening, this issue sounds special. As the textures fill out, sonorities expand rather than merely getting louder. The woodwinds' fanfares are crisply placed, yet their soft playing still has presence. Two legato brass chorales in James MacMillan's Larghetto register with satisfying depth…
Rabbits figure frequently in chats with Tom Fine—not the little creatures per se but the holes they burrow into. Because when you question Fine about matters present and past, his encyclopedic memory and fascination with all things great and small take you down what he calls "rabbit holes."
An audio engineer specializing in mastering and analog-to-digital transfers, Fine is best known for his current work on the Mercury Living Presence catalog of 300 mono and stereo LPs, most created by his father, recording engineer C. Robert (Bob) Fine, and his mother, recording producer Wilma Cozart…