phono stage

Random Record Thoughts 2.23.23

(Like most of you, I imagine, I am constantly listening to records… and constantly having thoughts about them…)

Robin Trower – Bridge of Sighs (CHR 1057, 1974)

I picked this up out of a bargain bin recently, a much beloved heavy blues rock record of the early 70’s (20th greatest British blues rock album of ALL TIME according to “Louder” which is “The Home of High Voltage Rock N’ Roll” so they should know). I got the original U.S. 1974 pressing, green Chrysalis labels, solid VG+. Listening to it you certainly wouldn’t think “oh right it’s the guitar player from Whiter Shade of Pale innit” but there it is (come to think of it… is there a guitar on “Whiter Shade of Pale”?… is Trower even on that record???? ah well you get the point).

Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet Reissues on Vinyl

Frequenting my usual vinyl haunt, Academy Records on 18th street in Manhattan (unrelated to the Academy Records that has locations on 12th street in Manhattan and in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, one of the bizarre facts of life in the NYC record hunting scene), I was going through the new jazz bins and found a reissue of Shades of Blue by the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, the first of five legendary records recorded by this group in the mid-to-late 60’s for Columbia’s Lansdowne Series label (so named because the recording was done at the now-defunct Lansdowne Studios in London).

Surprisingly enough, this reissue wasn’t on some suspicious possibly spurious label that screams “unauthorized pressing sourced from mp3.” No indeed – it’s released by the venerable Jazzman records in the UK, a real label dedicated to real records, known primarily to American collectors for their reissues of rare soul and funk 45’s.

Everything Matters, vol. 1

Sound is strange elusive voodoo and every single goddamn thing has an impact on our listening experience. Often things that we couldn’t possibly imagine mattering… matter. We know this in our hearts and it haunts us, sitting in our listening chairs mulling and mulling… “what if I got shorter speaker cables and longer interconnects… what if I rearranged the room again and put the record shelves over there and the speakers over there… what if I just get another house and have Steve Hoffman design the blueprints… wait wait wait what if I rub peanut butter on my earlobes… what if I learn karate…”

Second Hand News – Holo Audio, Mitchell Cotter and Paradox Pulse

(Real audiophiles buy used and we all know it. So here are some second-hand deals that caught my eye as I perused the usual sites looking for love in all the wrong places… no affiliation on my end and no guarantee of satisfaction in any way)

Holo Spring Level 3 Kitsune Tuned Edition – asking $1849 USD shipped at Head Fi. This DAC retails for $2499 new, but due to the multiple rave reviews at just about every audio rag you’d like to mention, $1849 shipped is about as low as you’ll see it on the used market and I imagine it will stay that way for the foreseeable future. I owned one and I thought it was… honestly it was kind of hard to believe. I can’t recommend it enough. Read the many reviews (here’s one) and think hard on this sucker, especially if you are a vinyl freak and want to have your world turned upside down. I believe this DAC could be the best value in audio right now.

The Audiophile Christmas Blues

While there are certainly some pros to being an audiophile at Christmas, there is one major negative that outweighs them considerably. And I’m not talking about the scourge that is Christmas music, although I should address that question at some point because… I have some thoughts. But no, what I’m referring to is something that you likely already know if you are reading this site – the Christmas season is a TERRIBLE TIME TO WORK YOUR AUDIO SIDE HUSTLE.

Most hardcore audiophiles I know – I’m talking junkies here, not those round-the-way cats who huff a little now and then, but serious fiends who are out on the corner every day chasing that next bag – these kinds of audiophiles are always selling something so they can buy something else, or more likely, so they can pay off something they already bought. For such folks it’s not a hobby, it’s a way of life.

12 Random Audio Thoughts for the 12 Days of Christmas

1. I have never ever bought anything from the numerous Audio Advisor, Elusive Disc or similar audio catalogs that get delivered to my house en masse at this time of year. I also don’t enjoy looking through them because they don’t have a single thing that I want. BUT… I still get a small tinge of excitement when I see them in my mailbox.

2. Instead of a very suspect Chet Baker Riverside box, can someone call up Kevin Gray and RTI and the whole audiophile reissue squad and get a Charlie Byrd 2×45 Riverside box in the quiver? I’d pay mucho dinero for that. Not a bad record in the bunch and Blues Sonata is an unheralded masterpiece. Plus they are all very well recorded, which (much like the wonderful Bill Evans set) will give them a lot to work with sonically.

David vs. Goliath: The Denon DL103 vs. the Benz LP-S

A few months ago, out of boredom, out of curiosity, out of the sheer “it was there”-ness of the audiophile vortex, I swapped out the Benz LP-S cartridge on my SME V arm (mounted on an SME 20/2) for the venerable Denon DL-103, the purported giant killer of all audio giant killers.

So it seemed right that in this, the first of what I hope will be a long-running series focused on investigating audio giant-killers, I should write about my experience with the DL-103 (retail price $299) and how it stacked up against the mighty Benz LP-S (retail price $6,000).

Second Hand News – Auralic, KEF and Luxman

Auralic Vega – asking $1395 at the ‘Gon. I’ve seen a few of these go in this price range but usually it’s a “no original box, scratched up but still working” kind of scene. This is box, remote and listed in 9/10 shape from a verified and well-known dealer. I had a Vega years ago and it was the beginning of my Second Digital Awakening (I’m deep in the throes of my third right now if you’re wondering though you probably weren’t). This sucker retailed for $3500 and was many a well-regarded reviewers’ reference back in the day. It’s excellent. Cool looking too.

Hi-Fi at the Movies: The Irishman

No film director is more associated with rock and roll than Martin Scorcese. Leaving aside The Last Waltz, the tedious love letter to the Stones and that sophomoric Dylan stunt, many of his most celebrated movies are so infused with the spirit of rock as to be almost inseparable from the movement. You got all your mob goombahs stealing and killing and generally having fun and it’s all “Monkey Man”… and then it all turns to shit and it’s “Gimme Shelter,” it’s the “Layla” coda. Roll credits.

Just accept it – they’re all 32 years old

So I found it interesting that The Irishman is completely devoid of the swaggering classic rock anthems that are de rigueur in Scorcese’s customary mob outings, despite the fact that the film is otherwise so much in keeping with his blueprint, a heavily V.O.’ed nostalgia piece about Irish and Italian gangsters primarily set during the 1960’s and 70’s.

Audio Science Review and the Long Awaited Holo Audio May DAC

(Eventually in this piece I am going to get around to discussing the as yet unreleased but seemingly imminent Holo Audio May DAC, a DAC which if you are of a certain lunatic fringe you may well be very interested in. But first I begin with a long digression about Audio Science Review. To tide you over until I get to the DAC, here’s a picture, the only such photograph I know of, stolen from said ASR…)

I often read the threads at the highly controversial Audio Science Review. Having little idea what they’re on about from a technical standpoint, I’m still curious about their process and general chatter about measuring our audio world.