Audio Note’s Zero system is a great advertisement for the benefits of partnering a good low-powered amp with sensitive loudspeakers. It’s a winning combination of cohesiveness and integration; brilliance and detail; dynamics and attack. With each individual component being very well matched, the overall result is superb and, as we’ve already indicated, as separates they […]
Search Results for: jimmy hughes (20 results found)
Falling Sales mean No New Recordings That’s why it’s become more or less impossible for record companies to make new classical recordings. Certainly, the big-budget productions – major operatic projects or big symphonic cycles – are now (almost) a thing of the past. It’s sad. But really you can’t blame the record companies for not […]
Jimmy’s Black Vinyl Pension Fund… One Saturday, as I walked out with maybe 20 or 30 LPs, the manager said to me ‘That’s your pension fund…’ His words struck a chord. Although I bought my records to love keep and cherish forever, the prospect of a day dawning sometime in the future when I’d be […]
Prices Only Go One Way – Don’t They? If you’re of a certain age, you may still have a misguided notion that price is a one-way street. Since the end of the Second World War, we’ve lived through a long period of near constant inflation. Prices only ever went one way – up! You were […]
Worthless As I look around my house and view vast number of shelves, all heaving with ‘worthless’ LPs and CDs, I can see the benefit of such an approach. You’re freer and less shackled. I sometimes think about moving house, but can’t face the prospect of shifting all those records. It’s not just a question […]
Some years back I saw a TV programme about the Turin Shroud – a holy relic believed by some to be the burial cloth used to wrap Jesus Christ after He was taken down from the Cross. The Shroud carries what is in effect a ‘negative’ image of Christ’s body, and only fully reveals itself […]
Oscar Wilde knew a thing or two about human nature. And he was right on the money when he spoke of people knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. Value has very little to do with price. It’s possible to buy something that costs a lot but has little real worth. Equally, […]
I was shocked! I mean, as anyone who heard the Perlman/Ashkenazy Decca LP when it was first released has to agree, this recording set new standards at the time. When I first encountered it, it quite literally blew my socks off. A new era in recorded sound had arrived. At least, that’s how it seemed. […]
Back in the ‘70s, when I worked in hi-fi retail, I bought the EMI 3LP reissue of Otto Klemperer’s mono Beethoven recordings from the 1950s. I then made the mistake of playing one of the discs in the shop. Bad move. Customers and staff started pulling faces at the ‘poor’ quality of the sound. And, […]
The Keen Collector (RIP). As a species, the ‘collector’ is, I think, a dying breed. This is not only reflected in the reduced sales of classical LPs and CDs, but also things like Cameras, Books, and other collectibles. My wife notices it with vintage Jewellery. People don’t collect the way they once did. The ‘value’ […]
The Bargain that Never Was. Back in the early 1990s I bought the Philips Mozart Edition on subscription from Britannia at £6.99 per disc. At the time, I thought £6.99 per disc was a keen price. All told, the complete edition cost me well over £1,000. And now? Today, the Philips Mozart edition can be […]
Every Classical Tune You’ll Ever Want. Why fill your house with LPs, CDs, or DVDs when you can have all you might ever want to listen to or watch at the touch of a button? Indeed, if you believe the title of one classical compilation disc, all the classical tunes you’ll ever want can be […]
A few days ago I compared Itzhak Perlman’s 1975 Decca recording of Beethoven’s Kreutzer violin sonata with the 1961 set on DG played by Wolfgang Schneiderhan – both on CD. As always, the Perlman recording sounded fabulous; big and full, with beautiful depth and spaciousness, yet plenty of body and presence. The piano tone was […]
Despite a few dissenting voices, Valves were History. Indeed, the ‘comeback’ of the valve amplifier (which in the UK started with the Michaelson and Austin TVA-1 integrated) was something quite remarkable and virtually without precedent. For while there were a few diehard listeners who preferred 78s to LPs, or Mono to Stereo, there was never […]
Well hello again. This is the June 06 newsletter. You didn’t miss the May 06 issue – because there wasn’t one. Okay – to set the scene, when I started this one, England were on the box playing Sweden in Germany. Not my kind of thing. I’m writing this while listening to The Jayhawks “Hollywood […]
Jimmy Hughes writes ….. The Uphorik is an outstanding phono stage (suitably partnered) to make you fall in love with vinyl. It delivers a sound that’s neutral and natural, yet colourful and full of incident. If you’re able to use it via its balanced outputs, we think you’ll find the results very hard to better. […]
“Oh, you’re going to use one of those,” says Jimmy Hughes, reviewer and columnist for the hi-fi magazine Audiophile, as he eyes my little tape recorder. “Yes,” say I, prepared. “Are you worried it will affect the sound?” “Oh, it will,” says Jimmy, whose living room is a shrine to hi-fi and to music, its […]
Today’s Hi-Fi is Better than Yesterday’s. (Possibly) If I may be permitted a dangerously broad and rather sweeping generalisation, most hi-fi systems today – from the pretty basic, to state of the art – give far more evenly-balanced results than those of (say) twenty or thirty years ago. That’s certainly so in my case. For […]
JAZZWISE: Bassist Charles Mingus shook up the jazz world like few others, Kevin Le Gendre assesses his legacy and speaks to contemporary bass stars Christian McBride and Boris Kozlov about his influence Instruments owned by famous musicians have been a staple at auctions for many years. When a rock star guitar goes under the hammer […]
You’ve Never Had It So Cheap Which is just as well, because it’s shocking to see how cheap things have become. Most old classical LPs – even really nice ones in excellent condition – command no more than 50p to £1 – maybe £2 if you’re lucky. Used CDs fare little better, and can often […]