Thursday, October 31, 2019

DS Audio Optical cartridge - a revolution?



Here is a revolutionary cartridge, folks... reportedly (and project-wise) better and wiser than (flawed) Finial optical turntable and everything past (comes to mind the Toshiba's of forty years ago)...






Thanking my best pal Leif... 



Wisdom for the Day - about happiness, music, playing... and life



Nothing is what it seems... that’s the art of great playing... and smooth living.


Whatever you do as a profession or as a passion, try and love what you do, especially the less interesting aspects because the only person that can suffer if you don’t is an imaginary you...





Looking for happiness in the body, mind or the world is like looking for the screen in a movie. The screen does not appear in the movie, and yet, at the same time, all that is seen in the movie is the screen. In the same way that the screen "hides" in plain view, so happiness "hides" in all experience.

Rupert Spira



16"




The reason to own an EMT 927?






Maybe this... 


Thanking Ing. Hans Van Vliet.



Robbie Basho - Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes, a 5CD set of previously unreleased material coming-out soon






ABOUT THE BOXED SET : 

Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is widely regarded as one of the progenitors of what's commonly known today as American Primitive guitar. Growing up in Maryland alongside neo-traditional guitar explorers John Fahey and Max Ochs, Basho's path would take a decidedly different turn, bringing Hindi, Indian, Japanese and Native American musical traditions into his work. His albums for Takoma and Vanguard have left an indelible trail of influence across generations of musicians, from William Ackerman and Pete Townshend to Ben Chasny and William Tyler.

Liam Barker first became aware of Basho having purchased Tompkins Square's reissue of Venus in Cancer, released in 2006. This led him on an incredible fact-finding expedition, unraveling the many layers of mystery surrounding Basho's life and death, all deftly compiled and depicted in his documentary film, Voice of the Eagle : The Enigma of Robbie Basho

During the research process, Barker came across a large cache of unheard Basho tapes recorded throughout his career, ranging roughly from 1965-1985. By arrangement with Basho's Estate and the original custodians of the tapes, Tompkins Square is set to release Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes, a 5CD set of previously unreleased material. The label will release a single disc vinyl LP as well. The set includes notes by Barker, Henry Kaiser, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Glenn Jones and Richard Osborn, as well as many unseen photographs.

Release date TBA.







Monday, October 21, 2019

Fred Frith Trio - the art of improvising





Yesterday attended at a superb, SUPERB, unique concert of The Fred Frith Trio in Padua...

I saw Mr. Frith soloing at Schola Chantorum Basiliensis' "Basel Plucks", years ago... and back in early '70s I had the pleasure to attend to a concert in Udine, Italy, with Henry Cow, the beloved, seminal group/collective which Fred Frith founded in the Seventies.









What a concert, folks...  




Jonas Jakutis' turntables from Lithuania




Such a beauty!




Look at Jonas' site... BTW: spot the 6-pins in shown cartridge...

It's the DaVa field coil DST cartridge;-)



Everything so much worth diggin'









Revox G36HS



After owning for decades a REVOX G36 which was transformed by Master Tim de Parravicini from a 9,5/19 cm/s 2 tracks into a beast 19/38 cm/s 2 tracks with mike-IN transformers and earphones output for monitoring, I sold it last year to a reel-to-reel beginner pal.

Selling it was someway painful as it was, like my Nagra IV-S and QGB, dictated only by the load of too many machines owned and in use at my Studietto.

Anyway, my pal was happy and myself had a less crowdy shelves.

... but: when a love is for life, it's difficult to give up!

As I HAD TO re-buy a Fidelity Research AS-1 passive preamp and The Head TX-4 TdP's MC-SUT after selling them, same happened with the humble G36!



It cannot be compared with my mighty Studer C37 or Telefunken M15A in authority and beefy sound, nonetheless this reel-to-reel machine has mojo and magic in spades.



Its sound is so natural and effortless I immediately noticed and appreciated at first checking after... YES! - recently purchasing a perfect conditions original factory-made Revox G36 HS 19/38 cm/s unit.
I drove about 1200 km to pick it up... but sure worth the hassle and expense.

I'll be able to dub my all-tube recording master tapes (recorded using my tubes Neumann U67s' mikes) from G36HS to C37, so preserving the harmonic richness of these humble recordings.

First will be a (very) limited edition of my "Barocco Tedesco" straight from the edited original 1/4" master tape.

Stay tuned...



Moriyama-san's new Ikino-matsubara Observatory Cafe & Gallery




新しい冒険、森山さん、おめでとうございます! 2020年に新しいレストランを訪れたいと思います。イタリアからの心からの挨拶。


Sunday, October 13, 2019

DaVa field-coil cartridge from Lithuania



Darius Valiunas' masterpiece, built after years of trial & error, countless hours of desk by-hand twisting lilliputian coils and even tinier copper wire the diameter of angels' hairs.

The result is DaVa, a field coil hand-made cartridge using a cactus sting cantilever (yes!!!) and square shaped in-air coils (ultra-low impedance = ultra detailing).








The cost of this beauty will be communicated soon... will it be expensive?

It will be appropriate to years of research, BUT more: here you buy the entry-ticket for a totally different realm: the Magic World of DST Cartridges!

Neumann DST, Lumiere DST, Tzar, DaVa... all are the declination of a weird design which, once you listen to, you're hopelessly hooked for life.

So, let's welcome Darius' skilled hands and superb handicraft.

Hopefully, testing it soon in my The Peak/Garrardzilla combo.

Stay tuned.