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Latest

"The Trinity Session": Recorded to R-DAT?

Details
SoundStage! Encore

March 2021

In November 1987, Canada’s Cowboy Junkies recorded the tracks for The Trinity Session, which, when released one year later, received worldwide critical acclaim. It was recorded in The Church of the Holy Trinity, located in downtown Toronto, Canada.

Read more …

Unexpected Notes: Exploring Tonal Variations with the Clarus Cable Coda USB DAC with Headphone Amplifier

Details
Art+Tech

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

March 2021

Everyone has songs in their memory bank they can call forth at will—tunes that relate to special moments, or just pieces they’ve heard so often they can hum them note for note.

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The Gear You'll Need to Set Up Your Own Recording Studio

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Pulse!

March 2021

Hi—I’m glad you’re back. In this month’s column I share the results of the thought experiment I teased you about last month.

Not very long ago, the cost of the gear needed to effectively record a band or any kind of small music group would be prohibitive without your having to take out a loan. But with today’s powerful computers and the increasing sophistication of hardware modeling, working entirely “in the box”—that is, not using a traditional mixing console and such analog processing hardware as compressors and equalizers, but their software equivalents—is not only feasible but is increasingly the norm.

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Mark Feldman: "Sounding Point"

Details
CD music

March 2021

Intakt 354
Format: CD

Musical Performance
*****

Sound Quality
*****

Overall Enjoyment
****

There’s a truism in music that well-trained classical musicians can’t improvise or swing enough to play jazz, and that jazz musicians who read well can perform the classics but can’t sound authentic playing folk music like country or blues. It’s not really a knock against musicians; you wouldn’t want a brain surgeon to replace your hip, either. The fact is, the deeper you go into a specialty, the more constrained you are.

Read more …

EcoXGear EcoLantern Bluetooth Speaker

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Music Everywhere

March 2021

With this innovative product, EcoXGear takes another step toward making sure you have music wherever you go. Their EcoLantern ($129.99 USD) gives you sound or light or both—perfect for campers, it can also be used in the back yard.

Read more …

"The Parallax View"

Details
Blu-ray movies

February 2021

Alan J. Pakula’s Masterpiece of Paranoia on BD

The Criterion Collection 1064
Format: BD

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****1/2

Sound Quality
****

Extras
***1/2

The Parallax View (1974) is the second of what has been called director Alan J. Pakula’s Paranoia Trilogy, bracketed by Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976). Although each film deals with a conspiracy, only the last is based on historical events.

Read more …

Channeling Humanity—the Music Hall a15.3 Integrated Amp Reveals the Warmth in a Unique Voice

Details
Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements for the Music Hall a15.3 from the SoundStage! Audio Electronics Lab, click this link.

February 2021

In opera, musical theater, the blues, country music, and, of course, in pop music, the human voice is an essential instrument. The skilled application of breath, glottal manipulation, timbre, tone, and other singing techniques can touch our hearts, draw a tear, raise a smile. It’s straight from human throat to human ear; there is no more elemental communication.

Read more …

Mark Phillips: Audiophile, Recording Engineer, and Now SoundStage! Contributor

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Pulse!

February 2021

Hi, and welcome to SoundStage! Xperience. My name’s Mark Phillips, and I’ve had a lifelong love affair with music and audio. I suspect that’s true for y’all, too. My path here to the SoundStage! family of websites may be unusual, but then, there’s no established career path for audio reviewing. Being a good writer isn’t enough—just as important are years of critical listening. I liken it to the training a sommelier goes through, but refining the sense of hearing instead of smell and taste. My training in critical listening came from being a recording engineer, first for classical and jazz recitals at a large university, and later, mostly rock in my own studio and independently. I left the field not long before the digital audio workstation (DAW) revolutionized recording.

Read more …

Chris Potter: "There Is a Tide"

Details
CD music

February 2021

Edition EDN1168
Format: CD

Musical Performance
***

Sound Quality
***

Overall Enjoyment
****

If history tells us anything about what we’ve all been living through in the past year, it’s safe to predict that millions of words will be written about the lasting effects the pandemic and our various forms of isolation will have on how we live. One of the most thought-provoking observations I’ve heard directly came from the gifted young jazz pianist Christian Sands.

Read more …

EcoXGear EcoExtreme 2 Bluetooth Speaker and Waterproof Case

Details
Music Everywhere

February 2021

Grace Digital’s EcoXGear brand of sports and outdoor speakers includes some of their most innovative concepts and designs, and has become the company’s biggest moneymaker. The EcoExtreme 2 is a waterproof Bluetooth speaker and a waterproof case in which you can safely store your smartphone or music player, along with a good assortment of accessories. Rugged as a bulldog at its attractive price of $79.99 USD, it seems ideal for the sports enthusiast who wants everything in one place.

Read more …

"Minding the Gap"

Details
Blu-ray movies

January 2021

Raw and Riveting Documentary About a Lot More than Skateboards

The Criterion Collection 1061
Format: BD

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****

Sound Quality
****

Extras
****

While best known for their restorations of classic films, once in a while The Criterion Collection deems something recent worthy of its attentions—such as Minding the Gap (2018), the first feature-length film to be directed by Chinese-American cameraman Bing Liu. It’s less “a skateboarding movie” than a riveting documentary on the lasting effects of domestic abuse.

Read more …

Boosting the Grooves—"American Beauty" Blossoms Anew by Tweaking My Phono Signal with NAD and AudioQuest

Details
Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements for the NAD PP 2e from the SoundStage! Audio Electronics Lab, click this link.

January 2021

As a professional writer, I’ve spent a lot of my life interviewing electrical engineers about technology and then communicating how things work to lay audiences. From the basics of sending voices down copper lines to cloud storage for data, I like to think I’ve done a good job of explaining technology. And while I could do the same with the way physical vibrations are generated on a record and transformed into sound, there’s a black magic to that particular feat of engineering that always makes me shake my head in wonder.

Read more …

iHome Playtough Pro iBT158 Bluetooth Speaker

Details
Music Everywhere

January 2021

iHome makes a wealth of Bluetooth speaker models, many of them including light shows. I ordered the Playtough Pro iBT158 ($79.99 USD) for its intriguing light-show rings and because it’s waterproof and dustproof.

Read more …

Jimi Hendrix, Curated

Details
Curator

January 2021

In September 1966, when James Marshall Hendrix arrived in London to record his debut album, fronting his own band, he was just two months shy of his 24th birthday. He had been playing professionally since 1962, when he and bassist Billy Cox had left the US Army, where they met, and moved to Nashville. While he was in Tennessee, Hendrix played on the Chitlin’ Circuit, sometimes referred to as the urban theater circuit. These were venues in the South, the Eastern Seaboard, and the Midwest that featured African-American performers. Hendrix backed a number of soul singers during his time on the circuit, including Wilson Pickett and Sam Cooke.

Read more …

  1. Sonny Rollins: "Rollins in Holland"
  2. "Moonstruck"
  3. High-Res Recording for Musical Authenticity
  4. Taking the NAD C 538 to Church. My "Kind of Blue" CD Never Sounded So Good.
  5. JBL Go 3 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
  6. The Nels Cline Singers' "Share the Wealth" and Dave Douglas's "Marching Music"
  7. "The Hit"
  8. Audioengine A1 Powered Bluetooth Loudspeakers
  9. Cindy Blackman Santana: "Give the Drummer Some"
  10. "Brute Force"
  11. JBL Link Music Wi-Fi Speaker
  12. Marvin Gaye's "What’s Going On" Curated
  13. Ron Miles: “Rainbow Sign”
  14. "The Comfort of Strangers"
  15. Audioengine B-Fi Multiroom Music Streamer

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