But now ERC has put out a meticulous mono pressing of Giant Steps, John Coltrane's first auteur masterpiece, so it's a good time to step in and say something about the company in general and this album in particular.
Many eyeballs have popped about this label's eccentricities: its obsession with replicating the…
It's rare to find an album recorded with an audiophile process that's musically compelling. Barry Diament has struck the balance consistently on his Soundkeeper Recordings label. Diament, a former Atlantic Records mastering engineer, has honed his minimal-miked, hi-rez-digital recording technique over the last decade or so. This is his seventh release on the Soundkeeper label. It's a mellow country-bluegrass affair…
Anything but mainstream when they were recorded in 1958 and '59, Coleman's first two albums, combined in this minibox set, sound relatively conventional today. Coleman had yet to form his classic quartet with bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Ed…
The Seventh, Bruckner's most accessible symphony, has proved elusive on record. Traditionalists have emphasized its "vertical" aspects, its tonal and harmonic weight, at the cost of forward motion; "horizontal," Italianate conductors (Abbado, Chailly) have reversed that imbalance.
François-Xavier Roth gets it right. Tempi, save in a conventional Scherzo, are…
One positive sign: After several years of dueling Southern CA audio shows, the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (LAOCAS) has finally invited its huge membership to enjoy T.H.E. Show. Along with the 11th-hour invite came a $5 show admission discount for society members.
Belated or not, it'…
The Graham LS5/5f is an augmented reissue of the original LS5/5 monitor that was designed by Dudley Harwood and Spencer Hughes for mixing and mastering purposes, and issued by the BBC in 1967. Withdrawn not long thereafter because, in the age of the Beatles, it could not play loud enough, and…
The first (for me) of Next Level HiFi's rooms was dominated by Børresen Z1 Cryo monitors ($14,500/pair; above), Aavik's U180 class-D integrated amplifier with DAC ($10,800; below) and S180 streamer ($7200; below), and Ansuz cabling, XTC power switch (an ethernet switch with noise reduction—$2600), and XTC Mainz 8 power…
Heading the front end were Margules of Mexico's i-240 integrated amplifier ($6000, below), a pure class-A tubed component that outputs 25Wpc into 4 ohms; a prototype Margules M-S01 media server ($TBD) whose DAC can handle DSD128 and PCM up to 32/192, and works with either Roon or Volumio…
Joined with an Innuos Statement Next-Gen music server ($21,700), MSB Premier DAC ($27,950), Nagra Classic Pre and Classic Amp…