Attending FLAX 2020 for the first time in this, its second year, I found myself pleasantly surprised by its more mixed demographic compared with most other US shows. In particular I noticed more millennials, more couples, and generally more women, including those who clearly just weren't there "in tow." The guys running one of the headphone demos there told me that an average of at least one or two women per hour were coming in…
While some turntable designs pile on the mass, hoping to tame resonances and better isolate the record from the outside world, Rega has long advocated ultralow-mass designs. What's up with that?
Rega defines a turntable as a "vibration measuring machine." Therefore, they contend—and this is putting it as simply as possible—the lower the mass, the less energy the system can store, only to be later released to confuse and muddy up the…
The new Rega RB3000 tonearm
Just because the RB3000 looks like the arms used on less costly Rega 'tables doesn't mean it's the same arm. For one thing, the three-point metal mounting base…
RP10: Belt-drive turntable with skeletal plinth and separate power supply.
Dimensions: Turntable with dustcover fitted: 16.5" (420mm) W × 12.4" (315mm) D × 4.9" (125mm) H. Weight: 10.34lb (4.7kg). P10 power supply: 8.6" (218mm) W × 12.6" (320mm) D × 3.15" (80mm) W. Weight: 6.6lb (3kg).
RB3000: Pivoted tonearm. Pivot-to-spindle distance: 222mm. Effective length: 236.53mm. Offset angle: 21.56°.
Apheta 3: Moving-coil phono cartridge. Recommended tracking downforce: 1.9–2gm. Recommended load impedance: 100 ohms. Internal impedance: 10 ohms.…
Analog sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, & Castellon turntable & stand; VPI HW-40 Air Force One Premium turntables; SAT CF1-09, Graham Elite, and VPI Fatboy tonearms; Lyra Atlas, Atlas SL, Atlas SL mono, Etna, and Etna SL, Ortofon MC Century, Anna Diamond, A95, Miyajima Labs Infinity (mono) and Destiny (stereo) Grado Epoch (mono).
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi One SACD player DAC; Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter, Roon Nucleus; Pure Vinyl and Vinyl Studio software.
Preamplification: darTZeel NHB-18S, van den Hul Grail SE Plus.
Power…
What motivates an artist to make great statements?
Whatever it is, it's certainly a shock to see a rock-era songwriter rediscover his muse after some 40 years treading water. So it is that Pete Townshend re-emerges at the end of 2019 with his most powerful collection of songs since Empty Glass and the best Who album since Quadrophenia.
It's even more dramatic because this is not a solo…
Then, in the mid-1990s, the MP3 and the Internet made it easy to extract and distribute the information encoded on a CD. Secret websites raced to be the first to distribute free MP3s of new recordings, sometimes even before they were released. This went on for years, undermining record-company profits, before Napster came along and gave the record industry a high-value lawsuit target: no more suing widows and small children.…