Sensible Sound back issues from June 2003:
Ramblings.
Jun 01, 2003 ... Welcome to Issue 96, which features nothing in particular, just the usual equipment and music reviews, along with a little of this and a little of that. Although there is nothing particularly special about this issue, I do hope that most readers will find a few things that they really ...
Welcome back! (Forum).
Jun 01, 2003; ... After a brief hiatus from The $ensible Sound I have received the issues I missed, and I am now back with the program. After perusing just one issue I am reminded that T$S is without a doubt my favorite audio magazine. Thank you for such a sane, substantive, enjoyable and, yes, $ensible ...
I Weissenborn yet in 1920. (Forum).
Jun 01, 2003; ... In the Feb/Mar 2003 issue, you mentioned in your review of Jorma Kaukonen's album, "Blue Country Heart," that you didn't know what a Weissenborn was. I am sure you have received a number of responses, but in case you haven't ... It is an acoustic guitar, designed and originally ...
We're all yuppies on this bus. (Forum).
Jun 01, 2003; ... A few years back The $ensible Sound along with a couple of other audio magazines reviewed Sound Dynamics (RTS 3 and others) loudspeakers with glowing praise for producing great sound for little money and now they aren't mentioned anywhere in any of the staff picks (that I can tell). Sound ...
What we have here is a failure to communicate. (Forum).
Jun 01, 2003; ... I enjoy reading The $ensible Sound, especially for music reviews. However, I fail to understand the need for some 'reviewers' to flaunt their anti-vinyl bias every chance they get. If they cannot hear the advantage in musicality that vinyl exhibits, perhaps they should open their wallets a ...
Goin' to a show-show. (Surveying The Soundscape).
Jun 01, 2003 ... For the past few years, I've set myself a goal before taking off for the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Once it was to spot DVD players that could play CD-R and CD-RW discs (no longer an issue). Another time it was to find a phono stage with a stereo-mono switch (still an ...
A hi-fi visit to Minnesota. (Straits of the Art).
Jun 01, 2003 ... My wife and I recently made a trip through parts of the Midwest to visit relatives and fill in genealogy blanks. Our itinerary included an extended stay in the Minneapolis area, enabling us to visit AtmaSphere, Audio by Van Alstine, Magnepan, and the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting. ...
Are copied CDs sonically inferior to the original? (Straits of the Art).
Jun 01, 2003 ... Stereo is on its way out no matter what the traditionalists say. As a very young classical music aficionado (not even 10 years old) I remember the golden ear naysayers throwing up their hands in horror when the LP replaced the 78 record. Then they just threw up when the Stereo LP replaced ...
Atma-Sphere S-30 Mk. II power amplifier. (Components).
Jun 01, 2003; ... Manufacturer: Atma-Sphere, Inc., 160 South Wheeler, St. Paul, MN 55105 USA 651/690-2246; http://www.atma-sphere.com Price: $2,850 Source: Manufacturer Loan Reviewer: Tom Lyle Atma-Sphere, which Ralph Karsten started in 1978, is the oldest ...
ELAC 205-Jet loudspeakers. (Components).
Jun 01, 2003; ... Manufacturer: ELAC Electroacoustic GmbH, Kiel, Germany; www.elac.com Distributor: Trian Electronics, Inc., 5816 Highway K, Waunakee, WI 53597; 608/850-3600; www.triancorp.com Price: $1,278/pr Source: Distributor Loan Reviewer: Thom Moon ...
Infinity Kappa 600 floorstanding loudspeaker. (Components).
Jun 01, 2003; ... Manufacturer: Infinity, 250 Crossways Park Drive, Woodbury, NY 11797; 800/553-3332; www.infinitysystems.com Price: $2,499/pair Source: Manufacturer Loan Reviewer: Glenn Strauss This handsome, beautifully crafted loudspeaker is capable of highly ...
Music Reference RM-10 stereo vacuum tube power amplifier. (Components).
Jun 01, 2003; ... Manufacturer: Music Reference/RAM Tube Works, Santa Barbara, CA; 805/687-2236 www.ramlabs-musicreference.com; ramlabs@silcom.com Price: $1,475 Source: Manufacture's Loan Reviewer: Tom Lyle The Music Reference RM-10 isn't puny, but I'm tempted to ...
Panamax 5510 AC regenerator power conditioner. (Components).
Jun 01, 2003; ... Manufacturer: Panamax, 1690 Corporate Circle, Petaluma, CA 94954; 707/283-5900; www.panamax.com Source: Manufacturer loan Price: $1,299 Reviewer: Tom Lyle The Panamax 5510 is more than just an ordinary power conditioner--it is the most complete ...
Velodyne Deco series speaker package. (Components).
Jun 01, 2003; ... Manufacturer: Velodyne Acoustics, 1070 Commercial Street, Suite #101, San Jose, CA 95112; 408/436-7270; velodyne@earthlink.net Price: $1,499 (Satellite list price: $149) Source: Reviewer Loan Reviewer: Howard Ferstler Back in issue 85 I reviewed ...
Von Schweikert Audio LCR-35 loudspeaker. (Components).
Jun 01, 2003; ... Manufacturer: Von Schweikert Audio, 204 Greenfield Drive, Unit F, El Cajon, CA 92020; (619) 444-7136; www.vonschweikert.com Price: $1,695 Source: Manufacturer Loan Reviewer: Glenn Strauss Weighing in at 55 pounds, touting dimensions of 26.5"W x ...
Home theater ramblings. (Components).
Jun 01, 2003 ... I have been requesting audio/video receivers since I noticed the newest models touted at the CES. I admit that checking the shipping weights of some of these new models gave me serious pause for thought. Unfortunately, most electronic firms do not ship these behemoths with burly installers ...
More jazz than not. (The Music).
Jun 01, 2003 ... Bach/Webern: Ricercar Munich Chamber Orchestra/The Hilliard Ensemble/ Christoph Poppen This is something of a strange duck--flawed but fascinating. The program opens and closes with performances of a fugue from Bach's Musical Offering, arranged for chamber music by Anton Webern ....
Double double. (The Music).
Jun 01, 2003 ... Last time around, Tom Lyle and Ye Grumpy Olde Editor did what we usually do in this column, independently auditioning two competing recordings of large-scale orchestral music--and yes, we mean really large-scale--Bruckner's Symphony No. 8. This time around, however, we decided to try ...
Carousel corner! (The Music).
Jun 01, 2003 ... "Where are they now?" --Gen. Tommy Franks Although digging into the past is largely Steve Baird's province--especially when it comes to reissues--none of us collects music for the simple pleasure of playing it for a while when it's popular, then consigning it to the ...
Scoping software. (The Music).
Jun 01, 2003 ... Standard Stereo Recordings Buxtehude, Dietrich: Organ Music, Volume 2. Julia Brown, playing the Brombaugh Organ, Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, Oregon. Recorded in 2001. Engineer not listed. 64+ minutes. Naxos 8.555775. Volume 2 of this series has a somewhat ...
Debussy: Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune; three Nocturnes; Pelleas et Melisande, concert suite.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 289 471 332-2. It's always a joy, of course, to listen to the Berlin Philharmonic, but why does DG so often keep these things under wraps for so long? This recording was made in 1998 and was only just released in America in 2002 ....
From the Isles to the Courts.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Ensemble Galilei. Telarc SACD-60536. Telarc released the regular two-channel stereo version of this album in 2000, and I'm assuming because of the excellent quality of its sonics they are releasing it again in this discrete, DSD five-channel SACD edition. According to their disc ...
Hovhaness: Mysterious Mountains.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Gerard Schwarz, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Telarc CD-80604. Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) was one of the last of the Romantics, a composer who still believed that music should be enjoyed for its melodies, its harmonies, its sheer beauty of expression rather than any ...
Paul Kletzki: Great Conductors of the 20th Century.
Jun 01, 2003; ... EMI 7243 5 75468 2 9. The bigger studios continue to mine their vaults for old material in new packaging, sometimes becoming redundant, sometimes finding gold. In the case of EMI's latest issue of remasterings, titled "Great Conductors of the 20th Century," they have provided a ...
New Year's Concert 2003.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 289 474 250-2. It seems like the Vienna Philharmonic has been playing these New Year's Day concerts since the beginning of time, but the tradition actually got started in 1941 and has been going strong ever since. They've ...
PentaTone Classics: Remastered Quadro Recordings from the Philips and Decca catalogues.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Those of you who were around in the seventies will remember something called Quadraphonics, an ill-fated attempt to reproduce four discrete signals from a vinyl phonograph record. A few companies tried to use the process to enhance the realism of the listening experience, but too many ...
Ries: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Howard Griffiths, Zurich Chamber Orchestra. CPO 999 836-2. Sometimes a guy can't win for losing. After Beethoven took the musical world by storm in the early nineteenth century, the works of fellow European composers were faulted either for copying the great man's style too ...
Sentimento.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Andrea Bocelli; Lorin Maazel, London Symphony Orchestra. Philips 289 470 400-2. Esteemed conductor and violinist Lorin Maazel tells us in the booklet note that his father was an ardent admirer of the early-20th-century violin-tenor duets of Fritz Kreisler and John McCormack, ...
Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, etc.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Rudolf Kempe, Staatskapelle Dresden. EMI 7243 5 74756 2 4. If you are a devoted fan of Richard Strauss, you already have Kempe's three boxed sets of most of the composer's orchestral material, all of it recorded with the Dresden Staatskapelle in the early to mid seventies. Kempe ...
Stravinsky: Petrouchka; the Firebird Suite; Scherzo a la Russe.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Paavo Jarvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Telarc CD-80587. "Well, I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog," says the stranger in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." With so many competing performances of the world's ...
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, complete.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Dmitry Yablonsky, Russian State Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.555873-74 (2 discs). You would expect a Russian conductor and a Russian orchestra to be sympathetic to the music of Tchaikovsky. They were all brought up on Swan Lake. Yet there is something less than thrilling in this ...
Telemann: Flute Concertos.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Emmanuel Pahud, Berliner Barock Solisten. EMI 7243 5 57397 2-8. You'd hardly know this was music from the Baroque period, the tunes are so fluid, so harmoniously flowing, gentle, and lyrical. Even the fast movements are taken at a leisurely pace, making the whole sixty-six ...
Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony.
Jun 01, 2003; ... Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Telarc CD-80588. On the one hand I have to applaud maestro Spano for choosing Vaughan Williams' First Symphony, "A Sea Symphony," as a vehicle for displaying the talents of his Atlanta orchestra and chorus. On the other hand, ...