I then put on a new discovery, the John Coltrane…
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The first CD I put on was Attention Screen's Live at Merkin Hall (CD, Stereophile STPH018-2). There was quite a contrast to the aggressive sound of the GINI LS3/5as: the Frieds were quite smooth—a bit too smooth for my taste—but at least the hand claps at the end of "Mansour's Gift" sounded sincere rather than hollow, I then put on Anthony Newman and the Graham Ashton Ensemble's Music for Organ, Brass and Timpani (SACD/CD, Sonoma SAC 001), which sounded a bit veiled, and with the tail of the hall acoustic cut off a bit prematurely.
Sidebar: Contacts
Arcam, Pembroke Avenue, Waterbeach, Cambridge, England CB25 9QR, UK. Web: www.arcam.co.uk. US distributor: American Audio and Video, 153 Willow Drive, Plattsburgh, NY 12903. Web: www.americanaudiovideo.com.
Carat, InoVadis, 314 rue Milliez, 94506 Champigny cedex, France. Tel: (33) 1-55-09-18-30. Fax: (33) 1-55-09-15-31. Web: www.carat-audio.com. US distributor: VMax Services, P.O. Box 570, Chazy, NY 12921. Tel: (800) 771-8279, (514) 932-7786. Fax: (514) 931-8891. Web: www.vmax-services.com.
Cardas Audio, Ltd., 480 11th Street SE, Bandon, OR 97411. Tel: (…
SHIRLEY HORN: You Won't Forget Me
Shirley Horn, voice, piano; Charles Ables, bass; Steve Williams, drums. With: Miles Davis, trumpet; Buck Hill, trumpet; Branford Marsalis, tenor saxophone; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet; Toots Thielemans, harmonica, guitar; Buster Williams, bass; Billy Hart, drums
Verve Digital 847 482-2 (CD only). Richard Seidel, Joel Siegel, prods.; David Baker, eng. DDD. TT: 71:13
Shirley Horn, voice, piano; Charles Ables, bass; Steve Williams, drums. With: Miles Davis, trumpet; Buck Hill, trumpet; Branford Marsalis, tenor saxophone; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet; Toots Thielemans, harmonica, guitar; Buster Williams, bass; Billy Hart, drums
Verve Digital 847 482-2 (CD only). Richard Seidel, Joel Siegel, prods.; David Baker, eng. DDD. TT: 71:13
As I've stolen from John Atkinson and said before, the coolest part of being an audio reviewer is turning people on to great music, so it makes sense that the second coolest part is…
MIKE GARSON: The Oxnard Sessions, Volume One
Mike Garson, piano; Bob Summer, trumpet; Bob Shephard, sax; Rick Zunigar, electric guitar; Brian Bromberg, acoustic bass; Billy Mintz, drums
Reference Recordings RR-37 (LP), RR-37CD (CD*). Keith O. Johnson, eng.; J. Tamblyn Henderson, Jr., Marcia Martin, prods. AAA/DDD. TTs: 49:53, 75:51*
Mike Garson, piano; Bob Summer, trumpet; Bob Shephard, sax; Rick Zunigar, electric guitar; Brian Bromberg, acoustic bass; Billy Mintz, drums
Reference Recordings RR-37 (LP), RR-37CD (CD*). Keith O. Johnson, eng.; J. Tamblyn Henderson, Jr., Marcia Martin, prods. AAA/DDD. TTs: 49:53, 75:51*
Wow! This album is something else. For lovers of modern jazz, Reference Recordings has released the album we've been waiting for.
Multi-talented keyboardist/composer Mike Garson served for several years as David Bowie's music director. Not bad…
There is much to admire and to enjoy in this idiosyncratically charming hybrid loudspeaker. Eminent Technology has been around for about 25 years. Founder Bruce Thigpen was a pioneer in air-bearing technology, and ET's first product was a well-regarded air-bearing tonearm. The company later developed and was awarded patents for its Linear Field Transducers (LFTs): push-pull loudspeaker panels that operate on the magnetic rather than the electrostatic principle. Arraying magnets both front and rear of the plastic-membrane diaphragm eliminates a problem inherent in many planar-magnetic designs…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, sealed-box, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: push-pull planar-magnetic tweeter and midrange unit, 6" plastic-cone woofer. Frequency response: 45Hz–20kHz, ±4dB (–6dB at 50kHz). Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Sensitivity: 85dB/2.83V/m.
Dimensions: 21.5" H by 9.75" W by 9.75" D. Weight: 23 lbs.
Price: $950/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 24.
Manufacturer: Eminent Technology, Inc., 225 East Palmer Street, Tallahassee, FL 32301. Tel: (850) 575-5655. Fax: (850) 224-5999. Web: www.eminent-tech.com.
Sidebar 2: Review System
I drove the LFT-16s with Arcam's Solo Music and Solo Mini CD receivers, Primare's new DVDI10 DVD-based one-box receiver, and Carat's i57 one-box—more about all of those later. I divided most of my time between the Primare and the Carat. The Primare was ever so slightly lighter in texture and more agile in articulation—or, if you prefer, the Carat was ever so slightly more mellow and cushiony. The Primare was a stainless-steel French Chablis to Carat's oaky California chardonnay—a bit amusing, in view of Carat's French headquarters (the i57 is built in China).…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The very affordable, stand-mounted LFT-16 costs $950/pair and combines a conventional moving-coil woofer with a flat, magnetically driven planar midrange unit and tweeter, and impressed the heck out of JM: "There is much to admire and to enjoy in this idiosyncratically charming hybrid loudspeaker," he wrote. "The LFT-16 has more clarity in the midrange and treble [than the slightly more expensive Renaissance MLP-403.5], and overall a brighter, faster, slightly lighter sound."
The tweeter panel is to the side of the midrange panel, and both are mounted on…
"How sour sweet music is / When time is broke and no proportion kept!"
—William Shakespeare, King Richard II, V, v, 42
—William Shakespeare, King Richard II, V, v, 42
"Bits is bits!" goes the cry from skeptics when audiophiles criticize digital sound. In other words, the digital bits that constitute the music, as they make their way from disc to sound via the technological marvel of digital/analog conversion, are immune to the slings and arrows of outrageous analog fortune. What is often forgotten is the fact that not only must the amplitude—ie, what the bits describe—of the converted analog signal be correct, but the timing of the…
Test Results 1: Less than "CD quality"
McIntosh MS750 media server
$6000, reviewed by Wes Phillips in January 2008.
Whether the MS750 was playing back a FLAC-encoded, "CD-quality" file or a CD, the player offered a very high measured level of jitter: nearly 14ns, or two orders of magnitude higher than the best players I have measured. Significant spectral spreading can be seen in the spectrum of the McIntosh's output (fig.4), which suggests the presence of high levels of random low-frequency noise affecting the clock-generator circuit, as well as pairs of sidebands at high…