Live At The Greek Theatre (2CD) by Joe Bonamassa

We are told: “The Three Kings mean the world to me. Freddie, Albert and of course BB. Giants, humble, yet gentlemen off stage but give them an ES-355 or Flying V respectively and they became sonic assassins playing with such fire and virtue that it shook the very ground of anyone brave enough to stand […]

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What are the most controversial pieces of classical music?

Harrison Boyle (composer) replies …… In terms of music as music – apart from some of the social/political afflatus mentioned in the answers so far – the major candidates for controversial in terms of the actual notes (or absence thereof) are probably, from oldest to most recent: Stravinsky Rite of Spring Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire George […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

Fortunately, years later, the stereos I sell now come with a lot easier terms than my first.

In the previous post I told the story of receiving 14 tickets in a row for the same heinous crime: no brake or tail lights on my little red sports car. I promptly threw away all the tickets and went about my business until a cop showed up at the door with a warrant for […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

VINYL TRUTHS: The thing is, we tune and tailor our setups to match the limitations of our primary sources. This can lead to over-reaching proclamations that one medium is better than another when the truth is not that at all.

TAS reviewer Michael Fremer has an extraordinary music system—the best vinyl setup I’ve ever heard. And it makes sense that he does. Mike’s spent a lifetime learning about vinyl audio reproduction and hand selected the best equipment in the world. His digital setup played through that same setup doesn’t quite match my own. That also […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

PS AUDIO: What is listener fatigue, why does it occur and what is it we can do about it?

Paul McGowan writes: The term “listener fatigue” is something we’re all familiar with and something none of us want.  What is listener fatigue, why does it occur and what is it we can do about it? What’s interesting to me about this subject is there are no measurements, no rules, no clear answers to the […]

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PS AUDIO: The significance of the folding transmission line in a loudspeaker?

What is the significance of the folding transmission line in a loudspeaker? My guess is that not many of you have heard of a folding transmission line in a loudspeaker, much less ever heard one working.  The late Bud Fried, from Fried Audio (pronounced “freed” as opposed to what one might do with eggs), was […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

It’s coming from everywhere!

Paul McGowan writes: There are two primary types of reflections in a loudspeaker based stereo system: those that are created from the loudspeakers and those captured on the recording.  To get proper imaging in your system you don’t need both, as any good set of headphones would demonstrate, but since most of us have loudspeakers […]

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CLASSICAL MUSIC APPRECIATION: Challenges and rewards

Under­stand­ing clas­si­cal can be dif­fi­cult and takes patience. While you may become famil­iar with a pop­u­lar track the 2nd or 3rd time you lis­ten to it, most WCM works take dozens of repeated lis­ten­ing ses­sions to acquire basic familiarity. The length of many WCM works is another issue. You can’t just spend 5 min­utes lis­ten­ing, […]

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DYNAMICS: Bringing It Back To Music

“Turn Me Up!™ is a non-profit music industry organization campaigning to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records. To be clear, it’s not our goal to discourage loud records; they are, of course, a valid choice for many artists. We simply want to make the choice for a more dynamic record an […]

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Joe Satriani – The Complete Studio Recordings Box Set (15CD) by

All 14 studios albums, starting with 1986′s Not Of This Earth, are included in this 15CD box set, with the final disc being made of a selection of rarities specially curated by Satriani himself (Added Creations and Bonus Tracks). Everything has been newly remastered under the supervision of engineer John Cuniberti who has a history […]

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TECHNICS: SP10 Mk2 owner causing a headache

My search for audio nirvana is proving frustrating the constant pain in my frontal lobe coming from the continued banging of my head against a brick wall. First things first, my system comprises the following; Technics SP10 MkII Slatedeck plinth SME V Denon DL304 Trichord Dino for vinyl duties, Esoteric X03se CD spinner, Linn Klimax […]

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