There I encountered the striking Red Rock Renaissance amplifiers, push-pull 50Wpc tubed monoblocks ($28,750/pair) designed by RMAF co-founder Al Stiefel and Gordon Maughan. The Red Rocks were paired with visually arresting Gershman Acoustics Black Swan loudspeakers ($30,000/pair), Exemplar Audio’s Exception II preamplifier ($3250) and Extant DAC ($8800), and Magnan cables. The system exhibited…
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Although it can sometimes seem quite illusive, or only reserved for the chosen few, high-end proof of the proverbial scales of justice surfaced in the last room I was privileged to visit.
Besides dumpsters and dust, IN New York magazine left us with some profound silence. We spent much of the morning admiring it. Today, the ninth floor of 261 Madison Avenue, which can comfortably accommodate nearly 100 dedicated employees, saw only seven.
When we weren't admiring the silence, we were admiring the job done by contributing editor, Jason Victor Serinus, in covering the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. One reader commented:
Not only has he reported on the "facts" of all these rooms, but has communicated his reaction to the sounds and music he heard in a personal and…
I think Gene Weingarten may be the best long-form newspaper writer in the country and this profile of Doonesbury artist-writer Garry Trudeau is Exhibit A.
Oh, you haven't paid attention to Doonesbury in years? Well, the current strips featuring amputee veteran B.D. are some of the sharpest observations you're likely to see on any page of the newspaper.
May require registration, but, man, is it worth it.
JA, with one of Elizabeth's Orange Drop cookies in his mouth:
I must admit, I'm so nave, on the way to work this morning, I saw some graffiti that said
BUSH SUCKS
and I thought it was referring to the President.
Over on our eCommerce page, you can now purchase gift certificates. Give as little as $10, and as much as you want. There's no limit to the giving. You know there's that audiophile friend of yours who's wanted that $600 set of every back issue we have in stock.
Now's the time.
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Dear Readers,
Do you have any ideas for new Stereophile merchandise? T-shirts, tote bags, CD holders, chili peppers, punk rock pins, guitar pics, 45 RPM adapters, pocket knives, lighters, bottle openers? Anything? Please let us know.
Possibly not, according to John Gibbens. He says the records we all know (and many of us worship) have always been played at the wrong speed.
I find his evidence persuasive. It's partially based on the technical difficulties posed by playing slide as high on the neck as would be necessary at those pitches, partially based on the single photograph we have of Johnson holding a guitar, influenced by how much shorter Johnson's recordings are than those of other Delta blues singers, and convincingly based on the results of slowing down the recordings by three semitones.
Pitch-shifted,…