❤️

 

The mind wants meaning , the mind wants understanding, the mind wants it’s wants                                      

            and can be never satisfied … 

                           However 

  The lover of love is dancing in your heart                 

   with the experience of nothing but itself 

                                 ❤️

             Which are you listening to

                       Mind or heart?

I’m not an audiophile, anymore!

 

I enjoy music since I was in my mom womb… also if I owned and still own some nice audio gears, mostly classic or handmade stuffs, I simply reject audiophilia and related lingo.

Listening to a Steinway piano or any real instrument makes this so crystal clear: it’s like real sex and porn…

Audio is just the latter… can be good, sometimes… but never sublime and it will never substitute real music… so why bothering about those cables and shit, endlessly… let’s go and strum or pluck any instrument, let’s go to concerts.

After pandemic stop to live music, it’s such a joy attending again to a concert: hand-clapping, the audience buzzing, then the silence and… the first notes… priceless.

My musical orgasms are, these days, more on AWESOME recordings than on electronics…

So, beware, my friends and fellow audiophiles: don’t ask to me: “Any news (i.e. new audio gears)?”

I’ll reply - swallowing in disgust at the question 😱 - that my electronic equipments are in good shape and play magnificent and, no! No news 😏 

… but I’ll add that the paper used in the above Helmut Walcha’s Archiv box-set and enclosed gorgeous booklet is of highest quality and it’s such a pleasure reading the liner notes while listening to Bach.

... hit me, if you want!

🎶

Børresen Speakers - a new U.S. patent

 

When Lars and I started the Børresen speaker Company some 4 years ago we did with the firm belief that we were bringing something truely unique to the market. Today we got the blue stamp from the US patent office, granting us a US patent on the unique iron free magnet motor system we use in our speaker drives. 

Congratulations to Michael and Lars 🥂

Provoking

 

Recording concert-piano

 

Recording this beloved, majestic instrument has always been a nightmare for yours truly: muffled, imprecise sound and smooth ambience when miking far away from instrument or dry, not so musical, hyper-detailed and blurred sound from mechanical noises when close-up recording… and all pianos, rooms and musicians have their different personalities 😱

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to experiment with smarter close… aehm: not so close-up miking… the mighty Neumann USM69 in 90* angle broad cardioid about is very natural, full bodied and detailed, very promising sounding and worth further experiencing.

A few weeks ago, I placed sane mike inside same piano, just a few cm from strings in 110* angle narrow cardioid pattern and sound was also nice, reminding me Keith Jarrett’s first ECM “Facing You” sound… not very suitable for classical music, either.

I love so much recording!

Mirabilis apparatus ad musicam

 

The blue-box showed above in the picture changed my (audio) life, period.

It’s a compact design, 2nd order filter 320/1500/8000 hz with precision hand made air-core, chokes… special for Goto/Royal Sound Japan… the best crossover I ever owned and listened in my system… had Pioneer D23, several Werner Jagush/Jabo’s, still have Thomas Mayer’s… this blue gizmo is the absolute winner!

🥇

Music at home

 

When at home, I just wish to listen to some laid back music: my Luca Chiomenti “Scherzo” with PCL82 and Alps RK50 pot, 1,7 W blissful amp, Grundig Audiorama 7000 Omni-directional speakers and my MacBook 13” are enough…

… maybe I’m getting old 😏

Reich

 I love Steve, first… I fondly remember Wilhelm, second… I don’t like any Third Reich 😏

🥳

This was a drawing from one century ago!

 

… nothing changed to these days 🤬

Germany meets England - Columbia Studio in Hayes (England)

 

Said this was Neumann Cutting Lathe used at Columbia records. Our precious SAX or 33CX might be cut by it. 

Notice there was a Telefunken M10 used as master reproducer.  Neumann WV2 and Telefunken V87/86... speakers? Tannoy autograph!

🥇

Springtime

 

New Studietto layout - a reel-to-reel heaven

 

It’s always thrilling dismantling the audio-system, cleaning, re-routing cables, finding the best layout (aehm: until the next mod 😏)… it will need some days to complete, but it will be better and worth the hassle.

I already appreciate the “new order”,  as many master-tapes were laying in boxes, while now they’re handy.

A single 265 cm long shelf will be ready, soon… it will accommodate Studer 961 mixer and other ancillaries.

This is an on-going, work-in-progress job.

A partial view of the tapes library.

 

… more tapes (in red archival boxes)

Gears waiting for their place… there will be four classic ReVox machines: two ReVox G36 Mk3, an HS and a 4 tracks, and two ReVox A77 Mk4, an HS and a 4 tracks… but it will need some time to complete as two are under restoration.

The A77HS, such a lovely, good sounding machine.

Do someone think there are too many reel-to-reel machines?

Maybe… but I love them all 😇 for their sound, appearance and emotions they are capable of.

Lisa Simpson

 

Takatsuki 300B - if you have to ask for price, you cannot afford it 😏

 

I’m very, VERY satisfied of my Emission Labs 300B, yet…

Studer C37 & ReVox G36: some similarities

 

Studer C37 and Revox G36 capstan motors, both use 6/12 pole and same decoupling for the capstan shaft.

  (Jaap Pees - technician extraordinaire)

🥇

Ralph Towner

 

His music is already “classical”… he will be remembered when we’ll be all ashes for his (already) immortal, timeless, unique music.

Thanks to Paolo Soriani for the superb Ralph’s portrait.🙏 

Long and happy life to Maestro Towner.

Rene Clemencic (27/2/1928 - 8/3/2022) ❤️‍🩹

 

This man changed my life… I’m broken from his passing  🌸🌸🌸

Gian-Francesco Malipiero - Quaranta e più anni nella torre eburnea (Guido Gorini - piano - Arcophon AC688 - 1968)

 

This very disc is a masterpiece: music sounds so modern, amazing it’s unknown to most!

The record, engineered by Dr. A. Vahan at Villa Litta, just outside Milan, sounds amazing: piano is captured with all its overtones and harmonics, left hand notes are so low and resonating in the room as I seldom appreciated.

Talk about esoteric recordings, this is truly a seldom heard disc of highest quality which would deserve a much broader audience and appreciation.

It’s never too late 😏

Capt. Beefheart and Frank Zappa

 

Mojave desert (1975), just outside Don Van Vliet’s home-caravan  

John Cage’s Music of Changes, The Peak 13” and DMT25 and SUT rolling - an update

 

I’d be tempted to begin and finish this very post, leaving just the (cryptic?) title and the above three pictures… 

… but I’m well conscious more words are needed 😏 

I spent about ten hours listening in awe to The Peak 13” arm with Analogtechnik DMT25 cartridge and Western Electric 618B, then, suddenly, a sense of falling out of love came… 

Sound was very dynamic and detailed, but lacking something I well know: that “beefy”, thick, true to life sound I learned to appreciate: THE sound of Music.

No soundstage or depth of image and assorted hi-end hypes and lingo… just music.

The above mixed feelings pushed me to take off WE 618B swapping to Peerless 4685, then to Peerless 4611 and finally to Triad K241… this SUT-rolling left me exhausted… and always with the feeling Adam and Eve had when pushed out of Garden of Eden 😊😏🥳😇😊, if you understand me…

This early morning, listening to that voice in my head… I welcomed back home the lad… Tim de Paravicini’s masterpiece SUT aka The Head was back on duty, at its place, behind Garrardzilla.

What I immediately got was THAT sound I so much love… need, like the air I breathe!

The above mentioned, top contenders, were all gorgeously sounding trannies, but the uniqueness of TdP’s TX4 is the balance on all frequencies spectrum: no preponderance of lows, mids or highs,

Strange or not, this balance highlights the frequencies with greater sense of trueness and no listening fatigue or aural artifacts.

The Head is a keeper and a no-brainer… a music-friendly machine… 

Listening to that John Cage’s disc and the marvelously recorded grand-piano was more than enlightening: it clearly showed how right I was in returning to The Head and its righteous character, a piece of gear with a tad of the soul of its maker: the late, deeply and dearly missed Baron Tim de Paravicini ❤️‍🩹 .

Was it worth swapping from the 12” + APJ1 adapter to the 13” arm?

Definitely YES!!!

Is Gotorama sounding better?

Definitely YES!!!!!

Am I satisfied… 

Yes!

… not happy (the war in Ukraina, you know… no man is an island 😢)

Against gasoline cost increasing 😱

 

Thanking the heavy global situation,  goodies prices will increase, but for short-range moving around, there is an handy solution…

The Peak 13” is singing 🎶

 

After some months after completing a one-of-a-kind 13” arm, I left it on a shelf to sort-of “mature” in studietto’s music-friendly environment, waiting for the right mood to mount and finely tuning into Garrardzilla’s.

 I wished giving to the mighty Analogtechnik DMT25 cartridge the best arm, able to tame its energy and to return to me all the nuances hidden in the grooves.

The 13” arm allowed me to avoid the Ortofon APJ-1 1” adapter… believe it or not, taking off the adapter, immediately improved slam and detailing.

Pushed by the audible improvement, I wanted to try an alternative to beloved TdP’s The Head TX4 SUT - I’ve been using exclusively for at least a couple of years - swapping to my Western Electric 618B which I never used with DMT25.

The result was nothing short of A M A Z I N G!

Really: after several decades into music and audio passion, I’m still amazed by the improvements possible with my audio system.

✅