CDP and LP

September 27, 2008

The Aurum Acoustics CDP is truly unique among audio electronics. While there are some CD players with limited preamp functionality, the CDP takes this combination much further, adding a full complement of inputs and outputs -- analog and digital -- along with space for a very good headphone amp and a highly flexible phono stage. When I wrote a follow-up review on the CDP late last year, I talked mostly about some circuit upgrades, promising to revisit the phono stage once I had more experience with it. Well, almost a year later, I'm so there....(more)

An SACD First

September 11, 2008

Well known for its purist recordings released on HDCD-compatible CDs, Reference Recordings has released its very first SACD. Tutti! (RR-906 SACD), the most popular Reference Recordings title in Asia, is an orchestral sampler with over 71 minutes of music culled from various Reference Recordings releases. It includes music from Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra, Jose Serebrier and the Czech State Philharmonic, Jerry Junkin and the Dallas Wind Symphony, and the Turtle Creek Chorale.....(more)

From Nowhere to Everywhere

August 23, 2008

Harold Floyd "Tina" Brooks had only one album released during his brief recording career, but what a debut it was. True Blue was mature and fully formed, and here, nearly 50 years after its release, it is one of the most revered Blue Note recordings. Brooks had already established his own unique keening sound on the tenor sax by the time he started his recording career. At the time True Blue hit the streets, Blue Note had used him as a sideman on a number of sessions headed by the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Burrell, and Jimmy Smith, where he contributed not only his sax but his writing skills as well. Yet somehow he slipped quickly and quietly into oblivion. That's what happens to a tenor saxophonist whose demeanor was so reserved that he barely pushed his label to get his albums out and whose drug habit often made him unavailable for recording. If you’d asked about Brooks just ten years ago, only jazz cognoscenti could have told you who he was and what he’d done....(more)

New-Old-Stock Music

August 11, 2008

While at a rummage sale, I came across two of pianist Leon Fleisher's six recordings on LP. It's not easy to find Fleisher recordings. In the mid-1960s, he developed a neurological problem, focal dystonia, which caused two fingers of his right hand to become immobile. Thus, the body of his recorded work is over 40 years old and was unreleased on CD -- until now....(more)

Code Word: Success

July 23, 2008

Musician, songwriter and producer T-Bone Burnett along with a team of engineers have come up with what they call "a proprietary audio technology." Called (Greek for "Code"), it is said to create "high-definition audio that is virtually indistinguishable from the original master tapes, but does not require any new or special equipment to play it." Any standard DVD player, whether standalone or built into a computer, can play Code-recorded discs. "Additionally, the DVD contains files that can be copied into most computer music software, including iTunes, and downloaded into personal music player, such as the iPod" as WAV files. Oh, and for all of you who don’t give a whit about high-resolution audio, any /Code-encoded disc will have MP3 and ACC 256 files too, though if you use those you probably aren’t going to be reading this article on SoundStage! Plus, /Code contains no DRM (digital rights management)!...(more)

Pimp Your Turntable

July 9, 2008

I ended my review of the Boston Audio Mat1 by revealing that "Boston Audio is working on a thicker, better Mat 2." I went on: "Until [the Mat2 is] available, the Mat 1 will be holding a place for it on my turntable." Well, that time has come -- the Mat2 ($279) is here and obviously thicker: 5mm versus 3mm for the Mat1 ($199). Using it with your turntable requires more than simply plopping it on top of the platter. Its thickness will throw the vertical tracking angle (VTA) off, and because it raises the record surface you'll also want to measure and set the vertical tracking force (VTF) again. Unless you have a tonearm like the Graham Phantom, whose center of gravity is at the 'arm's pivot point, the higher up the record is, the greater any given setting of VTF will be. This is why it's vitally important to measure tracking force at the record height. I adhere to this even with my Phantom....(more)