Bass' bass or the lowest note you ever listened to: salt to everyone life!

Few evenings ago, during those pleasant musical evenings with a bunch of trusty hard-core friends, we began jokingly, but soon in orgiastic-mode, a sort of survey in search for lowest recorded low note ever... the best, lowest, most musical, natural bass note to overwhelm the whole listening panel... and the results have been surprising, both from disc and diskette
Here it is a sort-of list, to begin... but the search is still open for me, my pals and to anyone interested:
Didier Malherbe - Zeff CD Tangram
incredible percussions - defined and detailed, not simply boomy sounds, and bass clarinet, tablas, gongs, down, DOWN to earthquake - the best, almost a winner, Track 2
Pierre Bensusan - Spices LP and CD CBS
a fretless bass recorded with an unbelivable trueness, harmonics, finger noises, etc. Amazing!
Koechlin - Bandar-log LP on Decca Head - percussions and full orchestra at the maximum levels. Big, BIG drum and double-basses. Superb...
Britten - Death in Venice - Double LP on Decca - Orchestra e percussions, timpany e simphonic BIG drums to be heard...!!!
Dafos - LP Reference Recordings - an evergreen classic, and a well-known TAS' falling Kodo drum test in HP hey days... listened mostly to judge Harry Pearson's good taste... VERY low sounds, as you're aware... BUT musically nasty, IMHO...
Rudolf Streicher - Bottesini - LP Telefunken - solo double-bass (with piano accompaniement) from the VERY BEST soloist ever... I'm a double-bass esoteric-music collector... own more than 60 different recordings and I'm not tired, yet... the most musical involving of the bunch - also piano low octaves are superbly captured. a perfect disc. My Best Choice.
Wendy Carlos - Beauty in The Beast - LP Audiogon (?!?) Computer Music and sampled analog sounds... weird, etc. etc... a record I so deeply LOVE... but I already talked you about it... only, must add... LOW, LOW notes...
Paul Bley - Tears on OWL 034 - the great canadian piano player, playing an Imperial Bosendorfer's... strumming, feet tapping, noises, and one of the best piano lowest register I ever listened to. Great music, too...
Shaken down to the lung, at the end of our listening session we were tired like after some miles jogging... BUT satisfied... Bass are really salt to life.

... to be continued...



... yesterday evening, following the stream... I listened to a rare underground CD by Canterbury/English Progressive veteran Pip Pyle titled "7 Year Itch"... with Barbara Gaskin , Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair and... Hugh Hopper. The record is quite various, from experimental to melodic... on Track 9 we find "L'Etat des Choses" an experimental exercise where Hugh Hopper, bassist and looper extraordinaire, almost shake the house down... very LOOOOOW bass with fuzz and loops and reversed bass lines interwoving... a very nice, intriguing little piece.
Again not only boom boom, but... modulating bass sounds.

... to be continued...

Yesterday evening... mo' bass!

While listening to the nice double cd boxset Oregon - In Moscow http://www.mymusic.com/product.asp?curr=1&myptr=galaxie&muzenbr=387191, beside the ever beautiful Klotz '700 Glen Moore double-bass, as always tuned with lower string to a mighty "C" note, in disk 2 - track 3 and 4, you'll listen to one of the very best captured double basses you'll ever heard!
Deep, ringing, full-bodied with correct amount of strings, wood, room and fingers... a dream!
Don't forget I own a century old, inherited double-bass which I unfortunately only play badly, as a beginner... and I know that a string bass isn't a boom box but an harmonically verious and complex instrument.
FANTASTIC!
... then, three more, different records: a disk and two vinyls I cherished since early '70s and '80s... vinyl first, noblesse oblige
Again by Hugh Hopper, "1984" based after the G. Orwell seminal novel... Minitrue, Miniplenty have soo perfect bass sounds, Fender Jazz Bass with fuzz, again loops, and cymbals shimmering with detail 2D4... it's not easy music, but music for the mind, a soundtrack to a world we hope we'll never see... the Day-After-like... but for our purpouses, the 35 hertz we're seeking for... nothing better to know "why" we can't live forever with a Stax F-81's speakers pair.
Later, I had a listen to a superb ECM by Steve Tibbets and Marc Johnson... "Northern Song": acoustic and electric guitars loops, congas and assorted percussions... a very very nice recording, atmospheric, yet meaty sounds. I love Steve's music... I own everything he recorded.. we're also both fond of Himalayan trekking... he contributed to a Lonely Planet's book devoted to Tibet I used myself on Tibet travelling... for a man with three twins kids - thrins, is it correct?!? - it's a miracle he find the time for all his activities.
... and finally, a disk: Christina Pluhar and L'Arpeggiata "Los Impossibles" http://www.christinapluhar.com/... ancient music, theorbo, chitarra battente and baroque guitar, big frame drums, voices, viole da gamba... the frame drums are AWESOME... a minimalist recording with two Bruel & Kijaer 4006 mikes... and voilà - musically involving and pleasing... also - as a plus - the King's Singer voices in Villancico Catalan - the disk last track - are blissful and magical as ever.



... to be continued...

I wrote:
"... and finally, a disk: Christina Pluhar and L'Arpeggiata "Los Impossibles" http://www.christinapluhar.com/... ancient music, theorbo, chitarra battente and baroque guitar, big frame drums, voices, viole da gamba... the frame drums are AWESOME... a minimalist recording made with two Bruel & Kijaer 4006 mikes... and voilà - musically involving and pleasing... also - as a plus - the King's Singer voices in Villancico Catalan - the disk last track - are blissful and magical as ever."

I was lazily re-reading the above mentioned bass' notes, when I noticed the above musical hinting... and I guess a quick add is due... on the very disc I quoted, on the last track, Villancico Catalan, a capella male singers singing like angels, I've been AMAZED in the last months from what suddenly appeared from the recording digital mist.

At the very beginning of the song, and only after I finally completed and finely tuned my (now) full Goto speakers system using IVIE IE-20B pink noise generator and IVIE IE-30A real-time analyzer, something new for my previously by-ear-only tunings, I've been able to hear a new level of details resolution previously non-audible.

There is a far, I mean FAR, burglar short noise from outside the recording venue quite present among singers voices!

For whom do not know, own or listened to this nice disc the above may sounds at least weird... but when I repeated this very test on SEVERAL friends system, also during Berlin Audio Tasting and Munchen Schall und Rauch Tasting, and in other domestic listening at friends homes and combos... WELL... I never, NEVER heard this details again... which is still, firmly "here" in my room/system.

In my music-room the IVIE 30 reads a ground-ambient noise level of 39 db (42 when the central heating system in ON...), while yesterday evening while listening at a friend music system, I measured 52-53 db... yes, now I always travel with my IVIE gears and it's quite amusing what happens using it...

Provoking: what's going on, in your opinion? It's my ears, my "cleanliness" in carefully listening, dope abuse, Laphroaig single malt drinking, Gotorama or... maybe, yes: it's the mighty suberb quality of my EUR 39,99 "Just Quality" DVD/CD player - proudly Made in China!!!

... to be continued...

... maybe I'm a bit late, BUT I'm still a Deadhead in my soul... for thread-sake: there is a tune on Grateful Dead's "So many Roads 1965 - 1995", a superb cloth-linered 5-disks box-set FULL of gems, in the Dick's Picks vein, which shaken the Heaven's Doors, where Jerry Garcia is, since he departed from Earth...
Wash your hands to do not mar the classy clear linen while handling ... and on disk "2", track "5" - you'll find the Watkins Glen's Sound Check!
It isn't a simple, conventional "sound-check", but a jam of the highest quality, followed by a Dark Star Jam to die for... anyway: on Watkins Glen's, Phil Lesh's hollowbody, super-duper custom-made bass is REALLY going down... I measured a true (-3 dbs) mighty 40 hz on my IVIE IE-30... it's growling, rumbling, yet clear and first quality bass notes, scales, harmonics... my speakers smile, the Westrex' woofers are smoothly massaged down to every Alnico cell from the very Best ever.
Really superb music... BUT you're already aware of this, don't you?!?!
A winner!

Cambodian audiophile scene... "Horns around the World" trip goes on...

My wife just returned from her two weeks in Laos and Cambodia's trip... she was quite scared to come back... no, not worried about home and her beloved little hairy dog Chicco (or myself, despite my several defects and flaws;-))... but well-tuned to the different clocking character of life in these exotic, so different places.
I had to manage about 1500+ digital pixes she shot, so had the rare opportunity, scaled down, to feel what she saw and smelled and tasted.
... BUT of the several images I saw, some really intrigued and knocked me: a threesome monks group in a Cambodia old monastery... playing Carlos Santana's cool guitar solos through a grunge, FANTASTIC, humble, cool little horn mono-system: a Temple-Blaster.
... no joints-smoke involved, but youth and music and audio gears are something which bond people everywhere.
... dedicated to the detractors of horns: strange also in those secluded places, someone took his ass out to build such a scary naked, but nonetheless, HORN-BASED mono system to enjoy music with guts and soul!
A cheaper, easier single speaker would have worked the same... but NO! They used horn speakers and, super-cool, battery fed amps... no surprise... an audiophile is an audiophile, everywhere!
Those young monks used an old battered, Mekong-river rescued metal horn and driver... maybe dumped and repaired... rust and mud inside the crappy amp, BUT music flowed, my wife told me... who knows the full story about this pieces of gear!?!
... enjoy, music-lover friends... and thanks, Mariella for the pictures and story!

... and Death always & unfortunately scores and wins: John Martyn died on Jan. 29th, 2009!

John martyn, the great singer, guitar player, musician, the author of "Solid Air" and others immortal songs, died yesterday Jan. 29th, 2009.

John Martyn

... few, VERY few musicians were so influential, yet free to follow their ispiration and soul... Bless the weather, Inside Out, Solid Air (dedicated to his friend Nick Drake), The Tumbler and many others tunes are deeply carved in my memory and have been a soundtrack to my life... again, World is a poorer place since yesterday.

Rocky Mountain Audio Festival 2008 and Consumer Electronic Show 2009 reports

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An interesting, truly magnificient report from last Audio Consumer Show...

CES 2009's report with HD pixes 2D4

and

from last October 2008 RMAF...

RMAF 2008's report - please notice Schick's arm with Kimura Labs RS-3 Rotary-headshell and Otono-Edison Miyajima Labs. "Shilabe" cartridge... WOW!

... hey, pals... as we go, we MUST talk about first rate gears... like when chatting about cars, it's MUCH more intriguing and cool to talk about the last Porsche 911 or Ferrari... instead of a shitty, old, battered ".........." (instructions: fill-in the blank with your personal idea of such an "hens-cage mobile";-)))

Thanks to Loredana Livolsi, Robin Wyatt, Joe Roberts and Roman Bessnow.

The Grand Canyon Syndrome

Everyone who had the breeze - yours truly, humbly, included - to play alive in front of an audience, small or large isn't important... well, those know what I'm talking about!
The Grand Canyon Syndrome, which is illness and drug together, happens at first notes, no... few milliseconds before the first notes.
I experienced it twice in my life as a part-time musician: you don't see anyone in the audience because of the lights, and your senses are experiencing an utmost attention, you hear the electrons in the air;-), feel, more than smelling, the heavy purple colour curtain in front of you, while it's ineluttably opening... it's like you're on the threshold of the Grand Canyon, with no ropes or parachute... instead with an uneseful wooden instrument in yr. hands... as inappropriate as wearing a scuba-suit while going at yr. first date with a lady.
I swear I "felt" this... and you know people is over there, in the dark, dozens and dozens eyes, brains, hearts all waiting for anything you'll decide to do: you can freaky go laughing, playing with a reversed guitar, farting... you feel omnipotent, invincible and SOOOOO naked... by convention, tradition and common sense, anyone seated at the center of a stage with an acoustic guitar is perceived as a musician, not a juggler or a freak... so the vertigo, the threshold-like sensation, like it came, it goes... and fingers go and sound spreads... like World goes on.
I recently acquired from a friend the complete series of EMI "Reflexe" - "Stationen Europaischer Musik" in ten record-boxes... about 70 records in 120 percent unplayed conditions, which my friend purchased back in the '70s - one every month, as they were quite expensive in their hey days - because, as he told me: "... he liked the covers..."
I had, bought in the years, maybe a dozen sparse issues from this huge goldmine of good taste, good music and good playing and care for details (cloth covered boxes, recording, liner notes, playing) truly coming from a lesser rushy time... but when I finally purchased the whole lot, I felt like I finally closed a circle.
I'm lovingly, fondly exploring this "opus magna" with respect, like walking in a temple where monks meditate... and... amazing, I'm playing on my turntable a disc of lute duets: Paul O'Dette and Hopkinson Smith and, to my surprise... I feel, clearly hear and feel, the above sense of (musicians) being behind a threshold, like in real life... a palpable sense of wait before the first note flowing, the air at the recording venue is thick, solid... not noisy, despite the usual beloved (of mine) birds singing in the background, but "still"... like before it rains.
... when Music flows, at last... it's an orgasm, a fire which gently move the air in my music room, as well... air which is about 30 years old, but real air; in the record(s) pauses the sense of an "event", more than simply a "listening" is dramatic.
Like Frank Zappa's Peter Occhiogrosso bio reading, they should play these records in the primary schools... sure more and more youngers would choose music, instead of... a lesser life in a lesser world.

Music, analog audio and the art of cooking

Rare, expensive, sought after... but would you eat a raw white truffle? Was thinking about this no-reply question... a no-problem, would say. Why?
As you know I'm an avid music lover and an humble audio experimenter and searcher, (almost) never afraid or worried to try, be wrong first to be right later on... knowing, learning, trying and trying again... and thinking and being curious about things.
My limit, maybe, the words to explain my findings, but tireless and sincere, nonetheless.
The above to be better understood, 'cause something strange is going on, folks... music listening at home and the noble art of analog audio fine tuning isn't sure the bigger problem humanity has these days... Israel, recession, air-wrecks, crisis, wars... yes, I know: world isn't a quiet place and my chatting could prove too light... but I'm sure that like my mother told decades ago, if people love (more) flowers (nature), Music, pets (nature again)and cooking there would not be wars anymore... I love ALL the above and, I'm - pretty sure - not alone.
Cooking: I quoted above... it's a matter of care, luck, science, adventure and art... the greatest recipes came from chefs who tried a lot, worked hard to learn their skill, but most of all, they did their homeworks: respectfully leaerned and loved tradition, then re-reworked it, sometimes combining unfriendly stuffs - i.e. salt and sweet, fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, local and ethnic, too... eating awful, filthy meals, maybe, to find the rarest of rare: haute-cuisine, creative cooking - i.e. best raw ingredients with most proper aesthetic, quantity and perfect tasting, a nectar, a summa, a great dish is able to hint memories of childhood, travels, a love.. and still being palatable to any non-esoteric mouth and wallet. Easy, isn't it?!?
But... what about the above mentioned white truffles?... who in the world would eat such a gem out of the dirt?... a truffle needs a fresh egg, a pasta to be at its best, complete.
... so, analog audio art of fine tuning: arm, turntable, cartridge and related stuffs sound, NOW, much better and noble and "right", isn't it?!? It's not in any given part, but in the sum of them.
I was thinking quite often since some weeks ago to give a try to an accessory I guessed would have improved my 301 Shindo: a Micro CU-180 copper mat, weird, expensive, weighting 1800 grams, or if you prefere 1,8 kilos and costing an arm and a leg.
Must be crazy, I guessed... then my friend Alessandro posted a pix of one of his 301 with... a CU-180!
Beautiful it sure was, but he didn't say nothing about the sound he obtained.... and curiosity kills the cat, pals;-)
I took a pause, then, few days ago, after some WEB surfing, I found the most variable price-tags... say from EUR 300 to 1K... found an affordable deal and I bought it... voilà!
My CU-180 arrived in nice shape, and after cleaning it from fingerprints of previous owner, I gave a first listen, at last.
My 301 Shindo uses a gun-metal 6 kilos platter and a leaded cloth mat weighting 800 grams... I was using one of my piano-red felt mat, then the Shindo mat, then a pig-skin mat, then record... WOW... completely nut, you'll say, but it's like combining a recipe, blending components for a dish... I listened to several combinations and the one I described above was the last and better sounding.
... I began to change mats, like ingredients of a recipe, and newly combine them, with the new CU-180: platter, Shindo's mat, CU-180... blaaaaah... awful results.
OK, I've been wrong and wasted money... it's a cool mat, BUT doesn't work, I guessed... re-try: platter, wool, CU-180 and pig-skin... better, slightly better, BUT still prefering the previously used combo... enough for this evening, I told myself, a couple days ago.
This evening, in the right mood, gave a re-try: here we go... platter, wool felt mat, pig-skin AND CU-180... gave a listen and I'm listening right now...
... I'd must say... EUREKA... always same VTA, so no possiblity to be fooled... it's a matter of materials matching, taming or resonating in a different way, vinyl and cartridge make a lot of... confusion, sometimes.
So what? I'm amazed, I began listening to a couple of well-known records: lute music, Toyohiko Satoh on Telefunken playing Mouton, de Visee and other French composers... recorded in a church in Haarlem, The Netherlands and my beloved "birds and lute" disc... Anthony Bailes on German EMI Reflexe and again french composers... Tonmeister Johann-Nikolaus Matthes did a masterpiece, in transparence and trueness, BUT most of all... the masterpiece is what I'm able to listen to... it's not a merit of a single "ingredient", but an holy, heavenly match found by chance!
I can't describe the TONS of air and inner micro-details appears like new... from a recording I VERY intimately know... the sensation, the feeling is like I'm able to walk behind the musician, I swear, and hear utterly clear birds singing, being able to understand if their singing come from the roof of recording venue or lower, out of the window... and cars and people chatting during a pause in the recording which I NEVER heard before... Incredibile! Staggering! Mind-boggling! Epoustouflant!
Would describe it as a lysergic experience... better: an "open-chakra mode" kind-of experience... the problem, I told you, are the words.
Nothing special, anyway... as a chef I found the right butter and the freshest egg for a magnificient white truffle my dog found in the wood. It's no hype, just hearing... plain and simple as breathing.
What's utterly important is - again - I'm a step nearer to Music.
That's it and nothing matters than this.

More interesting stuffs from the WEB...

Hi folks... here is a modest contribution to audio advancement and good taste, shaped as quoting some links I found while browsing and surfing the Net... they're truly useful, entertaining and displaying seldom seen items and infos.



David's Treasure Cave

Western Electric replicas from China

An interesting, well done, polite Forum: Audio for Gentlemen

An incredible collection (and some very nice newly made stuffs)

Slate Plinths

Charlie's site: dandy, gourmet, bespoken audio

... and some audio musings, why not:

Drew Daniels' audio bewares - right or wrong, a worthy reading


Thanks to Charlie Azzolina, David Beetles, Steve Clarke and Drew Daniels.

Enjoy.

Maybe the best Web find in 2008!

The Magic World of Lukasz Fikus, aka Dr. Lampizator
After several late evening chatting with my friend Christian from Munchen, I was someway forced to re-purchase the old, humble Philips CD-104 disk player from the early '80s.
An hard task expected the old player... winning on my reference "Just Quality - Proudly Made in China" 24 bit disk player... and in fact, no surprise, it lost in every parameter where JQ is a winner, a wolf in sheep skin... EUR 39,99... the inner clock or what the hell it is clicking while playing, sometimes a disk isn't palatable to JQ's... BUT it's - since now - my top player... more than Studer A-730, more than EMT 982... AH!
The CD-104 was hi-fish sounding, no lysergic inner details as I'm used to... but... "drums in the background"... 'twas now, while browsing, I found Dr Lampizator!
He's a good taste master and a knowledge-well and it's so amusing reading his nice english - euro-style, like we all write in Europe... audio Esperanto;-)))
His endless, untired and untiring surveys and try and mods and tweaks and soldering and listening are giving to him a WEB-King status - i.e. spreading, like himself call himself;-) a self-named Prometheus... and sharing and being polite and kind and well informed and true and not using knowledge as a weapon but as a friendly and friendship instrument... and witty enough to avoid a deprecable, boring self-incensation: he evaluated dozens CD players, from the humblest to the noblest or most expensive and what he founds is AMAZING!!! Every nuance in sound, schematics, parts is carefully, lovingly discussed and analyzed for every disk player... a truly SUPERB job!
Browse at yr. convenience... it's a true goldmine;-)))
Thanks a lot, Lukasz: I'm learning a lot from you.
Greetings from Italy to Poland and Happy New Year!

Christmas' time

Last evening, it was Christmas' Eve, I was peeing the dog near home... well, folks: I consider myself a cynical kind of guy, better a reality-linked kind of guy... yes, of course I read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and, nonetheless, Ebenezer Scrooge isn't a model for me... BUT, in the years I built up a sort of stress and dislikement vs. Christmas, Snowy, the lights, the gifts, the songs et al the paraphernalia involved... and I loved "100 reasons for hating Christmas" by Roland Topor... to my wife disagreement.
... I was peeing the dog, and... the fog in the old city, wet paves and curbs, the portici in dimmed light and - almost the only noise disturbing the stillness - some youngters in front of a pub screaming and laughing... the lazy walk with Chicco the dog snorting and puffing and sniffing like hundreds times before sort of anaesthetized me, when, suddenly, short after, I heard a song, an old italian Christmas Carol: "Tu scendi dalle Stelle"...
It was a quite far singing and I guessed it was the young people, couple of hundred meters from where I was... few seconds after, I wasn't prepared... it was like I was 6 or 7 years old for a LOOOONG moment... horses clogging, more and more near and near... I had a look out of the portici and...
... what I saw... fog, and lights and two white horses, clopping and clogging toward me, in the desert narrow street... and the song was louder, now...
For a long moment I looked to Santa driving a chariot with two white horses and music and lights and a red light on His red cap... AND he saw me and said hello with His hand, long beard and all...
Chicco feared about the horses, so I - sort of - woke up, and returned in my foolish, anti-Christmas' mood...
... but something was happened... yes... probably it was an "Hire Santa" kind-of service for rich children or the like... strangely, it was about 12 P.M., anyway
;-))).
... but, for me, it was a childhood trip: when the gift wasn't so important, but the wait for the gift, being still virgin to the world, when mom and dad and grandma were Santa, as me and my little friends knew, BUT I wasn't so sure as Christmas Day neared, 'cause I always saw "strange" movements and shadows and whisperings in the long, sweet, Christmas'Eve night...
My wife, when I was back home with Chicco asked to me if it was all OK?!?
Yes, it was... it still is... maybe.
A moral: who care if Santa was a by-product of Coca Cola Inc... people, ME, we all need pureness, surprise, dreaming, can't be all what's coming from TV... and I cherish this little Dickens'-like experience of mine...

Davey Graham died on Dec. 15th - World is a poorer place

Davey Graham

It's all here... sadly, so sadly.

Personally, I knew him in London, in early '90s, and he gave to me a three hour guitar lesson in his Camden Town home and studio... he fell in love with my flamenco '50s guitar... I'll never forget his teachings - I still cherish his handwritten music notation - on EMI music paper - with some technical tips - and I'll miss him a lot, fondly: he introduced me to oud, to high-strung guitar, to EADEAE guitar-tuning.

His discs on Kicking Mule records and - to a lesser degree - on Decca's are among my Desert Island guitar records ever and, fortunately, through his Music a Musician never die...

Too bad I'll only be able to commemorate his death playing one of his Irish music so beautiful, haunting arrangements...

Thanks, Davey.

ETF - European Triode Festival 2008

Few days ago was held in The Netherlands, the 2008 edition of ETF... people gathering from all Europe and beyond, sharing audio knowledge etc.

Thomas Schick and the group of Berliner met there, while I was invited but not healthy enough to join the bunch...

Anyway, here is a link for super pixes of the event - thanks to Thomas Schick and to Holger Barske for the VERY nice pixes.

ETF2008

... it seems I missed something;-)

La Prova del Nove

Ricordate a scuola, quando la Maestra dopo "La Divisione" ci faceva eseguire l'operazione inversa? "La Moltiplicazione di risultato x fattore"... cara vecchia Prova del Nove... niente scherzi il risultato veniva in questo modo sancito ed ufficializzato.
... beh, anche in Audio, seppoffà!
Tempo fa notavo uno strano fenomeno per il quale, se ascoltavo un brano, un bel brano ben conosciuto, in cuffia, sia con la vecchia fida Stax SRX che con la Beyer DT48, ma anche, pur con i (molti) limiti con un ascolto da iPod, e poi, a breve distanza temporale riascoltavo lo stesso pezzo "in chiaro" sul mio sistema... non udivo nessuna differenza, meglio, nessuna limitazione di risposta in frequenza.
Banale, no? Ma non era sempre stato così... ricordo quando sfuggivo ai limiti dei miei primissimi diffusori, ignobili, con l'onesta e, per il tempo, rivoluzionaria, Sennheiser 414... dovevate vedere la mia faccia da adolescente scioccato quando scoprii che nel mio adorato Volo Magico n. 1 di Claudio Rocchi, ad un certo punto della suite omonima della prima facciata, entrava la voce di Donatella Bardi... i miei diffusori di allora, anche dopo la scoperta, mi restituivano sempre e solo "una voce" non Claudio e poi Donatella! Satori a Padova!
Questo banalissimo confronto, eseguito in modo random nel corso degli anni era sempre stato una mia personale prova, allora senza forse background tecnico, ma già vissuta come "rivelazione" sulle differenze di suoni/apparati audio/registrazioni... ahhh, i giovani... e comunque non disdegnavo le ragazze, anche se quanto sopra non costituiva argomento di conversazione come moto/disco/Timberland ecc., ma anche oggi, nulla è cambiato Povero audio negletto, sob...
Comunque, nel renderlo prova cosciente, avevo notato dettagli che sfuggivano ad ascolti, anche critici, in ambiente: il cantante era in piedi, sala grande, sala piccola, editing, girava il capo davanti al microfono perdendo "fuoco" .
Ma ritorniamo alle nostre cuffie... IMHO, + il confronto da risultati, diciamo, allineati tra cuffia/ascolto in ambiente, + siamo (sono) nel giusto.
Vi prego: ridete di quanto sopra, confutate, sbeffeggiate, ma provate!
Costa niente, ed è, appunto, una Prova del Nove, una delle poche da eseguire senza andare a concerto, acquistare un Bosendorfer o una Martin pre-war e MOLTO meglio che acquistare una camera anecoica
Ripeto: + siamo nel giusto, timbricamente, spazialmente, tonalmente, + la stanza risulta neutra e sparisce, + l'ascolto in cuffia, bassi immanenti (ove presenti, of course...) e tutto il resto risulta uguale... e viceversa beh, avete capito...
Come va ora, mi chiederete, dai tempi della 414, Claudio Rocchi e Donatella Bardi ecc. ecc.? Meglio, grazie ...

_________________

Lacrime e Musica

Certa Musica, come un sadico, misterioso, invisibile gigante che schiacci un tasto altrettanto invisibile... mi fa, da quand'ero bambino, sgorgare subitanee lacrime... GROSSE, velocissime - giù per le gote - lacrime salate.
Non so se sia dolore, emozione, gioia, il ricordo di qualcosa di collegato alla musica, Qualcosa che il compositore ed il direttore d'Orchestra hanno instillato o spremuto dalla partitura... ho una decina di pezzi che, come da copione, mi fanno quest'effetto.
Stamani, giornata uggiosa, mi sono alzato e come spinto da una forza invisibile, ho acceso lo stereo ed ho cercato, dapprima casualmente, poi scentemente, PROPRIO QUESTI PEZZI... Autolesionismo? Follia senile? Voglia di ristabilire la giusta umidità oculare, contro la secchezza da computer?
... o forse, semplicemente, la voglia di farsi trasportare in un mondo parallelo, puro, algido, fatto di emozioni, di spirito, di bellezza sublime, come quando tra la neve a 3000+ metri, il sole, dando le spalle al rifugio... solo con Dio... quello Vero!
... ed ecco, mentre scrivo ed ascolto I Pini delle Catacombe di O. Respighi, ma solo quella diretta da Charles Munch su Decca NON quella, sempre su Decca, di L. Maazel, quella mi piace ma NON piango... e prima Schelomo diretto da Z. Mehta con Janos Starker al violoncello, e prima ancora Grieg e la musica dal Peer Gynt, con la Morte di Ase, la mamma di tutti, cosmica... alle prime note, pelledoca sulle gambe e lacrimoni... e, come primo pezzo in questa follia domenicale... o forse viaggio nell'anima + profonda che abbisogna anche di questo cibo come i Romani secoli fa amavano il Garum, puzzolente, schifoso intruglio a base di pesce macerato al sole il mio io fisico non è la mia anima e viceversa, forse... dicevo, come primo pezzo, l'immenso Who May Abide dal Messiah di Haendel... ma solo, SOLO fino alla fine dei miei giorni, Emma Kirby e Hogwood su L'Oiseau Lyre... quindi la mia anima, o qualsiasi cosa sia che mi spinge, oggi come ieri a piancere come un vitello sacrificale, ne capisce di musica, qualsiasi cosa essa sia o significhi... ed ancora, come non esiste prova scientifica dell'esistenza e della sostanza della Musica... non esiste un motivo per cui tutto ciò succeda... ma se a due ascolti, anche ravvicinati, tutto quanto raccontato succede, una qualche scientificità - replicabilità di evento a dato stimolo - esiste?!? Ed ancora, l'aria "Lascia ch'io dorma" dal Rinaldo, ancora di Haendel, su edizione CBS Masterworks e direzione di Malgoire... quanto ho pianto, come mi son divertito!!! ... ma ce ne sono altri... sniff, sniff...
Il mio caro vecchio amico, il compianto prof. Dragoun, la prima volta che ci siamo conosciuti nella sua casa di Merano, nei primi anni '80 - piangeva a dirotto ascoltando il suo amato Wagner, libretto d'opera alla mano... da allora non mi sono mai sentito solo, pazzo ed abbandonato a farmi sconvolgere dalla musica e dai suoi lisergici effetti... li ho accettati, come prima di me innumerevoli altri, migliori di me...

Is a new star born?!?!

While chatting with a Canadian friend, David Beetles, I learned and discovered something really worth a try and further exploration...

A small South Korean workshop is hand-building a truly nice, little masterpiece: a cartridge using the very same approach used in vinyl cutting lathe, the only difference being a diamond NOT carving vinyl, BUT only reading the inner soul of vinyl records grooves. A little, humbly, almost home-made looking device, but nonetheless cleverly done and conceived.

David, a dedicated audiophile, someone who care about music at its very best and also a Lumiere DST user and owner like myself, told me about ALLNIC Verito MC describing its sound lifelike and extremely musical, definitely in the Lumiere's stellar lineage.


ALLNIC site

... so: voilà, I ordered one! Will report soon.

Ear Gym

As the late Gertrude Stein once wrote: "Use your ears as your eyes"... this very sentence, apparently senseless, make a world of sense, indeed.
A sound and music lover since short-legged trousers years, I always - first in a naive way, later more consciously - applied it.
I'm an eyeglass wearing guy, but ears and nose have always been my world interfaces of choice, needing no outer supports.
What I do is sooo simple: when I have a walk with my dog or sit reading on a park bench, when I'm at a concert or when I'm playing myself, mostly alone, I try to differentiate sounds, layers of sounds... from the lower to the higher pitched, from the subtlest to the loudest... then every sound is sort of analyzed, weighted, considered, appreciated or blamed... the wind different noises, the grass, the leaves, the birds, the different birds singing, a burglar... how far is it? Cars and trucks, while in the park... where are them: north or south? Church bells... what church is it? How many times do them rang?
Is the harpsichord on the stage tuned at A440 or A415? Do you hear the soprano breathing, at the concert or through your music system? What heard my dog, when it raised its ears? How did it... my wife's car, how the hell, as I didn't heard nothing?!? Yes, dogs reach higher frequencies and, maybe, level of attention but... now, I'm able to hear my wife's car engine, down in the street... my dog - with its attention - taught it to me;-)
Do all the above make sense? IMO, YES... it's care for Life and what happens around. Sound or music, it's not different... it's like wearing a blinding, dark-lenses eyeglasses or earpads... it ALWAYS makes a world of difference living (trying to reach) the 100% of our essence. Mine is like I described... my fault, my strength?!? Who knows?
Is it tiring? Fatiguing? Music unfriendly?
Definitely nope!
Would you define a clever chap cleverly running his healthy three miles a day? ... or anyone having a daily walk of at least half an hour, the very minimum for heart good health, as "body enemies" or "fanatics"? Or people appreciating the smell of a forest, while trekking, calling'em "nature foes" or "lunatics"?
No, of course...
This very practice, which, like every skill must be cultivated to improve at its best, is among the best Zen-like techniques a motivated music lover and/or musician should explore and learn, period!
When I listen to music, I concentrate on all melodic lines, different timbres, harmonic complexities or easiness, and it's such a joy to enter in a sort of sonic fabric, appreciating, feeling, absorbing down to the tiniest debris of sound and music. I know I'm not alone at doing this and everyone has his approach... this is mine.
When audiophiles listen to "the sound of cables" or "the sound of tubes", they're sure making a sincere, yet limited, effort to listen to the ineffable, to the tiny details of life... only calling this "miracle" with the wrong name;-)
... but, please believe me, as a complete beginner isn't able to listen to hidden details and differences in instruments tone and best recordings, so deeply & properly "feeling" the music, not only "listening to" it as a pleasant noise, everyone's able to reach such a level of "attention" with dedication and passion: through meditation & mind self-cleaning and... yes: Ear Gym.

Alessandro Baricco's LESSON 21 or the challenge of Music at the Movie

Yesterday evening I saw one of the most intriguing, moving, amusing, deep movies of this year.
Baricco's Lesson 21 is about Beethoven's 9th Symphony... it's something to be seen by young and elder, give a path and add a background knowledge to the music lover and to the occasional listener.
It's poetic, deep, light like Music is... describes, hints, gives an urgence to have a critic, careful listening to the last Ludwig Van's effort... it's Kurosawa and Greenaway, with a lot of passion and compassion from the great characters in the film.
I loved it... guess I'll go to the cinama again, this evening. Lesson 21 again, of course... alone, to better understand it, in sponge-like-mode;-)

http://cineuropa.org/film.aspx?documentID=85689

Learning or being humble with knowledge

Few weeks ago, during my Munchen Rauch & Schall audio/musical trip, Dietmar Hampel, his nice system and hint about "pink nose" as the best friend for system tuning left a VERY deep footprint in my mind.
Furthermore, the always interesting GoodSoundClub site and forum, the several chatting on complex horn system tuning with Roman and others, all the above led me toward unexplored shores.
Since I began using compression drivers, horns and custom made crossovers, both active and passive, I always tried to tune my system by ear, an intriguing sort-of "lost art", very time consuming, done by trial and error, where the final result was depending on several aspects, last but not least, the chance.
Oh, how wrong I was... my friend George from Athens lent to me a cheap, but effective Phonic analyzer and... Holy Hole!
What I found was a pleasant to the ear sound which was rolled-off at 10khz... maybe a musical sound, but when I fiddled on the L-pads of my 4-ways passive crossovers, I obtained a lesser steep rolling-off and literally TONS of details, air among instruments, depth of image, yes... horns can do this;-)... and an almost alarming naturalness, greatly improved with both vinyl, open reel tapes and disks without loosing, instead enhancing it, the vividness, the elusive sensation of trueness in timbre and trueness! Simply amazing, period.
The next step, after recovering from the deluge of the man vs. machine affaire I was experimenting on my very own skin, I remembered a name I used to hear in pro-sound analyzing field: IVIE.
... some Ebay browsing and... voilà! I found a superb IVIE IE-30A with its own top-class 1/4 inch Class 1 measuring microphone.
A moral: machine has been created by men to make things easier, not to substitute human ears, in this case.
... also the cheap, toy-like Phonic was good enough to indicate a path. My audio system never sounded THIS good... I used an electronic ear for coarse tuning and refined to my taste by ear.
One hour or so (plus reading user manual) was enough instead of weeks or months of annoying fine tuning with records, tapes, etc.
A big heartfelt "Thank you" to Damiano Pinazza of IVIE Italia for his kindness and advice, to Craig Saergent for the IVIE, to George for the Phonic, to Roman for his straightforwarded audio and musical severe approach and to Dietmar who - first among all - hinted to me this new (sure it's to me;-)) approach.

Munchen "Schall und Rauch 2" Audio Tasting - October 2008

This current 2008's highlight has been the discovery and experiencing of Audio Tastings... a relatively new kind of event where people coming from everywhere gather together and share interests, hints & tips, records, whatever and, definitely, have good time, in music and audio peaceful spirit.

After Berlin, last May, Munchen on last october first weekend!

I'm only now writing these few words after the gathering itself because I had to let things working, as I learned from this event and people meeting more than I gave to others - i.e. Dietmar Hempel's music system and clever technical approach, his hints re. pink noise and delay, made me to greatly and faster improve the tuning of my new speaker-system.

The listening to his music system, in Bavaria countryside were, them alone, worth the trip!

... and Thomas Mayer's great, exotic, no-copycatted tube projects enlighted the whole event with marvellous sound.

Back at home, what I listened to, the chatting, the people I met... all this boiling pot was filtered in my mind and sensitivity.

The Telefunken M-15A tape-machine I bought from Thomas Schick is really fantastic (have a look at Michael's Audi trunk - a 220 kilos load of Telefunken M-15A... mine is the second row at left...) the overhaul on the fly of the unworking Berndt's M-15A, which Michael Ulbrich brilliantly solved in few minutes... well, I was impressed: a technician maybe would have asked for 200 euro only for a soldering... solved in friendship name.

Also David Shreve, who performed an impressive V.T.A. super-careful tuning to all turntables which played in full Schick's arms glorious analogue sound, at the Munchen's listening room, has been a pleasant meeting... his little gift of a very nice Nonesuch harp recording he had moved me, indeed.

During the two nights, after late hour listening, chatting, laughing, Rolf's dog and all people slept in rucksacks on the floor, in a commune/audio/music/freak way which reminded me of Amon Duul krautrock group, also from Munchen, back in the '60s.

All this happened during the beer and pissing and crowd crazy mix of OktoberFest, held at few kilometers from our location, but so far... we lived for almost three days in a quite quiet place in an industrial estate, near one of the several BMW production plants during a German national holiday weekend...

... almost a new TV format: an audio reality show;-)))

... BTW: during the night I was aware of the... true spirit of Kraftwerk!

24/24, 7/7, 365/365 a plant and its BIG hammers, furnaces and melted, lava-like steel worked at few hundreds meters from the Audio tasting location... during the night, warm in my rucksack, I... felt the city, industrial heartbeat.

Nice people, nice music, nice food... and, you'll say... "What about -... und rauch-?" Definitely "YES!": also smoking was well represented in Munchen... the humidor was never empty of puff-friendly "Habanos"/hecho a mano... Partagas, Romeo y Julieta, Cohiba... the very best!

On second day, the great Berndt, a true buongustaio... materialized from his bag... a Laphroaig brand new bottle and... WOW, cigars & single malt... also if smoking at 4 degrees Celsius in the Munchen breeze on the terrace... it was an heaven!

A very interesting experience.

Horns... hype or the straightest, better way to Music at home?

It seems speaking about horns in audio raises several people eyebrows and mixed feelings... hate or love. Black or white.

I love'em by heart... but that's my Karma!

I recently began my evaluation of a full-Goto horns speakers-system and more than a technical approach, I'm only able to talk about the ancient looking devices and, through the difficulties to squeeze the full-bloom, balanced sound, detailed and life-like it's capable, as I well know in my ideal (mind) audio/music system, about Music.

... and it's not an easy task: behemoth-like size, up-scale weight, weird-looking and HUGE efficiency in my tiny 23 square-meters music-room... all this and more give to me the breeze to tame a true monster.

Gym, wrestling and audio, too... handling these "babies" leave me so tired... and what about the pluses? Are there or not?

It's not saying a plain: "I own a Goto speakers system"... it's not enough, considering the hassle and expense... but, listening to a "work-in-progress" Goto/Westrex' horn-system with transformers-coupled WE-tubed amps, give to Music a so natural flowing, an airyness VERY hard to believe possible in a humble, tiny room.


The old, sought-after SG-555PS mid-low drivers with S-150 horn are a true window, a Time-Machine which bring to the exact place "where and when" the recording took place... more than the "notes", it's the "air" of the recording venue, as the musicians breathed, is so... HERE, tangible... amazing.

I'm still fiddling with a low-end someway flawed which is masking a little the amazing clarity of the upper ways, but what I already hear is... well... a step beyond what I used to appreciate in my recordings... music as a whole, not a bunch of (harmonic) noises sputtered in the room-space. Will go ahead with more evaluations using bass-baffles, much better matching quickness and clarity of upper-voice... the fast-sounding, mighty Westrex 2090 15" instead of softer-sounding Altec 803, I guess will work fine...

... not bad, for those weird-looking, old-timey "apparatus", don't you?

(to be continued)...