A Perfect Fit
JA struggles while I take a photo: In the back of JA’s Land Cruiser, the Wilson Sasha’s WATT head unit fits perfectly behind its partnering Puppy.
A Picture of Something
She had short brown hair, brown eyes, and wore a brown bomber and a blue and green checked ivy cap. Every ten minutes, we'd have to stop so she could take a picture of something.
A Powder Dusting of Audio Interest
Your enthusiastic">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/080806expert/">enthusiastic response has inspired Kristina to come out of blog-retirement. She could only stay away for an evening. Ladies and gentlemen, it seems she may be hooked. Any suggestions for an amp and CD player?
–SM
–SM
A Power in the Worldwide Cassette/Awesomeness Market
From time to time, I’ve written about my interest in cassettes. While I still haven’t purchased a Nakamichi cassette deck—the decks are out there, I’m just waiting for the right time and the right deck—I’ve nevertheless kept an eye on cassette trends. For a long while, I saw very specific, very underground labels releasing tapes; and, though new cassette-only labels seemed to pop up regularly, those, too, were extremely underground and extremely independent.
A Proper Procedure
There is a proper procedure for taking advantage of any investment.
Music, for example. Buying music is an investment.
To get the maximum you must
Music, for example. Buying music is an investment.
To get the maximum you must
A Prophylactic 'Good Job'
A Purely Resistive Load
There's another">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/022806summer/">another complication.
A Quick Visit to a Mastering Studio
Dan Schmalle and Luke Manley smile in the background, while Brian Damkroger and I sit in the engineers' seats. Photo by Philip O'Hanlon.
On the first day of the California Audio Show, I heard some of the most beautiful music in a room hosted by Acoustic Analysis, The Tape Project, and Bottlehead, featuring a system made of Focal Diablo Utopia loudspeakers, Focal SW1000 Be subwoofers, a VTL TL-6.5 Signature line preamp and MB-450 Signature III monoblock power amplifiers, Siltech cables, and a Bottlehead-modified Otari tape machine. The music had such a smooth, effortless quality to it, unlike anything else I heard at the show: The sound of tape. It was an awesome listening experience.
On the following evening, I got to visit the mastering studio where the team from The Tape Project does its work. A Reunion Show
When people ask me if I miss it, I'm quick to make a face. My left eye might scrunch up tight, while the right shoots out like a feathered arrow, raising its brow like an exclamation mark. My nose and lips tighten, become wrinkled. Everything about this face expresses some sort of pain, maybe even disgust. Like I've been slapped, like I've just downed a mouthful of sour milk. Do I miss it? Are you out of your mind? What is there to miss: Late nights?; Heavy gear?; Bad crowds?; No crowd?
A Scotch Summer Mixtape
I’ve told you a bit about my favorite cassette label, Al Bjornaa’s Scotch">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/why_cassettes/">Scotch Tapes, out of Batchawana Bay, Ontario, Canada. In this">http://www.imposemagazine.com/features/scotch-tapes-label-sampler">this Impose article, Al goes into more detail, explaining how he built the label, and revealing some of his big plans for the remainder of the year, which include 60-70 new tapes, 4-5 vinyl releases, approximately 20 lathe cuts, a dozen zines, a couple of 8-tracks, and a monster summer compilation. (You can also download a Scotch sampler.)