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On May 5, Joel Davis, founder and CEO of JD Events (JDE), the company that mounts the annual AXPONA—Audio Expo North America—proposed a “rollover plan” settlement for companies that had committed funds to the canceled 2020 show, which had been scheduled for April, postponed until August, and then, finally, canceled. The plan attempts to “right the ship in the midst of this pandemic storm” and to demonstrate the company's “long-term commitment” to continuing to serve the audio industry. Many exhibitors were unhappy that, in canceling the show, did not offer refunds of funds already committed…
At the end of April, Adrian Low, the proprietor of Toronto retailer Audio Excellence, emailed me. "I've been interviewing audio luminaries for some time," Adrian wrote, "partly because I am so interested in how they started, their experiences, and also to share these with fellow audio enthusiasts." Adrian told me that they match and donate all the funds they receive from these videos to the Salvation Army (footnote 1). He had just posted video interviews with Dan D'Agostino and Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath to the store's YouTube channel and asked if he could interview me.
We connected…
On Sunday, March 22, at 8pm, the state of New York shut down, governor's orders. Here in the Big City, most stores are closed—even Starbucks, or at least the ones near me. In my neighborhood, up on Broadway, a grocery store is open, and a drugstore, a hardware store, and a couple of bodegas. Some bars and restaurants are open for takeout only, some advertising COCKTAILS TO GO in big black letters painted on bedsheets—New Orleans comes to NYC. (Meanwhile, New Orleans itself, also a coronavirus hotspot, apparently is desolate, the bars closed, a hard thing to picture.)
Here in the city,…
Eriks Eenvalds: Translations
Portland State Chamber Choir, Ethan Sperry, cond.
Naxos 8.574124 (CD, auditioned as 24/96 WAV). 2020. Erick Lichte, prod.; John Atkinson, Doug Tourtelot, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Portland State Chamber Choir, Ethan Sperry, cond.
Naxos 8.574124 (CD, auditioned as 24/96 WAV). 2020. Erick Lichte, prod.; John Atkinson, Doug Tourtelot, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
I'll admit to a conflict of interest in choosing as Recording of the Month a work co-engineered by our very own John Atkinson. We—I, who nominated the piece, and Editor Jim Austin, who ultimately chose the winner—have both worked with John for years. And I'd never deny it was moving to sit next to him during his recent visit to Port Townsend following the…
I own and enjoy loudspeakers from seemingly opposite ends of the audiophile spectrum: I'm a huge fan of minimally efficient yet otherwise overachieving flat-panel designs, such as my Magnepan LRS speakers. Yet I'm just as smitten with another, equally outside-the-norm alternative: high-sensitivity full-range loudspeakers, such as my Zu Omens—especially when driven by tube electronics. It's an ongoing yin and yang that keeps my home system in a constant state of flux: Alternating between loudspeakers that use such different technologies, while maintaining relatively optimal positioning for…
Midmorning of day five of the break-in period, I took my first critical listen; I chose a jazz selection from pianist Cyrus Chestnut's debut album, Revelation (16/44.1 FLAC, Atlantic Jazz 82518-2). This is a trio date, and on the closing track, "Cornbread Pudding," you're witness to incredible interplay between Chestnut, bassist Christopher Thomas, and drummer Clarence Penn. The session was engineered by Jim Anderson and mastered by Joe Gastwirt, and the realism of the instruments and the solid presence of the players in the soundfield has made this disc one of my reference evaluation tools…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state stereo power amplifier, operating in class-D. Analog inputs: 1 pair single-ended (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Loudspeaker outputs: stereo pair of 5-way binding posts. Power output: 250Wpc into 8 ohms (24dBW), 500Wpc into 4 ohms (24dBW), stable into 2 ohms. Frequency response: 0–20kHz, ±3dB all loads. Voltage gain: 27dB, switch selectable to 33dB. Damping factor: >500. THD+N: 0.002% @ 1W, 1kHz into 4 ohms. IM distortion: 0.0003%. Dynamic range: 126dB. Peak output current: 27 amperes.
Dimensions: 17.75" (451mm) W × 3.25" (83mm) H…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Pro-Ject Classic SB turntable with Hana SL moving-coil cartridge; Rega P2 turntable with Ortofon 2M Mono cartridge.
Digital sources: Yamaha BD-A1060 universal disc player; Audiokernel Euphony Summus, Intel NUC-based music server/player/streamer running JRiver Media Center 23 and Roon; Sonore ultraRendu streamer with LPS.
Preamplifiers: PS Audio Gain Cell DAC/Preamp; Musical Surroundings Phonomena II+ phono preamplifier with Musical Surroundings LPS; Sutherland KC Vibe phono preamp.
Power amplifiers: Emotiva XPA-1L monoblocks;…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Bel Canto e1X using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). As the Bel Canto is a class-D design, it wasn't necessary to precondition the amplifier by using it to drive a 1kHz tone at one-third power into 8 ohms. Nevertheless, before doing any testing I ran it for an hour at a moderate power level, to ensure that it was fully warmed up. Because class-D amplifiers emit relatively high levels of ultrasonic noise that would drive my analyzer's input into slew-rate limiting, all measurements were taken with Audio…
The Home Entertainment Show—aka T.H.E. Show—which was originally scheduled for June 12–14 in the Long Beach Hilton, has canceled for 2020. According to a May 13 announcement, T.H.E. Show team of President Maurice Jung and Director of Marketing Emiko Carlin had hoped to postpone the event until December 2020. Not happening.
The cancellation comes after six weeks of negotiations with the hotel failed to produce "clarification on what [the hotel's] health and safety policies would be," the announcement said. (It also follows the announcement of California Governor Gavin Newsom's four-stage…