Back Online at Last!

Arrgh!

No internet service for a few days can really bring you to your knees!

I have no idea what the magician at Comcast did, but when he got over to my house the other day, he made a few measurements, muttered something under his breath and called someone.

A little more muttering on the phone and pow!  Everything worked again.

Stay tuned, we’ll be back to our (almost) daily posts starting tomorrow.

New Speakers from ACI

It’s just speakerama here at TONEAudio.

The ML Spires are breaking in rather nicely, Wilson is sending us a pair of Sophia 2’s to review in the near future and I came home to a package from ACI, makers of the TONE Exceptional Value Award winning Sapphire XL.

Inside the box a pair of their newest small speaker, The Emerald XL.  For 700 a pair, these look to be pretty exciting.  Watch our website for a review in about 6 weeks!

www.audioc.com

Stopping By ZU

Next on the list, while in the Salt Lake City area was a trip over to the guys at ZU Audio.

While their approach is a bit different than the folks at Wilson, their passion for music and commitment to quality is just as strong.  Adam Decaria and Sean Casey were in the middle of expansion and remodling, but had enough time to give me a full tour, grab some lunch and give me a great demo of their flagship speakers, The Definition at Adam’s house.  Playing through some 300B amplifiers from Melody, the sound was killer and Adam sent me home with a list of cool records that I need to pick up. Read More »

Visit to Wilson Audio

Sorry about the blog updates, was out of the office in the beautiful state of Utah for the last couple of days.

First stop, Wilson Audio.

By many considered to be the number one company in high end audio, a tour of the plant shows why this reputation is well deserved; these guys are very dedicated to excellence!  With 50 full time employees and a facility clean enough to assemble formula 1 engines, the Wilson plant is a model of efficiency and technology. Read More »

No Worries About VTA

Yep, this guy’s not thinking about VTA, or system synergy at all. Just chilling out in the neighbors lawn.  He does this EVERY day.

I do believe there is a lesson to be learned here. Read More »

Elvis Spotted in Portland Oregon

I whipped out my iPhone camera, shot a picture and when I turned around, he was gone.

You tell me.

Discover Mutlu

After waiting for the doors to open at the Aladdin Theater for 5 hours, (yep, I was FIRST in line) I got the pleasure of seeing Mutlu, the opening act for Joe Jackson.  Think a big dose of originality along with a few parts Hall and Oates (Abandoned Luncheonette period), and perhaps a bit of early James Taylor as well.

But make no mistake Mutlu has his own sound.

A great singer-songwriter in the Philly tradition, he played a short acoustic set and announced that his new CD would be out in June.

I invite you to peruse his website at: www.mutlusounds.com

This guy is awesome!

-JD

New Elbow Album

I bought the new Elbow album, The Seldom Seen Kid, a couple of days ago, but I didn’t get a review done in time for Issue 15.  Needless to say, I’m really hooked on this album.  Elbow is one of those bands that releases an album every 3 or 4 years, enough time to almost forget they exist.  And then when a new album does arrive, you get excited about them all over again. Read More »

Doing Windows in a Mac World

The short solutions to this situation are:

  1. Forget it
  2. Run Parallels on your Mac
  3. Get a separate Windows only machine

    I’m not a Windows hater, so #1 isn’t a good option, but I have to tell you that #2 Suuuuuuks.

    After throwing a day of my life away trying to get Parallels to work on my shiny new Power Book Pro with 4gb of RAM, I gave up.  Turns out those in the know said that the only way it will work is with Windows XP.  Hmmm.  Vista users, forget it.  Save yourself the stroke and just get a dedicated Windows box.

    I suggest a Mac Mini!  That’s what I’m using and it’s awesome!

    The Spires Are Here, Woo Hoo!

    The friendly neighborhood freight guy had a surprise for me a day early;

    “I’ve got two big cartons for you that aren’t very heavy…”
    “Are they from Martin Logan?”
    “Yup” Read More »

    More Analog Insanity

    No I haven’t become fed up with losing cartridge screws!

    I’m a bit of a packrat and feel that everything will have a use SOMEDAY.  Sure enough, just when I was going to throw out that cheapie cartridge that came with my Audio Technica PL-120D, I figured there would come a time to put it to use. Read More »