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The magnificent eight
The Story of the Grateful Dead, a 14-LP, 8-album collection of Grateful Dead recordings with booklet and deluxe packaging, from Vinyl Me, Please (VMP-A006, 2020), is intended as a curated sampling of the high points in the Dead’s extensive catalog. The first seven albums were cut from analog tape, while Without a Net comes from the original digital master. The sound is breathtaking.
T+A Solitaire P headphones and HA 200 DACheadphone amplifier
What I categorize as mainstream, dealer-based, fancy-pants stream-ers and big-speakers audio is actually only the gold-plated tip of a gigantic asteroid-like monolith that extends (underground) from New York to Hong Kong, from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica. This immense audio-social mass is mostly invisible to the Madison Avenue mainstream, but simple Google searches expose millions of proletarian audio-gear constructers (DIY’ers) working in shops, basements, and garages, scratch-building everything from turntables to tonearms to phono cartridges, to capacitors and vacuum tubes, to amplifiers, headphones, ribbon and electrostatic speakers.
MAKE MORE NOISE!
The title of this set—4 CDs and a book—comes from British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst’s call to arms for women to fight for their rights: “You have to make more noise than anybody else,” said Pankhurst, who died in 1928.
RECORD REVIEWS
EDITOR’S PICK - RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Landscape into music
It says something about the power of music that some individuals fading into dementia can still recognize the music they knew earlier in their lives. Not to denigrate new music, or music one hasn’t heard before, but our mental jukeboxes award top chart numbers to music that we have lived with over time. Those DJs making their playlists in our brain are the toughest of critics. They don’t care what anyone else might think, “Close to You” is staying in the rotation. Music and memory are linked.
Some great new reissues
For jazz fans, a new batch of releases in Blue Note’s Tone Poet series—vinyl reissues remastered with care and cut from the original analog tapes—is the reason for celebration.
PS Audio Stellar M1200
MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER
McIntosh MAC7200
STEREO RECEIVER
Marantz Model 30
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
KEF LS50 Meta LOUDSPEAKER
LOUDSPEAKER
BIG RON
1992: MY FIRST PROFESSIONAL INTERVIEW!
‘Awards come with success, winning'
Here are some highlights from head coach Sean McDermott’s recent press conferences.
Healthy Start
Four local chefs show us that plant-based cooking doesn't have to be dull.
THUNDER & LIGHTNING
Guitar World celebrates half a century of Thin Lizzy, looking back through the eyes of two key longtime band members: guitarist Scott Gorham and drummer Brian Downey
ELIZABETH SMART: WHY I LOCKED HORRORS INSIDE
RAPE victim Elizabeth Smart has revealed she never talked about the horrific abuse she suffered until she learned about the charges her abductor faced.
Brian Calvin
The Waiting Game
March to Washington
NIKEMA WILLIAMS ISN’T AS WELL KNOWN AS STACEY ABRAMS, BUT THE WOMAN WHO WILL FILL JOHN LEWIS’ SEAT REPRESENTS A DIFFERENT—AND FORMIDABLE— KIND OF POWER.
STARSTRUCK PASTOR'S PLUMMET
Bieber’s buddy seeing shrink after mental break over cheating scandal
‘When the time's right, you try to call ‘em'
For more on what’s happening within Buffalo’s offense, here are some highlights from offensive coordinator Brian Daboll’s recent press conferences.
STILL SOARING
Like one of Mike Trout’s colossal home runs, his 2011 Topps Update Rookie Card continues to rise.