Thomas Strønen/Time Is a Blind Guide: "Lucus"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
ECM 2576 5798928
Formats: LP and CD
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****
Norwegian jazz drummer Thomas Strønen has appeared on more than 60 albums in the last 20 years, in a variety of groups and settings. Three of those recordings are his own as leader and composer, including the newest, Lucus, his second outing for ECM. His previous release for the label, Time Is a Blind Guide (2015), featured 11 compositions he wrote for a unique septet that included two additional percussionists, a violinist, and a cellist.
Audience Au24 SX powerChord Power Cord
- Written by: Garrett Hongo
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Over Thanksgiving and the ensuing week, I flew down from Oregon, where I live, to spend time at a retreat for artists (I write poetry) in northern California near the Bay Area. Because I also had friends to visit, I rented a car when I landed at the Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport, splurging on a full-size vehicle: a silver Chevrolet Malibu sedan. It was big and stable, gave good mileage, and had lots of features. It got me around -- to Berkeley and Lafayette, to San Francisco and Santa Cruz. But it didn’t have savoir faire. It lacked that je ne sais quoi that aging guys like me crave on getaways from our humdrum lives.
Lessons I've Learned
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
The months I’ve spent thinking about and writing the series of “Jeff’s Getting a New Stereo System” articles have taught me some valuable personal lessons. For one, I don’t seek out trophy hi-fi gear anymore. I’ve had more than a few manufacturers tell me in private that they make some models priced in the six figures simply because some rich guys want to spend that much. The practice is commonplace, but I no longer aspire to be one of those rich guys, or to own or even be loaned for review the kind of gear designed for them. If you do, more power to you -- but it’s not me.
McIntosh Laboratory MA9000 Integrated Amplifier-DAC
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Integrated amplifiers have often been touted as space savers. Combining two components into one, the typical integrated amplifier also does away with a set of interconnects, and results in a smaller package than would be possible with separates. This saves not only on real estate, but on price as well. You’ve heard all this before.
Forget it.
Marshall Crenshaw: "Field Day"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Warner Bros./Intervention IR-015
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****1/2
With its seemingly effortless flow of great melodies that stay in the head, and witty lyrics that are smart without being too clever or cynical, Marshall Crenshaw’s eponymous debut album was universally praised by critics on its release, in 1982. Crenshaw and Richard Gottehrer coproduced the album, which had a clean but somewhat bright sound, with an old-style reverb that highlighted the music’s debt to Crenshaw’s influences -- Buddy Holly, early Beatles, the Brill Building -- without sounding dated.
VPI MW1 Cyclone Record-Cleaning Machine
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Last year, at the Montréal Audio Fest, I did a solid for Mat Weisfeld, president of VPI Industries. Throughout that weekend I’d been in and out of various rooms that featured VPI turntables, and during those visits Weisfeld and I had struck up brief conversations. Close to the end of the show’s final day, as we discussed VPI’s MW-1 Cyclone record-cleaning machine, as I was picking his brain about the finer points of the Cyclone’s design, Weisfeld asked if I’d mind taking the display unit home with me. “We’ve got enough to transport back to the States -- it’d be a great help if you could look after this for us.”
When a Brand Is Forgotten
- Written by: Jeff Fritz
- Category: Opinion
This year I break with my annual take on the SoundStage! Products of the Year awards -- Doug Schneider gives you the complete list over on SoundStage! Hi-Fi -- to tackle another subject that’s been on my mind lately: the safety -- or, in some cases, the false sense of security -- that comes with shopping by brand.
Esoteric Grandioso G1 Master Clock Generator
- Written by: Howard Kneller
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
I received review samples of Esoteric’s Grandioso K1 SACD/CD player and DAC ($31,000 USD) and G1 master clock generator ($26,000) at the same time. Figuring that not everyone would plunk down $57,000 all at once, I first reviewed the Grandioso K1 alone. Now it’s the Grandioso G1’s turn.
An Introduction
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: For the Record
It is with intense pleasure that I find myself writing this introduction to the inaugural installment of “For the Record,” a bimonthly column in which I’ll share with you my love of all things vinyl. I’m hoping that -- as a reader of the SoundStage! magazines -- you’re familiar with at least a few of my reviews. As of 2017, I’ve reviewed audio products for SoundStage! for 16 years, and the subjects of a good portion of those reviews have been analog products. And for 40 years now I’ve owned a turntable of some sort, and for nearly all that time have played LPs.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: "Soul of a Woman"
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Daptone Dap-050
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****1/2
When Sharon Jones died in November 2016, at the age of 60, soul music lost one of its most dedicated and skilled practitioners. Jones had recorded a series of singles beginning in the mid-1990s when, in 2002, she released the first LP with her formidable backing band, the Dap-Kings. She was 45 at the time, and went on to make six more albums with them. All were recorded in eight-track analog at Daptone House of Soul Studio, in Brooklyn, with no drum machines or synthesizers.
- Pro-Ject RPM 10 Carbon Turntable with 10cc Evolution Tonearm
- Jeff's Getting a New Stereo System: Part Six
- Esoteric Grandioso K1 SACD/CD Player-DAC
- Joe Jackson: "Summer in the City: Live in New York"
- Sonus Faber Homage Amati Tradition Loudspeakers
- Jeff's Getting a New Stereo System: Part Five
- TAD Micro Evolution One Loudspeakers
- Van Morrison: "Roll with the Punches"
- Paradigm Persona 7F Loudspeakers
- Jeff's Getting a New Stereo System: Part Four
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