June 14, 2008
Somehow, the stress at deadline is easily cured by a trip to my favorite used hifi shop, Echo Audio in Portland, Oregon
I dragged the Vinyl Anachronist out for some chow at the Thai Peacock, right down the street from Echo and after a hearty bowl of curry,, we wandered in to see what goodies lurked on Kurt’s shelves.
As usual, it was treasure time. This mint Nakamich 700 ZXL was staring me right in the face. You’ll be reading about this one in TONE one of these days. It’s a keeper.
Lew Johnson likes to say “You can never have too much Conrad-Johnson gear” and I couldn’t agree more. Echo just happened to have a mint specimen of their first amplifier, the MV-75. I’ve owned all of the EL-34 based C-J power amps at one time or another, so it was time to graduate to this one with 6550’s under the hood.
The MV-75 was C-J’s first amplifier back in 1979 and this one still sounds darn good!
June 12, 2008
Seems like everyone is getting out of physical media these days.
Another good friend stopped by with a few big boxes of CD’s that are now living on a music server. Being the friend of physical media that I am, his 500 CD’s found a happy home. Well, at least 400 of them. The rest are getting passed on to friends. Gotta spread the love around.
If you have a record or CD collection to get rid of, let us know!
June 10, 2008
Today the Spiral Groove SG-2 turntable arrived along with a black Triplanar arm.
It’s going to have to wait until the new issue is done to set up, but it is gorgeous there!
Having spent some time with the SG-1 when I went to the Immedia offices earlier this year, I know these guys are on to something really good with the SG-2. There’s also a nice new Skala from Lyra to listen to as well, so stay tuned for more analog bliss.
June 9, 2008
Sorry about the latin that was up here, not trying to be clever, just screwed up!!
With all the rain this week, it was a great time to go through the first shipment of albums that arrived last week and found some great treasures! Nothing like the smell of old albums to make your day.
Surprisingly enough almost everything was in great shape. Some of the covers were a little tattered, but the vinyl inside was good. Nothing a quick pass on my trusty Clearaudio record cleaning machine. Even found a few rarities, a pink Pink Floyd Animals album and an AA British pressing of Steely Dan’s AJA.
Too many more to list. But the sun is coming out soon.
June 7, 2008
If you are a fusion fan, Return to Forever was probably at the top of your playlist in the 70’s. I know it was for me. Al DiMeola, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White not only redefined the genre, but after RTF disbanded, they all went on to successful solo careers.
In a move that you rarely see with older acts today, Return to Forever is back in action with all the original members. Nothing is worse than going to see one of your favorite bands from a while ago and it’s only half (or even a fifth) of the guys you remembered and a bunch of new, no-name guys in their place.
This is the real deal folks and these guys haven’t lost an ounce of virtuosity. Matter of fact, they are like that really expensive bottle of wine that you bought before it’s proper serve date and is now perfect.
Check out the official website at www.return2forever.com to get tour dates and see a few clips of the guys rehearsing, you will see what I mean. You rarely get to see four jazz greats at the top of their game on the same stage. This is as good as it gets!
June 6, 2008
Nothing like coming home to 24 cartons of records waiting to be unboxed!
Yep, I live for days like this. One of our writers decided to get out of LP’s for good and wanted to make sure they would have a good home.
The only bad news is that I’m on deadline and I pretty much have to stare at these for about 10 more days till the issue is done. But I did crack open a few boxes and there are some definite treasures lurking.
Got LP’s you want to get rid of, let me know!
June 2, 2008
And that’s how I found them, asleep in the office.
After a grueling week of finishing the new website, I found our chief designer asleep in her office with the company mascot.
But it’s done!
The new site has some new features that we hope you will find compelling. Now, along with every cover, there is a complete table of contents that you can open up for every issue. We’ve added more music and links for you to purchase said music.
And we have more goodies coming later this summer, so stay tuned and thanks for reading!
May 29, 2008
Audiophile PR person extraordinaire, Paul McGowan from PS Audio has a new project that will benefit all of us in the high end audio community and hopefully help the new arrivals to our world as well.
He has gone to great lengths to launch the Audiophile version of Wikipedia, called appropriately the “Audiophile Wiki”. This project just started, but should become a virtual repository for all things related to audio.
Already, yours truly is joining the likes of Michael Fremer, our pal Chris Connaker from Computer Audiophile and others to help explain what makes our hobby so exciting to those less informed.
You can find this fledgling project at:
audiophilewiki.org
Stay tuned, it should be fun!
May 24, 2008
If you read my feature on slack key guitarist Makana in the April issue and are curious about hearing more, now’s your chance. Wildly popular in his native Oahu, Makana has started his tour of the United States to spread his slack rock message to us malihinis (newcomers). We got to check out his live show last night at the WoW Hall in Eugene, Oregon, and I have to admit that everything I’ve heard about the energy at his live shows is true.
While the crowd was probably small compared to what Makana is used to back home, one audience member said it best when he shouted, “Promise to come back, and we’ll each bring five people to show them how great you are!” After the show, we got to meet Makana, and he’s as warm and genuine as his songs. He even dedicated one of his songs to Jeff’s daughter Monique, who was celebrating her 14th birthday.
Check out makanamusic.com to see if he’ll be coming to your town soon. And tell him your brahs at TONEAudio sent you!
May 23, 2008
Just got the new Running Springs Dimitri off the UPS truck an hour ago!
From the guys who make the award winning Haley, Duke, Danielle and Jaco, this takes everything they’ve learned at RSA to the next level. Along with more goodies on the inside, the Dimitri has a cool carbon fiber face plate, which will look more at home on your rack.
As I own at least one each of all the other RSA boxes, I am anxious to see how much of an improvement the Dimitri will be. I’ll keep you posted and expect to see a review in TONE online in about a month.
The Dimitri is $4000 USD without power cord, $4500 with a RSA Mongoose power cord and $5800 with their new top of the line cord. (don’t know what they are calling it yet!)
You can get more information at:
www.runningspringsaudio.com
