German Physiks refresh their site and product line

Always loved the German Physiks room at RMAF over the years. The company has redone their site with much better images of their original designs, plus they announce the introduction (and re-introduction) of amps and cables too. Find out more here

Audioengine A5+ review live

It took a little longer than I anticipated but my latest review is now live -- the diminutive but large sounding Audioengine A5+ wireless speakers impressed me. You can read more here

Hendrix Box Set Amazon Woes

No, am not complaining about the sonics (yet to critically listen) but the 50th Anniversary Edition of Electric Ladyland started out as a bit of a cash-grab (again!) by the usual suspects. Another version, a new vinyl edition, lots of 'extras', most of which were not actually too new or interesting to many people, packaged in a box that required you to buy the lot for a princely sum. It started out on pre-order at north of $100 but I suspect sales were a bit softer than the protagonists imagined, with Amazon routinely chopping the price. I nabbed a set at $80 but it can be found at $60 shipped since. Tough on anyone who paid full early on (unless of course you got a low numbered set and that matters to you, though my experience with Amazon and the like is that time of order correlates little with actual number received).

Of course, I had many adventures before even receiving my set. I did pre-order, benefited from the assured lowest price, and was told it was delivered the day of release. Trouble was, I never saw it at my door. A check on Amazon told me it might show as delivered late one evening (not a normal cycle for delivery round our parts but Amazon is using all sorts now) so I should wait two days as sometimes the delivery service reports it as delivered before it actually is! How's that? Well, I waited, no sign. Emails to Amazon (never an easy thing to do) got me on chat with one agent who told me he understood the issue. He recommended that I just accept it as lost, buy another copy and have them reimburse me the original payment when done. OK, says I, but the latest price had shifted it upward and a re-order now would cost me $16 more than I originally paid. He seemed to have a problem understanding this and told me I could be compensated with $10 for the 'inconvenience'.


At the end of the exchange, when I reported through the auto-feedback system that my problem was not solved, I was sent another link to have another chat. I'll save you the details, eventually I got someone who agreed to just send a new set. And true to her word, that set came the next week. Now the problem was slightly confused by the missing order also containing another item in the same box,, nothing to do with music, but my important regular delivery of tea. I mention this as the situation had a twist.

Last week, a month after the delivery fiasco, rumbling around the bushes at the side of my house what turns up? A ripped open Amazon package, soiled and damp, but within a couple of boxes of Yorkshire Gold, my daily beverage of choice but clearly not to the taste of the local pilferer. Rather, it seems whoever took the box from my door removed the Hendrix Box Set. Am not sure if I like this mystery being solved -- neighborhood homes have reported some parcel theft recently but until this, I'd imagined our home immune. Well, apparently not. Meanwhile, if you find a nice priced box set in a used record store around Austin, you might have my original copy.  I'm having a cup of tea.

Guy King gives me hope for music

Love this -- great playing, singing, and general good-time vibe. Sometimes it's just enough.