Worldwide distributors, key retailers, representatives of Fine Sounds Group-associated companies McIntosh and Audio Research as well members of the audio press gathered at Sonus Faber’s Vicenza Italy factory March 26th throu the 29th to celebrate in grand Italian style the speaker company’s 30th anniversary.
The celebration’s focal point was the all new X3ma loudspeaker, which was developed over the past year and a half by Sonus Faber’s design team using as its inspiration the original 1991 Extrema, a legendary stand mounted design that extracted maximum and at the time seemingly impossibly performance from a two-way loudspeaker.
The press release says "remastered from the original analog tapes by Jimmy Page and pressed at Pallas" but of course we know that Page did not cut the lacquers. Not a problem. But when it says "remastered from the original analog tapes" does that mean "to digital" for CD and LP reissue? Or does that mean the lacquers were cut from the original analog tapes?
Last Record Store Day Sony/Legacy reissued three Paul Simon albums: his eponymous solo debut (not counting 1965's U.K.-issued Paul Simon Songbook), There Goes Rhymin' Simon and this record. While all three are musically fine, if you're thinking of buying just one, my vote goes for this one.
VPI demoed its new Nomad headphone-based turntable last Saturday, March 22nd at the Doylestown, PA headquarters of online vendor Soundstagedirect.com. On hand were the Soundstagedirect folks of course, including company numero uno Seth Franks as well as VPI president Matt Weisfeld and a crew too humorous to mention. Members of the press and public were also in attendance.
True Coltrane wasn't yet producing "sheets of sound"—limiting himself maybe to just "pillowcases of sound", but he was still hot to Milt Jackson's cool so this was an interesting experiment—one that succeeded beautifully.