Charles Lloyd New Quartet: "Passin' Thru"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Blue Note B002681502
Format: CD
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ***1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****
Last year, tenor saxophonist and flutist Charles Lloyd released I Long to See You, a quintet recording with guitarists Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz; it was challenging and musically satisfying, but still accessible. His new disc on Blue Note, Passin’ Thru, is credited to the Charles Lloyd New Quartet, though this group -- pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland -- has played together since 2007. The quartet lineup and approach are more traditional than on I Long to See You, but the music is bracing and alive, crackling with energy and creativity.
Mytek Digital Brooklyn DAC-Phono Stage-Preamplifier-Headphone Amplifier
- Written by: Vade Forrester
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Mytek Digital has been a pioneer in digital audio reproduction. Their Stereo192-DSD was one of the first DACs capable of playing DSD files, and their Brooklyn was one of the first non-Meridian DACs to play Meridian’s new Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) files.
MQA is a system of encoding audio files that its developer, Meridian Ltd. (MQA Ltd. has since been spun off as a separate company), claims sounds better than such high-resolution encoding methods as DSD and DXD, while resulting in file sizes much smaller than those formats. The small files mean that MQA encoding can be used to stream hi-rez audio over standard Internet connections -- and indeed, Tidal is currently streaming MQA files. I’ve seen Tidal stream files of resolutions up to 24-bit/352.8kHz, and I understand that MQA can handle up to 768kHz.
Jeff's Getting a New Stereo System: Part Two
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
Some of you guys might remember Randall Smith, who wrote for the SoundStage! sites from 2006 to 2013. He reviewed a lot of home-theater gear, but also integrated amplifiers from the likes of Simaudio and Boulder, speakers from companies as varied as KEF and Rockport Technologies, subwoofers from JL Audio, and a source component from Esoteric. He accompanied me to Maine to pick up the Rockport Arrakis speakers that formed the heart of The World’s Best Audio System 2009, and has been to Canada to tour the R&D facilities of Paradigm and Axiom Audio. He’s helped schlep countless speakers and amps into my Music Vault listening room, a space he helped construct in 2006. (Randall lives only minutes away from me.) In short, Randall has not only been around the high-end industry, he’s been my friend and accomplice in my own audio adventures.
Moon by Simaudio Evolution 860A Stereo Amplifier
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
I’m a sucker for the double-down solid-state power amp. But to explain what this means and why it’s important to me I need to start about 30 years ago.
While I’ve always been passionate about home audio, I used to be rabid about car audio, and three decades ago I became very good friends with Colin Kay, owner of Autoworks Car Audio, here in Toronto. Colin introduced me to such esoteric concepts as tube monoblock amplifiers and external DACs (this was about the time Audio Alchemy pioneered the affordable DAC). He also infected me with Mobile Bass Disease.
Dion: "Kickin' Child: The Lost Album 1965"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Norton ED-411
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****
In 1965, Dion DiMucci had been with Columbia Records for three years and had scored some hits for the label, including “Ruby Baby” and “Donna the Prima Donna.” He was already an established rock’n’roll star when Columbia signed him, but the label’s long-term plan was to move him away from rock and into a career as a crooner. As Scott Kempner points out in his excellent liner note for Kickin’ Child: The Lost Album 1965, a collection of 15 previously unreleased Dion tracks, record executives in the early ’60s still thought rock’n’roll was something that would soon fade away.
Esoteric K-05X SACD/CD Player/DAC
- Written by: Garrett Hongo
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
In Japan, the branch of esoteric Buddhism called Shingon (“the true words”) practices Goma, an intricate ritual of consecrated fire dedicated to destroying negative energies, detrimental thoughts and desires, and impure variations of the true words of this spiritual discipline. The flames of the Goma can reach several yards high, and this miraculous fire, combined with mass chanting from the assembled priests and accompanied by the pounding of huge taiko drums, can induce a sublime, trance-like state that’s said to heal the sick, summon rain, improve harvests, exorcise demons, avert natural disasters, and just brang that funky music to the worried heart. It’s supposed to present the pure spiritual Emptiness that is the true nature of reality, and to directly communicate the inner experience of Dharmakaya: the true self of the Buddha present in all beings.
Jeff's Getting a New Stereo System: Part One
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
In my 20 years of reviewing audio equipment, I’ve bought and sold a lot of gear. From the beginning, I took the tried-and-true audiophile path: each upgrade promised better performance than what had preceded it, and usually cost more. Through the years, the total retail value of my system has inched up in price, culminating in my current rig of Magico Q7 Mk.II speakers, Soulution 711 and 560 electronics, Nordost cables, and Torus power conditioner: about $400,000. That doesn’t include my custom listening room, the Music Vault, or all the money and sweat equity I’ve spent moving gear into and out of it.
Audio Physic Codex Loudspeakers
- Written by: Aron Garrecht
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Founded in Brilon, Germany, a small town some 90 miles north of Frankfurt, Audio Physic has for 30 years been earning accolades for producing high-quality, highly resolving loudspeakers under the slogan “No loss of fine detail.” More recently, AP’s reputation for quality, performance, and unique applications of loudspeaker design and materials has generated a lot of buzz on both sides of the pond -- in fact, their provocative products are one of the reasons I became a reviewer. So when I had the opportunity to review Audio Physics’ latest loudspeaker, the Codex, I jumped.
The Beatles: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Super Deluxe Edition"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Parlophone/Apple/Universal 0602557455328
Format: CD, DVD, BD
Musical Performance: *****
Sound Quality: *****
Picture Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: *****
On June 1 of this year, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band turned 50 years old. Let that sink in for a while. To mark the occasion, Apple and Universal Music have released a lavish boxed set comprising four CDs, one DVD, and one BD. The DVD and BD include a 1992 documentary, The Making of Sgt. Pepper (sic), plus high-resolution 5.1-and two-channel mixes of the album, along with the same treatment given to “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane.”
Furutech FI-50 NCF Series Power Connectors and FP-TCS31 Alpha PC-Triple C Bulk Power Cord
- Written by: Howard Kneller
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
It’s been almost a decade since my last review of Furutech products: their G-314AG-18 and Absolute Power-18 power cords. I noted then that Furutech tries to squeeze every last ounce of performance from its products, not only through the use of innovative technologies, but also with obsessive devotion to detail and build quality. It seems that no improvement in sound quality is too small to be worth achieving, and no product can be overbuilt.
- The Failure to Compare
- Vivid Audio Giya G1 Spirit Loudspeakers
- The Flying Burrito Brothers: "The Gilded Palace of Sin"
- Audio Research Foundation DAC9 Digital-to-Analog Converter
- The Myth of Continual Improvement
- Vandersteen Audio Model Seven Mk.II Loudspeakers and M7-HPA Mono Amplifiers
- Erasure: "Wonderland"
- JPlay JCAT USB Card and USB Isolator
- Some Personal Best-Ofs
- Monitor Audio Platinum II PL300 II Loudspeakers
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