Sensible Sound articles from June 2003

Sensible Sound archives from June 2003

Ramblings.
June 1, 2003... Welcome to Issue 96, which features nothing in particular, just the usual equipment and music reviews, along with a little of this and a little of that. Although there is nothing particularly special about this issue, I do hope that most...

Welcome back! (Forum).
June 1, 2003... After a brief hiatus from The $ensible Sound I have received the issues I missed, and I am now back with the program. After perusing just one issue I am reminded that T$S is without a doubt my favorite audio magazine. Thank you for such a sane,...

I Weissenborn yet in 1920. (Forum).
June 1, 2003... In the Feb/Mar 2003 issue, you mentioned in your review of Jorma Kaukonen's album, "Blue Country Heart," that you didn't know what a Weissenborn was. I am sure you have received a number of responses, but in case you haven't... It is an...

We're all yuppies on this bus. (Forum).
June 1, 2003... A few years back The $ensible Sound along with a couple of other audio magazines reviewed Sound Dynamics (RTS 3 and others) loudspeakers with glowing praise for producing great sound for little money and now they aren't mentioned anywhere in...

What we have here is a failure to communicate. (Forum).
June 1, 2003... I enjoy reading The $ensible Sound, especially for music reviews. However, I fail to understand the need for some 'reviewers' to flaunt their anti-vinyl bias every chance they get. If they cannot hear the advantage in musicality that vinyl...

Goin' to a show-show. (Surveying The Soundscape).
June 1, 2003... For the past few years, I've set myself a goal before taking off for the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Once it was to spot DVD players that could play CD-R and CD-RW discs (no longer an issue). Another time it was to find a...

A hi-fi visit to Minnesota. (Straits of the Art).
June 1, 2003... My wife and I recently made a trip through parts of the Midwest to visit relatives and fill in genealogy blanks. Our itinerary included an extended stay in the Minneapolis area, enabling us to visit AtmaSphere, Audio by Van Alstine, Magnepan,...

Are copied CDs sonically inferior to the original? (Straits of the Art).
June 1, 2003... Stereo is on its way out no matter what the traditionalists say. As a very young classical music aficionado (not even 10 years old) I remember the golden ear naysayers throwing up their hands in horror when the LP replaced the 78 record. Then...

Atma-Sphere S-30 Mk. II power amplifier. (Components).
June 1, 2003... Manufacturer: Atma-Sphere, Inc., 160 South Wheeler, St. Paul, MN 55105 USA 651/690-2246; http://www.atma-sphere.com Price: $2,850 Source: Manufacturer Loan Reviewer: Tom Lyle Atma-Sphere, which Ralph Karsten started in 1978,...

ELAC 205-Jet loudspeakers. (Components).
June 1, 2003... Manufacturer: ELAC Electroacoustic GmbH, Kiel, Germany; www.elac.com Distributor: Trian Electronics, Inc., 5816 Highway K, Waunakee, WI 53597; 608/850-3600; www.triancorp.com Price: $1,278/pr Source: Distributor Loan ...

Infinity Kappa 600 floorstanding loudspeaker. (Components).
June 1, 2003... Manufacturer: Infinity, 250 Crossways Park Drive, Woodbury, NY 11797; 800/553-3332; www.infinitysystems.com Price: $2,499/pair Source: Manufacturer Loan Reviewer: Glenn Strauss This handsome, beautifully crafted loudspeaker is...

Music Reference RM-10 stereo vacuum tube power amplifier. (Components).
June 1, 2003... Manufacturer: Music Reference/RAM Tube Works, Santa Barbara, CA; 805/687-2236 www.ramlabs-musicreference.com; ramlabs@silcom.com Price: $1,475 Source: Manufacture's Loan Reviewer: Tom Lyle The Music Reference RM-10 isn't puny,...

Panamax 5510 AC regenerator power conditioner. (Components).
June 1, 2003... Manufacturer: Panamax, 1690 Corporate Circle, Petaluma, CA 94954; 707/283-5900; www.panamax.com Source: Manufacturer loan Price: $1,299 Reviewer: Tom Lyle The Panamax 5510 is more than just an ordinary power conditioner--it...

Velodyne Deco series speaker package. (Components).
June 1, 2003... Manufacturer: Velodyne Acoustics, 1070 Commercial Street, Suite #101, San Jose, CA 95112; 408/436-7270; velodyne@earthlink.net Price: $1,499 (Satellite list price: $149) Source: Reviewer Loan Reviewer: Howard Ferstler Back in...

Von Schweikert Audio LCR-35 loudspeaker. (Components).
June 1, 2003... Manufacturer: Von Schweikert Audio, 204 Greenfield Drive, Unit F, El Cajon, CA 92020; (619) 444-7136; www.vonschweikert.com Price: $1,695 Source: Manufacturer Loan Reviewer: Glenn Strauss Weighing in at 55 pounds, touting...

Home theater ramblings. (Components).
June 1, 2003... I have been requesting audio/video receivers since I noticed the newest models touted at the CES. I admit that checking the shipping weights of some of these new models gave me serious pause for thought. Unfortunately, most electronic firms do...

More jazz than not. (The Music).
June 1, 2003... Bach/Webern: Ricercar Munich Chamber Orchestra/The Hilliard Ensemble/ Christoph Poppen This is something of a strange duck--flawed but fascinating. The program opens and closes with performances of a fugue from Bach's Musical Offering,...

Double double. (The Music).
June 1, 2003... Last time around, Tom Lyle and Ye Grumpy Olde Editor did what we usually do in this column, independently auditioning two competing recordings of large-scale orchestral music--and yes, we mean really large-scale--Bruckner's Symphony No. 8. This...

Carousel corner! (The Music).
June 1, 2003... "Where are they now?" --Gen. Tommy Franks Although digging into the past is largely Steve Baird's province--especially when it comes to reissues--none of us collects music for the simple pleasure of playing it for a while when it's...

Scoping software. (The Music).
June 1, 2003... Standard Stereo Recordings Buxtehude, Dietrich: Organ Music, Volume 2. Julia Brown, playing the Brombaugh Organ, Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, Oregon. Recorded in 2001. Engineer not listed. 64+ minutes. Naxos 8.555775. Volume 2 of...

Debussy: Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune; three Nocturnes; Pelleas et Melisande, concert suite.
June 1, 2003... Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 289 471 332-2. It's always a joy, of course, to listen to the Berlin Philharmonic, but why does DG so often keep these things under wraps for so long? This recording was made in 1998 and was...

From the Isles to the Courts.
June 1, 2003... Ensemble Galilei. Telarc SACD-60536. Telarc released the regular two-channel stereo version of this album in 2000, and I'm assuming because of the excellent quality of its sonics they are releasing it again in this discrete, DSD...

Hovhaness: Mysterious Mountains.
June 1, 2003... Gerard Schwarz, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Telarc CD-80604. Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) was one of the last of the Romantics, a composer who still believed that music should be enjoyed for its melodies, its harmonies, its sheer...

Paul Kletzki: Great Conductors of the 20th Century.
June 1, 2003... EMI 7243 5 75468 2 9. The bigger studios continue to mine their vaults for old material in new packaging, sometimes becoming redundant, sometimes finding gold. In the case of EMI's latest issue of remasterings, titled "Great Conductors of...

New Year's Concert 2003.
June 1, 2003... Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 289 474 250-2. It seems like the Vienna Philharmonic has been playing these New Year's Day concerts since the beginning of time, but the tradition actually got started in 1941 and has...

PentaTone Classics: Remastered Quadro Recordings from the Philips and Decca catalogues.
June 1, 2003... Those of you who were around in the seventies will remember something called Quadraphonics, an ill-fated attempt to reproduce four discrete signals from a vinyl phonograph record. A few companies tried to use the process to enhance the realism...

Ries: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6.
June 1, 2003... Howard Griffiths, Zurich Chamber Orchestra. CPO 999 836-2. Sometimes a guy can't win for losing. After Beethoven took the musical world by storm in the early nineteenth century, the works of fellow European composers were faulted either for...

Sentimento.
June 1, 2003... Andrea Bocelli; Lorin Maazel, London Symphony Orchestra. Philips 289 470 400-2. Esteemed conductor and violinist Lorin Maazel tells us in the booklet note that his father was an ardent admirer of the early-20th-century violin-tenor duets...

Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, etc.
June 1, 2003... Rudolf Kempe, Staatskapelle Dresden. EMI 7243 5 74756 2 4. If you are a devoted fan of Richard Strauss, you already have Kempe's three boxed sets of most of the composer's orchestral material, all of it recorded with the Dresden...

Stravinsky: Petrouchka; the Firebird Suite; Scherzo a la Russe.
June 1, 2003... Paavo Jarvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Telarc CD-80587. "Well, I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog," says the stranger in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." With so...

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, complete.
June 1, 2003... Dmitry Yablonsky, Russian State Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.555873-74 (2 discs). You would expect a Russian conductor and a Russian orchestra to be sympathetic to the music of Tchaikovsky. They were all brought up on Swan Lake. Yet there...

Telemann: Flute Concertos.
June 1, 2003... Emmanuel Pahud, Berliner Barock Solisten. EMI 7243 5 57397 2-8. You'd hardly know this was music from the Baroque period, the tunes are so fluid, so harmoniously flowing, gentle, and lyrical. Even the fast movements are taken at a leisurely...

Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony.
June 1, 2003... Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Telarc CD-80588. On the one hand I have to applaud maestro Spano for choosing Vaughan Williams' First Symphony, "A Sea Symphony," as a vehicle for displaying the talents of his Atlanta...