Description: Modular, dual-mono line-level preamplifier with an 800 × 480 pixel, 24-bit RGB AMOLED display; eight inputs (four balanced on XLR, two each single-ended on RCA and BNC); four outputs (two fully balanced on XLR; one each single-ended on RCA and BNC). Relay-based input switching; 20-bit R-2R–based analog volume control with 236 0.5dB steps. Switchable, local and global feedback, absolute phase and mono settings. Max levels, input and output: +29dBu (16V RMS) balanced, +23dBu (8V RMS) single-ended. Input impedance: selectable 94k ohms or 600 ohms…
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Brian Damkroger
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band: Ultimate Hits: Rock And Roll Never Forgets
Capitol Records 509999 41298 23 (Qobuz). 2011. Bob Seger, Punch Andrews, prods.; Brian Gardner, Robert Vosgien, engs.
My first choice this year was Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band's 2020 LP Live Farewell at Madison Square Garden. It's a fantastic showcase of what makes Bob Seger so great, and we of a certain age find ourselves singing along with everyone in the audience. Unfortunately, it's a bootleg (albeit widely available), so out it went, and I set about…
Larry Birnbaum
Mary Halvorson: Amaryllis
Mary Halvorson, guitar; Adam O'Farrill, trumpet; Jacob Garchik, trombone; Patricia Brennan, vibraphone; Nick Dunston, bass; Tomas Fujiwara, drums; Olivia De Prato, Maya Bennardo, violins; Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola; Thomas J. Borden, cello
Nonesuch 7559791273 (CD). 2022. John Dietrich, prod.; Chris Allen, Scott Hull, engs.
Who says jazz is dead? Not Mary Halvorson, a former Anthony Braxton pupil who has reset the parameters of the avant-garde. A far cry from the screechy free jazz of the late 1960s, her sophisticated…
Herb Reichert
Sonny & Cher: "I Got You Babe"
Atco Records AT.4035 (7" single). 1965. Sonny Bono, prod.; Stan Ross, eng.
I promise you, whatever age you are now, your lifeforce will be greater after you've heard Sonny Bono sing Put your little hand in mine / There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb. Bill Voss of Technics played Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" from a 12" Greatest Hits disc, and it earwormed its way into the next month of my life. When I got home from the show, I bought a VG+ version of the single on eBay for $11.95, and every time I see…
Andrey Henkin
Al Di Meola/John McLaughlin/Paco de Lucía: Friday Night In San Francisco
Di Meola, McLaughlin, de Lucía, guitars
Columbia FC 37152 (LP). 1981. Barrie Marshall, Philip Roberge, prods.; Rex Olson, Tim Pinch, Ray Bardani, engs.
If concerts had traffic stops, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía would have been pulled over for breaking the California speed limit during this December 5, 1980, performance. No one should be able to play an acoustic guitar this fast and articulately while creating such transcendent music, even quoting The…
Michael Trei
The Camberwell Now: All's Well
ReR Megacorp DUP0022 (CD). 1992. The Camberwell Now, prod.; Keith Hancock, Barry Woodward, Dave Bernez, The Camberwell Now, engs.
Born from the ashes of the London-based experimental avant-prog band This Heat, The Camberwell Now was a trio, formed by This Heat drummer and lead singer Charles Hayward, the band's final bass player, Trefor Goronwy, and its sound engineer, Stephen Rickard. Rickard's "tape switchboard" was a cross between a sampler and a Mellotron created by connecting a stack of cassette decks to a keyboard…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
After performing the CH Precision L10 balanced input's Calibration procedure, I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system to perform a complete set of measurements using the L10's direct-coupled balanced inputs and outputs with the input impedance set to High, the gain adjust set to "0dB," feedback set to Local, Phase Polarity set to In Phase, and the Ground Lift switch set to Opened. I then repeated some of the tests using the unbalanced RCA inputs and outputs then did more tests with the magazine's higher-performance APx555. The supplied umbilical cables were long…
Although I have very much appreciated how the best floorstanding loudspeakers have performed in my various listening rooms over the decades, I have always been most comfortable with relatively small two-way standmounts. Back in the early 1980s, I got musically moving sound from a pair of Rogers LS3/5a's, which I still own, followed by Celestion SL6s, SL600s, and SL700s, and for the longest time a pair of Bowers & Wilkins John Bowers Silver Signatures. For the past decade, when not reviewing loudspeakers, I've been using either original KEF LS50s or GoldenEar BRXes as my daily drivers.…
Walking through any big art museum, even at a brisk pace, it's impossible not to notice how boldly each object wears the unique stamp of its time and place of manufacture.
It doesn't matter whether the artist worked in Paris or Polynesia, in the 15th or 20th century. The force of the creator's persona, united with the constraints of the cultural system that supported the making of that type of art, determines the vibe the object emits. That vibe is what I'm hoping to grasp.
Whether I'm examining a Zulu beer pot or a John Cage drawing (both of which I've lived with), my first step…
Listening
Whenever I play records through my sound system, I need to feel the personas of the artists coming through. I want some authentic John Fogerty attitude. I want as much edgy John Lennon as I can get. I want to feel Tina Turner's moves. I want Aaron Neville's sacred voice to haunt me 'til we meet by the river.
As I sat listening with the Stax SR-007S, it took only a few seconds for Aaron Neville singing John Hiatt's sexy dreamy "Feels Like Rain" (16/44.1 FLAC A&M/Qobuz) to lope its way into my heart and choke me up.
Down here the river meets the sea…