Laissez Le Bon Temps Roulet
So it’s Fat Tuesday, or mardi gras, and while I have not had a Hurricane cocktail quite yet--old men need to keep pacing in the forefront of their thoughts--I have been listening to many of the gems of NOLA's glorious musical history. Most of the best New Orleans music compilations ever assembled in the LP/CD era were released either by Rhino Records or Rounder Records in the late 1980’s/early 1990s.
Beets
This morning, I revisited Stereophile's office sample of Beats Studio headphones ($299.95). At one point, my naive ears loved these headphones. Well not loved.
Hot Off the Presses: 1000 Copies of Stereophile Test CD 1
Are you curious to hear J. Gordon Holt's lecture on "Why Hi-Fi Experts Disagree"? Maybe you are yearning for Sam Tellig, the "Audio Anarchist" as identified in the liner notes, to whisper sweet nothings into your ear with his radio-friendly baritone while checking a 1kHz reference tone at –20dB. Or how would you like a dog named Ralph to howl at you while configuring your left and right speakers?
Arcam FMJ D33 D/A processor
As I wrote in my review of the Bricasti M1 D/A processor in February 2012, it seemed a good idea in the late 1980s: upgrade the performance of your CD player by feeding its digital output to an outboard digital/analog processor. British manufacturer Arcam, one of the first companies to see the opportunities in this strategy, introduced their Black Box in 1988.
The Entry Level #26
I couldn't have known it at the time, but Swans' "Lunacy" (see last month's column) would be the very last song I'd ever enjoy in my cozy listening room. Last times--whether with things, people, places, or, I suppose, especially with ideas--can be difficult to accept, tending to overshadow all other times, their lingering memories leading to remorse and games of "what if."
AVM Evolution C9 CD receiver
In a perfect world, all a serious record lover would need to enjoy music at home would be a single source component, one or two loudspeakers, and one good integrated amplifier. Speaker wire would be given by the dealer, free of charge, to any shopper who spent x number of dollars on new gear. Cable risers would come in cereal boxes.
Listening #122
Sad though they may be, Flat Earthers endure in getting two things right: In any music-playback system, the source is of primary importance; and in a music system in which LPs are the preferred medium, the pickup arm is of less importance than the motor unit--but of greater importance than just about everything else.
Dan D'Agostino Momentum monoblock power amplifier
What better way to celebrate the expiration of a noncompetition clause than to debut a product that has no competition? That's what Dan D'Agostino appears to have done with his Momentum monoblock amplifier ($55,000/pair)--his first new product since leaving Krell, the company he cofounded more than 30 years ago.
BSG qøl Signal Completion Stage
I walked into BSG's room at the Newport Beach Show in June 2012 unsure of what I was going to hear. I was well aware of this new company's qøl Signal Completion Stage ($3995), but didn't know if it was a genuine step forward in audio reproduction, or just another example of the hokum found on the fringes of our hobby.
Source Stereophile
