by Michael

Quartet Equinox – Philip's Wish SACD (hybrid)

We were sent this nice CD from www.QuartetEquinox.com.


It is definitely audiophile grade. Lots of separation and very quiet backgrounds.


The music itself is a mix, mostly quiet jazz but a few numbers are, well, now as quiet. Still, every song would do well at an audiophile show. Sort of in the Diana Krall kind of genre but without any singing.


I played this for a group of people the same night we heard the new Frampton and new Hendrix.

This Quartet Equinox SACD is definitively a very high quality recording. As good as the new FIM? Yes, could be. A little hard to tell with just this one CD, and with not very complex music. But it is indeed very close… a contender!

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Music 0 comments
 by Michael

Opera and Classical Music Channels

Some of the most fun I have had on Mattters is learning more about what is out there in the Opera Music and Classical Music genres.

These channels are actually quite popular, especially considering their lack of overwhelming popularity in our youth-centered culture. Especially considering that in my learned opinion it takes a relatively high fidelity system to make opera, and especially classical, sound decent [today’s word must be ‘especially’].

By sound decent I mean that it, well, when it does not sound decent, classical music, and uh, esp. opera sounds irritating to me. Without resolution, uh, esp., Classical becomes a mish-mash and when there isn’t a easily identifiable melody, like say Beethoven’s 5th, is becomes boring.

Resolution also helps Opera not become some women screeching at ya. Harmonic structure, and whatever else that goes into hearing the emotion is the singer’s voice is what makes opera ‘come alive’ for me. Opera, uh, in particular, has been heard so many times on inferior equipment that I, personally, have a hard time unlearning that opera is, well, horrible. Each time we sit down and listen to opera here – I say to myself, look self, listen to the music and see if you like it – do not just automatically tune it out because you have hated it all these years.

To the rest of you, I might suggest you listen to some Heavy Metal and even hip hop, if not rap [which turns some people off because of its political overtones], and see if on your awesome setup it doesn’t have some redeeming musical value that you may have over-looked because most of the time you hear it, often in the back ground, on inferior equipment.

As you all know, Jazz and Pop sound good on about any system… or at least it is accessible and doesn’t completely offend even the sad-sack ears of the average listener [oh, there I go being a ‘snobbish audiophile’ [sorry, I do not save links to all the people who describe audiophiles with this adjective]. Have to say it is hard not to be snobbish when the average person thinks so little of themselves that all they think about is LOW LOW PRICE when thinking about when making buying decisions of any kind (though the iPhone and iPad seem to do OK- but besides Bose, who does marketing like this to the general public in our industry? Hardly anybody].

[Putting in all these links to everywhere is so much fun. I would add one of those previewer widgets so you can see what the links point at, but I usually find the one most people use annoying. We’ll see…]

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Music 0 comments
 by Michael

News of the Week

A lot of unrated bits and pieces.

Apparently Hi-Fi+

was in dire straits when it was purchased.

Besides that nugget, 98% of what goes on Audio Asylum is bickering. So, yeah, nothing new there.

Mike (me) is miffed

that 1/2 of the hallway A on the 29th floor of the large photos section of the CES report was missing the photos and commentary and no one (NO ONE) told him (me). 😉

I have been listening

to a hip-hop radio station and it is great. Well, except for the repeating of about 10 songs over and over (not kidding) and the SHOUTING at me between songs to buy stuff, or, as often as not, telling me HOW GREAT they are that they are not running a commercial that particular moment.

But they play the Hip Hop’s that is a blend of techno (electronics), disco (it has a beat), rap (one can understand the words and they use a lot of slang) and soul (it is not angry like rap, instead it is more like love songs and good times). Anyway, sometimes it is nice for a pick-me-up, and then switching to the classical station at the first commercial to balance out the hormones and minimize the speeding ticket income of the local police.

Let’s see.

The Kegon Balanced

amps kick butt. They control the Kharmas like nothing else I have heard. I just sit there and listen to them and it is so fun, switching between the glory of the harmonic structure and the beauty of the music and the impressiveness of he control.

Solid state amps on the Kharmas, and probably on everything, can be likened to SHOUTING [I know, twice in one post with the all caps shouting. What is with that?] when they get loud. The drive the speaker by punishing it. By throwing watts at it. But a great tube amp drives it by controlling it with an iron fist.

I am not saying that solidstate amps don;t have their place. Sometimes we want to punish the senses, to push them aggressively. After work, sometimes we might want to let off some steam, or to get a little rowdy.

Kind of like a couple of shots of tequila versus a glass of fine wine. I’ve enjoyed both [and now enjoy neither] and it is great that music, and our systems, can be tailored to suit our every mood and desire… 😉

Danny Kaey reviews

the Audi car stereo over on sonicflare. This is probably a step above the one in my Audi S8, even though I had it replaced about 6 months ago [a pushbutton on the dash had fallen off, so they replaced the whole unit. Ah, German engineering. You have to love it. You have to wonder why.]. As I get older [yes, it happens here at Audio Federation too, darn it] I wouldn’t mind taking a look at that A8 V12. But just a look, mind you. A good… long…. look.

Oh, the stereo is decent. It is well-balanced, top to bottom for what it has to work with. A little tipped up [or more like pumped up, the port frequency of the door?] in the bass to counter the bass of the wheels on the road. I don’t listen to XM or Sirius – which needs like a tube radio or something to be moire than just bearable, it is so bright and neutral sounding [aka DIGITAL]. The stereo, for me, is better than the ones in the less expensive Audis and was way better than the Levinson in the Lexus, the Levinson being worse than the cheaper Bose in the Lexus. So, the Audi Bose system is nice, but no great shakes… it is not audiophile, IMHO.

in Audio Note / CES 2008 / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Music / News 0 comments