Elac IW-S10EQ In-Wall Subwoofer

Details: Written by Brent Butterworth; Created: 15 September 2018

Elac IW-S10EQ measurements can be found by clicking this link.

It’s almost impossible to get smooth, natural bass reproduction without a subwoofer -- and this principle is easy to prove, despite the dominance of 2.0-channel systems in high-end audio. But a subwoofer is also the most troublesome component in audio: the most prone to distortion, the most difficult to place and adjust, and the most obtrusive. With its IW-S10EQ in-wall subwoofer, Elac aims to solve the latter two problems.

Tord Gustavsen Trio: "The Other Side"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 September 2018

ECM 2608 (6025 675 16187)
Format: CD

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The Norwegian jazz pianist Tord Gustavsen has released eight recordings on ECM since 2003, the first three of which were trio sessions. The most recent, The Other Side, returns him to the piano-trio format after leading two quartet albums, and two ensembles featuring singers. Drummer Jarle Vespestad has played on all of Gustavsen’s recordings, but this is bassist Sigurd Hole’s first appearance on record with the pianist. Hole’s interest in Norway’s folk music as an inspiration for jazz is something he shares with Gustavsen, and makes him a good choice for this trio.

The High Cost of Cheap

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 September 2018

I’ve written before about a quandary I’m in regarding my digital front end. In summer 2017, my 2009-era MacBook Pro computer running Roon Core was exiled from my living room by my better half. I was left streaming all my music from my iPhone and a 2013 MacBook Pro, via AirPlay, to my Hegel Music Systems H360 integrated amplifier-DAC. While hardly the end of the world, this was not a setup suitable for an audio reviewer who wants to be taken seriously by his readers.

NAD C 558 Turntable with Ortofon OM Super 10 Cartridge

Details: Written by Thom Moon; Created: 01 September 2018

Although NAD is a Canadian-owned company, its roots are in London, UK, where many music aficionados never abandoned the turntable as their favorite music source. So it’s not surprising that NAD’s new C 558 record player ($499 USD) follows the pattern set by Linn, Rega, Revolver, Roksan, and other British firms: a turntable thoroughly traditional in concept and totally modern in practice, with no frills, flash, or gimmicks.

The Jayhawks: "Back Roads and Abandoned Motels"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 September 2018

Sony Legacy 19075841402
Format: CD

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Gary Louris, the guitarist, singer, and leader of the Jayhawks, has collaborated over the years with other songwriters on songs recorded by them or other artists. Nine of the 11 songs on the group’s new album, Back Roads and Abandoned Motels, fall into that category, yet the result is more stylistically consistent than the band’s last album, Paging Mr. Proust (2016), for which Louris wrote most of the songs himself. Proust took the Jayhawks into new territory while reinforcing their strengths. But if on first hearing Back Roads seems less exciting, it soon becomes clear that this album further confirms Louris’s compositional talents even as a co-writer, and that the Jayhawks remain the best band for his work.

Edifier S350DB Loudspeaker System

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 August 2018

Reviewers' Choice When I received an e-mail from Jeff Fritz, SoundStage!’s editor-in-chief, asking if I was interested in reviewing Edifier’s S350DB 2.1-channel speaker system ($299.99 USD), a wave of nostalgia swept over me. From my senior year in high school, way back in 2003, through the end of college, I listened to my music through Klipsch’s ProMedia speaker systems -- first the 2.1, then the Ultra 5.1 (which I used in a 2.1 configuration). They were great computer speakers, with clean mids and highs, punchy bass, and terrific output for their size. With a simple 3.5mm input, I could plug my computer or iPod into them and get pretty killer sound. Fifteen years later, a descendant of the ProMedia 2.1 can still be had for $129, but there’s no way they could now live up to what they sound like in my memory.

Charles Lloyd & the Marvels + Lucinda Williams: "Vanished Gardens"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 August 2018

Blue Note B002843502
Format: CD

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At age 80, tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd is going strong. He’s done an album almost every year since 1989, and is still challenging himself and his listeners. In 2016 he released I Long to See You, featuring guitarists Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz, who introduced elements of folk and country into Lloyd’s jazz. That group, which also included Lloyd’s regular bassist and drummer, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland, was named Charles Lloyd & the Marvels, and returns in Vanished Gardens.

Freedom of Speech . . . for Better or Worse

Details: Written by Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 August 2018

If you had told someone in 1918 that, 100 years hence, the world would be connected by a network that housed, broadly speaking, the sum total of all human knowledge, with access available to all but the poorest and most rural people, I’m betting you’d be met with disbelief. We now take the Internet for granted, but what is real power if not the possibility of omniscience? That the Internet is chock full of pornography, self-absorbed social-media and video content, and a multitude of other useless or depraved destinations shouldn’t detract from its potential, realized or otherwise. Concerns about net neutrality aside, the Internet remains one of humankind’s greatest achievements: an egalitarian tool of tremendous connective possibility.

NAD T777 V3 A/V Receiver

Details: Written by Vince Hanada; Created: 01 August 2018

NAD Electronics is part of the Lenbrook Group, which also owns PSB Speakers and Bluesound, the latter a maker of wireless multiroom music systems and related components. NAD has always been a bit different, offering value-oriented electronics with many of the unnecessary extras stripped away. Lately, their line of preamps and A/V receivers has provided value with add-on MDC modules to upgrade their products’ functionality -- users can buy a base model, then customize it to suit their needs and guard against obsolescence.

David Bowie: "Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78)"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 August 2018

Parlophone 0190295730260/CDBB 7782
Format: CD

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Welcome to the Blackout (Live London ’78) is a two-disc live set from David Bowie’s Isolar II: The 1978 World Tour, which drew heavily from two albums Bowie released in 1977, Low and “Heroes”. Those recordings were part of what Bowie would later call the Berlin Trilogy, which concluded with Lodger (1979). The three albums were another shift in direction in an ever-changing career.