Digital sources: dCS Varèse five-piece music system, dCS Rossini CD/SACD transport; EMM Labs DV2i DAC, Meitner MA3 Integrated DAC; Innuos Nazaré Music Server and PhoenixNET network switch; Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule Deluxe (2); Broadcom/Avago AFBR-5718PZ 1GB SX-SFP, Gen 5 Fiber Optic modules (2); Nordost QSource linear power supply (2); Sonore Audiophile Linear Power Supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS with Ferrum Hypsos linear/switching hybrid power supply; ASUS AX6000 and RT-AX88U Pro mesh routers, Netgear Nighthawk modem; Apple 2023 iPad Pro…
search
Sidebar 1: Specifications
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…
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…
Acoustic Sounds' Chad Kassem is interviewed by Michael Fremer at the 2013 Rocky Mountain Audio Show
How was last fall for you? Mine was crazy. I traveled much of October: the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest one weekend, emceeing Chad Kassem's Blues Masters at the Crossroads Blues Festival the next, and the week after that, appearing at two Audio Advice stores, in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina. From there I traveled to Los Angeles to attend a 30th-anniversary celebration for Tron at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where, standing in front of the screen, I talked to a theater full of Tronnies…
Frederich Nietzsche distinguished between two approaches to culture: The Apollonian, which is characterized by order and rationality, and Dionysian, which is about chaos, intoxication, and vitality. Apollo was the god of Music, Art, Light, and Knowledge, and to Nietzsche, the Apollonian impulse was the main source of beauty. It is characterized by order, clarity, individuation, and measured restraint. To me, Greek sculpture and the paintings of the Great Masters best represent this impulse. It's not just their classical forms—there's a strength to it, a solidity. Also think of the great…