MartinLogan Motion 60XTi Loudspeakers

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

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

Reviewers' Choice Q: What are those funny-looking speakers in Joey and Chandler’s apartment on Friends?

A: MartinLogans!

It’s fair to say that MartinLogan is at least partially responsible for popularizing the electrostatic speaker.

Gene Clark: "No Other"

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

4AD 0070 LDX
Format: 2 CDs

Musical Performance

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Overall Enjoyment

Singer-songwriter Gene Clark’s career was filled with the kinds of bad decisions, personal problems, and bad timing that lead to cult status for someone who should have been a star. As a founding member of the Byrds, Clark wrote or cowrote some of their most popular songs, including “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” and “Eight Miles High.” He left the Byrds in 1966, after three albums, and over the next few years released two solo albums, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers (1967) and White Light (1971), that were early examples of country rock and Americana.

Digitizing and Room-Correcting for Vinyl -- Taking Full Advantage of the Anthem STR Preamplifier's Phono Stage

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

In my December feature on SoundStage! Access, “Setting Up Speakers and Subwoofers Using Anthem’s STR Preamplifier with ARC Genesis,” I discussed my experience of using the sophisticated Anthem Room Correction Genesis software built into the STR Preamplifier. I explained the many benefits of ARC Genesis, outlined a shortcoming of using ARC Genesis in my own system, and wondered, given that the STR Preamplifier has a built-in phono stage, what it might be like to apply ARC Genesis to my record player’s output. Of course, that last would require digitizing my cartridge’s signal -- sacrilege to the analogophile.

Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport

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

The UK company Audiolab has been around since the early 1980s. Some readers may know or remember them as TAG McLaren Audio -- the ownership and branding changed in 1997, but in 2003 TAG McLaren ceased production, and in 2004 Audiolab, once again under its original name, became part of the International Audio Group.

The Who: "Who"

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

Interscope/Polydor B0031280-02
Format: CD

Musical Performance

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I reacted to the news that the Who were releasing a new album with “Ho-hum. [pause] Oh, man -- really?”

Thorens TD 206 Turntable and TAS 267 Cartridge

Details: Written by Thom Moon; Created: 15 December 2019

Reviewers' Choice When I became obsessed with high-quality audio -- in the 1960s, when woolly mammoths roamed the earth -- there were two serious choices for playing records. There was the automatic turntable, which could play as many as a half-dozen LPs in sequence. (Back then, the six sides of, say, an opera recorded on three LPs would be numbered like so: disc one, sides 1 and 6; disc two, sides 2 and 5; disc three, sides 3 and 4. Stack the discs on the spindle, sides 1 through 3 in order, bottom to top; when all three discs have been played, flip the entire stack upside-down, load it on the spindle. All six sides will have been played in numerical order.) This new development was a more precise and respectable version of the common record changer, which often damaged the LPs stacked on their spindles. Entering this market were models from the famous British company Garrard, joined by German newcomers (to North America) Dual, Elac Miracord, and Pereptuum Ebner. These first-generation autotables had all the conveniences of a changer but were gentler with one’s vinyl, and were better designed as turntables proper, producing less wow and flutter, and working with cartridges that could track records while exerting less damaging pressure on delicate grooves.

GoGo Penguin: "Ocean in a Drop: Music for Film"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 December 2019

Blue Note 00602577888090
Format: Vinyl EP

Musical Performance

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Overall Enjoyment

One of my favorite albums of 2018 was GoGo Penguin’s fourth album, A Humdrum Star, which showed the piano trio’s versatility and its ability to use a number of current influences, from electronica to the experimental rock of Radiohead, to create jazz that’s smart, fresh, approachable, and potentially appealing to younger listeners. While the group, based in Manchester, England, plays acoustic instruments, pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka, and drummer Rob Turner are not averse to using studio technology and electronics to occasionally alter the sound and impact of their music.

Setting Up Speakers and Subwoofers Using Anthem's STR Preamplifier with ARC Genesis

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 December 2019

In a July 2019 feature for SoundStage! Access, “Integrating a Single Subwoofer into a Two-Channel System for Beginners,” I discussed the basics of that subject, and in August expanded on it in “Integrating a Single Subwoofer into a Two-Channel System . . . for Those Unafraid to Take Measurements, Fiddle with Filters, and Apply EQ.” In that second piece I mentioned Anthem’s STR Integrated Amplifier and Preamplifier, both of which include Anthem Room Correction Genesis, and are turn-key solutions for bass management and room correction.

Monitor Audio Gold 100 Loudspeakers

Details: Written by Diego Estan; Created: 01 December 2019

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

The United Kingdom has a long, rich history of birthing and nurturing makers of exceptional loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins, Harbeth, KEF, Monitor Audio, Spendor, Tannoy, Wharfedale -- and those are only the ones I can think of off the top of my head. That Monitor Audio, founded in 1972, is one of the newer kids on that block is further testament to the UK’s longtime stature as a fertile breeding ground for hi-fi, as well as to the staying power of Monitor and the other remarkable manufacturers on this list.

James Brown: "Live at Home with His Bad Self"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 December 2019

Republic B0030192-02
Format: CD

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On October 1, 1969, James Brown performed with his band at the Bell Auditorium, in Augusta, Georgia, the city in which he spent much of his childhood. Brown’s time in the state’s second largest city was troubled, to say the least, but by 1969 he was a huge international star, and the city claimed him proudly. He was going to record his show there for release that December, but his plans changed, and instead he released Ain’t It Funky, a compilation of mostly instrumental tracks recorded between 1966 and 1969.