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On paper, StandArt looks promising. Tigran Hamasyan has been an exceptional pianist his whole life. (He started at three and made his first record, World Passion, at 17, in 2005.) Most of his music has been dedicated to bringing the traditional music of his native Armenia, with its distinctive scales and modalities, into jazz. StandArt is his first album of…

The Tchaikovsky trio, cast in two large movements, frequently struggles to find an identity, or an aesthetic point. The Tr°o Arriaga's recording is the first I've actually liked. In the first movement, the players project the two themes with clear contours and firm direction; in the codetta, they delve more deeply into typical Tchaikovskian yearning, turning introspective as the recap winds down. Their…

A big hi-fi show is a great…

At the cottage window a little bird sang.
And the light of the window did flicker.
And look. The roof up it sprang and the cottage became a house bigger.
Look. Into a world the cottage grew and the vast and wide too and filled with song was the air and like new was the sun's flare.

Below this boldly printed poem, in a smaller, finer font, it said, "Thank you for choosing Genelec. With this poem by…

By driving a loudspeaker's voice-coil directly from the output of a dedicated power amplifier, a designer can avoid many of the problems that occur in passive speakers due to the impedance mismatches among the…

Description: 2-way active stand, wall, desk, or ceiling-mount monitor speaker with one 5.1" (130mm) polypropylene-cone midwoofer and one 0.75" (19mm) aluminum-dome tweeter in a cast-aluminum cabinet. Frequency response: 54Hz–20kHz, ±2.5dB. Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Amplifiers: Two 50W class-D/channel. Harmonic distortion: 50–100Hz <2%; >100Hz <0.5%. Input connections: 1 RCA, 1 XLR. Input impedance: 10k ohms (RCA and XLR). Comes with a detachable Iso-Pod base.
Dimensions: 11 25/32" (299mm) H × 7 7/16" (189mm) W × 7" (178mm) D with Iso-Pod installed…

Analog sources: Dr. Feickert Analogue Blackbird turntable with Schick 10.5" tonearm, Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum, My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent Ex, Zu-Denon DL-103 moving coil cartridges; Music Hall Stealth turntable with Ortofon 2M Blue and 2M Black, Audio-Technica VM95E moving magnet cartridges.
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ music server; Denafrips Terminator Plus and HoloAudio Spring 3 D/A processors; dCS Bartók DAC/Streamer.
Preamplification: HoloAudio Serene line-level pre; EMIA, Koetsu, and Lundahl LL1931Ag step-up transformers,…

I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the Genelec G Three's frequency response in the farfield. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses.

Genelec specifies the G Three's input impedance as 10k ohms. As this is an active loudspeaker, I calculated the input impedance by using spot frequency tones generated by my Audio Precision SYS2722 and examining how the nearfield sound pressure level dropped when I increased the source impedance to 600 ohms from 20 ohms (…

The cover art for Wilco's finely hewn double album Cruel Country resembles a hand-stitched doily or the kind of patch you might have seen sewn onto the back pocket of a pair of vintage faded jeans circa 1978. It's appropriate: Wilco's music has long been a patchwork, piecing together the scope and potential of American music for the band's nearly 30 years.

Cruel Country, Wilco's latest, is anything but…