Sunday, April 28, 2024

Western Acoustics in Milan 💫

 


Something cool from Liam Porr of Western Acoustics:

We have rarely had products available in Europe, but we have one pair of Type 1 speakers and two pairs of Type 2 speakers available at a discount that we used for Milan Design Week at Alcova Milano.


This show was a rare opportunity for us to show our work to thousands of ears. Even in unideal listening conditions outdoors, we received tremendous positive feedback about the audio quality of our Type 1 and 2 speakers. It comes as a relief to know that what sounds true to our ears translates to others as well.








The Type 1 is a large, high efficiency speaker with two 12" Japanese woofers from Fostex, and a 1.4" compression driver from SB Acoustics loading a custom bi-radial horn designed by Joseph Crowe. The Type 2 is a bookshelf speaker containing a 6.5" Danish woofer from Purifi's now-famous USHINDI series of ultra low distortion woofers, and a 1" Italian compression driver from FatalPro, loaded into a custom spherical-wave horn derived from the work of WW2-era German cinema speaker company Klangfilm. Both speakers are powered by an active DSP amplifier from Dutch company Hypex Electronics.


The Type 2 is a (much) smaller, compact and more affordable loudspeaker, with quite interesting technical and acoustic features.











I wish to Liam and his company the very best!


https://western-acoustics.com/


💫🍀💫




Saturday, April 27, 2024

Liam Porr visited Studietto

 



A young enthusiast from Berkeley, California visited my humble Studietto 💫




He’s a loudspeakers builder, curious and thirsty of knowledge.

I wish to him the best with his audio creations 🍀

Thanks for visiting, Liam 🥂



Surrealistic Pillow 💫

 


The SURREALISTIC PILLOW radio feature discussing Jefferson Airplane's iconic album is available on NPR's 1A as part of the National Recording Registry radio series.The Library of Congress selected SURREALISTIC PILLOW as one of the 25 recordings to be preserved forever due to their significance in American sound history. 



Listen now and dive into the impact of the album 🍄: https://found.ee/1ASurrealisticPillow



Michael Cuscuna passed way 😢

 

From Joe Harley:

“We are heartbroken by the news that our dear friend, the revered producer & Blue Note historian Michael Cuscuna, has passed away at age 75. It would be impossible to overstate Michael’s importance to the Blue Note legacy, which he worked tirelessly to fortify for nearly 50 years going back to the mid-1970s when he began a series of reissues & archival discoveries that brought to light numerous treasures from the Blue Note vaults. He continued to release Blue Note catalog reissues on his own Mosaic Records during Blue Note’s dormancy in the early 1980s & was by Bruce Lundvall’s side as the label was relaunched in 1985. Plainly stated, Blue Note Records would not exist as it does today without the passion & dedication of Michael Cuscuna. RIP…



Michael was recently awarded a DownBeat Lifetime Achievement Award. Read more about his life & work: https://downbeat.com/news/detail/michael-cuscuna-lifetime-achievement-in-recording”


He was a giant and his body of work and dedication to Music will outlive him forever.

My deepest condolences to his family and close friends.

💫



Wednesday, April 17, 2024

EIFL’s Koji-san passed away 😢

 


コウジさん、教えてくれてありがとう。ご遺族の皆様に心よりお悔やみを申し上げます。


💫💫💫



Neumann PA2a 💫

 


Glad I helped my pal Daniel Kim to find and purchase this gem from the past: Neumann PA2a turntable and SEV1 Phono EQ.








It was - reportedly - the property of Herr Georg Neumann, himself 🤩



Oldest records shop in the world 💫

 


The world's oldest record store: Spillers Records, est. 1894, at it's original location, Queen's Arcade, Cardiff, Wales.







Saturday, April 13, 2024

The Music is back 💫

 


I was forced to be stuck at home for some weeks without my beloved music in my Studietto, but… today, at last, I spent three hours with a dear friend listening to some still unplayed records I piled up.

What can I say?

A masterpiece with a stellar musicians bunch


US pressing, mastered by Bernie Grundman 🥇


Garrardzilla with The Peak 13” and Analogtechnik’s Ice Age 💫


The pleasure of good company, sharing music and chatting is priceless… and the Analogtechnik’s Ice Age cartridge is well-played, now and in full bloom in 13” The Peak arm… amazing!

The overall sound is truly cohesive and coherent - every part of the audio system is working in harmony, nothing disturb the life-like flowing of interwoven musical beauty.



Magical, indeed… 

Thanks to my pal Silvio for enjoying with me… Music 💫🎼💫



Holiday Inn & The Who

 

Thanks to Michael Trei for the following:

“When I arrived for AXPONA, I noticed that my hotel was tucked in behind another abandoned hotel. Curious, I did a little research, and found that this shuttered Holiday Inn has an interesting history. 

Opened in 1966, The Who stayed here in June 1967 when they played at a club called The Cellar in nearby Arlington Heights. This was about a month before they were banned for life from all Holiday Inns following Keith Moon's 21st birthday party in Flint Michigan.






The show at The Cellar was cut short to about 15 minutes, due to the band violating some kind of local noise ordinance, so the band smashed their equipment and retired to the hotel earlier than usual. Back at the hotel, Pete Townshend started working on the plot and lyrics for Tommy using stationery from the hotel, nearly two years before the album was completed. Townshend also said in his autobiography that it was here that he had his first spiritual awakening.

The Rolling Meadows Holiday Inn closed in 2018, and is slated for demolition later this year.”

Great insight, Michael 💫🙏💫





Monday, April 1, 2024

Audio Origami Harlequin 39” arm

 

Introducing the Harlequin, the world's first 39" (1 meter) tonearm.



It is widely accepted that the larger your record collection, the larger the tonearm you require to bring out the best in each recording. Audio Origami has recognised this need and developed an extra-long arm with the rigidity necessary for people with large decks.


Based on Audio Origami's foolproof PU7, the new 39" Harlequin arm delivers a super laid-back presentation with unparalleled dynamics.


The armtube is made from Robustium, a new alloy with a naturally occurring carbon lattice that is nine times harder than diamond. Spacex currently uses Robustium to support Elon's ego.


Due to the inherent flammability of Robustium upon contact with moisture, we strongly advise using the included AO-branded Kevlar-coated gloves and eye protectors when handling the Harlequin.


Available 1st April


To order please call: 0123 456 789


Have a nice April’s Fool day 🥂