I'm richer, today...

... as I learned a new word;-)

I love to coddiwomple...

# 1

Dedicated record collector bought EVERY single that made the UK charts for more than six decades - all 45,000 of them!

Clever obsession!

Flea-market goodies

Great finds, today... the prize for browsing records-bins this early morning with bare hands, at -7 degrees Centigrade;-)

Superb, conducted by the author himself... a recording to die for!

A mint Lyrita pressed by Decca for EUR 2? Yes I can;-) 

Obscure Danish orchestral music... 

A seldom seen nugget, the creme de la creme of ancient music specialists from The Netherlands... a live recording! WOW!

Who's who!

M. Blandine Verlet... an Astree/Valois recording...

Superb!

Maestro Szell conducting... Japanese pressing, killer recording, superb music. ... ahhhh, those cellos and double basses pizzicatos on side two....

A masterpiece and a super-disc... three records-set and booklet, mint Japanese pressing.

Elegant box-set... vinyl on canvas;-)

Gustav Leonhard's Telefunken early pressing, mint. 

Satie for orchestra, orchestration by... Claude Debussy! Killer sound!

Great, seldom heard music... nice recording, super dynamics!

... nice Japanese pressing. 

The above gems costed about the price of a single (digitallish) reissue...

A Symphony in the key of CuSn

Just read my friend's Tom appreciation of Garrardzilla's approach, after getting the full monty.

I'm humbly impressed by his words... yet, not surprised.

His satisfaction is mine, as he fully understood the hard job behind these parts, someway similar to the musicians years of study to perform easily and flawlessly a music-score.

The hours spent on the music sheet should vanish during performance and not distract listener with hard facts, like hands pain, short sight due to reading tiny notes on paper and the like: only music, at its purest, should remains.

Same happens - again, humbly said, of course, as my vision is only shared among a bunch of empathic and enthusiast friends - with Garrardzilla.

The bespoke parts are - easily, unassumingly, after being installed - unveiling things previously only hinted in stock 301.

The labour and parts aren't a sort-of distracting, random technical redundancy, but a follow-up of the great job made at Swindon's workshop, paying the most sincere kudos to Garrard's people and workmanship, yet taking the plum from where they left.

Thanking Tom for his empathy and loyal support.

Enjoy.

Audiophiles Anonymous

Garrardzilla 2017

My pal Tom's Garrardzilla... class, class and class. 

I'm partial to this kind of beauty!

Ralph Towner's My Foolish Heart

Thanking Stefano Amerio for the preview...

Brand new!

Yessss!

Resistors code-colors

Useful...

... handbook.

Erik Satie was an alien?

Maybe... read here.

An example?


Satie’s diet was tragically bizarre.
There’s nothing to say on this subject that hasn’t already been said by Erik Satie himself:

“My only nourishment consists of food that is white: eggs, sugar, shredded bones, the fat of dead animals, veal, salt, coconuts, chicken cooked in white water, moldy fruit, rice, turnips, sausages in camphor, pastry, cheese (white varieties), cotton salad, and certain kinds of fish (without their skin). I boil my wine and drink it cold mixed with the juice of the Fuchsia. I have a good appetite, but never talk when eating for fear of strangling myself.”

Thanking Herbert Reichert for suggesting this interesting review.

... and, to finish this (silly) joke: the third one.

... I'm in awe...

Superb music and recording!

... the second...

Heavenly music, recorded by my mentor and master recordist, the late Dr. Thomas Gallia, on EMI Electrola.

The first disc of 2017...

... a gorgeous Japanese test-pressing on RCA: Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica, Previn conducting LSO...

Simply stunning music and premium quality recording: double basses and tympani are 2 die 4!

Life...

... user's manual.

Thanking my (wise) friend Roberta.

Always happy everyone!

Groucho Marx

My hero

... I see him in color!

Upside down Snowy

Dadaist...

Weirdness scale

... level 7... anyone?


... and, YES, you fussy people around: Messiaen's mispelled... just a typo;-)

The 13 best mastering facilities

Yes... 

Kudos to these music artisans without whom no music would be spreading around.

A pleasant, musical day...

Today with my friends Matthias and Giovanni, we visited Pietro's place...

Our perfect host is a long time music and audio lover and the proud owner of several nice pieces of gears: Montagna top of the line speakers, Be Yamamura Dionisio and amps/preamp, disk transport and DAC, Goldmund Apologue, Sakuma/Concord, Audio Tekne, Shindo Monbrison, Swiss Physics and Goldmund electronics... Pluto and Graham arms... and discs, discs, discs...

Montagna awesome building quality... majestic sound, with an excellent mid and high and a just fine low-end, possibly needing some further set-up attention to be up-to-par with upper ways.

A great listening, nonetheless.

The best of the crop in a classy environment... seldom seen and heard beauties, indeed.

The best sounding?

... such a good taste in music choosing...

Curious?

I listened years ago to the Dionisio with Mk 1 white cones speakers at a Milan audio fair, with Pierre Bolduc demonstrating them in a full packed, crowdy room.

Mixed feeling, I remember.

Nothing... NOTHING compared with Pietro's Yamamura... perfect integration, effortless beauty, naturalness and dynamics... speedy low-end, silky, extended, extremely smooth and airy mids and highs... yet, a cohesion truly seldom heard but while listening to live music.

Right sized instruments, overall beauty.

Do you guess?

Would you imagine?

Thanking Pietro, Lucia, Matthias and Giovanni for the great day... a true 2016 musical highlight.

P.S. - I'm truly, sincerely amused... no: baffled and bemused! about how some forums-wannabes (who quite often never, ever listened to any serious set-up) still insist to call horns and wideband speakers as intercoms or PA speakers!

Everyone using something different from a B&W or an Avalon is labelled as a lunatic.

Disturbing flat-earth homogenising audio...

Ignorance and biased opinions reign...  my humble five cents: don't simply read and trust magazines, forums, blogs or assorted webzines!

Untired and unashamed, I suggest everyone to play a musical instrument (it's never too late), listen to live music, USE YOUR OWN EARS listening to more top audio-systems you can and trust whatever please you, folks!

Happy New Year everyone.