Collecting without listening? The man with 75,000 CDs

Slightly annoying style (and the video is very dark so turn up your brightness setting) but this episode of the BBC series on ‘collectoholics’ offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of one collector who is amassing a sizable but un-listened to trove of contemporary CD releases. He’s bought apartments to house the collection but at least they’ve increased in value. And you thought you had an obsession! Still, the teddy bears are worse, right? Enjoy.

Raven Nighthawk review is live

I thoroughly enjoyed a few months listening to the Raven Nighthawk integrated amp and the review is now live at HiFi'Zine. I've enjoyed tube amps in the past but this little 20w design reminded me why, it had that great midrange we all love but amazingly it also had decent bass that belies its power rating. Watch out for Raven -- they offer a range of tube amps and are cooking up some neat smaller set ups as well as powerful monoblock designs.

I've been using the Audience B2 bluetooth speaker with my various Macs around the house and will add some listening comments in due course to my colleague, Oliver Masciarotte's solid review on 'Zine. Fair to say, it makes hearing music outdoors quite an experience.

Audeze Headphones suffer major theft

Sadly, Audeze, makers of what some consider the best headphones in the world, were victims of a major theft this week, with almost $250,000 worth of product stolen from their factory.  If you see an amazing deal somewhere on these, be warned, and warn others.  From their site:

“Yesterday morning we learned there was the break-in at the Audeze factory. It looks like a well-planned coordinated job. The thieves crawled under and behind the racks to defeat our security system. Our finished goods inventory is wiped out and there is damage to our property. The thieves went through some of the raw materials and boxes and we are not sure of the full extent of the damage. The Costa Mesa police department is going through the factory collecting information and they’re being very helpful.

We’re a small company and all our employees are like family. As news of the break-in spread many of our employees came to the office. A lot of them were worried about the consequences and what’s next if something of this magnitude happens to a small company like ours. Everyone was milling around the assembly line talking about how to get back on our feet. 

The new EL8s were supposed to ship and were in a separate area of the facility. Luckily this area was left untouched. In an impromptu act of solidarity, Ivan who handles our shipping started packing EL8s. Marco our assembly lead started working on organizing the space. Justin and Dave joined and started working as well. Nearly every one turned out and started working, picking up the pieces. Our sales team got in, getting the word out on social media and sending emails to our dealers. We’ve had calls from customers and friends. People are posting leads for us on Facebook and other social media. The outpouring of support is really tremendous. 

We have announced a reward for anyone helping us arrest and convict the culprits. If you find any information or leads, please contact us at support@audeze.com or the Costa Mesa Police department at, 99 Fair Dr, Costa Mesa, CA, (714) 754-5280. Meanwhile security is being beefed up at the warehouse. 

While this may be a big hit for a small company like Audeze in the short-term, we will actually grow stronger from all this. We will be back in business on Monday building headphones with the same love, care and craftsmanship. 

On behalf of the entire team at Audeze we thank you for the overwhelming support over the last few days. 

Team Audeze”

Wired article on Hot Stampers and audiophile needs

Why Audiophiles Are Paying $1,000 for This Man's Vinyl

			Why Audiophiles Are Paying $1,000 for This Man's Vin... Collectors of so-called "Hot Stamper" LPs think a thousand bucks is a bargain to hear a classic rock opus sound better than you've ever heard it befor...
			View on www.wired.com	Preview by Yahoo

PBN doing vintage tables - who knew?

Certainly not me, but I've always liked PBN's products and the prime man Peter Noerbaek's straight talk on audio  so I drop by their site occasionally just to see what's going on. Their Groovemaster tables always caught my eye, being a mix of great looks, practical use of existing technology and innovative design. So today I find another table option there, the Vintage Direct line -- a mix of the beautiful PBN wooden plinths, old Denon direct drive tables, and a choice of arm. Find out more here  I'm usually not one for vintage tables, give me a contemporary product with today's best engineering anytime but I have to admit, this table hits so many hot buttons for me. Price on request, guess it's tied to various options, but how come this design is not better known? 

Some sad goings on at Stereophile

There's been lots of internet fallout from the announcement that Sam Tellig and Wes Phillips are leaving Stereophile. In the case of ST, that's after 32 years of contributions. Hard to make too much sense of the various commentaries on this but it does appear ST was aggrieved at not receiving payments for columns in a timely fashion, a result of corporate reorganization it would appear. You can read some of the direct complaints and responses here: 

None of this makes for particularly pleasant reading but beyond the name calling from a few, it's probably worth reading  in order to learn that some regular contributors are not salaried employees but contractors, and yes, they are likely justified in being annoyed at their payments being delayed. It's hard to reconcile the allegedly short-lived delays with the departure of writers after decades, so one wonders if there is more to this, but for me S'phile remains a worthy read -- it's beautifully produced, has measurements, covers music, and costs little on subscription. And hey, it arrives on time every month, no mean feat. As usual, John Atkinson handles the flak with grace despite some provocation. Personally, I'm not going to miss one writer too much (it would be a different story for me if Mikey F or Art D were to leave) but I would miss Stereophile if it disappeared.  Still, with HP dying, and now another couple of long-term contributors going away, it's easy to see why some are wondering if the end of audio journalism as we know it is nigh.

Diggin' the TTW tables

Am running some fun gear at the moment (new integrated  tube amp from Raven Audio doing duties now, plus some great tweaks to review, stay tuned). Am on such a major vinyl kick at the moment that it's causing all sorts of renewed interest in tables. Cue then the amazing number of new videos from Canadian manufacturer TTW, whose new line of Precision tables and Avro arms offers precise VTA setting with a gauge for measurement (though quite how a dial is going to tell you anything other than where the arm is in relation to parallel, I'm not clear). Still, these are lustworthy, about the best looking tables this company has produced. I used to think the other models looked kind of industrial but the Precision line starts to look really sweet.  Main man there Larry D just seems to be on a roll. I'd love to give one a run through my system, especially with the 12" arm...check this out:

Hitler finds out the results from cable ABX testing

OK, there have been better written parodies on this famous scene but this one might be the first to delve into the fanaticism of audio -- Enjoy:

Changing those headshell leads

Dexterity was tested, patience pushed to the limit, but I did manage to insert a set of the Furutech La Source replacement headshell leads in my SME V over the holidays. In fact, I did it several times as I swapped back and forth between these and the stock (probably VdH) wires across several cartridges. Yes, I had an accident on the way but that's life. What I can say is those little wires are critical to the sound of the vinyl rig. I got so involved in this I wrote up the review for HiFi'Zine, see the results here. Thanks to Scot Markwell of Elite AV and The Gear Shop for making this review possible.

Better alignment through technology: the SMARTractor

The commentary is in German but the visuals are excellent enough that they should be self-explanatory. The secret sauce is the proprietary Uni-Din alignment on offered which from what I can tell, is an original calculation designed to reflect the type of stylus and grooves found in modern stereo LP reproduction.  Not too sure I see what he sees at 1:28 but that might just be the camera. You know you want one, only $750 -- start saving :)



I requested a review sample but it seems this won't work out any time soon but I am assured these will be on display at RMAF in Denver. 

The greatest record collection in the world?

Well, there is competition for the title (see earlier post on the Mr Freitas who wants a copy of every LP ever made) but this guy is surely up there with the top candidates. Great personal story of one man's obsession (slightly dated now):

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

The state of the music industry is not the state of the musicians

For once, a relatively positive voice (unless you believe the future rests on you and me buying the same albums again and again in a new package, in which case, you are welcome to spend your money and to contemplate just what Ringo really was thinking or if we need that 93rd reissue of Kind of Blue)-- welcome Steve Albini. This takes some time but it’s worth it.

MusicMatters announces new titles for 2015 Blue Note series

It was anticipated this would happen by regular purchasers of the wonderful 12 LP series but today MusicMatters confirm that a new series is coming in 2015. And 20 new titles are promised including Dolphy's Out to Lunch and other gems, which will be happy news for many. I bought the full set so far and love them. So, if you thought you spent a lot on vinyl last year, brace yourself for another $700 or so on these if you want the lot (and you know you do)

The crap side of being an LP lover

I've done it again -- in a moment of minor inattention I brushed the back of my middle finger against my cartridge as I changed sides on a recently cleaned and wonderful sounding used LP that I was pleased to have found (Duke Robillard's Swing on Rounder Records, as a matter of fact) and 'pop'..there goes the cantilever. "Oh" went my first reaction, "how did I touch that?"...assuming no real damage as the touch was so light. But my eyes soon revealed the full horror -- the cantilever was shorn completely off the body and was lying dead on the platform of my SME 20.

Now I could go on about how rare this is but I did it less than two years ago with a previous version of this same, rather extended-cantilever cartridge. At that time, I blamed my overzealous efforts at trying to position a magnifier close enough to see VTA but this time I had no excuse - not alcohol, not careless handling, not hurrying, just plain accidental hand positioning as I went through a routine, habitual physical act of changing a record.  I've played records for 40 years, I never damaged a cantilever until two years ago, I look after my gear.  I could scream since I have just completed a series of reviewing and adjustments that had the table sounding about as well as I have ever heard vinyl in my home. This $2800 cartridge had only 200 hours on it, carefully logged, carefully cleaned and usually, carefully handled. Right now, I am sitting in silence as I cannot bear to put a CD on and I am contemplating the decimation of all the plans I had for the upcoming holidays to binge clean and wallow in vinyl. I was even contemplating investing in an ultrasonic record cleaner. Not now. I don't know if I have the money or the inclination to do this all over again.

Sometimes being a vinyl lover just f^*k+n# sucks!

Wilson Benesch set up new distribution in the US

I've long been intrigued by the designs of Wilson Benesch. Their use of carbon composites and their rather elegant flowing lines always struck me as eye-catching. Have never managed to hear their products though and I am hoping this might change soon as the Sound Organization in Dallas has been named their new US distributor.Pictured to the right is their new Cardinal model from the Geometry series, described poetically as consisting of "a silk black baffle, spine, foot and carbon fiber cabinet is beautifully augmented with side cheeks that may be customized with a choice of 14 polymer or natural wood veneer side cheek finishes, expertly applied by Bentley trained craftsmen to compliment any décor."  Wow, it sounds good already right? No US prices that I can determine yet but start saving, a published German review listed it as well north of 'more than you can afford' at 55,000 pounds