Sensible Sound articles from April 1999

Sensible Sound archives from April 1999

RAMBLINGS.
April 1, 1999... Welcome to Issue #74, an issue that covers a wide variety of topics. Robert Thompson continues his series on CD player performance with a review of a CD that can be used to hear what anomalies such as jitter really sound like--something the ad...

FORUM.
April 1, 1999... Where is the Sweet Spot? I have been an avid reader of audio mags since almost puberty, my favorites having been The Sensible Sound, The Audio Critic, and BFS.... and all the others... I have absorbed all variations of criteria and...

What Really Matters in CD/DVD Player Performance, Part IV: Jitter, Jump, and Jive.
April 1, 1999... Welcome back to our ruminations on CD/DVD player performance. We'll conclude our series of articles by taking a close look at a recently published CD (The Digital Audio CD, $22.95 (Student Edition), ISBN No. 0240515013) and accompanying...

Headphones: Are They High Fidelity?(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... Introduction: I am not your typical happy headphone listener. That is, I am not the kind of audio enthusiast who goes out of his way to do that kind of thing, in preference to listening to music on loudspeakers. Indeed, for many years I did not...

Sony MDR-V6.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Sony, Sony Drive, Park Ridge, NJ 07656; 201/930-1000; www.sel.sony.com Price: $110 Source: Reviewer's spouse purchase Reviewer: Howard Frestler Actually, my wife has owned these phones for some time and I had...

Grado SR-60.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Grado Laboratories, 4614 7th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11220 718/435-5340 Price: $69 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Howard Frestler Physically, these phones are in considerable contrast to the Sony model. They are...

Grado SR-80.(Evaluation)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Grado Laboratories, 4614 7th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11220; 718/435-5340 Price: $95 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Howard Ferstler According to John Grado, the main differences between the SR-80 phones and the...

Sennheiser HD-265.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Sennheiser USA, One Enterprise Drive, Old Lyme, CT 06371; 840/434-9190; www.sennheiserusa.com Price: $249.95 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Howard Ferstler The HD-265 phones were the most expensive units in...

RCA RP-8065 Carousel CD Player.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc., 10330 North Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46290; 317-587-3000 Price: $159.95 Source: Reviewer purchase ($79.95) Reviewer: Joseph M. Cierniak All reviewers (myself included)...

Rotel RB-955 Turntable.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Rotel of America; PO Box 8, 54 Concord St., North Reading, MA 08164-0008; 800/370-3741, 508/664-4109 Price: $599.90 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Kevin East What's this? The guy who writes a column about...

Thorens TD 320 Mark III Turntable.(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Distributor: Thorens America LLC, 84-03 Cuthbert Rd., Kew Gardens, NY 11415; 718/ 847-4289; www.thorens.com Price: $1,080 Source: Reviewer purchase Reviewer: James T. Frane I recently replaced my 12-year-old Dual CS5000...

Analog Addenda.(comparing old and new record/playback technologies)
April 1, 1999... JMC Acquires an Analog Front End and Visits LP Land: To use the phono stage of the Sunfire preamp (review forthcoming) meant, for starters, that I needed a turntable. I did have a turntable, two of them actually: a Denon DP-59L and a Denon...

Sony TC-WE805S Cassette Deck.(Evaluation)(Brief Article)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Sony, Sony Drive, Park Ridge, NJ 07656; 201/930-1000 Price: $350 ($280 street price) Source: Reviewer purchase Reviewer: Roy Nakano Cassette decks don't get much coverage in American audiophile publications these...

Arcam Alpha 7 Integrated Amplifier.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Importer: Audiophile Systems, 8709 Castle Park Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46257; 317/849-7103; www.aslgroup.com Price: $449 Source: Importer loan Reviewer: Kenneth M. Duke Integrated amplifiers are making a comeback in the audio...

Krell KAV-250a.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Krell Industries, Inc., 45 Connair Rd., Orange, CT 06477-3650; 203/ 799-9954; www.krellonline.com; krell @krellonline.com Price: $3,000 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Tom Lyle Sometimes I feel like the lone...

Lexicon 412.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Lexicon, Inc., 3 Oak Park, Bedford, MA 01730-1441; 781/280-0300 Price: $2,995 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Howard Ferstler This is going to be a short review, because an amplifier of this calibre does not...

NAD 317 Integrated Amplifier.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: NAD Electronics of America, 6 Merchant Street, Sharon, MA 02067; 781/ 784-8586 Price: $749 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Kenneth M. Duke NAD has long had a reputation for making some of the most...

Rotel RB-991.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: Rotel, 54 Concord St., North Reading, MA 01864; 978/664-3820; www.rotel.com Price: $999 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Karl W. Nehring My thoughts about the Rotel RB-991 power amplifier were made abundantly...

The $ensible Choice List: Amplifiers.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... As I have written many times before, amplifiers sound largely the same. I base this claim upon my personal experience of many years and upon documented double-blind testing performed by others under carefully controlled conditions. Even when I...

NHT SuperTwo.(loudspeakers)(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Manufacturer: NHT, 535 Getty Court, Benicia, CA 94510; 800/NHT-9993 Price: $750/pair Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: David R. Moran So many American loudspeaker companies making straightforward, competitively priced...

Paradigm Active/20.(loudspeakers)(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... Distributor: Audiostream, MPO Box 2410, Niagara Falls, NY, 14302; 905/632-0180; www.paradigm.ca Price: $1,600 in gloss cherry or black ash (review pair) Source: Distributor loan Reviewer: Tom Lyle The Paradigm Active/20...

Auditions: Von Schweikert Research VR-6, Shahinian Diapason, and B&W Nautilus 803.(Evaluation)
April 1, 1999... It has been a while since we have run any auditions (as opposed to standard reviews) in T$S, but JAH and KWN have been listening to some interesting products lately and thought it would be useful to report on what they heard. What we mean by an...

Boi Sec Ardoin with Balfa Toujours: Allons Danser (Rounder CD 6081).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Boi Sec Ardoin with Balfa Toujours: Allons Danser (Rounder CD 6081) Alphonse "Boi Sec" ("Dry Wood") Ardoin, born in 1916, started off in music playing the triangle to accompany his cousin, legendary accordionist Amede Ardoin. He then...

Chris Ardoin and Double Clutchin': Gon' Be Just Fine (Rounder CD 2127) and Turn the Page (Rounder CD 11661-2157-2).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Chris Ardoin and Double Clutchin': Gon' Be Just Fine (Rounder CD 2127) and Turn the Page (Rounder CD 11661-2157-2) Brothers Chris (still a teenager) and Sean (late 20s) Ardoin are grandsons of Boi Sec Ardoin. Their music is more citified...

Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 New Zealand Sym Orch/George Tintner (Naxos 8.553453).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 New Zealand Sym Orch/George Tintner (Naxos 8.553453) Although I already own two recordings of this symphony (Lopez-Cobos/Cincinnati on Telarc, which I enjoy for its spectacular sound and warm performance, and...

Burton/Corea/Metheny/Haynes/Holland: Like Minds (Concord Jazz CCD-4803-2).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Burton/Corea/Metheny/Haynes/Holland: Like Minds (Concord Jazz CCD-4803-2) From an all-star aggregation with what really do appear to be like minds, a CD of tasty, slightly laid back jazz highlighting Gary Burton's work on the vibes. This...

John Coltrane Quartet: Ballads (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDCD 731).(Review)
April 1, 1999... John Coltrane Quartet: Ballads (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDCD 731) For the truly hard-core John Coltrane fans who are also hard-core audiophiles, this gold CD is going to be an automatic purchase. Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in 1962,...

Chris Daniels and the Kings: Louie Louie (Moon Voyage Records CD77624).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Chris Daniels and the Kings: Louie Louie (Moon Voyage Records CD77624) Although the title might make you think that this is a garage-rock recording, the title in fact actually refers not to the venerable garage-rock song but rather to...

Dallas Space Spectacular (Holst, The Planets; Strauss, Thus Spake Zarathustra) Dallas Sym Orch/Andrew Litton (Delos DE 3225).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Dallas Space Spectacular (Holst, The Planets; Strauss, Thus Spake Zarathustra) Dallas Sym Orch/Andrew Litton (Delos DE 3225) I will confine my remarks about this two-CD set to the Hoist disc, because I simply cannot bring myself to listen...

Miles Davis: The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (Columbia C4K 65570).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Miles Davis: The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (Columbia C4K 65570) It really is hard to believe that it has been nearly three decades since Miles Davis's Bitches Brew (sic -- for some reason, an apostrophe was never was part of the...

Gershwin Fantasy Joshua Bell, violin/ London Sym Orch/John Williams (Sony Classical SK 60659).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Gershwin Fantasy Joshua Bell, violin/ London Sym Orch/John Williams (Sony Classical SK 60659) Although it may be the height of critical dorkiness to start a review by complaining about the cover art, I can't help but note that this CD...

Tino Gonzalez: Smiles for Miles (Horseplay Records HP330022).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Tino Gonzalez: Smiles for Miles (Horseplay Records HP330022) OK, I'm not always really quick on the uptake. I saw this CD in a used CD store and figured it was some sort of tribute to Mr. Davis. I had never heard of Tino Gonzales, but I put...

Hayes Greenfield: Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz (Baby Music Boom 3010-2).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Hayes Greenfield: Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz (Baby Music Boom 3010-2) Anyone who can still enjoy watching Sesame Street from time to time should be able to get a kick out of this CD, which aims to get children involved in jazz. There is some fun stuff...

Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers: Check It Out, Lock It In, Crank It Up! Rounder 11661-2158-2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers: Check It Out, Lock It In, Crank It Up! (Rounder 11661-2158-2) How's that for a title?! And believe me, the title is appropriate -- this is truly music that demands to be checked out, locked in, and...

Nils Petter Molvaer: Khmer (ECM 78118-21560-2).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Nils Petter Molvaer: Khmer (ECM 78118-21560-2) Remember when -- thanks mostly to Sting -- the concept of "synchronicity" was all the rage? Well a couple of days before Christmas I was in a used CD store and picked up a copy of Khmer. I knew...

Tiger Okoshi: Color of Soil (JVC JVCXR-0207-2).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Tiger Okoshi: Color of Soil (JVC JVCXR0207-2) Color of Soil features the unusual instrumental combination of Tiger Okoshi on trumpet and flugelhorn, Kenny Barron on piano, Jay Anderson on bass, Mino Cinelu on drums and percussion, and --...

Nicholas Payton: Payton's Place (Verve 314 557 227-2).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Nicholas Payton: Payton's Place (Verve 314 557 227-2) In Issue 731 reviewed three recordings by trumpeter Dave Douglas, two of which I had to discipline myself to listen to over and over in an attempt to let them grow on me -- which they...

Paquito D'Rivera: 100 Years of Latin Love Songs (Heads Up HUCD 3045).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Paquito D'Rivera: 100 Years of Latin Love Songs (Heads Up HUCD 3045) This is a warmly wonderful recording of romantic melodies, done with taste and class. D'Rivera leads out on soprano and alto sax as well as clarinet, with excellent...

Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7; Tapiola Lahti Sym Orch/Osmo Vanska (BIS-CD-64).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7; Tapiola Lahti Sym Orch/Osmo Vanska (BIS-CD-64) Some readers may recall that in Issue 73's Staff Picks I mentioned among my favorite recordings several recordings of Sibelius, including recent traversals...

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances Pasadena Sym Orch/Jorge Mester (Newport Classic 10002).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances Pasadena Sym Orch/Jorge Mester (Newport Classic 10002) I picked this recording up out of curiosity (and it must have been big-time curiosity, because the thing cost me $250 about...

Double Double.
April 1, 1999... We'll start by getting the standard explanation out of the way: In Double Double, Tom Lyle and Ye Grumpy Olde Editor independently compare two recordings of the same musical work. Our interaction with each other goes only so far as to decide...

Carousel Corner.
April 1, 1999... riverrun, past Eve and Adam's... -- James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake In the beginning, in the cradle, they were life itself, the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates in a land known as Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq. Charon ferried souls...

Scoping Software: Surround-Sound Audio Revisited -- and Binaural to Boot!
April 1, 1999... In Issue 71, I reviewed a number of advanced-concept, surround-sound music recordings. Here are some additional transcriptions to sink your digital teeth into. In addition to two more DVD-audio releases, done with 5-channel, Dolby Digital...

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic." Esa-Pekka Salonen, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Sony SK 63301.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic." Esa-Pekka Salonen, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Sony SK 63301. Bruckner tried to write a literary program to go with his Fourth Symphony. For the First Movement he wrote: "A citadel of the Middle...

Gershwin: Porgy Fantasy; Three Preludes; Songs. Joshua Bell, violin; John Williams, London Symphony Orchestra. Sony SK 60659.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Gershwin: Porgy Fantasy; Three Preludes; Songs. Joshua Bell, violin; John Williams, London Symphony Orchestra. Sony SK 60659. This album is simply the best thing I've heard from Sony Classical in years. The centerpiece of the disc is the...

Holst: The Planets. Zubin Mehta, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Classic Compact Discs CSCD 6734.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Holst: The Planets. Zubin Mehta, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Classic Compact Discs CSCD 6734. Classic Compact Discs were fudging a little on this one. Their packaging for The Planets is designed to look like a London/ Decca blue...

Holst: The Planets. Charles Dutoit, Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal. London 289 460 606-2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Holst: The Planets. Charles Dutoit, Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal. London 289 460 606-2. PolyGram (London, DG, and Philips) have started a new series called Penguin Classics, recordings of classical music drawn from the...

Korngold: The Sea Hawk; Symphony in F-Sharp. James DePreist, Oregon Symphony Orchestra. Delos DE 3234.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Korngold: The Sea Hawk; Symphony in F-Sharp. James DePreist, Oregon Symphony Orchestra. Delos DE 3234. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for the 1940 film The Sea Hawk has long been yardstick for swashbuckling music, and DePreist's version...

Rieu in Concert. Music of the Strausses, Lehar, Schubert, Stolz, Mozart, Flotow, Peter, and Shostakovich. Andre Rieu, Johann Strauss Orchestra. Philips 314 534-2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Rieu in Concert. Music of the Strausses, Lehar, Schubert, Stolz, Mozart, Flotow, Peter, and Shostakovich. Andre Rieu, Johann Strauss Orchestra. Philips 314 534-2. This third installment in the Andre Rieu phenomenon is a live concert...

Le delizie dell'amor.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Le delizie dell'amor. Andrea Rost, soprano; Sir Charles Mackerras, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Sony 62789. If ever there was an ideal singer for operatic love songs, it's Ms. Rost. In selections from Verdi's Rigoletto and La Traviata,...

Schubert: Choral Works. John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir. Philips 289 454 428-2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Schubert: Choral Works. John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir. Philips 289 454 428-2. After several successful forays into the world of instrumental music, I'd say it's nice to have John Eliot Gardiner back in the choral works with which...

Smetana: Ma Vlast. Sir Roger Norrington, London Classical Players. Virgin Veritas 7243 5 45301 2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Smetana: Ma Vlast. Sir Roger Norrington, London Classical Players. Virgin Veritas 7243 5 45301 2. As always, Norrington strives to recreate a historical context for the music, using period instruments, period playing techniques, and a...

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra; Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3, "Organ." Jorge Mester, Pasadena Symphony Orchestra. Newport Classic Auricle NCAU-10001. Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Jorge Mester, Pasadena Symphony Orchestra. Newport Classic Auricle NCAU-10002.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra; Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3, "Organ." Jorge Mester, Pasadena Symphony Orchestra. Newport Classic Auricle NCAU-10001. Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Jorge Mester, Pasadena...

Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Burleske; Der Rosenkavalier Waltzes. Byron Janis, piano; Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. RCA 09026-68638-2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Burleske; Der Rosenkavalier Waltzes. Byron Janis, piano; Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. RCA 09026-68638-2. The item here, of course, is Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra. Reiner first recorded...

Strauss: Thus Spake Zarathustra; Holst: The Planets. Andrew Litton, Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Delos DE 3225 (2-disc set).(Review)
April 1, 1999... Strauss: Thus Spake Zarathustra; Holst: The Planets. Andrew Litton, Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Delos DE 3225 (2-disc set). This double album is titled "Dallas Space Spectacular," a designation based on a tenuous connection between Richard...

Strauss: Scenes from Electra and Salome. Inge Borkh, soprano; Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. RCA 09026-68636-2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Strauss: Scenes from Electra and Salome. Inge Borkh, soprano; Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. RCA 09026-68636-2. Just prior to playing this disc on for the first time, I had been listening to a new digital orchestral release. I...

10cc: The Original Soundtrack.(Review)
April 1, 1999... 10cc: The Original Soundtrack. Mobile Fidelity Ultradisc II UDCD 729. A comparison of Mo-Fi's new 24K gold remastering of 10cc to the original 1975 Polygram/Mercury silver disc reveals some remarkable differences. (What do you mean, what...

Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 3 "Pastoral" and 4. Bernard Haitink, London Philharmonic Orchestra. EMI CDC 7243 5 566564 2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 3 "Pastoral" and 4. Bernard Haitink, London Philharmonic Orchestra. EMI CDC 7243 5 566564 2. It was a good idea of EMI to pair one of Vaughan Williams' most serene symphonies with one of his most stormy....

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 7 "Sinfonia antartica"; Symphony No. 8. Kees Bakels, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.550737.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 7 "Sinfonia antartica"; Symphony No. 8. Kees Bakels, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.550737. Vaughan Williams based much of his Sinfonia antartica, completed in 1953, on music he had composed earlier...

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Andrew Lawrence-King, the Harp Consort; Gottfried von der Goltz, Freiburger Barockorchester. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472-77384-2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Andrew Lawrence-King, the Harp Consort; Gottfried von der Goltz, Freiburger Barockorchester. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472-77384-2. The gimmick here is integrating the Harp Consort with the Freiburg Baroque...

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Concerto for Two Mandolins; Concerto for Two Trumpets. Antonio Janigro, I Solisti di Zabreb. Bach Guild OVC 2536.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Concerto for Two Mandolins; Concerto for Two Trumpets. Antonio Janigro, I Solisti di Zabreb. Bach Guild OVC 2536. How can there be so many seasons in a year? This reissue from 1957 is the earliest stereo version...

Maazel Conducts Wagner.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Maazel Conducts Wagner. Waltraud Meier, mezzo-soprano; Lorin Maazel, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. RCA 09026-631432. Yes, there is life after Karajan. Even without its former maestro fussing about, the Berlin Philharmonic still has a...

Wagner: Preludes and Orchestral Music. Christian Thielemann, the Philadelphia Orchestra. DG 289 453 485-2.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Wagner: Preludes and Orchestral Music. Christian Thielemann, the Philadelphia Orchestra. DG 289 453 485-2. Good heavens, yet more bleeding chunks? Well, not exactly. With one exception, it is the usual collection of Preludes and such that...

Warlock: The Curlew; Capriol; Serenade; Songs. John Mark Ainsley, tenor; Martyn Brabbins, The Nash Ensemble. Hyperion CDA66938.(Review)
April 1, 1999... Warlock: The Curlew; Capriol; Serenade; Songs. John Mark Ainsley, tenor; Martyn Brabbins, The Nash Ensemble. Hyperion CDA66938. This is one of the loveliest, most honey-tongued, and best recorded new discs I've come across in a while....