Goto Santa

Thanking my best pal Lo...

... things aren't what they seem.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

I wish you a Merry Christmas!

Enjoy these days, thinking about who's in troubles, too... how I'd wish health, wealth and peace for everyone!

Ho, hooo, hoooo... 

Ella & Louis - the definitive pressing! (Verve Orange label 1956)

Own several pressings... this is "the one"!

 

EMT 927st new platter

Dipl.Ing. J.P. Vsn Vliet is a legend: he made myth of EMT to live forever!

Michael Fabritius and Louis Dush were the beginner heralds of the resurrection and worldwide loyal fellowship, years ago, but nobody else but Hans Van Vliet were more passionate to save from dumpster these majestic machines..

He painstakingly re-built EMT 139st tube RIAA eq. and... if called on duty, also a poor platter-less EMT 927 can be fitted again and make it spinning forever!

Bravo, Hans.

Genius

Goto 4 ways 12 db/octave passive crossovers

Just unwrapped... these old, bespoke Made in Japan crossovers are really a beauty of home/handmade job, same as a passionate, skilled and motivated audio DIYer would do for his personal use.

Amazing everything is squeezed in the tiny, yet hefty blue boxes... weight of each crossover is about 9 kilos! I appreciate nice engineering and... WOW! they both survived the loooong journey, thanking the previous owner/seller and his crating care...

Will use in parallel with Gotorama, as an alternative to multiamped system with Thomas Mayer's line-TVC crossover, and Nuforce MCA20 Stealth 8 channels power-amp, using whatever I like from my amps stable...

Easy done.. after some new shorter cables layout.

Cleaning the binding posts... look at silk-screen... VLF (Very Low Frequencies)... love these old timey panel writing... ... same as I love new projects.

Herbert von Karajan

Look at his bespoke, so elegantly tailored suit... and his fiery eyes... 

Just: wow!

Tape-dubbing - 4 tracks to 2 tracks

Tandberg 9200XD 4-tracks playing into Revox G36HS 2 tracks recording... amazed by the result!

WOW!

Stone Speakers' Venetia 487

Thanking my pal Frank who hosted for some weeks these seldom seen speakers...

Handmade in Northern Italy out of a local, solid volcanic stone called "euganean trachyte", the density and weight of a granite, they are both impressively looking, irregular and (apparently) raw, like a speaker made by Fred Flinstone himself... yet...

My pal Antonio, yours truly, Frank, our host and landlord, soon joined by the speakers makers, Michele Gastaldello, the stone carver and business partner of Dipl. Ing. Giacomo Munari of Stone Speakers, enjoyed a nice listening session and most of my questions and curiosities were answered.

The bass-reflex enclosure is carved by hand in two halves shells, then joined together... two rear round ports make the speaker to "breathe".

Morel carbon-fiber mid-low and dome tweeters are used and sensitivity is 87 db/W/m on 5 ohm.

Crossover point, 12 db/octave, is at 3200 hz.

Weight is an impressive 50+ kilos each and the two shells joint is hidden by a classy genuine leather strip whose color can, of course, be custom chosen.

Cost is around € 12.000/pair, including the dedicated stand.

... and what about sound?

Well... easy said: rock steady;-)

The sound is solid... ok, will stop easy referring to building material;-)

Sound is detailed of a pellucid neutrality, absolutely not coldish... must say the enclosure is SO vibes-free we sort-of over-appreciated the merits of the nice Morel's components and the 2nd order crossover using top of the line Jensen caps and Jantzen Wax-Coils' foil inductance-coils.

We listened to "Uncle" by Art Ensemble of Chicago, a fantastic live recording where incredibly raucous  baritone saxes and assorted percussions and double bass and trumpet give the perfect playground for a serious tasting of the whole system and speakers capabilities...

Antonio and myself had this very same music only a couple of hours before at my place through my own Gotorama and Garrardzilla, so a comparison was possible and easy done: highs of Venetia 478 by Stone Speakers are extended and silky also if someway lacking the authority of what we experienced earlier...

For the price, up to par with level of workmanship and - most of all - of performance, you get a definitive speakers with a decent WAF (wife acceptance factor) as they reminds to me to Ron Arad's Day After concrete turntable - i.e. an artwork more than a piece of audio gear... and the neutrality of the speaker itself allows a wide palette - i.e. - a plethora of ancillaries matching to get the sound of choice.

I strongly encourage everyone who sort-of fell in love for these weird, cool looking proudly hand carved and made stuff, to get in touch with Giacomo or Michele to arrange for a demo or news about nearest audio show.

In the meantime, I wish to these young, passionate people to succeed as they well deserve.

AAA

The ultimate high-end analog sound experience
- Map & Krzesimir Dębski - Grooveoberek [Limited Reel To Reel Tape Edition by AC Records] 

Unique Analogue Sound Productions and Mastering by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios. Undoubtedly, a good idea of Adam Czerwiński was to make use of his own and other musicians’ artistic experience, which resulted in a phenomenal mixture of experience, tradition and a beautiful and modern understanding of 21st-century jazz. 

Custom Made High Fidelity Analog Edition On Reel to Reel Tape Available Upon Request.

Label: AC Records ‎– ACRT014
Format: Reel-To-Reel, 15 ips, ¼", 2-Track Stereo, 10.5" NAB Reel, Deluxe Edition, CCIR/IEC
Country: Poland
Released: March 2019
Genre: Jazz
Style: Easy Listening

Tracklist: 

Grooveoberek – Adam Czerwiński
Montreal Ballad – Krzesimir Dębski
New York Streets – Marcin Wądołowski 
Nie Bossa Nie Nova – Marcin Wądołowski 
Godzinki – Old Church Prayer 
Ranczo – Krzesimir Dębski 
No Name Yet – Adam Czerwiński 
Forty Years after Donny – Krzesimir Dębski 
Forest – Piotr Lemańczyk 

Musicians:

Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Piotr Lemańczyk
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Marcin Wądołowski
Producer, Drums, Percussion – Adam Czerwiński
Vocals, Violin – Krzesimir Dębski

First copy from the master reel to reel tape. Recording run at 38 cm / s. For the interested, we also offer 19 cm / s on RTM tapes.
Playback On Studer A807 MKII two track 1/4 ” and Recording On Telefunken M15A two-track 1/4 ”

Recording Engineer: Piotr Łukaszewski

Analogue mastering: Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios In March 2019

Produced by Adam Czerwiński

The record is the result of a joint musical quest of each member of the band. Everyone also brought their own compositions to the session. The material is extremely diverse. From quotes from folk melodies through a beautiful interpretation of the Little Hours, classical jazz, rock & roll, finishing with the jazz version of Krzesimir’s hit song “Ranczo”.

feat. Krzesimir Dębski - Fully Reel To Reel Analogue Release: AAA

AC Records Studio is a recording company which value the fantastic analogue sound and the highest quality of the releases produced in the studio. AC Records Studio makes music in the best studios using only analogue techniques, with valve and ribbon microphones and valve amplifiers.

Claustrophobia

Genius...

The Anti-Christ Turntable

Spindr - an Uber Garrard 301 - a new boss is in town!

From The Netherlands... I'm  I m p r e s s e d, folks...

The beginning...

... and the end... for now!

That's a no-compromise Garrard 301, indeed.

Compliments and kudos to Mr. Huib Muilwijk Huibert

Some info from Spindr:

We, Huib Muilwijk AND Dick van Wezel, started a new company: SPINDR (pronounced as spinder)

We start with a big update of the beautiful Garrard 301. 

There are already hundreds of interesting updates available but we are convinced our model will raise the bar. Currently all parts are build, but they all need work!

So what you see is just a rough sketch from the final model.

We'll follow with utmost interest the evolution of the final Uber 301.

Bravo!!!