Focal Dôme Flax Pack 5.1.2 Home-Theater Speaker System

Details: Written by Vince Hanada; Created: 15 May 2020

Focal was founded by Jacques Mahul more than 40 years ago, in Saint-Etienne, France. The company began as an original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) of speaker drivers for other companies while also making their own finished loudspeakers, sold under their JMlab brand, named for Mahul. The company’s full name is still Focal-JMlab, but since 2002 its products have been named simply Focal.

Nap Eyes: "Snapshot of a Beginner"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 May 2020

Jagjaguwar JAG361
Format: CD

Musical Performance

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The rock quartet Nap Eyes, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been around since 2011 and released their first album, Whine of the Mystic, in 2014. Singer Nigel Chapman owes something to Lou Reed, both in his vocal phrasing and in the sophistication of his lyrics, and Nap Eyes has a knack for setting those words to surprising chord changes and ear-catching melodies, all with a garage-rock sensibility. In short, this band writes good songs.

Bass -- How Much Is Enough?

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 May 2020

How much bass do you want your system’s sound to have? A lot? A little? Whatever’s “normal”? But do you actually know how much bass your system reproduces in your room, or how smooth it is -- that is, how devoid of peaks and valleys caused by room modes? What’s the ideal amount of bass? Is there an ideal amount of bass for most listeners? Is the amount of bass affected by the type of music played?

Triangle Borea BR03 Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 May 2020

Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Reviewers' Choice As their logo reveals, French manufacturer Triangle Manufacture Electroacoustique named itself for the simplest musical instrument -- but did they also consider that triangle has the same meaning in at least two languages? This occurred to me a few weeks ago while sitting at the anechoic chamber of Canada’s National Research Council, helping SoundStage! founder-publisher Doug Schneider measure some speakers, including the Triangle BR03. Doug and Randy, the NRC technician taking the measurements, stared at the BR03 and said, almost simultaneously, “I wonder why a French company named themselves Triangle?” I, the only French Canadian in the group, responded with a coy smile: “You do know, guys, that in French, triangle means . . . triangle?” My fellow Canadians looked somewhat embarrassed.

Roger Eno and Brian Eno: "Mixing Colours"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 May 2020

Opal Music/Deutsche Grammophon 0289 483 7771 8
Format: 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC download

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Roger Eno, the younger brother of the far-better-known Brian Eno, has built his own impressive reputation as a composer and instrumentalist. Roger’s first recording, Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks (1983), was a collaboration with Brian and Daniel Lanois. Since then Roger has recorded some 20 albums of his own and has worked with other musicians, including Bill Nelson, of Be Bop Deluxe, and Kate St. John, of Dream Academy. Brian has collaborated on some of these, including the album with St. John, The Familiar (1992); and on 18 Keyboard Studies by Hans Friedrich Micheelsen (2002), which he produced.

Anthem STR Preamplifier-DAC

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 15 April 2020

Reviewers' Choice I’m in favor of using room correction and bass management in multichannel music-and home-theater systems of 5.1+ channels, as well as in 2.1- and 2.2-channel systems. I’ve also argued that anyone with a subwooferless two-channel (2.0) system who’s serious about high-quality sound reproduction should consider using room correction, at the very least in the bass region below the Schroeder frequency, which is room dependent but is typically around 300Hz.

James Taylor: "American Standard"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 April 2020

Fantasy FAN00619
Format: CD

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In his liner note for American Standard, James Taylor describes the album as “a collection of guitar pieces, with solos and support from my regular family of players.” Taylor has often covered tunes by songwriters -- including Chuck Berry, Holland-Dozier-Holland, and Otis Blackwell -- whose work is part of the great tradition of American songcraft. The 14 tunes on American Standard are all from the Great American Songbook, all but one of them pre-dating rock’n’roll -- as Taylor writes, “These are songs I’ve always known.”

Your Listening Seat Matters More than You Might Think

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 April 2020

In my February feature, “My System’s Most Important Component -- My Room,” I mentioned how a system’s sound can be altered by the simplest acoustic tweaks, such as throwing a blanket over a high-backed chair used as the primary listening seat. There’s a personal story behind that.

PSB Alpha T20 / C10 / P3 / S10 Home-Theater Speaker System

Details: Written by Vince Hanada; Created: 01 April 2020

Reviewers' Choice PSB Speakers is one of Canada’s most trusted makers of loudspeakers. Known for innovative designs refined at the world-renowned speaker-testing facility of Canada’s National Research Council, in Ottawa, PSB has pumped out award-winning speakers year after year. When I see the PSB logo, two things pop to mind, and the first is value -- many of their speakers have punched far above their price classes. The second thing is a person: legendary speaker designer Paul Barton, who oversees the design of all PSB speakers.

Avishai Cohen: "Big Vicious"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 April 2020

ECM 2680 (B0031718-02)
Format: CD

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When I received Avishai Cohen’s new album, Big Vicious, and saw that he plays on it trumpet, effects, and synthesizer, I was confused. I’ve written about the jazz double bassist Avishai Cohen, who, it turns out, has not switched to all those other instruments. This world contains at least two Avishai Cohens who are jazz musicians from Israel.