Listening #126
Swiss Precision: The Story of the Thorens TD 124 and Other Classic Turntables (2007), by Joachim Bung (reviewed in April 2008) also tells the story of Fritz and Marie Laeng, the couple who founded...
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Listening #127
The closest I've come to airing my thoughts about live vs recorded music was in the "As We See It" of the December 2005 Stereophile, "Resistance Is Futile," in which I put as many miles between the two...
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Listening #128
Writing is easy. See? I just did it. Three whole sentences, written between breakfast and lunch. (I had to pause and think about one of them.) Payday, here I come. What isn't easy is performing some...
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Listening #129
Volti Audio's Vittora, a borrowed pair of which now sit at the far end of my listening room, is a great loudspeaker and, at $17,500/pair, a seriously great value. After a few weeks with the Vittora, I...
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Listening #130
Whether the subject is hi-fi equipment, films, restaurants, power tools, or condoms (see the April 2005 "Listening"), reviewing should be off-limits to the perennially unhappy. I'm reminded of that...
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Listening #131
Whenever I'm moved by an artist whose work I've never before heard or seen, my first impulse is to wonder: What else has this person done while I slumbered in ignorance? The same applies to those...
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Listening #132
Memory mitigates adversity.Lucius Lactantius (ca 240ca 320 AD) Pity the aging perfectionist, the happy diversions of whose younger dayswashing records, oiling turntables, leveling equipment racks,...
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Listening #133
If you travel along Route 20 in upstate New York, you might see the hitchhiker my family and I refer to as the Old Soldierso called because this slightly built man, whose age could be anywhere from...
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Listening #134
Domestic audio is based on two simple processes: transforming movement into electricity and electricity back into movement. Easy peasy. Audio engineers have been doing those things for ages. Have they...
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In the wake of my October 2013 "Listening" column and its negative take on the Pete Riggle Woody tonearm (footnote 1), I was surprised and gratified by the offer of another new arm: a gesture of trust...
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Listening #136
"Perhaps we can shed some light on your problem in a new segment exploring pre-adolescent turmoil. I call it . . . 'Choices.'"Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons"For us, unlike other manufacturers, there are...
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Except for a few titles I've combined with the ones in my listening room, and a few others that I intend to sell, the record collection I bought last year remains in three rows of boxes on the floor of...
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Listening #138
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.William Morris (18341896) The Arts and Crafts movement, which took root in England in the late 1800s, was more...
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Listening #139
It's going to happen very soon.Leonard Cohen, "The Great Event" With a parts list that includes 18 new-old-stock Black Cat capacitors, 16 vintage-style Cosmos potentiometers, two Tango chokes, one...
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Listening #140
Has it really been 30 years since an engineer named William H. Firebaugh unleashed on the audio world his radical and decidedly affordable Well Tempered Arm? (footnote 1) Indeed it hasand today, at...
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Listening #141
Johnny Town-Mouse was born in a cupboard, and Timmie Willie was born in a gardenthis according to Beatrix Potter, who modeled both of her hantavirus-carrying protagonists after people of her...
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Listening #142
". . . with faithfully replicated artwork." That's how a press release, dated June 16 of this year, described the manner in which the next wave of Beatles LPsmono releases claimed to be mastered...
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Listening #143
Let's say you want a reliable means of distinguishing between original works of art and forgeries of same. One thing you wouldn't doassuming you know anything about art, human perception, or the...
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Listening #144
No doubt every model in the current Jaguar lineup is at least good, if not great. Their specs speak of high power, nimble handling, blinky acceleration, and no shortage of creature comforts. Yet for...
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Listening #145
Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try.Homer Simpson Months ago, as we put together the most recent installment of "Recommended Components," Phillip Holmes, of...
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