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Art+Tech

Deep in the Woods with Composer Roger Eno and Focal’s Bathys Wireless Headphones

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Art+Tech

November 2023

One of my favorite comedians is a lesser-known Canadian performer named Ron James, who has a particularly wry way of looking at the world. Like me, he’s a man in his 60s, and some of his observations have me doubled over laughing. One I particularly like is his take on trends and Western humanity’s obsession with “the new.” In a cascading series of punch lines, he notes that things like the iPhone 11 in your pocket are not “old”; the Dead Sea Scrolls are old.

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Early ECM Gems Sparkle Intensely through Focal’s Vestia N°1 Bookshelf Speakers

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Art+Tech

September 2023

I grew up listening to jazz from the 1930s and ’40s, thanks to my father’s LP collection and his devotion to the big-band dance music featured every Saturday evening on Ottawa’s CFMO-FM. When I finally found a friend who liked jazz, he played me Charlie Parker recordings from the early ’50s. Looking back, by the time I turned 16, in 1970, the closest I’d come to experiencing contemporary improvised music was a recording called Two of a Mind, a set of duets created by saxophonists Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan in 1962.

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Three Distinctive Voices Flow through the Pro-Ject MaiA DS3 Stereo Integrated Amplifier

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Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

June 2023

If you caught last month’s column, you’ll know that one of the recordings I featured was Van Morrison’s signature major-label debut, Astral Weeks. I noted that—typically for a pop recording in the late 1960s—the recording setup was pretty basic. Morrison’s voice is centered in the soundstage, and there appears to have been little or nothing altered in post-production. One consequence is that Morrison occasionally sounds slightly off-mike. Having seen Morrison perform several times, I expect those off-mike incantations were deliberate.

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How Good Can the Focal Utopia Headphones Make Remarkable Recordings Sound?

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Art+Tech

May 2023

For most of my “Art+Tech” columns so far I’ve led with the music. More often than not, I’ve used the art to see how well a piece of technology can reproduce it.

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Looking Back 50 Years with Wadada Leo Smith and the NAD C 3050 LE Integrated Amplifier

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Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

April 2023

Composer Wayne Shorter died on March 2 this year, at the age of 89. Along with the release of a massive, career-capping biography of fellow saxophone giant Sonny Rollins, this is a landmark—the symbolic end of a jazz era studded with remarkable iconoclasts. Miles. Monk. Trane. Wayne. Sonny. We all know their unique sounds; hearing them in our heads as soon as those single names pass the lips.

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Vintage Improvisation Meets Contemporary Elac Debut ConneX DCB41 Powered Speakers

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Art+Tech

March 2023

This is a story about creativity, power, and choice. It’s also about breaking from what’s expected and taking a risk in new territory.

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For the Love of Sound: Kenny Barron and the RME ADI-2 DAC FS

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Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

February 2023

When the user’s manual for a desktop DAC has 68 pages—68 pages of very small type—you know you’re not dealing with just another digital-to-analog converter. At $1299 (all prices in USD), RME’s ADI-2 DAC FS isn’t priced like most of its competitors, either. I slid it into the place normally filled by my $199 iFi Audio Zen DAC V2, between my iPad Pro and my Focal Alpha Evo 50 studio monitors.

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Taking the Jazz Detective's Latest Releases to the Woods with the Helm Audio DB12 AAAMP Portable Headphone Amplifier

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Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

January 2023

If there’s a psychiatrist out there who wants to delve into the connection between weather and music, I’d be happy to lie on your couch. Deep in my Canadian psyche is the need to hear extremely buoyant–yet-meditative instrumental jazz on late-autumn days. Pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1973 album Solo Concerts: Bremen / Lausanne is the ideal way to scratch that itch. That stems from the first time I saw Jarrett in concert: a crisp, fall night in 1975, which gave way to an exceptionally snowy morning. I woke to it with his music still in my head.

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Exploring Indie Improv through the Zidoo Neo S 4K UHD Media Player

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Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

October 2022

Most of us shift between multiple media sources as we move through our day.

As a creative resource for several marketing agencies, I’m immersed all day. I spend a lot of time developing video scripts, reviewing motion graphics and proposals for accompanying music, and editing presentations. The rest of the time, when I’m writing, I like to have a soundtrack to match the task and my mood. And then, there are all those music videos and bits and pieces of video from artists’ electronic media kits to keep track of, as well.

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Re-experiencing Jimi Hendrix's Epic Debut through the Marantz Model 40n Integrated Amplifier

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Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

September 2022

Jimi Hendrix turning 80. It’s unfathomable, of course. Would he be dipping into hip-hop? Playing his hits in casinos? To quote one of his later compositions: Who knows?

Read more …

  1. Dafnis Prieto's Expanded Horizons and the Totem Kin Play Tower Powered Speaker System
  2. The iFi Audio Zen One Signature and Go Bar Open the Door to Charles Lloyd’s "Chapel"
  3. Battling Anxiety with Arcade Fire and the Rotel A12MKII Integrated Amplifier-DAC
  4. Up Close with Percussionist Ches Smith through Ollo Audio S4R 1.1 Recording Headphones
  5. Re-evaluating ZZ Top’s "Rio Grande Mud" through Monitor Audio Bronze 100 Bookshelf Speakers
  6. Brawling with Vintage Charles Mingus and the NAD Masters M10 V2 BluOS Streaming Amplifier
  7. Cecil Taylor Dances Out of the Vault and into the Emotiva BasX TA1 Stereo Receiver
  8. Revisiting the Best of 2021 with the NAD C 700 BluOS Streaming Amplifier
  9. Streaming Contemporary Composition Through the EarMen Tradutto DAC
  10. Discovering Contemporary Trios Through the Arcam SA30 Intelligent Integrated Amplifier
  11. Decoding Henry Threadgill through Focal Alpha 50 Evo Studio Monitors
  12. Summer on the Porch with Tom Petty and the Audio Pro Addon C5A Wireless Multiroom Speaker
  13. Time Traveling to Mid-1960s Chicago via AudioQuest's DragonFly Black and Red DACs
  14. The iFi Audio Zen Phono Breathes New Life into Andrew Hill's Missing Masterpiece
  15. Digging Through Bill Evans’s Career with KLH Albany II Bookshelf Loudspeakers
  16. The Sound of Fire—Mahavishnu Orchestra Roars Through the Rotel A11 Tribute Integrated Amplifier
  17. When the Rubber Hits the Road—Celebrating Ornette Coleman with AudioQuest Type 5 Speaker Cables
  18. Unexpected Notes: Exploring Tonal Variations with the Clarus Cable Coda USB DAC with Headphone Amplifier
  19. Channeling Humanity—the Music Hall a15.3 Integrated Amp Reveals the Warmth in a Unique Voice
  20. Boosting the Grooves—"American Beauty" Blossoms Anew by Tweaking My Phono Signal with NAD and AudioQuest
  21. Taking the NAD C 538 to Church. My "Kind of Blue" CD Never Sounded So Good.

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