Today, having been exposed to the…
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In the January 2020 Stereophile, I described my transformation from John Fahey skeptic to John Fahey fan; suffice it to say, the late guitarist was far from the only musical artist whose work I came to enjoy only after a number of failed attempts. Another was the English band Yes, which I saw in concert in 1977, at New York's Madison Square Garden: I was so bored by the many lengthy instrumental solos, each one remarkable only for the sheer number of notes being squirted at me, that I literally nodded off. (In my defense, it was also very warm in there.)
The Big Bang
Few would have predicted that the Sex Pistols' first gig—in November 1975, at the Saint Martin's School of Art in central London—would be the start of an explosion of music. Not many even knew it was happening. That soon changed. Punk would create a space that other bands rushed to fill. Inspired by the DIY ethos and the rejection of the notion that pop music had to be a 30-minute conceptual track on the lives of elves, punk was just grab an instrument and form a band.
Few would have predicted that the Sex Pistols' first gig—in November 1975, at the Saint Martin's School of Art in central London—would be the start of an explosion of music. Not many even knew it was happening. That soon changed. Punk would create a space that other bands rushed to fill. Inspired by the DIY ethos and the rejection of the notion that pop music had to be a 30-minute conceptual track on the lives of elves, punk was just grab an instrument and form a band.
Some simply aped the style of the Pistols, but by 1978, many felt that had been done to death, and so…
Au Pairs also liked sarcasm and humor with their politics. Brilliantly named—there were two men and two women in the band—their first album, Playing with a Different Sex (1981), is one of my favorites. Mainly about "gender issues," it touches on other serious matters, such as Britain's involvement in Northern Ireland, but it's hardly dull: It brims with excitement. It's passionate, catchy pop with a singer—Lesley Woods—who possesses a stunning voice. (Woods now works as lawyer representing immigrants.)
Politics, though, needn't be spelled with a capital P; it isn't necessary to…
Earlier today, the Montreal Audiofest announced that it would either be postponed or canceled, becoming the latest coronavirus-related casualty. For now the show is considered merely postponed, with news about possible rescheduling coming before the end of March. AXPONA, the western hemisphere's biggest show, announced its postponement Monday. The closure of High End Munich was announced at the end of February.
"We are working with the Bonaventure Hotel to see the remaining possibilities for 2020," wrote the Montreal show's organizers, Sarah Tremblay and Michel Plante, on the show's…
In a press release issued just a few minutes ago, the organizers of the Montreal Audiofest announced plans to reschedule their postponed show for 15–17 May, the original dates of the now-canceled High End Munich show.
It's a clever solution in a crowded audio show calendar: It's difficult to find dates when potential exhibitors are not already busy. And if all goes as hoped, the Montreal show could benefit from the cancelation of this year's Munich show: Companies that had planned exhibits in Munich could now present them instead in Montreal.
And yet, it is also a bit daring:…
My first CD player was a Denon DCD-1800, the grandpappy of 'em all. It was big, clunky, and sounded like, well, you can read back issues to find out what it sounded like. But I was living in a fraternity house at the time, the kind of place where you wake up the next morning after a blow-out to find five plastic cups half full of stale margaritas merry-go-rounding on your turntable because whoever broke into your room during the party snapped your cartridge's cantilever off trying to hear the backwards messages on The Wall and decided to leave you an artistic message to buy a better needle…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: 20-bit 16x-oversampling CD player. Frequency range: 2Hz–20kHz. S/N ratio: 116dB. Separation: 110dB at 1kHz. Output level: 2V RMS.
Dimensions: 17 3/32" (434mm) W by 4 51/64" (104mm) H by 14 1/64" (360mm) D. Weight: 23lb (10.5kg).
Price: $750 (1992); no longer available (2020). Approximate number of dealers: 450.
Manufacturer: Denon America Inc., Parsippanny, NJ 07054 (1992); Sound United (2020). Web: https://usa.denon.com/us.
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Just about the only change I've made to my system has been replacing VTL's Compact 160 monoblocks with their larger KT90-version Deluxe 225s; I need more juice than the 160s were able to swing, and the triode-wired Deluxe 225s are just the ticket. The new 225s extend the virtues of the Compact 160s (triode mode only for these amps) further in nearly every direction, with even clearer midrange textures and Amazing Space. And as the new VTLs are too big to fit on the books I had the 160s sitting on, I've got the 225s up on sky-blue plastic milk crates…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
There was little or nothing to fault in the Denon's measured response. Its frequency response (fig.1) showed nothing worth commenting on except for a dip and rise above 6kHz (no more than ±0.2dB in any case). The channels are also well matched. The de-emphasis response (fig.2) is nearly ideal, indicating consistent playback of both pre-emphasized and non–pre-emphasized discs (the latter being in the great majority). The squarewave response (fig.3) is typical of the linear-phase digital filters common in Japanese-sourced equipment, with a very slight emphasis to…
With the COVID-19–related cancelation of Munich High End and the postponement or cancelation of other national and regional audio shows, smaller, local events such as Seattle’s 15-year old Music Matters event, which returned to Definitive Audio Seattle on March 5–6, have gained importance—at least as long as they are able to avoid being shut down. This two-evening gathering featured six complete set-ups introduced by top industry designers, manufacturers, and distributors. Among the luminaries present were Dan D’Agostino of Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems (introduced in the photo by Hans…