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Sonos Play:3 and Bridge Wireless Music System Sweepstakes
According to Sonos:
Experience the Sonos Wireless HiFi System, this holiday season’s Ultimate Gift of Music – to give and to get. Unleash all the music on earth, in every room, wirelessly. Sonos is the only system that combines HiFi sound with high-performance wireless. Plus it’s simple to set-up, control and expand so you can easily fill your home with music.The giveaway package includes:
PLAY:3 ($299): The smaller, sexier, tuck in the corner and blow out the roof, all-in-one player.
Bridge ($49): Connect to your router so all players can go anywhere and work wirelessly
- Stream your entire music library, music services, and radio stations
- Control wirelessly, easy to set up music player
- Start with one music player, expand everywhere
- Versatile enough to put anywhere -- horizontal or vertical
- 3 driver HiFi speaker system
Click here for more info on the PLAY:3 or Bridge
- Connect to a router to set up your Sonos wireless network
- Sonos music players can go anywhere and work wirelessly
- Perfect for homes with less accessible routers
- Extend the range of your existing network
To enter the sweepstakes, all you need is an account on this website. If you don't already have one, click on the link labeled "register" at the bottom of this announcement or "Create new account" in the right column (under the ads). Then, enter a username and a valid e-mail address, and click on the "Create new account" button. A message will be automatically sent to the e-mail address you specified, which will include a link to activate the account.
The final step (and only step for those who already have an account) is to log in and leave a comment right here on this announcement—any comment will do, as long as it's not profane or spam. Then, when the sweepstakes closes, a lucky commenter will be chosen at random to receive the prize. So post a comment, and good luck!
For complete sweepstakes rules, click here.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Headphone Commute's ...and darkness came: Music to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy
For the most part, my friends, family, and I suffered only minor inconveniences. But while my life has pretty much returned to normal, life for many others will never be the same. I wonder if NYC’s ability to almost magically recover from what was one of the most devastating storms in history has somehow diminished its perceived impact. In the US, Sandy affected 24 states, was responsible for at least 130 deaths, and caused over $63 billion of damage. Homes were destroyed, neighborhoods washed away, entire cities crippled.
Putting aside political, environmental, and economic issues, there remains a beautiful truth in disaster: It brings good people together. I was heartened, for instance, when our Jersey City community gathered around Kristen to help bring her beloved shop, Kanibal Home, back to life, raising enough money to restore at least some of her inventory and to get her back up and running. Kristen, I know, felt grateful, but our efforts were nothing in comparison to the sense of purpose and joy we felt in contributing to a special cause. Love can be a selfish thing.
On the morning of November 7, about a week after Sandy hit our area, the people behind Headphone Commute, a website devoted to the appreciation of music and high-quality sound, reached out to their favorite artists and asked if they’d like to donate tracks for a compilation, the entire proceeds of which would go to Doctors Without Borders and The Humane Society, in an effort to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy.
By midday, Headphone Commute had received confirmations from 10 artists, included among them acclaimed pianist Nils Frahm. Over the next several days, more artists eagerly offered contributions. Today, the roster of musicians reads like a “Who’s Who” in the worlds of modern classical, ambient electronic, and experimental music: Olafur Arnalds, Black Swan, Peter Broderick, Celer, Dakota Suite, Lawrence English, Hauschka, Ezekiel Honig, Johann Johannsson, Max Richter, Scanner, Valgeir Sigurdsson, and dozens more.
The Headphone Commute compilation, …and darkness came, will be released on December 10th, and will initially be available as a digital download via Bandcamp in 320kbps MP3, OGG, FLAC, and AAC formats. (It’s possible that a physical format will be available later. I, of course, am hoping for a deluxe vinyl set.) The cost is $10, but you can give more. Remember: 100% of the sales will go to Doctors Without Borders and The Humane Society.
Headphone Commute’s …and darkness came is just one of many ways to help victims of Hurricane Sandy. If you’re aware of other benefits and fundraisers, musical or otherwise, toward Sandy relief, please list them in the Comments section.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Ted Nash's The Creep, Frank Kimbrough's Live at Kitano
Nash's The Creep (on his own Plastic Sax Records label) has an Ornette vibe from the get-go. Bassist Paul Sikivie hard-plucks a dirge against drummer Ulysses Owens' frantic polyrhythms; then Nash (switching from his usual tenor sax to alto) enters with an anthemic phrase as fellow-JCC'er Ron Horton harmonizes on trumpet. (Yes, there's no piano.)
It's shades of Coleman's 1959 The Shape of Jazz to Come, though there's a bluegrass undercurrent, and jauntier melodies, more reminiscent of his 1960 follow-up, Change of the Century. The nine tunes are Nash originals, and they have their own flavor: in the Ornette tradition, but not at all derivative. (Nash's compositional chops are long established, and they're polished here in a slightly rougher cut.) It's exuberant, exhilarating.
Kimbrough's Live at Kitano (on Palmetto) has a very different sound—a piano trio session, with Jay Anderson on bass and Matt Wilson on drums, that harks back more to the imploding sizzle of Andrew Hill or Paul Motian's trios, with a thread of Shirley Horn's hard-laced romance tossed in. Hill and Motian composed two of the disc's eight songs; there are also covers of "Lover Man," Oscar Pettiford's "Blues in the Closet," and Ellington's "Single Petal of a Rose," the last of which raises palpable goosebumps; and three moody originals. This is for late nights and close listening.
The Nash was recorded by Matt Balitsaris, the Kimbrough by Jimmy Katz; both sound very satisfying.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Recording of December 2012: Love This Giant
4AD CAD3231 (LP). 2012. David Byrne, Annie Clark, prods.; Patrick Dillett, John Congleton, asst. prods., engs.; Yuki Takahashi, Jon Altschuler, asst. engs. DDA? TT: 44:23
Performance *****
Sonics ****
The world's Web-based culture has progressed to the point that you don't need to be in the same room, or even the same general region, to be inspired by or collaborate with someone else. Ideas can fly back and forth for years across time and distance. By all accounts, the Internet played a key role in the creation of this sparkling and unexpected bit of funky world pop. This pair of wonderfully hard-to-define talents, who over a three-year gestation period seem to have found a glorious common ground for songwriting and harmonizing, has succeeded in fashioning an utterly original shard of brass-band-meets-layers-of-drum-programming, all of it overflown by the delicate voice of Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, and the recognizable keen of the Talking Heads' former big-suited frontman, David Byrne.
In a less perfect (or less Web-connected) world, this rhythmically muscular collection of melodic oddities might have become yet another in the bottomless dustbin of disappointments—those "really interesting" projects that remain half-finished, forever teasing their creators about what might have been. Yet Byrne and Clark each has just the kind of curious, offbeat, artistic sensibility needed to actually make an angular art-rock project like this a crashing, tuneful, uncommonly bright success. In case you missed the point, their idiosyncrasies are humorously hinted at by the facial tweaking of Love the Giant's slightly spooky cover art.
Byrne's post-Heads solo career has always been eclectic and full of surprises. He's scored Twyla Tharp dance pieces (The Catherine Wheel, 1981), explored South American musical forms (Rei Momo, 1989), and made an unconventional folk record (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, 2008) with frequent collaborator and Talking Heads producer Brian Eno. Texan Annie Clark, the niece of guitarist Tuck Andress, has done stints in the be-robed Texas symphonic pop collective Polyphonic Spree and in the band of singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. She released her first solo record, Marry Me, in 2007. This was followed by Actor (2009) and Strange Mercy (2011), both produced by John Congleton, who's worked in indie-rock circles, having helmed records by a diverse list that includes Bill Callahan, Okkervil River, and John Vanderslice.
While Clark and Byrne handle all the vocals and guitars here, the frame on which Love This Giant hangs is a combination of Congleton's drum programming and a massive group of 49 studio horn players, who play at various moments, on clarinet, trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba. Added to this are the presences of world music vets Antibalas and Brooklyn's retro R&B ensemble The Dap-Kings on "The One Who Broke Your Heart," which is the most Talking Heads–like track on the album and it's only straight-ahead dance track.
From the opening baritone-sax notes of the first track, "Who," it's clear that brasses are the stars here. In a tune like "Dinner for Two," other than handclaps, acoustic guitar, and several drum loops, the brass are nearly the entire band. The secret weaponry of Love This Giant, the grease on which its success slides, are the brass arrangements—by Tony Finno, Kelly Pratt, Ken Thompson, and Lenny Pickett—all of which have been engineered with the spaciousness and edges, sharply defined yet not shrill, that are needed for a successful brass-band recording. All brass musical genres, from Latin horn charts to New Orleans brass bands to R&B punch, are referenced in what is easily one of the most distinguished collections of new horn arrangements in recent memory. Byrne acknowledges the album's debts to the past by thanking a long list of inspirational brass writing, including that of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Gil Evans, Duke Ellington, and James Brown. Literally every track is a fascinating study in how to provocatively and ingeniously incorporate horns into edgy art-rock tracks. The punchy accents in the verses of "Ice Age," the baritone sax chortling away in the background of "I Should Watch TV," the calliope-like back-and-forth that underpins "Lazarus," the near-gospel intro to Byrne's delightful "I Am an Ape"—one of the album's central pieces—are all genius. And "Optimist," sung by Clark, and perhaps the record's most beguiling melodic passage, is a nod to the funk power ballads of the 1970s.
As an homage to the possibilities inherent in the brass band, the skeleton of horn charts and drum programming on which Love this Giant is built is frequently breathtaking. Repeated listenings reveal this music to be so intricate that it's actually incredible that it only took three years to create. Blow on!—Robert Baird
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Thiel Audio Acquired by Nashville-based Private Equity Firm
Thiel co-founders the late Jim Thiel (left) and Kathy Gornik (right) at the 2009 CES
We received the following press release last night. No more information was available and there was no word on whether or not Thiel cofounder Kathy Gornik will remain with the company. Our suspicion is that while Thiel remains a great brand, it is too small a company, with no access to a significant source of capital, to be able to compete effectively in today's market.
Press Release: Thiel Audio, winner of over 60 prestigious awards for loudspeaker design and performance since 1978, has announced that the company has been acquired by a private equity firm based in Nashville, TN. New Thiel CEO Bill Thomas has indicated that the brand focus will continue to be on premium quality phase and time coherent loudspeakers, with long time Thiel employees Brad Paulsen, Gary Dayton, Lana Ruth and Rob Gillum all remaining onboard.
"We identified Thiel as a brand with an unmatched heritage in performance audio and it is our intent to invest in the company's infrastructure, strengthening the engineering department first and foremost," stated Thomas. Thiel has just launched the CS2.7 and the CS1.7 is in the final stages of development, rounding out the CS series with the award-winning CS3.7. "We can improve efficiencies here at Thiel in the product development and manufacturing stages, shortening the time to delivery for new products with zero compromise in product quality," added Thomas.
New product categories will also be explored for Thiel; with an expansion of the architectural series an immediate priority serving to further establish the brand as a leading supplier of premium distributed audio solutions. "We will invest considerable time and energy speaking to our distribution channels worldwide, gathering data about the marketplace from those who know it best before making any decisions about new product direction," Thomas stated. Resources will also be allocated to improving the company's website and other marketing initiatives.
In addition to Paulsen, Dayton, Ruth and Gillum remaining with Thiel, the entire factory team has been retained and the existing sales channel—comprised of reps and dealers—will remain in place. The R&D and manufacturing facility in Lexington, KY will continue to operate at full capacity as well—there are no plans to close Thiel's renowned Lexington, KY operation . . .
Thiel Audio Products Company of Lexington, Kentucky is a privately-held, engineering driven organization that performs research, design, and manufacturing of loudspeakers for the highest quality music and video sound reproduction in the home. The beauty of Thiel loudspeakers can be traced back to design concepts born from powerfully innovative thinking. For over 30 years, Thiel has woven a nearly magical synergy between engineering brilliance and an unfailing passion to create the most lifelike reproduction of recorded music. Along this quest for sonic perfection, Thiel’s customers, music aficionados, and audio press from around the world have lauded Thiel’s loudspeaker designs as some of the best ever conceived. Thiel manufactures ten individual products ranging in price from $1090 each to $14,700 per pair.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
A Short Show Report from Manila
Show organizer Antonio De Leon (far left) and President of the Phillipines Benigno Aquino III (center) listen together.
At least 2,500 audiophiles attended the November HiFi Show at the luxurious Dusit Thani hotel in Manila, Philippines on November 10 and 11, 2012. The show featured thirty-nine exhibition rooms with a total of thirty plus dealers exhibiting products from across the globe.
The November HiFi Show began in 2003 as an informal vinyl swap between members of the Philippino web community Wired State, a website dedicated to friends in audio. Six months of preparation took place prior to the event with communication between show planner Antonio De Leon, hi-fi dealers across the Philippines, and various online audiophile communities such as Wired State, PinoyDVD, and the show’s own Facebook page. According to Antonio De Leon, previous hi-fi shows in the Philippines featured thirty plus exhibitors all in the same common space. Exhibitors challenged each other to volume wars making it difficult for patrons to listen to any of the systems. As a result, De Leon, affectionately known as TonyBoy, set the goal to re-create a show experience similar to he saw in the United States where each exhibitor had a separate hotel room.
Hey! Is that Luke Manley from VTL?
American brands at the show included Audio Research, VTL, Lamm, Magico, Von Schweikert, Conrad Johnson, Oracle, JBL, Revel, Mark Levinson, Kimber, Cardas, Berkeley Audio Design, and Modwright.
Many brands from the Philippines also exhibited. Harana Audio constructs turntables with Garrard plinth turntables and loudspeakers using vintage Altec and JBL drivers. JE Labs presented tube amps designed by engineer Joseph Esmilla. Tono Audio brough tube phono-preamplifiers. A-Audio Research arrived with loudspeakers. Hypertriode demoed their system modifications, and JV Audio Concepts showcased horn-based speakers. De Leon promotes the November HiFi show as a platform for local builders by subsidizing their room costs.
Harana Audio 300B power amplifier
JV Audio Concept loudspeaker
Von Schweikert powered by KR Audio
Presentations primarily featured high-resolution digital, but vinyl could be found as well. Stereo listening dominated. While classical and female jazz vocals were most predominant in the listening rooms, 70s rock emerged from the Vinyl Depot where records were on sale. Live music at the event included the jazz band Extrapolation, a group of college kids playing Miles Davis, Cole Porter, and Herbie Hancock tunes. Harana Audio brought along a restored Technics reel-to-reel playing back disco.
The vinyl depot.
Even the Philippino President Benigno Aquino III, an avid audiophile, made appearances in the Focal-VTL, Von Schweikert-KR Audio, and Magico-Lamm rooms for some listening sessions. He even bought a CD at the Vinyl Depot. Obama, we’re waiting.
Next year, De Leon hopes to bring in new brands and more people. The show for 2013 marks the 10th Anniversary for the November HiFi Show.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Attentions Screen at Goodbye Blue Monday
This iteration of Attention Screen hosts a different group of musicians that we’ve grown to love on previous Stereophile recordings. Missing this time around is guitar alchemist Don Fiorino. Added is trumpeter Liam Sillery. Don’s splashes of dissonance and guitar contortions will be replaced by Sillery’s timely and poignant melodies, a perfect accent to Reina’s dramatic piano runs. Steady as always, rhythm section Chris Jones (double-bass) and Mark Flynn (drums) are still around driving a pulse amongst the noise. John Atkinson appears as a special guest providing ambient tones and soulful grooves.
“re:screen” is part of a free-jazz residency at Goodbye Blue Monday happening on the final Friday of each month. Kicking off the evening of harmonic and sonic explorations is duo Ras Moshe and Shayna Dulberger, on saxophone and double-bass respectively. Attention Screen then meanders in with their atmospheric tapestries tied tight with tension at each thread. Finally Daphna Naphtali will morph her vocals alongside Jen Baker on the tuba and Andrew Drury on drums. A wild assortment of instruments all pushed to their creative limit for a stimulating evening of sounds.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Stereophile's Products of 2012
Each December since 1992, Stereophile has named a few special components its "Products of the Year." These are products that not only define the present audio landscape, but that we hope will someday be seen as classics—products you'll want to pass on to future generations of audiophiles and music lovers. Traditionally, we've awarded this distinction to components in five primary categories: "Loudspeakers" (including subwoofers), "Analog Sources" (turntables, tonearms, phono cartridges), "Digital Sources" (transports, processors, music servers, disc players), "Amplification Components" (preamplifiers, power amplifiers, and integrateds), and "Accessories" (all those extras that keep us busy and satisfied). In 2010 we added "Headphone Components" and "Computer Audio Components," two categories of gear whose popularity and potential for reaching an audience outside our own little world were then, and continue to be, unrivaled: when people aren't wondering how to play music from their PCs, Androids, and iPhones, they're taking it with them on their jogs and commutes. Finally, our two favorite and most important categories are the "Budget Component of the Year" and our overall "Product of the Year"—the former leaves us with the most cash to spend on new records; the latter made the biggest splash of all.
In the next few pages you'll read about phenolic resins, femtoseconds, bubbles, a DAC named for a gem, a DAC named for a bug, a DAC with a feminine touch, and much, much more—something for everyone, we hope.
The voting is simple: Each of Stereophile's hardware reviewers is asked to nominate up to six components in each of the nine categories. To be a contender, a product had to have been reviewed in one of the 12 issues of Stereophile published from November 2011 through October 2012, in a full Equipment Report, a Follow-Up review, or in one of the regular columns by Art Dudley, Michael Fremer, John Marks, Kalman Rubinson, Sam Tellig, or me. That way, only those components could be nominated for which a writer had put his opinion in print for public scrutiny. We then put together a ballot form listing all components nominated by three or more writers and/or editors. This process ensures that most of the nominees in most of the categories will have been auditioned by most of the reviewers. Thirteen of the magazine's writers and editors gave three votes for his first choice in each category, two votes for his second choice, and one vote for his third choice (if any). As the votes came in, the winners became clear. John Atkinson tallied the votes; address your love letters and hate mail to him. (See JA's comments on how the voting process works.)
The prices listed were current as of the end of September 2012. To order back issues mentioned in this article, call (888) 237-0955, or visit www.stereophile.com (MasterCard and Visa only). "Review" indicates that the review is available free of charge in our online Archives.
And the winners are . . .
Article Continues: Loudspeaker of the Year »
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Source : stereophile[dot]com
Coincident Speaker Technology Troubador loudspeaker
Coincident Speaker Technology was known until recently as Concentric Speaker Technology. Under that name they marketed a line of cylindrical speakers covered in leather. All of their previous offerings have been discontinued along with their former name; the Troubador ($1495/pair), a handsome two-way housed in an asymmetrical cabinet, is the first of their new line of speakers. A bass module/speaker support à la the Wilson Puppy is also offered. Coincident's speakers are designed by Israel Blume and are direct-marketed in the US. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee and a five-year warranty on parts and labor. The Troubador's enclosure is striking. It's nicely finished—my samples had the optional rosewood veneer—and constructed to a standard surprising in a speaker at its price-point. The cabinet has no parallel sides; the front baffle is steeply beveled, the sidewalls slope inward slightly, and the top-plate rises to meet the severely raked-back rear wall—complex cabinet geometry indeed for a modestly priced speaker. Designer Blume says he chose this shape to reduce internal standing waves that affect the speaker's phase coherence and thicken the midrange. When struck, the cabinet gives a mildly resonant, hollow-sounding thunk. This is intentional; Blume claims that using an inherently nonresonant material and then tuning that resonance to an even higher frequency—where it's less sonically damaging—is superior to utilizing excessive damping. For this reason, he also eschews internal "stuffing"; the cabinet contains no fiberglass "fill." The Troubador, like the designs of Thiel and Wilson, has only one set of binding posts.
Adding to the striking mien of the Troubador is its unusual driver placement: the 1" silk-dome tweeter is concentrically mounted within the 6.5" polypropylene woofer—where the dustcap for that driver would normally be positioned. This gives the speaker a rather cyclopean aspect. Blume maintains that this placement is ideal, and requires no other time alignment between the drivers to achieve coherence. Partially as a result of the benefits of this driver alignment, Blume claims, the Troubador's crossover is exceptionally simple. There's only one component in the signal path for each driver—and those, he states, are of the highest quality.
Sonics
I found the Troubadors to be relatively immune from the vagaries of placement. They seemed to require rear-boundary reinforcement more than most free-standing monitors—I ended up with the most rearward portion of the speaker within 8" of my record cabinets—but other than that, they were remarkably consistent in a wide variety of positions. Toe-in did not seem to enhance their performance, so I auditioned them firing directly forward most of the time. Nor are they particularly height-sensitive; mounted at different heights, or whether I was standing up or sitting down, they sounded pretty much the same. Ditto for off-axis listening; very few speakers that I've heard are capable of presenting as much far-speaker information when the listener is well out of the sweet spot. All of these are highly desirable qualities.
However, there's a fly in the ointment—I found the Troubadors to be singularly colored and uninvolving. They have a pervasive sonic signature that stems in part, I assume, from the location of the tweeter within the "horn" of the woofer. The tweeter has a thick rubber ring surrounding it—it must protrude 1/8"—and it sits 1.5" within the flared cone of the woofer. Loosely cup your hands around your mouth and speak through them: you'll notice a hollowing-out of vowel sounds, and a thickening of textures that obscures detail and—ultimately—meaning. I hear much of that character from the Troubadors. This meant that different types of music sounded more alike than different, a quality I find hard to forgive in any component.
This is not the inevitable result of concentric placement, I hasten to add. The Thiel CS7, which employs a similar mounting scheme for its tweeter and midrange driver, does not suffer from this coloration. But Thiel developed a shallow-flare driver for the CS7 in order to reduce its horn effect, then filled the driver with an acoustically inert material to further control colorations.
The Troubador's timbral balance was also problematic. It sounded clear and detailed in its upper octaves, and surprisingly robust in its lowest—on Charlie Haden's Haunted Heart (Verve 314 513 078-2), I was amazed at the heft and body afforded Haden's bass. However, their midrange suckout was annoyingly pervasive.
Nor did I find the Troubador's drivers particularly coherent. At moderate to loud playing levels I was aware of two discrete sources—one treble, one bass—operating almost, but not quite, in unison. Of course, this reduced complex material such as Corigliano's Symphony 1 to near-incomprehensibility, but it affected simpler material as well. The Odyssey of Paul Robeson (Omega Classics OCD 3007 CD) is a collection of (mostly) solo vocal pieces, but at times it seemed as if the great bass was singing duets with a less-talented student—one whose sense of time was slightly off.
Both the timbral balance and the lack of coherence between the drivers were improved by turning the volume down. At listening levels approaching 50dB, the Troubador sounded much better. The drivers synced up, and the frequency extremes—to which our ears are so much less sensitive at reduced volume—rolled-off to levels matching those of the midrange. This seemed an acoustic analog to the Fletcher-Munson curve electronically activated by the Loudness control on receivers.
Summming up
Much effort has been expended upon the Coincident Technologies Troubador, and it's obvious that Israel Blume has not made any of his design choices lightly. However, after much listening, I can't consider this to be a fully realized product. The quality of construction is impressive, and some of the speaker's qualities—such as its ease of placement—are highly desirable in a loudspeaker at any price-point. But the acid test that JA insists his reviewers apply to any product is: Would you spend your own money on it?
Here the answer must be no. Not mine. And I suggest not yours either.
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Source : stereophile[dot]com
Winning the Loudness Wars
The "Loudness Wars" panel (L&R):George Massenburg, John Atkinson, Bob, Katz, Florian Camerer, and Thomas Lund.
Lund, whose company's LM6 loudness monitoring meter was put to use in slides projected throughout the panel, began with a long demonstration whose message was, in so many words: Don't use the peak level meter to adjust volume. Instead, use the Peak-to-Loudness Ratio (PLR), which measures the peak level of a track ("true-peak") relative to normalization. This preserves micro-dynamics, in which the heart of music lies."
Lund explained that the ear/brain judges loudness by the music's average level. Dynamic Range is not the same as Loudness. The louder the music, and the higher the average level of loudness, the lower the dynamic range, and the more lifeless and squashed a recording becomes. Maximizing loudness actually minimizes transient peaks, to the detriment of the music.
"Don't squash the peaks to control loudness!" Lund proclaimed. As proof, he played four modern tracks that sounded pretty hideous. In fact, one of the high points of his presentation came when he projected a chart that compared the PLR of five well-mastered tracks (Paul Simon's "Homeless," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," Warnes' "Bird on a Wire," Lou Reed's "Dirty Blvd.", and Michael Jackson's 1982 "Beat It") with five others that were pretty awful (Take That's "Shine," Michael Jackson's 2009 "Beat It" remastered edition, AC/DC's "Rock'n Roll Train," Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone," and Metallica's if only it were true "The Day That Never Comes"). Another chart showed the abysmal decline of the Peak-to-Loudness ratio of the 10,000 most popular music tracks in the US, UK, and Germany from a relatively Golden Age of Recording, which reached a PLR apex of 16dB in 1982–1984, to the nadir of 2006–2008, where PLR declined to a little over 9dB.
The Brave New World of Loudness Normalization: Terminology
Normalization Suggestions
Living in a loudness-normalized world.
Engineers to the Fore
Floridian Bob Katz, introduced as "a brother in arms for many years," did his tie-die San Francisco thing by proclaiming that he votes to preserve free-range organic transients. He was joshing, but he wasn't far off. By the time you read this, Californians tried but failed to buck a huge PR campaign spearheaded by Monsanto and Dow Chemical to prevent labeling of foods containing GMOs.
One-Size Fits-All Track Normalization (left) compared with Album Normalization (right), which preserves the loudness ratios of loud and quiet songs.
Katz, who has just had his Mastered for iTunes book published, declared, "Per track normalization in iTunes is an insidious compressor. It makes soft songs sound too loud." Far more preferable is album normalization. To make his point, Katz projected a chart that measured the per track normalization of four tracks–loud and soft songs by the Beatles and Frank Sinatra–to demonstrate that per-track normalization makes soft songs sound way too loud, and diminishes swing in loud numbers. Album normalization enables everything to sound and feel right.
Bob Katz's favorite lament of the mastering engineer.
"Should it be the mastering engineer's job to fix the damage that that mixing engineers have done?" Katz asked. "Why should I have to restore the peaks the mixing engineers have squashed?"
From right to left: Bob Katz and John Atkinson observe George Massenburg's real-time mastery of Pro Tools plug-ins.
George Massenburg, introduced as the man responsible for some of the finest rock mastering Lund has ever heard, made the case for "aggressive use of dynamics." He also played several fine-sounding tracks, including a recent recording by Aimee Mann, on which compression has been selectively employed to positive effect.
Florian Camerer took to the floor to explain how European broadcasters are switching from Peak Track Normalization to Loudness Normalization, eliminating any loudness advantage over-compressed songs might have had.
Florian Camerer shared good news. As the chair of a panel that sets European broadcast standards, he announced that European broadcasters are switching from Peak Track Normalization to Loudness Normalization. (The European broadcast standard currently normalizes PLR at –23 LUFS/LKFS, and may switch to &150;24 in December.)
"The tide has turned in Europe in terms of broadcasting," he said. TV is already in the bag, and radio is next. He also noted that iTunes, which now normalizes loudness at –16.2 LUFS/LKFS, and uses peak normalization for tracks with high PLR, is doing a pretty good job.
The loudness map of Shelby Lynne's "Just a Little Lovin'," prepared with the TC Electronics LM6 meter plug-in.
The Listener's Perspective
JA, whose opening slide was used as the heading image for this story, was introduced as the one panelist who would speak from the perspective of listeners, ie, us. Although time limitations forced him to truncate his presentation a little, John was able to play Shelby Lynne's "Just a Little Lovin'" to demonstrate how true music lovers value space between sounds, and a dynamic range that preserves a huge amount of transient information.
For contrast, he then played an extremely noisy track by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in which space was no longer the final frontier—it didn't even exist. "As a Chili Peppers fan, I want to enjoy this," he lamented, "but I can't." People knew how to preserve dynamics in classical music well way back in 1932, he noted, yet, in 2009, Don Was so flattened the peaks on Delbert McClinton's musically excellent album, Acquired Taste, that it couldn't be featured it as a "Recording of the Month" in Stereophile.
JA welcomed the idea of Loudness Nornalization in broadcasting, as now those who squahed the life out of music to increase un-normalized loudness—the current situation—would be penalized, as post-normalization, all the listener would hear would be the damage done to the music: "wimpy "loud" music, in Bob Katz's immortal phrase.
Turning to "Money" from the hybrid SACD issue of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, John compared the SACD layer, which preserves the superior original mastering, to the CD layer, which squashes dynamics. Summarizing observations that he first elaborated upon in his 2008 "As We See It" editorial, "CD Quality: Where Did the Music Go?," he concluded, "As an end user, I welcome the trend in the industry toward reliance on the Peak-to-Loudness ratio. Loud music should sound loud, not weak or wimpy."
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Thanksgiving in NY: Jason Moran and Maria Schneider
Photo: http://jasonmoran.com/look.html
Those of you in the New York area for the holidays (or for all times) should know that two of the best jazz groups around are playing at the two best jazz clubs: Maria Schneider and her Jazz Orchestra make their traditional Thanksgiving-week appearance at the Jazz Standard, and Jason Moran and his Bandwagon trio are at the Village Vanguard.
I caught Moran's jam-packed opening set last night. It was thrilling as usual, but in an unusual way. Two new, or rather continually evolving, things struck me while listening. First, Bandwagon—which includes Tarus Mateen on electric bass and Nasheet Waits on drums—is getting stronger and stronger all the time. When this trio started out, it was a lopsided affair: Moran was way better than his bandmates, who would spend most of the set doing their best to keep up. Now they form a cohesive unit, not quite an equilateral triangle but the asymmetry is purposefully edgy and propulsively rhythmic (maybe a bit more than proper last night night: Mateen's bass amp was turned up too loud).
Second, Moran, who's always been a playful pianist and composer, is occasionally veering toward conceptual art. Last night, after traversing "Body and Soul" in a way that nobody had before, he switched on an MP3 recording of Eddie Jefferson singing "Body and Soul," then played along; after playing Monk's "Thelonious," he picked up an industrial-size flashlight and shined it on Monk's picture on the Vanguard walls, then conducted a spotlight tour of the various photos of great pianists on those hallowed walls, before settling into a composition by the late Andrew Hill (one of Moran's mentors, who, some may have noted, is missing from that gallery).
In most musicians' hands, this would have been too twee. I'm thinking of the saxophonist James Carter, who not long after a spectacular debut, started getting cute on the bandstand (throwing out one reed after another, scaling arpeggios at lightning speed for no good reason) and never quite reversed his slide from protean artist to mere virtuoso.
The thing about Moran is that, even when he's goofing around, his artistry never subsides. (A remark I tossed up a couple years ago, that Moran is the Rauschenberg of modern jazz, is truer than ever.) Take his cover of "Thelonious." He started out repeating the motif over and over, then laced it with his own filigrees, seguing into ever more-elaborate improvisations, which widened into brash Cecil Taylor brushstrokes, then wound back down into the melody, all the while never losing the pulse or the essential Monkishness (in this sense, Moran recalls less Taylor than Don Pullen). He ended the set with Fats Waller's "The Sheik of Araby," proving once more (the first time was with the James P. Thompson title track on his solo album, Modernistic) what a fine stride pianist Moran can be—and how seamlessly he can fuse the ancient with the avant-garde with everything in between, and still impress on all of it his merrily distinctive signature.
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Jadis JPL line preamplifier
After a yearlong scrutiny of the state of the art of line-stage design, two underlying principles suggest themselves. First, the Gods, in having decreed that man shall labor long and hard in search of the perfect preamp, must surely be crazy. In the trek toward sonic perfection, mistakes are frequently made. The attempt to coax the signal from the program source and nurture it to its full musical potential is fraught with labor pains. Like the political process, the audio signal is subject to corruption. Small sins early in the chain may become capital offenses by the time they reach the loudspeakers.
That there is only a handful of great-sounding preamps out there (line-level or otherwise) is evidence prima facie of the difficulty in caring for the audio signal at its formative stage. Aided by these few centurions of sonic truth, the music can bloom, filling the soundstage with the fire, drama, and power that only live music can communicate. Too often, however, the preamp sinks the ship, and the "illusion of live" descends from the realm of the plausible into the realm of yellow cling peaches. Most preamps can hope to simulate the flavor of a fresh peach only to the extent afforded by the canned variety.
Second, I feel it essential for a preamp to incorporate the magic of the vacuum tube—especially where digital source material is concerned. In my experience, the ultimate sound of any CD player or digital processor is dependent upon the type of associated line-level stage. If you doubt this for even a moment, I invite you to audition the Theta DS Pre Generation III processor/preamp in my listening room. Through the DS Pre's own solid-state line-level stage, the sound quality deteriorates to the point that the bloom and dynamic breadth of the music are largely squashed. The resultant harmonic textures are convincingly solid-statish, the overall effect being to subdue the vital link between perception and belief. Route the DS Pre's analog output from Tape Out to a good all-tube preamp or even a good hybrid design, and the sound quality changes dramatically for the better. The illusion of a real musical event ebbing and flowing before my ears becomes enormously heightened. For whatever reason, it's clear (to me at least) that digital sources require a tube buffer prior to the power amp. This is yet another manifestation of "Futterman's First Law of Audio": Thou shalt use a vacuum tube as early in the amplification chain as possible.
"Wait a minute," I hear some of you complaining. "If you're so hot about tubed preamps, why has the Threshold FET-10/e line stage lasted so long in your reference system?" Good question. Let me remind you that nothing is sonically right if it's harmonically wrong. And my master tapes have long told me that the FET-10/e line-level preamp really got the upper-midrange/lower-treble tonality right. This is the frequency range that makes or breaks soprano voice, and the Threshold didn't let me down. But deep in my heart I knew that its mastery over soundstaging and dynamics was less than perfect. Memories of the Conrad-Johnson Premier Three periodically flooded my consciousness. The way the C-J sculpted image outlines was a sound to behear. Certainly, no solid-state preamp—including the Threshold—came close in this respect.
The final straw was my exposure to the Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 preamp (reviewed in December 1992 by Jack English). During the several weeks the CAT resided in the system, I connected with the music like never before. My level of sonic expectation would never again be the same. The CAT showed me that harmonic integrity, palpable imaging, and dynamic range can be bundled together in one package.
It was into this environment that the Jadis JPL made its grand entrance.
Technical details
The Jadis JPL is a thing of beauty, a beguiling French damsel. The gold inner fascia set off against the chromed chassis finish looks positively luscious. Sitting as it did amid some pretty drab-looking neighboring gear in Bright Star Audio's "Rack of Gibraltar," Lesley had no trouble at all picking it out.
"Oh, what's that?" she asked.
"That there, my love, is the El Dorado of preamps."
Having looked over the JPL's schematic, it's difficult for me to objectively identify the source of its sonic magic. The design, by Jadis's Andr;ae Calmettes, is pretty conventional. The four line-level inputs and one tape loop are routed through three 12AX7 dual triodes (footnote 1). Voltage gain on the order of 35dB is provided by the first two 12AX7s, which are cascaded together. The final tube in the chain, used as a cathode-follower buffer stage, allows the use of long cable runs to the power amp without the danger of treble rolloff. There's also a dedicated CD input that uses a single 12AU7 as a buffer stage (unity gain). This input is DC-coupled to the 12AU7's grid, while the regular line inputs are AC-coupled via a 1;uF capacitor. The quite beefy power supply deploys solid-state bridge rectifiers followed by a capacitive filter network. As a final touch, active regulation is provided for the tube plate voltages.
A large circuit board accommodates the entire active signal path, and construction quality and part selection appeared to be nothing short of excellent. Stereo volume and balance pots adorn the front face. The mute switch—an especially useful feature for someone like me—allows record and interconnect cable changes without adjustment of volume. The unit mutes automatically for a couple of minutes when powered up. For best sonic results, Jadis recommends that the unit be left on continuously.
So where does the JPL's magic live? In my opinion, it's in the details: the power supply, the selection of passive parts, and the execution of the circuit. You meter-readers out there—you know who you are, you whose modus operandi can be summed up in the motto "parts is parts"—please take note: As H. A. Hartley put it many years ago, the sonic difference between a Stradivarius or an Amati and a mass-produced fiddle is literally in the stuff of which the instruments are made. Ditto for the difference between a Steinway and a Yamaha. It's not easy to measure sonic differences between violins or pianos, yet the musical ear has no problem at all in instantly resolving such differences. Build the same circuit with Radio Shack parts and with premium parts selected on the basis of active listening tests. Those who feel that the Radio Shack version would sound as good as or even better than the audiophile alternative are directed to read Ben Duncan's "Harmonic Convergence" article in the October 1992 Stereophile (p.78), where he discusses the measured results of just such an experiment.
Sonic impressions
The JPL spent its time exclusively in my reference room, where it was complemented by the Sound-Lab A-1 ESLs and a variety of power amplifiers, most notably the Air Tight ATM-3 (review forthcoming) and the Fourier Components Sans Pareil OTL monoblocks (reviewed in June '92). I tried CD program material with both the CD and line inputs. At least with the Theta DS Pre Generation III, I found the line input to give me a fuller palette of dynamic shadings, so I stuck with the line input for the duration of the evaluation. I also used the JPL in conjunction with the Threshold FET-10/e phono preamp for all of the analog listening sessions. The JPL did benefit from being left on continuously, particularly in terms of detailing and textural purity. Still, I'm a bit nervous about leaving tubes to cook indefinitely. Tubes are thermionic devices, depending for their operation on electron emission from a very hot cathode surface. The mere act of electron emission means slow but sure disintegration of the emissive surface. It pains me to think of all those premium tubes suffering so.
Memorable first impressions happen occasionally in this business, but nothing like this. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I was immediately and overwhelmingly won over by the Jadis.
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Source : stereophile[dot]com
Petition for Better Sound
Source : stereophile[dot]com
A Collaborative Playlist: Greatest Guitar Solos
Source : stereophile[dot]com
Music in the Round #57
Atlantic Technology WA-5030 Wireless Transmitter/Amplifier-Receiver System
Its name is a mouthful, but this useful device is based on a simple concept. Atlantic Technology has added a power amplifier to a wireless audio transmitter and receiver and called it the WA-5030 Wireless Transmitter/Amplifier-Receiver System ($399; additional WA-5030-r receivers are available for $199 each). It's not the first such product, with or without an amplifier; I reviewed the amp-less AudioEngine AW-1 in my September 2008 column. The tiny AW-1 did the job, and while it sounded okay, I found it acceptable for use only with a subwoofer or, in a pinch, the surround channels. AudioEngine has since replaced it with newer models.
The WA-5030 is another story. It comprises the WA-50-t, a transmitter module with USB and two-channel analog inputs; the WA-5030-r, a chunky receiver with two-channel speaker terminals; a remote control; and miscellaneous connectors and power supplies. These products are small. The WA-50-t measures 3¼" (82.6mm) H by 1½" (38.1mm) W by ¾" (19mm) D, the WA-5030-r is 4½" (114.3mm) H by 4½" (114.3mm) W by 1½" (38.1mm) D including terminals, and the remote is a tiny 3 3/8" (85.7mm) H by 1½" (38.1mm) W by ¼" (6mm) D.
I connected the WA-50-t transmitter to the analog RCA outputs of my Integra DHC-80.2 preamplifier-processor and used the USB AC supply to power it. Alternatively, I could have connected the WA-50-t to a source with the provided cable. Had I chosen to run the WA-50-t from a PC or other USB source, the power would be drawn from that source, and the external supply would not be required. The only control on the transmitter permits the selection of one of three zones. This allows for the operation of multiple WA-5030-rs sending the same signal to speaker pairs in other rooms by mating them with a single WA-50-t (one zone), or sending different signals by pairing them with multiple WA-50-ts (for up to three zones). It also permits the implementation of a fully wireless multichannel system in a single zone or room.
The WA-5030-r receiver is no bigger or heavier than it needs to be to include the necessary wireless electronics and a pair of 30Wpc (1kHz, 8 ohms) power amps and four substantial multiway binding posts. The actual IR receiver element is at one end of a 1m-long wire cable that plugs into the receiver, and although I originally thought this unnecessarily fiddly, I came to appreciate that it allowed me to place the WA-5030-r out of sight. There are no line-level or USB outputs, as this device is dedicated to powering loudspeakers. I hooked it up to pairs of Paradigm's Studio/60 and Studio/20, Celestion's MP-1, and, from out of the past, Realistic's Minimus 7.
The third component of the WA-5030 is its minuscule remote control. This has buttons for On/Standby, Volume Up/Down, and Mute, in addition to some very useful programming options. With the transmitter sending two channels of information, the remote can set the receiver to output stereo (as I used it), mono (useful for remote background listening), or only the left- or right-channel signal (allowing two receivers to power a widely spaced stereo pair). After syncing transmitter and receiver—a trivial matter of pushing a button on the remote and observing both components' LEDs—I was able to set the volume and listen.
Now, 30Wpc isn't what it used to be. The sensitivity of the typical loudspeaker has declined over the decades as amplifier power has become cheaper. As a result, the WA-5030's success varied with the sensitivity of the speakers used, and with my expectations. Through my Paradigm Studio/60s (89dB/2.83V/m) the sound was pleasantly balanced and clear, with decent bass extension, but the WA-5030 struggled to get them to fill the room.
Surprisingly, the WA-5030 drove Paradigm's smaller Studio/20s, which are of similar sensitivity (88.5dB/2.83V/m), to subjectively higher listening levels with clean, extended sound. Bass was lacking compared to the larger speakers, and perhaps that reduced the load on the 30Wpc amps. However, using the Studio/20s as my surround speakers, the power demands should be even less, as all the sub-80Hz signals are bass-managed and rerouted to the subwoofers. This proved to be so, although, even with the WA-5030's volume control turned all the way up, the sensitivity was still about 3dB less than the Bryston 9B amplifier. The wireless transmission also introduced a time delay of about 10ms, which is equivalent to having the speakers some 10' farther away. The Integra's channel-level and delay adjustments handled both of these problems with ease. Indeed, I was perfectly happy using the WA-5030 for the surrounds under almost any conditions; in multichannel recordings of classical music, most of the musical performance is in the front channels, the surrounds primarily providing ambience. With some "onstage" mixes, in which the performers are arrayed around the listener—as in Albert Lee's Tearing It Up (Blu-ray, AIX 85054)—I noticed slightly less punch from the surrounds with the WA-5030 than from the fronts, with their larger speakers and more potent amps. But even then, it took a high output setting and some concentration to hear the difference.
Connected to the Celestion MP-1s or the Realistic Minimus 7s, the WA-5030 drove the music with aplomb. The intended role of the WA-5030 is for wireless music distribution to other rooms, but, as I've described, it's more than capable of filling other needs, particularly easing the addition of surround speakers without having to run wires all around the room or through walls.
DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core digital room equalizer
Readers may recall my January 2009 report on DSPeaker's Anti-Mode 8033, an automatic and effective subwoofer equalizer. DSPeaker, a Finnish audio company using DSP technology in products ranging from a microphone amplifier to a servo-controlled loudspeaker, has expanded the 8033 line to four models with a range of features, and now introduced the Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core ($1099) as a room/system equalizer for full-range loudspeakers. The "2.0" in the product's name refers to the fact that, unlike the single-channel 8033, this is a two-channel device; "Dual Core" refers to its use of two VS8053 IceDragon chips as processors. There are XLR and RCA analog inputs/outputs; digital audio (TosLink S/PDIF) input/output, a USB connector for USB audio mode, firmware updates and data downloads, and a datalink connector for linking multiple Anti-Mode 2.0s. The product's small color display and remote control proved particularly useful, because this is a remarkably flexible device.
Although the Anti-Mode 2.0 passes a full-range signal through each of its channels, its range of correction is limited to the lower frequencies. By default, it measures and automatically corrects from 16 to 150Hz, but can be configured to work from 16Hz to an upper limit ranging from 80 to 500Hz. However, this is not a really important limitation, for two reasons. First, as I have said many times, the most important acoustical corrections will be in the low frequencies, where room modes—which are determined by room dimensions and speaker placement—impose wide frequency and time-decay variations on your speakers' presumably flat response. Correcting these modes often requires bulky and aesthetically unacceptable physical room treatments, while above the critical or Schroeder frequency (the frequency at which rooms stop resonating and become reflectors/diffusors), the room's acoustical influence becomes stochastic or random, and treatable with furnishings and panels. So using an equalizer only for the bass is an attractive prospect that has been successfully pursued by DSPeaker and others. The second reason the limited range of automatic correction is not critical is that the Anti-Mode 2.0 includes a 16-band, user-configurable parametric equalizer with a center frequency range from 20Hz to 24kHz, each band assignable to the right, left, or both channels.
That's only the tip of this Finnish iceberg. The Anti-Mode 2.0 has an almost bewildering array of filter and configuration options. The filters include an adjustable bass curve (called House), an adjustable treble curve (Tilt) reminiscent of the classic Quad preamps, an adjustable infrasonic filter, and a configurable high-pass/low-pass function. The last function permits the Anti-Mode 2.0 to be configured to correct the outputs of a pair of subwoofers, a summed-mono sub, a single speaker/sub combo, or a stereo pair of full-range speakers. With the promised activation of the datalink and the addition of a second Anti-Mode 2.0, you can also use the two Anti-Mode 2.0's to implement the crossover and EQ for a pair of speakers mated to a pair of stereo subs.
Given all that, it's only fair that the Anti-Mode 2.0 also can store up to four different sound profiles. Each includes every option and setting in effect at the time of its creation, as well as any changes in configuration made while that profile is in play (as long as the user stores them by cycling the Anti-Mode 2.0 through standby). Also, given the range of inputs/outputs and the DSP engine, it should be no surprise that the Anti-Mode 2.0 is also a simple but capable D/A preamplifier with analog and digital outputs, and remote-controlled volume, balance, and bypass adjustments. (All that's bypassed are the EQ and filters; the A/D/A remains in circuit.)
Source : stereophile[dot]com
