Analog Corner

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #95
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 17, 2018  |  First Published: Jun 01, 2003  |  1 comments
Whether it's to offer a "relaxed fit" to make life easier for analog lovers, or because both Scan-Tech and Immutable Music believe that they've found a way to offer better performance with higher output, the Lyra Titan ($5000) and Transfiguration Temper W ($4000) offer considerably higher output than the "statement' models they replace.
Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #94
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 12, 2018  |  First Published: May 01, 2003  |  1 comments
I first spotted this chrome-trimmed beauty in the UK a few years ago, when Avid still had no American importer. The opportunity to review it finally arose last January, right after CES, and while I still had the SME 30/2 turntable. The $10,000 Avid Acutus is every bit as deserving of a full review as the 30/2—I am reviewing it in "Analog Corner" only because this is my best chance of getting a review into print so soon after my March 2003 report on the SME.
Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #93
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 07, 2018  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2003  |  0 comments
If you'd asked me 10 years ago to predict where a purveyor of mostly analog gear would be throwing a party at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show, I probably would have said Denny's—not the the elegant Presidential Suite atop the Mandalay Bay, the Las Vegas strip's most formal hotel. Yet that's where Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor shared the analog wealth with the press and the industry during one cocktail hour at last January's Show.
Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #92
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 26, 2018  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2003  |  10 comments
"Why would anyone pay $74,000 for a turntable?" sputtered Peter Panarisi. Aston Martin's product press officer was showing me around the company's V12 Vanquish production facility in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England. "What does it have to do," he continued incredulously, while showing me how they hand-build the ca $240,000, 460bhp, 190mph two-seater, "but turn the record?"

I'll spare you my retort...

Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #91
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 20, 2018  |  First Published: Feb 01, 2003  |  5 comments
There was a reference to a SOTA turntable in an episode of The Sopranos in the fall of 2002. Tony's son, A.J., and a pal were visiting a wealthy girlfriend when the pal popped out from the hallway and exclaimed, "A mint copy of Rubber Soul! That must be worth a fortune! And a SOTA turntable!" This was in or near the same episode in which Tony was outfitted with a sophisticated front-projection home-theater system. I'd wondered since the first season why a man of his means has been watching a 27", 4:3 Philips analog tube. I'm trying to find out who's the audio/videophile among The Sopranos' cast and crew.
Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #90
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 13, 2018  |  First Published: Jan 01, 2003  |  0 comments
Acoustic Sounds' Chad Kassem (right) with viola player Stephen Tees, during the recording of Stereophile's Mosaic CD in Blue Heaven Studios. (Photo: John Atkinson)

Back in the mid-1980s, how many guys do you figure were hauling milk crates full of used LPs around America, from record fair to record fair? Hundreds? Thousands? How many are still doing it now?

That's how and when Acoustic Sounds' Chad Kassem got started—in, of all places, Salina, Kansas...

Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #89
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 28, 2018  |  First Published: Dec 01, 2002  |  2 comments
Max Townshend's Rock Reference Master turntable (photo: Dan Meinwald).

The day was more unsettling than I'd imagined. Flying the evening of 9/11 to attend Hi-Fi News's 2002 Hi-Fi Show and AV Expo produced more relief than anxiety, though I did have a Rod Serling moment when my room at the Heathrow Le Meridien turned out to be 5911.

Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #88
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 20, 2018  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2002  |  9 comments
I got into one of my snits this morning while reading the "Circuits" section of the New York Times. Michel Marriott was heralding the introduction of yet another portable music format, DataPlay. Each encased DataPlay disc, about the size of a quarter, can hold 500MB vs CD's 650MB. Prerecorded discs will sell for between $18 and $22, blanks for $5, and the first player-burner for $350! I yucked so hard that coffee got up my nose . . .
Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #87
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 06, 2018  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2002  |  11 comments
Jonathan Carr (above) sat on the edge of an Ekornes Stressless chair, polishing the blades of my system's AC cords with an almost sexual fervor and intensity. Carr, the talented designer of the Lyra phono cartridges, was on a mission. First we played "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio," from an original white-label pressing of Joni Mitchell's For the Roses (Asylum/Atlantic SD 5057). After the polishing—almost an hour's worth—we played it again. The difference was not subtle but enormous—as if we'd changed an expensive component. The increase in clarity and focus and the diminution of grunge and hash were easily noticeable, as was the overall richer, warmer sound.
Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #86
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 25, 2018  |  First Published: Sep 01, 2002  |  2 comments
VPI's Harry Weisfeld shows off the aluminum platter for the TNT HR-X turntable at Home Entertainment 2002.

Was I spoiled by the proliferation of analog gear at the High End 2002 show in Frankfurt, Germany? Nah. Home Entertainment 2002 just wasn't a very analog show. Some new and exciting gear appeared, and there were plenty of turntables playing vinyl. But the agenda of HE2002 was multichannel sound and home theater. That's what the organizers wanted, and, at least on the surface, that's what they got. They also got almost 15,000 attendees—a major increase over last year's turnout at the same venue, the New York Hilton.

Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #85
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 11, 2018  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2002  |  12 comments
A.J. van den Hul's vintage, limited-edition Thorens Reference turntable was a hit at the 2002 Frankfurt Show.

"I was worried about doing it," Speakers Corner's Kai Seemann told me. "If it didn't sell, I'd be out a substantial sum, but I took a chance and pressed 1500 copies, figuring if I did manage to sell them all, it would probably take three years."

Seemann was talking about Ella Fitzgerald's legendary 1950s Gershwin Song Book boxed set, originally released on Verve, which his reissue label had meticulously reproduced on vinyl. "Seven months later, and they're all gone!" he exclaimed wonderingly.

Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #84
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 02, 2018  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2002  |  3 comments
Sign of the times: My local Compact Disc World store in Paramus, New Jersey, now has a vinyl section—a good one. The LPs are selling well enough that some folks I know shop there often so they don't miss out. Even Burger King is in on the action. If the artwork on its new soft-drink cup is any indication, the fast-food franchise has transferred its familiar "Have it your way" slogan from hamburgers to music carriers...
Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #83
Michael Fremer  |  May 17, 2018  |  First Published: Jun 01, 2002  |  3 comments
A recent bid on eBay won me mono copies of Nat King Cole's Love is the Thing and Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Plays. The descriptions said that the records had some "marks" but that they "shouldn't affect play." The rest of the wording led me to suspect that the seller knew nothing about vinyl, but since the winning bid was $3.15 ($5.65 with shipping), why not take a chance? I have some mono records that look unsalvageable but play fine—especially using the mono Helikon cartridge.
Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #82
Michael Fremer  |  May 07, 2018  |  First Published: May 01, 2002  |  5 comments
Setting tonearm geometry with Wally Malewicz's WallyTools (see later)

In his "Manufacturer's Comment" response to my writeup on the VPI Aries Extended turntable in March 2002, Harry Weisfeld wrote that, among other things, he wasn't pleased with what I'd set his 'table on. So I tried supporting the VPI with a piece of very heavy slate resting on six of those big AudioQuest Sorbothane half-spheres and made a series of recordings of LP tracks on the Alesis Masterlink's hard drive at 24-bits/96kHz.

Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #81
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 23, 2018  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2002  |  0 comments
Classic Records' Michael Hobson announced at the 2002 CES that he is releasing 15 Blue Note mono albums.

My assignment: to cover analog at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show. Want the bad news first? There wasn't any bad news. The good news started with a flood of new software. Fresh vinyl will help drive hardware sales while preventing the industry from trading solely in nostalgia.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X