Stereophile.Com AS WE SEE IT Jim Austin
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DOWNLOADING & RIPPING: CD COPYRIGHTS EXPLAINED SEPTEMBER 2005 MORDAUNT-SHORT’S PERFORMANCE 6 LOUDSPEAKER HI-TECH STYLE, UNUSUALLY SMOOTH SOUND COMPUTER AUDIO WAVELENGTH’S USB DAC EQUIPMENT REPORT SPECIAL: SPEAKERS from TOTEM, ALMARRO, OPERA, & CABASSE BEL CANTO’S UNIVERSAL PLAYER SIMAUDIO’S MOON ROCK AMP GRAHAM’S NEW STATEMENT TONEARM $5.99 US $8.99 CAN JOHN SCOFIELD JAZZ GUITAR MEETS RAY CHARLES www.stereophile.com AS WE SEE IT Jim Austin The Absolute Experience ’ve never lived in New York City, Augie’s was what it was (to paraphrase on the honest delivery of the notes. but I’ve visited often, especially the Popeye and Robert Penn Warren), Where Augie’s imposed itself strongly—by Upper West Side, where my wife’s Smoke is precisely what its owners have nature, not design—on the experience of grandparents lived for many years. chosen to make it: a great place to listen listening to live jazz, Smoke provides your There’s a little jazz bar there, on to live jazz. beverage of choice and a comfortable Broadway near 106th Street, aka Smoke’s owners have thought hard seat—often a sound-absorbing, overstuffed IDuke Ellington Boulevard. about the bar’s acoustics. Thanks to deep sofa—then gets out of the way, allowing Augie’s Jazz Bar, as it was called until carpet, velvet curtains, and who knows the musicians to communicate directly its demise late in the last century, is what else, those acoustics are very good. with you. That, most audiophiles would apparently famous. Smoke, a movie star- Some outstanding jazz musicians play the agree, is the best thing a music medium, ring Harvey Keitel, with a screenplay by now-smokeless Smoke, which can make whether electronic or architectural, can the prolific and serious novelist Paul for an amazing experience in such a small do. If there’s such a thing as a high-end Auster, is rumored to be based on the life place; Smoke seats fewer than 100 souls, jazz bar, Smoke qualifies. of the bar’s original owner. I’d wager. Slide Hampton has played Last call is past, the music is over, and Augie’s was a special place, with a sort there. I’ve heard that Wynton Marsalis the bartender is sweeping the floor. So of authenticity that is all too rare these has, too. Jane Monheit is listed on Smoke’s let’s stagger home to your listening room, days. Augie’s never gave the impression where many of the same considerations that it was designed by marketers, or any- BY ABANDONING THE apply. Not unlike the smoke, noise, and one else, for that matter. Augie’s just was. distortion at Augie’s, many home fac- For a jazz bar, authentic means several QUIXOTIC QUEST FOR tors—the recording, the medium, your things. First, it means noise and bad system, the domestic environment— acoustics. Glass, or something else that THE SOUND OF LIVE impose themselves between you and the vibrates in sympathy with the loud low musicians…who, being far away, busy, or notes, is an absolute requirement. People PERFORMANCE, WE ALLOW dead, can hardly be expected to deliver a must talk too much during sets. It helps if truly live experience, especially at this the place is far too hot. And there must OURSELVES TO hour. An excellent high-end music sys- be enough cigarette smoke to shorten APPRECIATE THE ART tem can minimize some of those inter- your life by a measurable amount. mediaries, but not all of them. Augie’s had all this and more. The OF THE RECORDING Smoke is a better place to hear music place reeked of authenticity, atmosphere, than Augie’s ever was, yet Augie’s deliv- and stale cigarettes. A night of good jazz ENGINEER AND THE ered a sensory experience that Smoke at Augie’s was an unstructured, even bru- can’t match, and wisely doesn’t try to. tal assault on the senses. Eyes burned. HISTORY OF RECORDED Good recordings, similarly, deliver rich Noses dripped. It was an unforgettable sonic experiences, the musical value sup- experience, one you’re unlikely to repli- SOUND. plemented by what you might call aural cate in very many places, and especially in history. West Coast jazz from the late a climate-controlled listening room. website (www.smokejazz.com) as a regu- 1950s and early ’60s, for instance, has its Augie’s is no more, having passed into lar, along with Jim Willis and dozens of own pleasing sound, distinct from the history along with the rest of the 20th other great musicians. As I write this, after sounds of other times and places. Indeed, century. But, like a phoenix, a new jazz midnight on a Saturday night in June, the individual engineers have their own bar rose from Augie’s many overfilled Eddie Henderson Quartet should be into unique sounds, an aspect of this hobby ashtrays, and the new place is as much a their last set of the night, assuming they I’m just beginning to explore. By aban- product of the new century as Augie’s started on time. doning the quixotic quest for the sound was of the middle of the old one. Smoke, Smoke’s formula—contrived but low- of live performance, we allow ourselves as the new owners dubbed the place after key atmosphere, a choreographed appear- to appreciate the art of the recording the aforementioned film, was much less ance of authenticity, good acoustics—is engineer and the history of recorded smoky than Augie’s ever was—even likely to seem familiar to most modern sound. There’s a lot more going on in a before July 2003, when smoking in New audiophiles, who know better than most quality music recording than the music, York City bars was banned. how contrivance—even obsessive control— and all have been preserved for posterity Smoke is contrived where Augie’s is essential to the production of com- on well-cared-for original LPs and good- was authentic, but it’s contrived in the pelling aural experiences. Where Augie’s quality modern reissues. best possible way. The new owners have was an old, classic tube amp of a place, Forget about communing with the kept a good bit of Augie’s-like atmos- Smoke is the jazz-bar equivalent of a well- musicians; with even the best high-end phere even as they’ve substituted care- designed modern solid-state amplifier: not equipment, the most we can ever hope ful, understated design for the old clinical or sterile, but with a good bit of for is to get close to the recording. And place’s unplanned idiosyncrasy. Where science behind it and a definite emphasis that is not a bad thing at all. ■■ www.Stereophile.com, September 2005 3 SEPTEMBER 2005 VOL.28 NO.9 FEATURES Copying and Sharing Recorded Music 55 Laurence Borden brings us the Dos and Don’ts of Copyright Law. John Scofield 65 Jazz guitar meets Ray Charles. 65 By Robert Baird EQUIPMENT REPORTS 72 Mordaunt-Short Performance 6 loudspeaker (Paul Messenger) 81 Cabasse Artis Baltic II loudspeaker (Michael Fremer) 81 Cabasse Artis Thor II powered subwoofer (Michael Fremer) 95 Almarro M0A loudspeaker (Robert J. Reina) 103 Bel Canto PL-1A universal player (Kalman Rubinson) 113 Lamm LL2 Deluxe preamplifier (Art Dudley) 72 125 Simaudio Moon Rock monoblock power amplifier (Brian Damkroger) 133 Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline SR-71 headphone amplifier (Wes Phillips) FOLLOW-UP 139 Musical Fidelity X-CanV3 headphone amplifier (Wes Phillips) 143 Channel Islands Audio D-100 monoblock power amplifier 81 (John Atkinson) 143 Lamm ML2.1 power amplifier (Art Dudley) 144 Totem Acoustic Forest loudspeaker 125 (John Atkinson) 6 www.Stereophile.com, September 2005 K KEN K SIGN UP FOR ESS HO LE OT B R & WES P H BRI HI ING Y VISITSTEREOPHILE WWW.STEREOPHILE.COMGH O -E U H ND ILLI ’S E-MAILN NEWSLETTER.PS STEREOPHILE EW SEPTEMBER 2005 S COLUMNS 3 As We See It Jim Austin shares his insights on the live and the “staged” atmosphere of music. 11 Letters This month readers write in to answer Art Dudley’s Bluegrass quiz from July (correctly), suggest we get some younger writers to review music, debate (again) blind testing, and ask for our writers’ and editors’ credentials… Get on your Soapbox! Visit www.stereophile.com. 15 Industry Update High-end audio news including dealer-promoted seminars, plus: D&M Holdings acquires Boston Acoustics, Mission joins IAG, Audiophile Systems to stop distribution of Nagra and Verity Audio, and news from Marantz Europe’s annual trade seminar. Want to know more? Go to the “News Desk” at www.stereophile.com for up-to-the-minute info. 23 Sam’s Space 23 Sam Tellig visits Italy; home of the Opera and Unison loudspeaker fabrica. 31 Analog Corner Michael Fremer gets a van-load of vinyl and auditions the Graham Phantom tonearm. 39 Listening This month Art Dudley takes on the Wavelength Brick: a D/A converter for your computerized music. 47 Music in the Round Kalman Rubinson listens to some “New Music” and auditions “AC power gadgets” and power supplies from the likes of American Power Conversion, Environmental Potentials, and Belkin. 153 Record Reviews September’s “Recording of the Month” is Not In Our Name a new installment in the very unfrequent recorded history of Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra. In classical, we have two new recordings of Mahler’s Symphony 8 and an acclaimed new recording of a Vivaldi opera. In Rock/Pop, there are a pair of new blues records and John Hiatt’s latest, Master of Disaster.