Christmas' time yard-sale - Altec 803A 15" N.O.S. in original box... perfect

... another nugget from my collection which I'll gladly let it go to another happy owner/collector.

A minty, shiny pair of 1959 vintage Altec 803A 15" woofers... the lightest paper cone woofers Altec ever made... even better than famed, sought-after 416A...

Speedy as light tight low-end and extreme resolution.

One of the VERY best woofers EVER produced, cost-no-object.

Not just a boom-boom woofer, but a precision instrument better suited to an exclusive system than P.A. use.

If interested, please drop me a line at: stefanocello-AT-gmail-DOT-com

Happy Christmas everyone!

Happy birthday, Tom Waits!

Sixtynine today for a personal (and global) fave artist... 

Thanking Casey Waits' artwork.

Ortofon 100th Anniversary book

Happy Birthday, Ortofon!

The remarkable history of a company

This book reveals the remarkable history of a company that for 100 years has always been in the business of acoustics. Indeed, for that timespan, Denmark itself, has been recognised as the land of acoustics, with many companies designing innovative products. The country retains that reputation today.

Ortofon has played a significant role in creating a rich heritage for Danish acoustics. We believe that enviable legacy is best protected and continued by the development of exciting new products and keeping Ortofon viable for the future. As you will discover in the book, the list of Ortofon’s famous and groundbreaking products is a long one.

Music historian Kevin Howlett has written this history of 100 years of Ortofon based on a firm foundation of exhaustive research in various archives and in-depth interviews with past and present employees from the 1970s until now. We are indebted to all the many friends and colleagues who gave so generously of their time to contribute to this book.

The 50th Anniversary book and the 100th Anniversary book.

A must-have for the analog lover and collector.

Bad pop music is everywhere...

Thanking Robert Crumb

Ella & Marilyn

Test pressings

Love test-pressings... have a couple of Deccas', but the sheer elegance of this early Columbia 33CX... is awesome.

Thanking Saulo Zucchello.

NovoTono - Overlays (2018)

I already knew Adalberto and Andrea Ferrari's skill and good musical taste as I attended to at least a couple of previous concerts, always at local Conservatory of music auditorium...

These brothers and musical companions move themselves in a grey, yet colorful realm territory of no-label music... the best, in my humble opinion.

Not classical, yet in written notation, no jazz per-se, as not improvised, yet sometimes reminding Jimmy Giuffre's clarinet-based trios from the early '60s...

The music flows, easy to the ears, like a lyrical Anthony Braxton... ears-friendly BUT not already heard...

The recording I made with my trusty Neumann USM-69 and Sound Devices 722 at 24bit/192Khz is a document...

The disk Adalberto so kindly gave to me after the concert, is such a poetic production, a duo project titled "Overlays":  two bass and contra-alto clarinets, soprano sax, clarinet duos of seldom heard beauty... math and lyrical intervowing dialogue, never boring...

Andrea and Adalberto Ferrari's composed really beautiful themes, with a single piece by beloved Roscoe Mitchell of AEoC-fame and Ornette Coleman.

I really enjoyed both the concert AND greatly grooved on NovoTono's disk... beautiful, angular music is superbly served by Stefano Amerio's recording at ArteSuono in Cavalicco, Udine...

Not an ECM's production, BUT... Stefano's skill undoubtedly serves every musician at his best and every musician giving his best, as well.

I strongly suggest everyone into nice, adventurous, original music to take a chance and get this very disk.

You won't regret.

... as crow flies...

The master-grade Fidelity Research AS-1.

Negative Capability - Marianne Faithfull's last effort

I cannot miss any of Mrs. Faithful's discs... it's an obsession: when I listen to her gravel, yet smooth voice, I melt...and no! I'm not reminding the Irina Palm's character... she's such a Lady...

As a plus, inside the elegant fold-out cover, there is a pix of a Studer's master tape recorder... after my Man-part melted on Music, my Audiophile-heart was bleeding on how pure analog sounds.

Lovely disc, folks...

Dementia & Music

Study: Memories of music cannot be lost to Alzheimer's and dementia

The part of your brain responsible for ASMR catalogs music, and appears to be a stronghold against Alzheimer's and dementia. 

Some music inspires you to move your feet, some inspires you to get out there and change the world. In any case, and to move hurriedly on to the point of this article, it's fair to say that music moves people in special ways. 

If you're especially into a piece of music, your brain does something called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response(ASMR), which feels to you like a tingling in your brain or scalp. It's nature's own little "buzz", a natural reward, that is described by some as a "head orgasm". Some even think that it explains why people go to church, for example, "feeling the Lord move through you", but that's another article for another time. 

Turns out that ASMR is pretty special. According to a recently published study in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease (catchy name!), the part of your brain responsible for ASMR doesn't get lost to Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's tends to put people into layers of confusion, and the study confirms that music can sometimes actually lift people out of the Alzheimer'shaze and bring them back to (at least a semblance of) normality... if only for a short while. ASMR is powerful stuff! 

This phenomenon has been observed several times but rarely studied properly. One of the most famous examples of this is the story of Henry, who comes out of dementia while listening to songs from his youth: 

Jeff Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in Radiology at the Univerity of Utah Health and contributing author on the study, says  "In our society, the diagnoses of dementia are snowballing and are taxing resources to the max. No one says playing music will be a cure for Alzheimer's disease, but it might make the symptoms more manageable, decrease the cost of care and improve a patient's quality of life."

... they won't leave...

... more Yard Sale - Thomas Mayer line stage and LCR Phono preamps and PSUs

Selling these fine pieces of bespoke, hand made gears... with spare tubes... 220V only.

Slagle's TVCs, Western Electric 437A and Cunningham CX-310 tubes, all silver internal wiring...

Why selling? Not currently using and feeling guilty to do so...

Downsizing my audio collection, folks... everything's OK;-)

If interested, please contact me at stefanocello-AT-gmail-DOT-com

Black Friday Yard Sale - Ortofon RMG309i and 8N TSW 1000 Phono cable

For sale - N.O.S: Ortofon RMG309i 12" arm, boxed with accessories and papers, including the sought-after dedicated phono cable, too often missing (it's THAT good: people usually do not part from this beauty...)

If interested, please contact me at stefanocello-AT-gmail-DOT-com

Thanksgiving Yard Sale - EMT 997 Banana arm

Selling a N.O.S. EMT997 Banana 12" arm, in wooden box, all accessories (weights, antiskating/wire weight, arm lift, papers) are here.

A rare find.

Please contact yours truly at stefanocello-AT-gmail-DOT-com... if interested, of course.

The Good Recordist

Good Tape!

Indeed...

Almost Nothing: CERN, experimental city (2018)

Yesterday I attended to this nice documentary projection with my wife... I've always been attracted by CERN in Geneva, Switzerland... the particle accelerometer, the boson of God, the scientific mysteries of Universe, energy, philosophical implications of "understanding" Nature, finding origin of life... maybe looking for God or whatever.

This documentary, as my wife wittingly observed, gives a strong sense of a claustrophobic secluded place with literally zillion kilometers of cables, pipes, galleries and tunnels...

Researchers of 160 different nationalities closely collaborate as a team, every sub-team deeply digging this or that scientific aspect, working like specialized ants around an huge puzzle whose whole imagine is unbelievably hard to comprehend: to study and understand the BIG VOID... the complications of stars and galaxies and universe(s).

Beside the boring, dull, yet necessary bulky presence of a huge industrial plant-like structure, what the movie communicated to me is the sense of naked, innocent fragility of the scientists and researchers when they candidly affirm the "do not know" this, that and beyond... only the fool knows everything!

This fragility of humankind when, instead of dealing with down to earth banalities and mobile-phones culture... they have to deal with Zero Kelvin Realm - i.e. just go 20 km straight above your head and... you're lost in space... darkness... ice with no ice... cosmic debrises... eons of... almost nothing!

This concept of a Universe made of "almost nothing" of an unexplainable void of unconceivable depths and entity reminds me... to Music.

Another mystery which scientists like Albert Einstein defined as: "there isn't any scientific proof of existence of music".

It's ionized, excited electrons "air"... is universally known and appreciated... it's vibration of cells and electrons... it's...

... BUT: does philosophers and musicians really cares about Nature's laws that makes our souls healing and tears pouring and lovers loving... memories blossoming, feeling long time gone perfumes and remembrances from the past?

Isn't a deeper knowledge search an obsession, a cage?

Shouldn't man enjoy life peacefully?

What's life? Zen-like peace of mind or fiery burning of desire for the unknown and discoveries?

Is it thirstiness of knowledge or power?

The feeling of several thousands people working at CERN makes me think that, YES, World Wide Web was conceived there and many, many other discoveries do and will do for medicine, for example, with 3D micro-surgery and the like... but everything looks - at least the sense I got from the movie - more experimental life than experimental city!

No math will be able to describe a sunset pink, always moving, always different... or a voice in a reverberant space.

Science isn't winning vs. ineffable!

Sort-of: they have everything at CERN - i.e. movie theaters, post office, gyms... but everything is so... unnaturally man-made... where is Nature scientists plan to study for the sake and love of it? Are these people still living or immolating themselves for humankind and its future?

Who's behind such an extra-long term research spanning decades of trials and errors... it's Man wishing to learn more to colonize outer space, new planets?

I invite everyone having 74 minutes free-hand to enjoy this movie...

I did.


  

Christmas' Yard Sale - Goodmans Axiom 80

Have a pristine, N.O.S. '58 vintage Axiom 80 pair for sale, original, genuine Made in England, not the Japanese reissue... they're museum quality, simply perfect... if interested, contact me at stefanocello-AT-gmail-DOT-com - will send actual, hi-resolution pixies upon request.

Thanks for supporting my audio downsizing.

Wave the stick...

The Soloist's speakers - Jordan Watts

Jordan Watts are speakers from the outer space, period! 

Ted Jordan was a Jedi who visited planet Earth and gifted humankind with Goodmans' Axiom 80 and later Jordan Watts' wide-band speakers.

BTW: have a pristine, N.O.S. '58 vintage Axiom 80 pair for sale... they're museum quality, perfect.. if interested, contact me at stefanocello-AT-gmail-DOT-com - will send hi-resolution pixies upon request.

These '60s speakers makes any soloist appearing, flesh and bones, in my studio.

A miracle!

You hear every breathe in a very seldom experienced way.

I had a long eargasm, today... and it isn't happening so often.

Fantastic, simply fantastic with Misho's Woodenamps... sublime with Fidelity Research AS-1 and Partridge/Copper 300B mono-blocks.

Ted Jordan was a genius, folks... and anyone into high resolution crossover-less speakers should experience'em... if they're good for Be Yamamura (who designed and built his own Cantus' speakers after Jordan Watts' design solutions and use them in his system, as well... ), who am I to confute it?

Soloist's speakers, I wrote... yes: Bert Jansch, Jakob Lindberg and Ralph Towner played in my Studietto. No kidding: I very seldom so much enjoyed Ralph's Guild 12 strings guitar and Bert's voice in full bloom.

Thanking my best pal Franz, Fiona and Trieu for the JW's project.