Show Report: AXPONA 2011
Complete coverage from John Atkinson and Stephen Mejias of the AXPONA show in Atlanta. Now in its second year, and almost double the size of its launch, AXPONA delivered at least 70 exhibit rooms alive with gear from at least 250 individual manufacturers . . .
Audio Note Jinro integrated amplifier
It's asked all the time, wherever audiophiles gather to grumble: "Everybody knows about Ferrari, Rolex, and Leica. But why hasn't anyone heard of . . ." The last word is up for grabs: Wilson? Levinson? Linn? Maybe. But for me, whenever I'm in pissing-and-moaning mode, the choice is easy: Why hasn't the average consumer heard of the Audio Note Ongaku?
Plinius Audio SA-103 power amplifier
Audio reviewers are kinda slutty. Not sexually, of course, but in the way we promiscuously go through equipment. Like the most popular girl in school, or Tiger Woods, we have our choice of any hot thing we want, whenever we want it. Heck, reviewers don't even have to pick up equipment at bars or clubs: the stuff is delivered right to our homes. We use the gear for a few months, then send it packing once the next hottie comes over to play in our room.
Ambrose Akinmusire
Every few years, a young jazz musician comes along and sets off some buzz. Usually, the excitement soon cools--the kid can’t sustain the initial stir, he turns out to have more technique than depth--but now and then, it turns out there’s something really going on. In the past decade, Jason Moran has been the most prominent of these upstarts who’s the real thing. The latest, I’m pretty sure, is a trumpeter, just shy of 29 years old, named Ambrose Akinmusire.
The Entry Level #4
Dinner with Natalie and Nicole was still three hours away and, thanks to the Okki Nokki record-cleaning machine that I wrote about last month, I had a half-dozen newly cleaned LPs begging to be played. A gray and listless day had somehow blossomed into a clear, brilliant night filled with promise and anticipation. Outside, tattooed against the dark violet sky, a strange, enormous moon hovered over Jersey City, and flooded my listening room with enchanting white light. It was time to enjoy my new records and better acquaint myself with the Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 loudspeakers ($350/pair), and the only way to do that would be to compare the latter to a known quantity: the PSB Alpha B1 ($279/pair).
Recording of April 2011: Mozart Piano Concertos 22 & 25
From 1782 to the end of 1785 were successful, fertile years in Vienna for Mozart. He was sought by the aristocracy and the upper classes as a pianist, teacher, and composer. Throughout this period--and the following year, during which he ran out of money--he composed piano sonatas, songs, marches, wind serenades, a horn quintet, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, arias, quartets, works for violin and/or viola, horn concertos, the C-minor Mass, symphonies 35, 36, and 38 (37 was written by Michael Haydn), piano concertos 14–25, Le Nozze di Figaro, and dozens of other works.
InnerFidelity Launched With Tyll Hertsens As Editor-in-Chief
Keith Pray, Publisher of Source Interlink Media web sites, is thrilled to announce the April preview launch of InnerFidelity, a new website dedicated to playing well with personal audio. Reviews and topics will include headphones, headphone amplifiers, and portable media players, as well as articles on USB DACs, computer speakers, iPod/iPad docks, network players, streaming players, and portable device and computer applications. Tyll Hertsens (founder and previously CEO of HeadRoom) will lead the charge as Editor-in-Chief to uncover and expose all the great gizmos and gadgets that bring the world of music to your ears.
Source Stereophile
