One of those, surely, is Rush's Moving Pictures, a multiplatinum seller with hits that have stayed in rotation on certain FM radio stations ever since the album's release more than 40 years ago. Moving Pictures has influenced generations of rock, prog, grunge, and even…
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Certain albums stand as monuments because of the influence they had on contemporary and future musicians despite having little commercial success. The Velvet Underground & Nico comes to mind. So do the early Ramones albums. And then there are albums that had just as much influence but were megahits—a much rarer thing.
Like an immense night bird aloft in the gold'n sky.
I should like to sail off towards islands of flow'rs
While list'ning to the perverse sea singing
In its old and bewitching rhythm.
I should like to sail off towards islands of flow'rs
While list'ning to the perverse sea singing
In its old and bewitching rhythm.
It took some time to figure out why, in the middle of auditioning Rotel's Michi S5 stereo power amplifier ($7499.99) with the room-shaking opening of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, Ravel's far subtler and perfumed setting of Tristan Klingsor's lyrics from Shéhérazade came to mind. And then the pathway opened: As mundane a task as reviewing a component may be—listen to this, listen to…
The S5, and its companion preamplifier, the Michi P5, which Ken Micallef reviewed in our November 2020 issue, arrived fully broken in. (I only had time for a brief listen to the P5, which I'll discuss in a follow-up review in a later issue.) Orth assured me that 20 minutes was sufficient time to warm up the S5 from its standby temperature of 22°–23° C to an ideal temperature in the mid-40s. My S5, though, never got above 38°–39° C. The right channel was invariably 1° warmer than the left, for reasons that John Atkinson may discover in his measurements.
I powered the S5 through one of…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid state, dual-mono class-AB power amplifier. Inputs: 1 balanced (XLR), 1 single-ended (RCA). Outputs: 2 pair custom binding posts. Continuous output power: 500Wpc into 8 ohms (27dBW), 800Wpc into 4 ohms (26dBW). Input impedance, balanced (XLR): 100k ohms; single-ended (RCA): 12.5k ohms. Voltage gain, balanced (XLR): 24dB; single-ended (RCA), 28dB. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz (+0dB, –0.15dB); 10Hz–100kHz (+0dB, –0.4dB). Input sensitivity, balanced (XLR): 4.2V at full rated output; unbalanced (RCA): 2.6V. THD: <0.008%. Damping factor: 350. S…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport, Rossini DAC, and Rossini Clock; EMM Labs DV2 Integrated DAC; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS, content/roon-labs-nucleus-music-server">Roon Nucleus+ music server, Uptone Audio EtherRegen with AfterDark Giesemann Emperor Double Crown Master Clock, Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModules (2) and Deluxe opticalModule, Linksys router and Arris modem, all powered by HDPlex 300 (3) and HDPlex 200 linear power supplies (3); Nordost QNET Ethernet Switch; Apple 2017 iPad Pro and 2017 MacBook Pro laptop with 2.8 GHz…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Rotel Michi S5 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system, preconditioning the amplifier by operating it at 1/8 the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the top panel's temperature was 86°F/30°C, and that of the side panels next to the heatsinks 101.1°F/38.4°C. Though the rear-panel fans had turned on and were venting hot air, they were silent.
The Michi S5's voltage gain at 1kHz into 8 ohms was 23.6dB for the balanced input and 27.7dB for the unbalanced input, both values close to the specified gains. Both inputs…
My tastes coalesced around rock music, particularly the harder and faster kind, by the time I was in middle school. Earlier, they were oriented toward pop: The Beatles are my first and forever musical love.
My two older brothers were into music. One of them skewed pop/top-40. The other skewed Doors, psychedelic, and prog. Both were influences. My best friend at the time had an older sister who was well-versed in rock music and the '70s rocker-girl lifestyle; she turned me on to the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Cream, and in other ways. Also, it was the heyday of rock-FM in the vibrant…
Photo: Liz Kreutz.
2022 is turning out to be a good year for Lyle Lovett, not least because he is, to use a cowboy metaphor, back in the saddle.
"I've been out of work for two years," he says archly. Normally, Lovett performs more than 100 concerts a year, regardless of whether he's released new work. But the pandemic pinned him down at home in Houston, with his wife and their now–four-year-old twins, in the house his grandfather built in 1911. Domesticity suits Lovett. "There was plenty to do every minute of every day. Absolutely no boredom!" He sounds like he means it;…
Lovett prefers playing CDs over streaming. "I like holding a product in my hand and looking at it," he says. "I still enjoy holding a newspaper or a magazine and reading it. And I still write my set lists on a piece of paper. Honestly, I do a lot more things digitally than I thought I ever would, but I can't give up that tactile experience."
Not big but large
He listens to me prattle on about one of my favorite large jazz ensembles, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, and demurs as soon as he hears the term "big band." Lovett prefers the "western swing" moniker for his own jazz-inflected…
Gullibility is a disadvantage in any business, but it's a cardinal sin in journalism. During my J-school years, I acquired the occupational deformity that afflicts most reporters: a degree of skepticism bordering on the cynical. In my professional circles, an adage holds that "if your mother says she loves you, check it out."
I internalized the lesson and became a lifelong doubter, fairly smitten with empiricism and evidence. If you say X, and X sounds the least bit unlikely to me, I may go looking for proof. If I don't find it, I'll be disinclined to believe you.
But sometimes…