Zen amp by Nelson Pass

Enlightening!

Worth further investigation... it's a single SIT transistor amp and the four glasswares are light-bulbs, used as resistors in circuit, NOT tubes!

Pass is now designing power amps based on the new SIT (static-induction transistor), a variation of the JFET (junction field-effect transistor) and MOSFET (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) fabricated from silicon carbide. Originally developed for radar applications, the SIT turns out to be ideal for audio amplification, providing the closest thing to triode-tube characteristics without the vacuum.

Rotary Signal Emitting vinyl disc from Brasil by Papo de Vinyl Big Chico and Beto Rosa

Almost disturbing, but a clever and cool idea...

Buscalo!

Piers Faccini

This artist is a maven... hinting - talking about guitar playing style - to Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, Bert Jansch, Nick Drake (for the voice, as well)... BUT still remaining Piers Facccini...

... an angel-like voice and... hey... are these wings, behind Piers?

A great concert yesterday night in Mantua, Italy... easy and warm on stage, emphatic and friendly, like your neighbor musician pal...

Accompanied by a nice Guild Aristocrat hollow-body '50s guitar and a Danelectro... and this voice - warm, expressive, smooth gravel-like... supported by some percussions, a marimba and polite drums.

Cool, indeed... 

Thanking my friend Arnaldo for joyining and the above pix of Piers and me, chatting before the show... and (again) to Silvia Boschero and her Moby Dick for airing Piers' music, only some weeks ago... my first exposure to Piers.

Ponomusic

Breaking news in sharing and dealing with music files... FLAC as a standard... WOW!

Neil Young - the man who always supported analog recording and vinyl - cannot be wrong!

Thanking my friend Reinhard... also very seldom wrong, as well.

Music

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music" - Aldous Huxley

"There is no scientific proof of existence of music" - Albert Einstein

Wondering "why" so many pixes and forums and blogs and Hi-End fairs devoted to audio gears... maybe due to the immateriality of music... so, while "food" can be shown and appreciated at various levels - i.e. smell, tactile, visual and tasted/digested (not that satisfaction on the latter...), of course, music can only be heard and soul-digested... the gap, time-lapse between the hearing and enjoying is variable... not necessarily an instantly enjoyed music gives a long-lasting, DNA-involving, blissful experience.

Nonetheless, the misteriousness involved in music eerieness makes us all appreciating the hardware (audio and musical instruments) needed to the reproducing of music in our homes.

We are sort-of globally fooled... looking at a shiny, or technically brave or cleverly conceived piece of gear we both "see" the chance to get "better music" and the workmanship shown... we almost perceive the aural improvements which we wish ourselves we'll be able to get from this or that "better" gear.

Sometimes, like a luthier "see" a cello or a violin or a guitar from some wood slabs, the ultimate audio and music scholar "see", "feel" the final sonics of a given audio system, smooth or coldish, soundstaging or not, dynamics, detailing and all the in-between plethora of audio lingo and amenities.

As a guitar player, I sometimes listen to the very best music in my mind... I also dream of music and sounds... is this ideal musical experience the straightest, nearest to our inner God or music-deities... so pure and unrelated to cables-gears-rooms-noises-etc.

Is the latter the most satisfying music available to humankind?

The truest?

The purest?

Satori?

Paul Bley & Gary Peacock - Mindset - Soul Note (1997) - Best double-bass recording, ever!

I'm almost sure, pals... this is the VERY best recording of double-bass I'm aware of... and, believe me, I'm quite an obsessive double-bass music collector with more than 100 different discs on the matter...

Vinyl or disk... who cares... the music is geometric and also the Paul Bley's piano is masterfully captured... BUT Gary Peacock's majestic instrument and playing is SUPERB, period!

BEWARE - don't be fooled by the very first track... Bley's piano sounds quite crappy... like a shitty, cheap plywood, chinese-made instrument, sure not the Bosendorfer Imperial usually played by Bley in countless recording, Owl label from France in primis.

Magically, after this so-so clickety clackety beginning... BANG! The piano is - sure is - another faaar better instrument and the music flows and flows...

The double-bass? TO BE HEARD TO BE BELIEVED... full bodied, airy, woody and playing in a definite space, all the fretboard and body noises and rubbing are here, adding a sense of trueness.

Impeccable recording and quite an experience.

... not an easy task finding a copy of this elusive disk on Soul Note label from Italy, BUT, nonetheless, much worth the effort of searching and chasing for it.

You won't regret...

Enjoy!

Garrardzilla - old & new/new & old

After swapping months ago from Schick arm to The Peak, I had an heavy laziness attack... I listened to my audio system swapping from open-reel to disk to vinyl... but, when listening to vinyl on Garrardzilla, I missed to use the TTWeight peripheral-ring.

The ceremony involved - i.e. carefully centering the stainless-steel ring on disc rim while spinning and then lightly, feather-like removing the plastic centering disc, then, finally putting the clamp in place... well, I sort-of felt annoyed and didn't use it.

Some dust get deposited on the shelf stored, unused in months accessory and this evening I noticed and got the plum to use it, again...

Undusted the two parts, ring and centering-disc and... listened to the now complete Garrardzilla...

I almost fell from my listening chair!

The sound was so true and perfect... how, HOW I had laziness winning on quality and beauty?!?

The noise floor was even lower, dynamics improved, and also on amazingly complex recording, like Paul Giger/Jan Garbareck/Pierre Favre's "Alpstein" on ECM, so rich in textures, the sound flowed effortless and liquid, natural... perfect.

Listened to P.J. Harvey's "White Chalk" gorgeous 45 rpm John Dent's mastered Island masterpiece and, again... surprise-surprise... The Peak and Lumiere DST on Garrardzilla were singing soooooooooooooooo nicely: Polly's voice was so airy, ethereal and angel-like.

Perfect.

I recently experienced this...  almost silly... using a-new something I already owned and didn't use for some time... the AMAZING Silflex' Toslink DAC-to-transport cable from Lifatec and, now, the TTWeight...

It doesn't happen so often, but... shame on me... I guess I'll do not change anything for a veeery loooong time.

Flea market's nuggets - John Lennon & Yoko Ono last complete interview, Dec. 6th, 1980...

Only an handful days after this in-deep interview, John was shot in NYC...

A very, VERY interesting little book, where the empathy, the melting together of Yoko and John, is so tangible and painful, considering the ill-fated meeting to come with the Grim Reaper.

A nice find - it's a first edition - and a document. as well.

Yeah...

Dieter Rams' Quads - the Braun LE-1

Braun's amp, tuner, and LE-1 speaker,  made in West-Germany, under QUAD's blessing.

Superb electrstatic LE-1 speaker and stand... notice the unconnected mains plug... soooo cute... the Quad ESL 57 in German sauce...

A young woman demonstrates a new type of loudspeaker, right, shown at the German Radio Exhibition in Frankfurt, West Germany, Aug. 14, 1959. The loudspeaker works on the basis of metal foils oscillating between electrodes. Makers say the tone range is much wider than that of the usual membrane loudspeaker. At left, radio and record player units feed the loudspeaker. The makers is Firma Max Braun. (AP Photo/Walter Lindlar).

Sought after and cool...

Wood discs...

... sure not a viable alternative to our beloved, cherished vinyls, yet... cool looking at the poor Audio Technica cartridge reading the wooden grooves...

Musings

... for most artists... and bloggers, as well:-)))

... thanks to Melanie for the above... so true!

NYC News... Academy Records Annex... and the vinyl garbage

Sad news... anyway...

Too bad...

Claus Jäckle's AcousticPlan "Vadi" - The most elegant disk player ever?

Love it... the minimalist display... and the right size track shown... 

NAT Audio Eimac 450TH DHT monoblocks...

Impressive... maybe dangerous lava-like anode giant triode with pets and kids around... but soooo cool without the glass windshield!

Nikolas Tesla... resurrected in the name of audio?

An hero, a scientist, an eccentric, an inventor... now an hi-end brand-name?

... no comment!

Robbie Basho remembered at the Avatar Meher Baba Center of So. California

A very, VERY important event will be held on next Sunday, March, 9th...

... I sincerely hope and trust that the public attention given to the a.m. event will also - and at last - give access to the serious scholar and luthier to examining, studying and measuring Robbie's long lost and missed instruments - i.e. the Mexican made, Jon Lundberg's retopped 12 strings and his Weymann's 6 strings guitars... for posterity appreciation.

A dream maybe and hopefully near to come true...

Don't worry, be happy (Meher Baba)

Music, notes, hertz and bandwidth... a much worth repeating share

'nuff said...

Alan Resnais passed away yesterday, March 1st, in Paris

R.I.P. 

Neumann DMT - the mono Neumann cartridge...

More elusive than the stereo sister, the Neumann DST (...), here is a REALLY sought after cartridge...

WOW! 

This is the cartridge for a (mono lover) King!

A Robbie Basho's concert leaflet

My friend Michele found this one-of-a-kind cover of a long forgotten vinyl disc by Robbie Basho, "Venus in Cancer" on Blue Thumb label which Robbie himself shipped to Italy in early '80s.

He apparently hated the original art-cover and made this cover alteration when selling the disc at his concerts or by mail!

It's a seldom seen drawing of a peacock and cherry tree in a nice, straight and elegant Japanese style.

Lovely.

Thanks to Michele Bollini for sharing...