At AXPONA 2019 Western Electric's Charles Whitener introduced me to Russ Hamm, president of Sonic Presence, a company that manufactures the VR15-USB Spatial Microphone™ a headphone-like in-ear microphone system that turns your head into a virtual "dummy head", which for some of us is easy! While that was interesting, it was Mr. Hamm's earlier experience as president of Gotham Audio in New York that got my interest.
The picture purposely obscures this moving magnet cartridge installed in the Rega Planar 8 tonearm plugged into the Graham Slee Accession. That's because I don't want you to know its identity. Rather, please listen to the file and tell everyone how much you'd be willing to pay for it and how you think it sounds.
"Making Vinyl" Berlin is a week away (May 2nd and 3rd). AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer will attend and moderate a few interesting panels. No doubt there will be news and an update on the progress being made to realize the promise of HD Vinyl. However, at last fall's "Making Vinyl" in Detroit there was HD Vinyl news that got "caught in the cracks" and was never published.
For almost two decades now British phono preamp manufacturer Graham Slee has been designing, producing and selling specialized high quality phono preamplifiers. His latest is the $1449 Accession, an unusually versatile model that includes a volume pot, which means the Accession can be used as preamplifier to drive a power amplifier. If all you plan on doing is playing records using one turntable and a moving magnet cartridge (or a high output MC or moving iron), the Accession obviates the need for a separate preamplifier.
Pro-Ject’s DS2 USB combines in one chassis a versatile MM/MC phono preamplifier and a high resolution A/D converter capable of digitizing at up to 192/24 bit PCM or 128 DSD (A/K/A “double DSD”). It’s a feature-packed unit that includes 2 independently adjustable phono inputs and a line input and both USB and optical TOSlink digital outputs as well as an analog output. An outboard 18V “Wall Wart” powers it.
The annual WFMU Record Fair comes to the Brooklyn Expo Center this Friday through Sunday featuring 28,000 square feet of records, 45s, CDs (?), books, collectibles and the usual gang of idiots plus live bands and broadcasts. This is always a great show just like they used to make them except that with the Internet prices are more uniform (though there are still bargains from vendors who don't know certain "stuff").
Let's just say I went into the TechDAS Air Force Zero's recent debut at The Audio Salon in Santa Monica with a great deal of skepticism. A big, lumbering turntable featuring an enormous and massive multi-layer platter system seemed like a prescription for over-damped, ill focused sound. What we heard those two evenings was anything but! By the way, what you see towards the bottom of the platter is not a reflection. That is the lower part of the platter!
It seems appropriate to review Rhino’s sumptuous 4 LP set Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace The Complete Recordings, her enduring gospel album recorded in a Los Angeles church and released in June of 1972 on Atlantic Records, two days after Kanye West’s Easter morning “gospel service” at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival before 50,000 fans.
Here's the second part of AnalogPlanet's AXPONA 2019 analog coverage. Covering it all required all three show days and did not allow even a minute's worth of listening. It was all running from room to room. I think I caught everything new introduced at the show other than the debut of the Dynavector DV17dx MC cartridge mounted on the Well Tempered 254 in the Stereo Haven room. The snowstorm forced me to leave the show early on Sunday so I could catch a flight out I was able to get booked on after my original scheduled for 8:30PM was cancelled. Apologies to Dynavector American importer Mike Pranka!
AXPONA 2019 held this past April 12th-15th at the Schaumberg Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center, established the show as North America's pre-eminent audio event. It was the largest show of its kind in terms of industry participation and when the attendance numbers are announced probably attendance-wise as well.