Issue 120

Founded in 1968 as Quilter Sound Company, QSC Audio has grown to become one of the most recognized global names in sound reinforcement. In Part One (Issue 118) and Part Two (Issue 119) we interviewed Pat Quilter on a variety of topics including the history of recorded sound, non-amplified vs. amplified live concerts, advancements in amplification and loudspeakers and more. The interview concludes here.

John Seetoo: Do you have a personal preference for recorded references that you like to use in evaluating loudspeakers and equipment?

Pat Quilter: I wouldn’t remember the names, but we’ve played many of the same songs for speaker testing — a repertoire of various music styles [including] jazz, pop, even stuff bordering on heavy metal. [There’s nothing] magic about the musical pieces, per se, except that they cover a good frequency range and we’re familiar with them, so we can make informed judgments like “I heard the bass better on that other speaker” and so forth.

JS: After retiring from day-to-day duties at QSC, you came back full circle to make guitar amps by forming Quilter Labs. Was there a sense of unfinished business that prompted that move, having dropped that product line early in QSC history?

PQ: Well yes. I did feel a sense of unfinished business, and when spring would roll around and the sap would rise, I would think about my old work – incorporating the time tested attributes of classic tube technology without the drawbacks.  For QSC’s 40^th anniversary in 2008, I dashed off a 50-watt lightweight combo with all the key elements in the current generation of Quilter products: a warm-sounding power amp, a thoroughly well-designed overdrive section, a surprising amount of nuance in the equalization curves, and so forth. It played quite well and gave me confidence in the approach.

JS: You also had a hand in designing the Pignose 30/60 combo amp in the 1980s. I had one, and it was a great-sounding amp.

PQ: (laughs) That’s a whole story in itself [and included in the link to the complete interview – Ed.] The 30/60 had all of the key elements that we’re using today in our amps, although somewhat unrefined.

When I decided to get back into the guitar and bass amp business during my retirement, it was a combination of wanting to show the world what I could do, as well as to try to give back to the community of musicians  that started it all for QSC.

So I observed that guitar amp technology not only has stagnated, in that premium amps are still based on vacuum tubes, but actually has gone backwards to some degree, because the tube quality is not what it used to be back in the 1960s, when RCA used to make them by the millions to put in their color TVs.

I enjoy playing music recreationally, and when I was ready to retire I thought to myself, “well, all right. What kind of amp should I get for my lap steel?” I didn’t want some big, heavy thing. No one was making a nice, warm sounding, lightweight guitar amp with enough headroom to take out and play in front of people but handy enough to have around the house.

So, much to my surprise, I realized that’s what I’d be doing in my second career. And here we are today. I think that the one thing I bring to the game aside from a bunch of particular tricks is the use of Class D for guitar amps. It’s been a part of bass amplification for quite a few years, but it was a resource that hadn’t really been explored much for guitar amps until we got into it a few years ago.

JS: Why do you think tube amps still carry such a mystique among guitar players?

PQ: The electric guitar can now be put in the class of a “traditional” instrument, like the piano or the saxophone. The electric guitar hasn’t really changed in the almost 80 years since it was introduced. People still buy Telecasters, Stratocasters and Les Pauls, or various imitations thereof, that are all designs from the 1950s.

The electric guitar grew up with vacuum tube amplification. And through a happy accident, it turned out that magnetic pickups, with their rounded tone, when played through somewhat primitive, low-fidelity, underpowered tube amps, do some wonderful things together when pushed. At first, low-power amps were all you could get, but the instinctive process of pushing an amp into overdrive opens up a second register for the guitar, one that maps the inherent “twang” into a more sustained and harmonically rich sound. When solid state [amplifiers] were first developed, the engineers assumed that players would like the cleaner headroom, but they didn’t sound the same, and they didn’t feel the same.

But as I mentioned before, tubes are not as good as they used to be. So from a sheer practicality and consistency standpoint, I believe that musicians need a more reliable tool. We stand on the shoulders of giants; we’re able to look at the work that’s been done by previous generations. We study what’s good about it and where things fall short and try to emulate the good parts while correcting the bad parts. The result is a better tool to perform a familiar job for the electric guitarist and bass player. That’s kind of Quilter Labs’ mission – to make modern amps that are playable, and [will even be] collectible 50 years from now. I don’t know how many tube amps will still be operable by then.

Quilter Labs Steelaire amplifier for steel guitar.

JS: Why you decided to forego digital modeling and not use digital circuitry to simulate the sounds of various tube and other amps?

PQ: Let’s face it, I’m an analog guy. I understand in principle what’s going on with digital modeling, but I would have to undertake a massive catchup to be competitive in that field. And at the end of the day, the digital models are struggling to capture nuances and effects that just flow naturally from the analog circuitry they’re emulating. So why not just do it in analog? Admittedly, you don’t have the ability to get a hundred different sounds at the push of a button. But frankly, most people only need a few good sounds. If we can make really charming, good analog amplifiers, they can be the basis of a good rig that you can add to with outboard effects and digital processors to your heart’s content.

JS: Among other products, Quilter makes very small “micro” amps with a lot of power and a wide range of sounds. How do you do it?

PQ: Class D technology and active power supplies let us put big power in small boxes. The original, historic guitar amps from the tube era have relatively simple EQ circuits but every designer had their own theory about voicing. So [how] to get many different sounds out of a [modern] amp? One way is with a switch that selects a different circuit or [part of a circuit] or “tone stack” to give it a different personality.

We use surface mount technology, which is mainstream now.[Surface mount technology allows electronic components to be directly mounted onto a printed circuit board. It enables greater miniaturization than previous “through hole” mounting techniques. – Ed.] Since it’s a lot more compact, it lets us put moderately complicated circuits into tiny, little pedal-sized boxes. Our electronic technology is more advanced than classic tube amp stuff, but I’ve got to be honest: it’s nothing like what you’d find in a digital pedal, or a cellphone. But we use the tools we have.

One of my hallmarks as a designer is to seek the simplest way of getting a result, on the theory that it will save money and effort in the long run. Combine that [philosophy] with modern power amp technology, which is vastly more compact than it used to be, and yes – we can make an amp the size of a library book that cranks out 800 watts.

JS: I’m going to switch gears to talk about Quilter’s Panoptigon disc player, something Copper readers might find particularly interesting. The Panoptigon plays proprietary optical discs like the type originally made for the 1970s Mattel Optigan. The Optigan was a keyboard instrument that played pre-recorded sounds stored on these discs in a similar manner as the more well-known 1970s Vako Orchestron (or the Mellotron, which played sounds stored on strips of magnetic tape). Why did you decide to offer this unusual product?

The Panoptigon.

PQ: Robert Becker was my project manager at QSC and has become a vital part of the team at Quilter Labs. Some years ago he was looking at a hanging mobile that emitted a light display, and remembered seeing something like that online. He discovered that it was a British system developed in the 1920s to automatically tell you the time when you dialed up the phone number. It had rotating glass discs with [recorded voices for each digit] on them.

That led him to a fellow named Pea Hicks, who had created a website celebrating the Mattel Optigan, [which] everyone had more or less forgotten about. Of course, we all know Mattel as a toy company, but they apparently had ambitions to get into a higher-price-point adult toy range by making home organs.

Now, the home organs of the 1960s came in two classes. You had cheesy little reed organs with chord buttons, or you had elaborate electronic organs such as the Hammond or Gulbransen, which cost thousands of dollars, were as heavy as a piano, and were serious instruments that also required keyboard skills to play them.

So, somebody at Mattel came up with the idea: if we recorded rhythm tracks instead of just having chord buttons, you could sound like an orchestra playing while picking out the melody on a small keyboard. And we can then sell various styles of music on discs plus E-Z Play songbooks. They’d set these Optigans up outside the organ store at the neighborhood mall and collar people. “Look! You can be a musician! Hold this button down!” – and you’d hear, “shung-a-lunga-lunga” (rhythm sound). “Now play these notes! Two fingers and you’re playing a song!”

They sold these things for $600. They had a surge of popularity and planned to release an endless stream of new discs so the thing wouldn’t go stale, but – the machines just weren’t very well made. The discs, made out of clear film. began to slip; wouldn’t stay in tune and if you didn’t take care of them they’d get scratchy pretty quick. So after a couple of years, the Optigans all wound up in the closet.

Forty years later, Pea Hicks becomes fascinated by this history, digs up some interesting material, and manages to contact one of the remaining engineers who had worked on the project. The engineer had kept a carton full of memorabilia about the Optigan, including never-issued master tapes! So Pea got his hands on all this stuff and started featuring [it] on his website.

Robert stumbled across this and chatted Pea up on what was going on. Pea mentions, “My Optigan needs restoration. You’re in electronics, aren’t you? Could you do something with it?” So Robert winds up restoring several Optigans. It was a frustrating job. The electronics and transport were primitive and even with great effort, never really worked that well.

Robert ended up saying, “I could make a better one from scratch.” Long story short, he came up with our Panoptigon. It uses a servo-controlled drive so you can set it to discrete pitches. It has the ability to start and stop from [a MIDI-linked] keyboard, you can [play the discs] backwards, [change the pitch]…and many other user-friendly features [and improvements].

After the Optigan came and went, another company, Vako, issued the Orchestron, which used the same disc format, without the rhythm tracks. The Orchestron [was designed to] to compete with the Mellotron, which used little strips of tape that gave you the actual notes, but could only play for eight seconds before the tape had to rewind. You can imagine how finicky a machine like that would be. The Orchestron was somewhat better built, [and] more capable of being hauled around on tour. But they too gradually went under. Digital synthesizers and sampling keyboards put all these guys out of business.

So now we come to the present day, where the optical discs have become kind of an art form in themselves. They do have a distinctive tone quality, and the limitations of the format, with everything in two-second loops, can actually lead to artistically interesting results. You can experiment with recursion and create interesting rhythm patterns.

Pea had mentioned he had all of these unissued tapes and lamented, “It’s too bad no one’s ever going to be able to record new discs.” Robert thought, “I can think of a way to do this on a computer with a .WAV file and an art program” [without using an optical recording head]. So by using modern resources, he can actually master optical discs from scratch. [As a result] Pea has been able to release some never-before-issued disc Mattel [would have issued but never did], as well as create new ones.

They’re having a lot of fun with it, and…it’s of my unspoken missions for Quilter Labs to do cool things that you couldn’t justify on a business level, but that somebody ought to do. So this was one of our opportunities to bring something to market that may have a small band of aficionados who appreciate what we’ve done. It’s an interesting, creative piece of work [and] I don’t know where else you might have gotten something like that to happen.

JS: I can imagine someone like Brian Eno getting one.

PQ: There have been a couple of famous keyboard players who have either acquired or expressed an interest in getting one. It does things you can’t readily do on other keyboards, so it’s kind of its own thing.

Pat Quilter today.

JS: As a musician yourself, do you share the notion that music is a language and that musicians communicating with each other and with an audience through music is the primary goal for the existence of music?

PQ: I absolutely see music as a language. I think one of the most fascinating elements of music is that I can go to a foreign country where I don’t speak the language, but if I find a fellow musician, if we sit down, chances are we can make music together. I can listen to what the other person is doing, they can listen to me, and we can end up doing something together that harmonizes. And of course, the word “harmony” is fundamental to the practice of music. Heaven knows we could use all the harmony we can get in today’s world.

“Harmony” has always been a part of QSC’s culture. It’s even on our official mission statement. The act of collaborating with other musicians in real time, working in a pure art form, is practically unique to music [although you see this kind of collaboration in sports]. Of course, a solo musician can be pretty impressive. But an ensemble, for me, is where it’s really at. You work with other people, hear new ideas, build on them, it triggers something…if you have experienced the joy of a good musical session, you come away feeling, “I just went someplace I’ve never really been before, and it was great!” And you live for those moments.

QSC GXD 8 power amplifier.

If QSC and Quilter Labs can help deliver high-quality gear that’s [easy to] get a good sound [from], and [help people] pursue making beautiful music, I will feel that I’ve done something helpful for the world.

JS: Music has evolved through innovations in technology that expand the possibilities of what kind of music can be created. In what ways would you characterize technology as a disruptive force for musical change over the past hundred years, and how would you place the contributions of QSC Audio and Quilter Labs in that timeline?

PQ: Back in the 1960s when I was young and knew it all, by virtue of having a record collection that went back to the 1920s, it did seem to me that music changed dramatically about once a decade.

You had your ragtime era, then the hot bandstand music of the 1920s. The driving technical impact of this era was the fact that music could be recorded at all, so that a band could make a hit record and actually make money off record sales, instead of having to perform over and over again.

In the 1920s the introduction of electric recording “opened up” the sound quality of recordings, which led to the more percussive, string-bass-driven swing era of the 1930s, and enabled soft-voiced crooners to become popular entertainers. Of course, this was coupled with the advent of radio, which allowed recorded and live music to be piped into millions of homes at the same time.

In the 1930s, the Big Band still remained the way to fill a dance hall with exciting sound. For most of the 1930s, the “vocal chorus” remained a one-verse interlude, but as wartime travel restrictions set in, vocalists backed by a combo took over.

The big technology of the 1950s was, of course, the rise of the amplified electric guitar. A small, four-piece combo could fill a dancehall with loud, exciting music. And in the 1960s, amps became bigger and louder, overdriven amps [and distortion] became a thing, and we had this fantastic outpouring of musical creativity, just as I was just getting started in the business.

The last thing that I expected was that we would still be listening to those same songs, 50, 60 years later, which is kind of unprecedented. Nobody in the 1960s was listening routinely to music recorded in 1910. I firmly expected that some new technology would let the next crop of musicians dazzle their peers with fresh material. Although the guitar is a great stage instrument that lets you jump around and sing, I didn’t really expect the advent of the modern keyboard. A good player on a keyboard can of course sound like several musicians at once and play bass lines, chords and melody lines and sing at the same time, which you can’t do playing a horn.

The economics of music performance continued to drive the music towards fewer performers making a bigger sound, which kind of culminated in DJs and rap artists, stripping the song down to vocals and a rhythm section, or even just a drum track.

QSC WL3082 sound reinforcement loudspeaker.

It’s fascinating to trace the history of popular music as the systematic paring away of elements in favor of lyrics and rhythm. But at the same time, even though rap is [so popular], other forms that involve more players and melodic elements have remained in play. So we have a very fragmented music scene now that’s not as monolithic, for [lack of a better term], than what we had in the 1960s and 1970s. People then were always waiting for the next big thing. We would all drop everything to check out the new Beatles album. That really doesn’t happen anymore. At the same time, it does mean there are more [musical] outlets than ever.

As home video became affordable, I thought that video technology would be one of those major enabling factors that takes music in a new direction, much like the advent of the PA system. I don’t see much evidence that this has happened. It seems like video is just another kind of fancy lighting or effect. It’s an embellishment of [the music], but it’s not an element in its own right. Maybe there are creative people out there blending sound and motion in new ways that I don’t know about, but I would have thought there would be a form of music that involves creative motion as much as creative sound.

JS: Where would you place the contributions of QSC Audio and Quilter Labs within that timeline?

PQ: In terms of live sound and music, you could fairly categorize both companies as essentially second-to-market companies. QSC did not invent the powered speaker or the power amplifier, or any of the other things that we do. We have seen trends developing and have gotten in on them, tried to learn from the efforts that went before, and tried to do a better job [with products that are] hopefully more streamlined and easier to operate. We try to smooth off the rough edges and raise the state of the art. By the same token, although I still have some hopes of doing highly original things at Quilter Labs, most of our projects have been efforts to do a known job better with the goal of establishing a revenue base to underwrite the development of more out-of-the-box types of things.

This interview is taking place in the middle of a worldwide health crisis, but hopefully we’ll soon be able to have people return to enjoying live music in groups again. That will be nice. But now it’s interesting to see what people can do online.

JS: Pat Quilter, this has been wonderful and I thank you for your time. I know you’re a pretty busy guy.

PQ: It’s been a fun talk. Thank you John.

 

Editor’s Note: There’s a lot more of this interview that we didn’t have the space for, and if you’d like to read the complete text of Pat and John’s conversation, please click on the following link: Pat Quilter: Complete Interview

Annapurna Massif, Nepal, looking at Annapurna I peak, 8,091 meters (26,545 feet) high. The photo was taken near the ancient Tibetan village of Phu near the Nepal-Tibet border. That is a Mani stone wall; each stone has a hand-carved Tibetan prayer. The particular village is now a ghost town used only by traveling yak herders and trekkers. The town was wiped out around 1918 by what we now believe was the Spanish flu pandemic. The few survivors thought the village was cursed, so no one ever moved back.

Technics is a brand that needs little introduction to most Copper readers. Technics was once a household name in consumer electronics but eventually faded to the point where the marque was discontinued. In 2015, Technics was brought back with the introduction of new high-end audio systems. Following is an interview with Bill Voss, Business Development Manager/US of Technics.

Don Lindich: Technics has seen a lot of changes since the brand was launched by Matsushita/Panasonic in 1965 as a Nakamichi competitor. As time went on the Technics name was used on mass-market equipment and rack systems, and later became something of a DJ brand as DJs adopted the SL-1200 turntable as the industry standard. After a period of dormancy from 2010 to 2015, the brand relaunched with an uncompromising high-end purpose. Do you see this as a return to the roots of the brand, or an even higher level of aspiration entirely?

Bill Voss: I see it as both. Our roots are [in] the many innovations Technics engineers have introduced over the years to a wide audience, and remain the fundamental building blocks of the new line and future developments. [The new] Coreless Direct Drive [turntable motor], for instance, was an improvement on the direct drive motor Technics invented in 1970. The concept for improvement was based on analog [design] principles with the addition of modern digital technology and materials among other things, to [ensure] the most accurate platter rotation.

DL: Reflecting on the previous question, sometime after the audiophile versions of the new SL-1200 turntable were released (the SL-1200GAE/SL-1200G/SL-1210GAE/SL-1200GR/SL-1210GR), Technics introduced a turntable for DJs, the SL-1200MK7. Was this part of the plan all along? How will you keep the Technics image and brand value high with audiophiles while also serving the DJ market?

SL-1000R turntable.

BV: Turntables in general were not part of the plan. At least, not the plan I was given at CES in 2015, where Technics introduced two complete cutting-edge high-res digital audio systems to address the growing desire for ease of streaming digital music from computers, NAS servers, other devices and app sources. I believed in it and is certainly the reality now. But we didn’t ignore vinyl playback as both our Premium and Reference systems could accommodate the highest-quality phono stages if users chose to enjoy [vinyl]. At that time, the SU-C700 Premium Class integrated amp had a dedicated phono section and the SU-R1 Reference Class when used as a preamp had the option of an outboard phono stage for wider flexibility. Our new Reference Class SU-R1000 integrated amplifier, which was just announced, will again offer cutting edge technology with a very unique Intelligent Phono EQ to cancel crosstalk, optimize gain and phase (similar to the LAPC Load Adaptive Phase Calibration amplifier/loudspeaker interface technology) and improve accuracy of the EQ curve.

However, most everyone visiting us at CES 2015, while excited to see Technics back in the business, couldn’t help but ask, “when are you bringing back the turntables?” We told visitors that there was no turntable in the plan, we had done that already, vinyl was on the downswing, and how could we ever [equal] the monumental success that Technics turntables had in the 1970s and 1980s? So, while not in the plan then, [turntables] certainly must have been on our engineers’ minds because just one year later in 2016, we arrived back in the same suite at CES with the new $4,000 SL-1200GAE/G.

 A classic SL-1200 turntable, circa 1972.

The turntable world was suddenly in an uproar with the announcement. But while the new Coreless Direct Drive [motor design] drew mass appeal from the audiophile community (and was considered a bargain at the price), it broke DJs hearts who were expecting a lower price. Of course, Technics rebounded the following year with another new 1200 model, the SL-1200GR, which set out to bring most of the SL-1200GAE/G experience at half the price.  And it was very successful but still not quite the sweet spot the working pro DJs were looking for. So, at CES 2019 we introduced the SL-1200MK7 which now seems to be the right model to return us to favor [with DJs].

So, it seems we never really turned our back on vinyl. It just took us some time to ramp back up. I’m so glad we did. I mean, these days, everyone is enjoying vinyl, getting back into or trying it for the very first time.

DL: Are you finding that any consumers or audiophiles on a budget are buying the SL-1200MK7 as a hi-fi turntable? The SL-1200GR is a great audiophile turntable, but $1,699 is a far cry from $999.

BV: It’s hard to know exactly who is purchasing it but sales on the SL-1200MK7 are brisk, proving the MK7 with its Coreless Direct Drive motor, while certainly a top choice as a DJ “tool of the trade,” is also earning its place as an incredible audiophile bargain. With that starting price point, it lends itself to endless tweaking [in] trying various aftermarket AC power cords and interconnect cables, isolation feet and platter mats and it accommodates a wide range of cartridge and headshell combinations for various [types of] LP playback. Not so much of a secret anymore.

 SB-APF1000 flat-panel speakers, 1988.

DL: Traditionally audiophiles have had a strong preference for belt drive turntables and shied away from direct drive turntables. Your current direct drive turntable line seems to have largely changed that, receiving highly positive reviews and widespread acceptance in the audiophile community. In a hobby that has passionate followers with prejudices and opinions that can be hard to change, how did you do it?

BV: The proof is in the pudding as they say. The engineers certainly did their homework. Turntables are analog components, but the new Technics models incorporate multiple digital control systems. Some models can even accept a firmware update! There are many fine details in the design of the new motor and control system. We try to explain them all [in our product descriptions] but [you’d need to be trained in] engineering [to have a full] understanding. The extra steps taken to assure perfect rotational accuracy from table to table in the manufacturing process, so that each one is as perfect as the next, is an example of Japanese engineering at its best, beyond the call.

DL: What product categories do you compete in, and how many different products does Technics now offer in North America?

BV: Over the years Technics has held the appeal of professional DJs as well as audiophiles. And we continue the 2-channel only tradition (no multi-channel or home theater gear yet) with our new line of turntables, loudspeakers, network-connected CD/SACD players and true-wireless earphones. We also offer digital amplifiers with proprietary functions like LAPC Load Adaptive Phase Calibration, which enables flattening of the frequency characteristics of amplitude and phase, which had previously not been achieved by amplifiers, as well as delivering a sound with richer spatial expression.

We recently added some specialty products like the Ottava Series of wireless speaker systems that are complete all-in-one, high-res audio solutions with networking, internet radio, access to streaming services like Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer and Chromecast built-in, and compatibility with Google Assistant. All [of this is] controllable from your handheld device via the Technics Audio Center app.

SL-1200G turntable.

DL: Who do you see as your target customers and target markets?

BV: We continue to address the professional DJ’s need for a reliable tool of the trade with the MK7 turntables in particular, and to provide cutting-edge luxury products appealing to a wide range of audiophile needs in our Premium, Grand and Reference Series of products. The new true wireless noise-cancelling headphones open the door to a wider and younger audience for appreciating high-quality sound on the go.

DL: Besides the SL-1200 turntable, what are some other iconic and significant Technics products from the past?

BV: There were so many, I’m not sure where to start. It’s a little-known fact that the first Technics product introduced in 1965 was actually the Technics 1, a 2-way bookshelf loudspeaker, not a turntable. The first Technics turntable was the SP-10 and introduced direct drive to the world in 1970. It enjoyed similar status as the latter SL-1200s among professionals and audiophiles with a number of model changes and improvements over the years. Another turntable “first” was the SL-10 linear tracking (LP jacket-sized) turntable which could play [oriented either] horizontally or vertically.

 Technics 1 loudspeaker, the company's first product.

Technics also made a statement in the art of tape recording with its Professional Series open reel recorders in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These offered state-of-the-art performance and like their turntable brethren, enjoy longevity with many still in use after 40 years.

  SP-10, the first direct drive turntable.

DL: The Panasonic DP-UB9000 4K Blu-ray player is widely considered the best player available, filling a void left by Oppo going out of business while providing noticeably better video reproduction. When I began my review of the Technics SL-G700 network/SACD player it reminded me of the UB9000, because both components are heavy, flawlessly finished and feel like they are machined from a solid block of metal. My impression was that the UB-9000 and SL-G700 could be sister products, despite the different purposes, brand names and likely different engineering teams responsible for their design. Is there any commonality between Technics and Panasonic besides having the same parent company, and do you think we will ever see high-end Panasonic audio products, or high-end Technics video products?

BV: As you point out, Technics is and has always been a subsidiary of Panasonic, without whose technical, manufacturing and financial prowess could not have produced the Technics product line we know today. Digital technology plays a major part in all the product designs and is shared among the Panasonic Consumer and Professional divisions, whether appliances, entertainment (TV, video, Technics, audio, headphones), Imaging (Lumix, cameras, lenses), computers, and even personal care and other products.

A good example is the motor control system used in the new turntables which borrows a digital speed control mechanism designed by the Panasonic Blu-ray team. As far as crossover products, my guess is that Technics will continue to carry the high-end audio flag and this philosophy already plays a part in the sound quality of Panasonic’s flagship OLED TVs.

DL: Are you finding that customers purchasing Technics components are using them in all-Technics systems, or are they mixing and matching as audiophiles typically do?

SU-GH700 Grand Class integrated amplifier.

DL: Anything else you would like to add?

BV: Probably not; my wife says I talk too much! 😉

Technics/Rediscover Music
2 Riverfront Plaza, 8^th Floor
Newark, NJ 07102
201-348-7000
www.technics.com/us

All images used with permission of Technics. Header image: SL-1100 turntable, circa 1971.

Since the late 1990s the Now That’s What I Call Music franchise has almost single-handedly kept compact disc sales from completely falling off the ledge. The concept is a simple one. Each album compiles a roster of current hit songs into a single release. For almost 40 years these music compilations have delivered the kind of sales performance that equaled what you might expect from a hit record back in the gravy days of vinyl. The most successful volume to date is 1999s Now That’s What I Call Music! 44. This edition has sold 2.3 million copies and remains the biggest-selling various artists compilation album in the UK. 2008s Now That’s What I Call Music! 70 sold 383,002 units in its first week of sales alone. Today the series is simply called Now and volumes are produced in over thirty countries worldwide.

What’s most surprising about the Now franchise is that it was never a new or novel concept, even if it was treated as one. The business model had made millions for others before Now arrived, with the most popular being the very concept’s own creator, K-tel Records.

K-tel was founded by Canadian Philip Kives, a salesman who started his career selling cookware, iceboxes and other items and pitching wares in Atlantic City. In 1962 he hit upon the idea of selling a Teflon-coated frying pan on TV in what would eventually become known as the “infomercial.” Kives later expanded into selling other items, including the famous Dial-O-Matic and Veg-O-Matic food choppers!

In 1966, K-tel released its first compilation album, 25 Country Hits. It quickly sold out and prompted the K-tel follow-up, 25 Polka Greats. This one sold 1.5 million copies in the United States alone. The hits kept coming and included The Super Hits series, The Dynamic Hits series and The Number One Hits series.  K-tel assembled greatest hits from the latest, greatest artists in one single package. There were even thematic compilations like Goofy Greats, Super Bad, Super Bad Is Back, Souled Out, Summer Cruisin’, and a 1950s look back,  Rock n Roll Show.

The K-tel music compilations were a quick, very cheap way to boost your music collection or hear your favorite pop hits on demand. A record could go for $3.99. The commercials were kitschy and brilliant. During the 1970s and 1980s these catchy broadcast advertising spots were impossible to miss, and they helped define that era’s television experience. For the voice overs, Kives hired Bob Washington, the morning man of CKRC-AM, one of Winnipeg’s three Top 40 stations. Back in the day Washington’s voice was as distinct as the K-tel ad copy he would read. I can still hear him voice, “Twenty-two original hits! Twenty-two original stars!” and the tagline which was always some variation of, “LP, $4.99! Tape or cassette, $5.99!” These ads remain one of the many great pop culture memories I have from my youth.

But it wasn’t all great. In order to squeeze as many hits as they did into a single record (often eleven per side) K-tel often cut songs down, making them shorter than their original run time. And no song would run any longer than 2:30. In order to secure the rights to the bona-fide hit records, many labels forced K-tel to also accept lesser-known songs as part of the licensing deal. That would always lead to some head scratching as you browsed through a particular record’s playlist. Even on some of the ads where the actual bands spoke about how “explosive” a collection was, you could see them grimace as they called out some of these wild card additions.

The records weren’t of high quality either. They were terribly thin so the grooves couldn’t be cut deep.  This impacted the sound quality. The bass was weak, the midrange was gritty, and the high end often entirely absent. The grooves were also cut very close to each other, making even the smallest scratch a guaranteed spot for the record to skip with each spin. In a way we all accepted the poor production quality because when you got right down to it, the record was really a sampler. Anything that caught your ear was probably going to prompt you to go out and buy that band’s actual record. Considering how important sound fidelity is to me to Copper readers it’s a wonder that even back then we would have been all that forgiving of the products’ shortcomings.

Competitors quickly emerged, with Ronco Records being perhaps the most noteworthy. Founded by fellow TV demonstration salesman Ron Popeil, Ronco was a company that was more diversified than K-tel, with a portfolio of household and other products that gave them better financial stability. (Who can forget classics like the Pocket Fisherman, GLH-9 spray-on hair and that favorite of budding audio engineers everywhere, Mr. Microphone?)

In 1972 Ronco released its first compilation, 20 Star Tracks. This was soon followed in 1973 by the That’ll Be the Day soundtrack. Rock worked for Ronco, but it was with disco where they would set themselves apart and really take off. Disco Daze and Disco Nites were among their best sellers. Maybe even more famous than their compilations was their announcer, Tommy Vance. A UK native, he was not only the voice for all Ronco products, he had an illustrious career as a radio broadcaster, and announced each act that took the stage at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid in 1985.

Even CBS records got in the game with their CSP (Columbia Special Products) division. To this day I find myself still spinning their compilation #1 Rock Hits of the 70s. It has very few “rock” songs but across eighteen tracks it delivers Freddy Fender, Billy Swan, Andy Kim, The O’Jays, The Manhattans and more. I love the mix so much that I had to make a digital playlist counterpart to back me up for that day when the record becomes completely played out.

Then there were the companies that recorded sound-alike covers of the actual hits. These sounded very close to the originals but as soon as you picked up what was really going on the record became unlistenable. It’s amazing how long this racket actually lasted.

The editor will not admit to having these records in his collection.

As competition from others like Ronco grew, K-tel diversified, forming subsidiaries in areas such as real estate and oil exploration. In 1980 they acquired rival Candlelite Records. This was a bit off-strategy asCandlelite focused on music from the 1940s and the easy listening genre. The audience for this music was older and this turned out to be a losing investment.

In the 1980s the tide continued to turn for K-tel International and in 1984 the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. K-tel would negotiate settlements with the banks and other creditors and seven years later, in 1991, Kives once again became K-tel’s owner. By then, the Now franchise had been well underway, having land-grabbed the compilation business from K-tel and all others in the market.

K-tel still exists, even if they are no longer the music powerhouse they once were. That said, they distribute more than 200,000 songs worldwide each year through digital platforms and receive revenue from licensing songs for commercials, TV and movies. But back in the day, they were as Forbes magazine once said, “the Spotify of the 70s.” K-tel records were easy go-to spins for those afternoons when friends came by to visit. Putting a K-tel record on was a sure-fire way to please almost anyone.

Years ago as an employee of Time Inc., I took advantage of the great deals they offered employees at their company bookstore. I decided to buy the entire 1970s series called AM Gold, 10 CDs of AM radio at its 1970s best. We also developed a similar compilation line at Entertainment Weekly that began as a subscription tool and then grew to be a fantastically successful business on its own. Curated by a former circulation manager named Vinny Vero, the collections caught fire quickly and proved that great mixes, whether on vinyl, cassette, CD, digital file or streaming, connect with us in ways that are physical, emotional, and in the undefinable region between both. This is something that Philip Kives picked up on and turned into a sensation.

As I look back now I realize that we all found bands through K-tel that we might not otherwise have paid much attention to. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl famously said that he discovered Edgar Winter through a K-tel compilation record. I discovered Redbone (“Come and Get Your Love,” “The Witch Queen of New Orleans”). An entire generation discovered that sharing music was maybe K-tel’s greatest gift to us all. Better yet, that lesson came at the everyday low price of $3.99 per record. “Explosive” indeed!

If the Beatles never happened, if the British Invasion never occurred, then music fans around the world would more than likely never have been exposed to some of the finest white blues singers the UK produced between 1964 and 1970.

Note…this list only covers the time frame from 1964 – 1970 and only British singers!

There are always caveats and guidelines with any list like this so here are mine:

As great as John Lennon and Paul McCartney were and are as singers (among my all-time faves), they were never blues singers, notwithstanding John’s vocals on “Twist & Shout,” “Please Mr. Postman” and “This Boy,” and Paul’s on “Oh Darling” and “Helter Skelter.”

They were/are incredible rock n roll and pop singers.

There really is a difference in singing styles even though both blues and rock are steeped deeply in Black blues vocals.

Mick Jagger may cast himself as a blues singer but to me, as good as he is in the way the Stones do their versions of Chicago blues songs, Jagger just ain’t a great blues singer and is not on my list. Jagger does the Stones perfectly and he’s done wonders with his very limited range but in truth, the Stones were a better blues band than Jagger was a blues singer during the time that they were a blues cover band.

Neither are Elton, Bowie, Ray Davies, Freddy, Roger Daltrey or Frampton blues singers stylistically.

Also, Pink Floyd may have started out as a blues band — they were named after two blues singers, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council – but Syd Barrett (love him!) and Roger Waters were never blues singers.

You either get where I’m coming from or you don’t and I’m ready to hear your comments so bring ’em on!

One more thing…

Most of you will know these British singers. I have read multiple interviews with most of them over the last 50 or so years. They all share similar stories, which led to the idea for this article. All of these English singers, along with countless other musicians, somehow started to hear American Black music on the radio late at night or on the 7-inch 45 RPM singles given to them by a family member or family friend who brought them back from the US. The music resonated with these musicians in ways that can only be described as culturally connected, and all happening at the same time!

Most of the singers cite very similar influences such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, J.B.Lenoir, Memphis Slim, Big Mama Thornton, T-Bone Walker, Big Bill Broonzy, Sunnyland Slim, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon. I could go on, but the thing to know is that if you love this stuff and want to know more about it, there are a couple of Grammy-winning DVDs called The American Folk Blues Festival 1962 – 1966 that feature all of these performers plus many more. The performances are from a series of German TV shows that were filmed during the time. These artists were treated so well in Germany that many of them didn’t want to return to the US. Memphis Slim moved permanently to Paris and Sonny Boy Williamson stayed in England for a while and joined the Yardbirds for an album.

These discs provide an amazing “CliffsNotes” version of this purely American musical art form.

Just about every blues legend alive at the time performed. (You’ll have to deal with the fact that some of the TV stage settings look like slave quarters. I’m sure the producers thought this was going to lend some kind of air of “authenticity” and need to be seen in context.) The two young Germans who produced this event clearly loved these performers. The DVDs were produced for commercial release by Experience Hendrix, the licensing arm of the Jimi Hendrix estate run by his sister Janie Hendrix.

OK, here goes:

After the arrival of the Beatles in the US, the next British Invasion (referred to as “BI” from now on) band to smash into our shores Beatles was the Dave Clark Five. Although they didn’t have their first number one for a year and a half (late 1965 with “I Like It Like That”), one knew right away that the lead singer Mike Smith was incredible. His vocals on “Glad All Over,” “Bits and Pieces” and “Because” were incredible but on the track “Baby, You Got What It Takes” he totally crushes it.

The first BI band to have a number one record on the US charts after the Beatles were the Animals in August, 1964. The world got to hear Eric Burdon for the first time in his without-a-doubt definitive version of “House of the Rising Sun.” Time after time, with successive hit after hit like “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” “It’s My Life” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” Eric brought it! [See Ken Sander’s article on hanging out with Eric Burdon in Issue 109 – Ed.]

Next up, another then-new band, Manfred Mann with “Do Wah Diddy Diddy.” That vocal blew through the AM airwaves like a jackhammer. The singer of that track was Paul Jones. Jones was replaced a year later but everyone who grew up with radio from that era knows how amazing that vocal was.

By late 1965 the world heard about John Mayall and his band The Bluesbreakers. Although Clapton was the star of the Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton record, Mayall’s blues voice became synonymous with the British blues scene and anyone who was anyone in that circle owes their success to the exposure of the genre given by Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Listen to the track “Have You Heard” from that debut album and you will understand how good he is.

Special mention goes out to Alexis Korner and Long John Baldry who were UK legends but never really made it in any commercial way over here, except maybe for Long John Baldry’s “Don’t Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll.” It was all over the New York FM airwaves in 1971.

Van Morrison also came into the picture in late 1965 with the band Them. They covered the garage band hit “Gloria.” Maybe you didn’t know about him until “Brown Eyed Girl” two years later. Van has one of the great soul voices of all time and when you hear Van…you know it’s Van!

In October 1966 the US AM airwaves once again were shaken to the foundation with the vocal of 18-year-old Stevie Winwood on the Spencer Davis Group hit “Gimme Some Lovin’.” One of greatest debut singles in BI history.

Stevie went on to front Traffic, who scored an enormous hit with “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” and two years later joined the short-lived Blind Faith, considered one of the first rock “supergroups” thanks to Winwood and bandmates Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Rick Grech. Listen to Winwood’s vocal on “Presence of the Lord” on their one and only release, Blind Faith. It’s hair-raising. Years later he gave the world “Higher Love.” His live version of Ray Charles’ “Georgia on my Mind” will bring you to tears.

When John Lennon was asked what his favorite song was in 1967, he not only did not mention any of the Beatles songs from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, his immediate response was “Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum. While technically “Whiter Shade of Pale” wasn’t the number one song in the US that “Light My Fire” was, it ruled over everything in my book as well as in the UK which is why Lennon said what he said. There was so much amazing music that year: Hendrix bursting onto the scene with Are You Experienced, the Doors debut, Love’s Forever Changes, the Grateful Dead’s first album, Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow, Moby Grape’s first album Omaha, Country Joe and the Fish, Big Brother and the Holding Company…the list goes on and on.

Yes, 1967 was a watershed year for great music but “Whiter Shade of Pale” dominated the US and UK charts for a while and the lead vocal by Gary Brooker has become one of the all-time classic vocals in pop music history. Procol Harum had many other FM radio hits (“Shine on Brightly,” Simple Sister,” Whiskey Train”) but only returned to the pop charts in 1972 with a live version of “Conquistador” performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

As I go down this list I am amazed at what this short period of time brought us from the UK.

If just the above was all of it, that would have been incredible enough, but the decade wasn’t over yet.

1968 brought the release of The Jeff Beck Group’s debut album and gave the world lead vocalist extraordinaire Rod “The Mod” Stewart. The album opened with the Yardbirds hit “Shapes of Things.” Rod’s vocals almost blew my stereo apart. Nothing more about Rod needs to be said as his recorded history with the Faces and as a solo artist speaks for itself.

Maybe some of you don’t know much about Steve Marriott. Many consider him one of the greatest English blues singers of them all. He started out with the Small Faces, a very English mid-sixties pop group (see Anne E. Johnson’s article in Issue 117). He left them in 1968 and, along with Peter Frampton, formed Humble Pie in 1969. Along with Blind Faith, they became one of the first supergroups and many consider them, along with the Jeff Beck Group, the founding fathers of heavy metal. [We could add the MC5 and Blue Cheer. – Ed.] Steve’s vocals on the Humble Pie album Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore cemented his superstar vocal status. Later, Humble Pie’s performance opening for Grand Funk Railroad at Shea Stadium blew GFR off the stage.

1969 also brought us Tons of Sobs, the debut album from Free with lead singer Paul Rodgers. The song “All Right Now” came two years and two albums later, but their 1969 debut tour, opening for Blind Faith in the US, was legendary, as “The Hunter,” the first single off their debut album, was written by the members of Booker T & the M.G.’s and that vocal tells you all you need to know about how great Paul Rodgers is. Add to this the multi-platinum success of him leading the entire Bad Company era, and you have a world-class singer whose only misstep was his short stint as Freddie Mercury’s replacement in Queen. Paul’s voice just didn’t fit the Queen songs and it was even weirder seeing Queen playing Bad Company songs!

Closing out this incredible decade was the 1969 debut album from Led Zeppelin. Zeppelin has become second only to the Beatles in total US album sales by a British rock group. As pretty much everyone reading this knows, Robert Plant’s vocals on that debut album are astounding. His blues-based vocal stylings owe much to Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker, to name just a few.

I was fortunate to have been at many of the shows given by the artists listed above. I was in the front row at Led Zeppelin’s first-ever show in New York City, at the Fillmore East on January 28th 1969. Plant, in a show of his incredible lung power, held the microphone away from his face and sang alone, a cappella style, to the sold out crowd during a quiet part of the song “You Shook Me.” The place went crazy. I have never seen a vocalist with that much power before or since.

That’s my list. I have no doubt many of you will offer up your own. All I can say, again, is that if the Beatles never happened, we might never have gotten to hear these incredible blues-based singers from the UK.

Header image of Steve Marriott courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Dina Regine.

Copper reader Adrian Wu lives in Hong Kong and has spent time in the UK and elsewhere, as you will see. He is a contributor to the Asia Audio Society website, dedicated to reference-quality sound and reproduction. As you will also see, Adrian, like so many of us, has had quite an audio journey, which he is kind enough to share with us and which we will run in two parts, to be concluded in Issue 121.

I would like to say thank you to everyone involved in Copper. For me, this is the one true magazine for music and audio lovers, devoid of commercial interests and packed full of practical information, learned opinion and thought-provoking comments. Looking back at my audio journey of almost 40 years, I have made many friends and continue to learn new things every day that I will treasure for the rest of my life. And I get to use the stuff I learned in my physics and math classes at school!

I have been a music lover all my life. I started learning the piano at the age of eight, and I was very fortunate to encounter my second teacher after I started boarding school in the UK. He was a retired concert pianist with a mind-boggling repertoire, but he also taught me a lot about how to be a decent and honorable human being. From that day on, music became a major focus of my life.

My introduction into audio came after I joined the electronics club organized by my high school physics teacher. One day after our club session, he asked for volunteers to help him with a project in his home. My friend and I volunteered, and that was the first time I laid my eyes on the Quad ESL electrostatic loudspeaker (or any audiophile equipment for that matter). At the time, the ESL was still available new from the factory, but being a high school teacher, he could only afford a second hand pair. He wanted to upgrade the EHT power supply unit, and we helped him remove the covers. Not having allowed them enough time for their membranes to adequately discharge, he stuck his hand in and was promptly thrown back several feet onto his butt by the 6000 volts (thankfully of high source resistance) still lurking around.  Having witnessed this debacle, I knew that instant that these were the speakers for me.

During my university years living in Edinburgh, I eagerly awaited every new issue of Hi-Fi News & Record Review. I saved up my allowance (not having a girlfriend helped) and bought my first stereo, which was made up of the Dunlop Systemdek II turntable (aka the “pressure cooker”), Mission 774 arm (designer John Bicht’s classic) and Audio-Technica AT33 cartridge. Amplification was an Arcam integrated, driving KEF Coda 3 speakers. A Frenchman operated a used record store at his wine shop in New Town, and I bought the wide- and narrow-band Deccas (the wide band issues were the early premium releases, including the whole SXL2000 series, and the early SXL6000 series from 1962 until 1970. These were mostly produced with tube electronics. The later SXL6000 narrow band issues were all produced with solid state electronics), EMI ASDs and SAXs, French Pathé Marconis and Lyritas etc. that nobody wanted because the CD offered perfect sound forever. As the Scots were frugal and took great care of their possessions, the LPs I bought were mostly pristine. These still make up the core of my record collection. I investigated CD audio, and decided it was not for me. CDs cost 10 pounds in those days, whereas I could pick up a mint second hand Decca LP for about 2 pounds.

My classmate Neil was a Linn evangelist. After he saved up enough money, we went to the Linn dealer in Edinburgh to audition the Linn Sondek LP12 turntable. The salesman (barely out of high school) was shocked that someone wanted to actually listen to the thing. What was the point of auditioning since the product’s superiority was cast in stone? He took one out of storage, got it out of the box, plonked it on top of the box, hooked it up and put on a record. It might have been Steely Dan’s Gaucho if I remember correctly.

The record player had an Ittok arm and a Karma cartridge, top level in those days, but we could see the suspension bouncing in every direction except vertically. The cartridge mistracked every few revolutions and the sound was awful. After a few minutes, my friend leapt up from his seat and exclaimed, “That’s wonderful. I want one now.” And he parted with his cash, hard-earned during years of summer jobs (and no girlfriend), just like that.  Talk about Ivor worshipping!  The next time I visited Neil, he proudly played his copy of Gaucho through his officially approved system consisting of the LP12 with Naim Nait electronics and Linn Kan loudspeakers.

I credit Mr. Winston Ma (better known outside Hong Kong as the founder of the record label First Impression Music) for my early education in all things audio. During my holidays when I would go back to Hong Kong, I loved to hang around his shop, Golden String, in the Central business district. He was already very well-known and well-respected within the industry in those days, but he and his staff would spend hours explaining things to me, someone who couldn’t even afford the cheapest merchandise in his shop. He was the agent for brands such as Cabasse, Burmester and Koetsu, not exactly equipment that a university student could aspire to buying.

One day, a customer walked into the shop in the middle of the afternoon. He was dressed in the type of clothes worn by men who pulled rickshaws and by dock laborers, and he was wearing dirty old canvas shoes (way before those became fashionable). He did not know who Mr. Ma was, but nevertheless, Mr. Ma greeted him warmly and spent a lot of time introducing him to various products. At the end, he pulled out a pile of cash from his pocket and bought a top Koetsu cartridge. I was totally amazed and said so to Mr. Ma. I will always remember his response. “To be successful in selling hi-fi is no different from what you need to do to be successful in life,” he said, “and that is to treat everyone as equal and with respect, no matter if you think they are rich or poor, smart or dumb, well or poorly educated.” This advice has served me well.

In his shop, I have experienced some of the weirdest and most wonderful things: Quad corner horn loudspeakers, Lowther back-loaded horns, the original Williamson amp with Partridge transformers as well as pretty much every amplifier ever made by Leak, Radford and Pye, and all the vintage Tannoy drivers (one of his partners’ nicknames is “Tannoy Silver”).

One of the friends in our group was a German named Dieter. Dieter started working at Siemens when he was still in high school (his mom worked in the vacuum tube division of AEG), and stayed with the company until his retirement as the general manager of its medical business in Hong Kong ten years ago. A properly trained electronics engineer (meaning he studied vacuum tubes and analogue electronics), he had kept a copy of any datasheet, manual and schematic that he had ever come across at work, filed away in the typical meticulous German manner. He could recite off the top of his head the specifications of many Siemens tubes and parts. He had an enviable collection of C3M, AD1, EL156, F2A11 and other rare tubes, as well as Sikatrop capacitors and other vintage parts, and introduced these to me via the lovely amplifiers he built in his spare time. Sadly, he left Hong Kong and went back to Hamburg after his retirement, rented a garage and started rebuilding vintage Mercedes sports cars.

Having been bitten by the vintage bug, I started to look into this side of audio. Those were the days when one could still find good stuff on eBay. Having restored the Quad II amplifiers, I then realized that contrary to popular belief, they were not the best mates for the ESL speakers. One listen to my friend’s Mark Levinson ML2s driving the ESL put that myth to rest. I went off hunting for deals, and managed to score a pair of Leak TL12.1 amplifiers and a pair of Brook 12A and Telefunken V69a amps over the next few years. I started researching into vintage components, such as antique carbon composition resistors and their modern equivalents (like Kiwame carbon film resistors and so on), antique oil capacitors (TCC Super Metalpacks) vs. modern ones (Jensen and Audio Note PIO or paper in oil caps), chassis wires and other components.

Looking at the construction of the three amps sort of tells you the very different approaches the manufacturers took in building the amps. The Leak is very neat, with all the components mounted on a tag board. That might mean an unnecessarily long signal path, but it makes working on the amps very easy. All the wiring is in looms, tucked into the corners. In fact, having worked on these amps, I can tell you that any deviation from the original wiring arrangement could result in extra noise.

The original TCC oil coupling caps that came with those amps were electrically leaky. They had rubber end caps, unlike their superior military grade “Super Metalpack” cousins. The rubber had all hardened after decades. I put in some industrial polypropylene and foil caps and replaced all the resistors, which had all drifted in value, with Kiwame carbon films, to make sure the amps worked before investing in more expensive caps. Everything measured correctly, and indeed the amps sounded fine. I then ordered some copper foil PIO caps from Jensen and put those in. The difference was obvious and can be summed up this way: with the plastic caps, I was listening to Carol Kidd singing. With the PIO caps, Carol Kidd was singing to me. I could experience more emotion and nuances, the little inflections in tone, the little mannerisms. The Super Metalpacks sounded a little more laid back but again had that organic quality missing from the plastic caps.

One issue with vintage amps like these is the difficulty in getting the old (no longer legal by today’s standards) power connectors. No IEC sockets on these. Fortunately, an old wireless (radio) shop in Kowloon still had a stock of these now-illegal connectors in their warehouse, which they were happy to sell to me, as well as some octal plugs that have also become hard to find. They also had a stash of NOS vacuum tubes for TV sets (the audio tubes were long gone) that they still displayed on their shop window, but that probably nobody had bought for 40 years. The shop was packed top to bottom with parts, but the two ladies who ran the store always knew where everything was. After having been in business for more than 60 years, it sadly closed its doors about 10 years ago.

In 1969, songwriter and guitarist Billy Gibbons started a band with a couple of fellow Houston musicians. They named themselves ZZ Top as a tribute to bluesmen Z.Z. Hill and B.B. King.

They only cut one single before both his bandmates left and Gibbons wound up needing replacements. After some looking, he ended up with Dusty Hill on bass and Frank Beard on percussion, and they’ve stayed together ever since. It’s interesting to note that the original bassist, Lanier Greig, also played organ; the band’s records would have had quite a different sound if they’d stuck with that instrumentation.

Unable to find an American label interested in their music, the trio signed with London Records, a subsidiary of Decca. They ended up making too many albums to cover in detail, but here’s a primer on some of ZZ Top’s best lesser-known tracks.

The aptly named ZZ Top’s First Album came out in 1971. It included all original material, mostly by Gibbons. Its only single was “Somebody Else Been Shakin’ Your Tree,” which didn’t exactly shake the world. London Records paired the band with producer Bill Ham, an in-studio relationship that was to last for 25 years.

On this early effort, you can already hear the heart of ZZ Top: the bass-heavy guitar in counterpoint with a Southern rock-inspired melody and close harmony. While the big hits to come would often spotlight the band’s sense of humor, the song “Old Man” is wistful.

Gibbons once told an interviewer that the second album, Rio Grande Mud (1972), was the one that turned them into real songwriters, teaching them to document what they saw and experienced and minting that material into tracks. Their growing fanbase must have sensed the change, making the single “Francine” the band’s first to reach the top ten.

There’s a lot of musical substance in the bluesy “Sure Got Cold after the Rain Fell,” which uses 6/8 time and an unusual, sultry chord pattern. The application of silence between verses is an effective device.

ZZ Top had its first top-ten album with Tres Hombres in 1973, featuring the boogie single “La Grange.” Next came Fandango! in 1975. The tracks for Side A were recorded live at The Warehouse in New Orleans. The B side, recorded in the studio, included the thunderous, hard-rolling single, “Tush.”

Humor was becoming a bigger part of the songwriting, as you can hear on “Mexican Blackbird.” Although Gibbons is using a blues format, his delivery is deadpan, over-emphasizing his Texas drawl and adding a vocal flip or yodel at the end of lines. His slide guitar riffs here also evoke the early days of country music.

Tejas followed in 1976, an album that Gibbons has called a transitional moment, when the band started to make a point of seeking out state-of-the-art equipment. This was a habit that would continue through the decades, and it might help explain their sustained ability to sell their new recordings. It was in the break after promoting this album that the two men not named Beard let their beards grow for that famous ZZ Top look.

After signing with Warner Music (bringing producer Bill Ham with them), they released Degüello in 1979. It’s easy to think of ZZ Top as having mainly Southern rock and Delta blues roots. But that overlooks the importance of soul and R&B on their sound. A good reminder is the opening track of Degüello, a cover of Isaac Hayes’ “I Thank You.” The combination of the slow-syncopated melody and the brightly timbred straight-up rock drumbeat takes some getting used to but is worth a listen.

As it did for many bands, the 1980s brought more synthesizer sounds into the studio for ZZ Top. Specifically, it was hearing the band Devo that inspired this change on the 1981 album El Loco. Despite that new interest, the only single to reach the top ten was the decidedly non-synth, train-like “Tube Snake Boogie.”

On the other end of the spectrum is the intensely electronic “Groovy Little Hippie Pad.” The band is nearly unrecognizable for the first chorus with all those synth effects. But wait it out, and the guitar starts doing the driving again, as if that Devo thing never even happened.

The next couple of albums, Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985) put the trio firmly in superstar territory. This was the era of band-defining songs like “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Legs,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” and “Sleeping Bag.” Warner released so many charting singles from each album that there are hardly any tracks left that aren’t widely known. Recycler (1990), their last effort for Warner, didn’t have anything close to the sales of the previous two efforts.

It was RCA that coaxed the band away from Warner with a 35 million dollar contract. Their first RCA release was Antenna (1994), which immediately produced a No. 1 single, “Pincushion.” As for the album’s sound, Gibbons told Mojo that the band had consciously chosen to use electronic effects more judiciously, going for “a stripped-down version of former approaches.”

In other words, it’s old-school ZZ Top, as you can hear in “Antenna Head.” The only thing that’s been stripped away is the synth. The energy is high voltage. In his guitar solo around 2:45, Gibbons makes interesting use of octave jumps.

Ham produced only one more album, Rhythmeen (1996). That was followed in 1999 by the 30^th-anniversary album XXX, which found neither critical nor popular success. Their last RCA release was Mescalero, known for the distortion of Gibbons’ guitar. Ironically, it’s also a more traditional album, tapping into Tejano and country sounds. For example, here’s “Alley-Gator,” featuring cumbia-style accordion. Gibbons is even playing a retro guitar for this number, a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop.

ZZ Top’s final album to date is La Futura, released in 2012 and coming in at the No. 5 spot on the rock albums chart. That was quite an accomplishment for a group in its 43^rd year. They launched a 50^th-anniverary tour in 2019 but had to cancel the last leg in spring of 2020 due to COVID-19. Those dates have been rescheduled for 2021. Fingers crossed! While you wait, you can enjoy director Sam Dunn’s new documentary, ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, created for the 50^th anniversary and available for home viewing (https://www.eagle-rock.com/zz-top-that-little-ol-band-from-tex).

Header image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Brian Marks.

It was a lot of money, even with the student discount. He had never been to the symphony, let alone invested in an eighth row center orchestra seat. He wasn’t even certain he would enjoy it, not having more than a superficial experience of classical music. There was, however, something that drew him to this one performance, a magnetic pull that tugged on him since he first saw the announcement. It was something he had never felt and could hardly deny or resist.

Nervous and excited, he entered the rarefied and unfamiliar atmosphere of the concert hall, drinking in the drama of a cavernous space so beautifully appointed. Discomfort stirred as he awkwardly made his way past gowns and tuxedos in attire that betrayed his station and youth. Arriving at his seat, he shrunk down slightly, shoulders tucked in, hands clasped on his lap – allowing neighboring patrons to use the common armrests. Attempting light conversation, the words caught in his throat as a nameless instrument sliced the thin air with the clean edge of a perfect note.

One by one, black-clad musicians, looking surreal in the dim light, added to the fragmented, but somehow euphonious discord as they gingerly prepared their instruments for the task ahead. He was captivated, his eyes dancing across the expansive stage, unsure as to where to focus his attention. Each performer, tuning their strange and beautiful tool, held his fascination until, one by one, all went quiet. He rose in his seat.

A sense of anticipation filled the hall. Suddenly, the room opened in applause as a graceful, gray-haired man flowed onto the stage, paused at its center, bowed, and took up the baton.

The young man had a cursory sense as to the conductor’s indispensable role in the unfolding mystery, but it was obviously more that…this smiling, instrument-less man was adored by the dozens of musicians gathered in front of him. The master turned toward his waiting disciples. They looked up, as into a lover’s eyes, nestled in and announced their final adjustments with the incidental music of their chairs.

With ballet-like fluidity, the conductor moved – but for what seemed an eternity, no sound followed. Then it came, a beat behind the motion yet somehow right on time. Immediately, music was everywhere, permeating everything. A quiet gasp emerged from his lips as he was struck by the mass and shape of the living air surrounding him.

Conductor Andrea Vitello. Image courtesy of Pixabay/artesitalia.

As timeless minutes drifted by, the young man sensed something cold and hard melting inside of him. Eyes closed, senses open, a tear ran quietly down his cheek. He wasn’t sure why. His consciousness began to swim in the warm swirling currents of sound, his thoughts surrendering to the impossible beauty of the palpable sonic tapestry being woven in front of him.

A quickening of the tempo was matched by his pulse. He opened his eyes to ground himself, but to no avail. Colors leaped from strings, reeds, skins and horns in glorious celebration. There was no turning back; he was fully involved. He lost all peripheral experience; only the liquid glow of the orchestra remained. One by one, instruments added their voice to the dance, pounding, building, rising and undulating, initiating this young warrior into acoustic alchemy – driving, reeling and flowing, testing, caressing and blanketing him with an unrelenting embrace – preparing him…until finally, the full weight of the orchestra crashed as one through the roof of his soul, consuming him in a rapturous crescendo.

As the last resounding notes of the first movement echoed into history, he was dazed. His face moist with tears and sweat, wide-eyed, smiling, laughing. Leaping from his seat, he burst into a wild and unrestrained applause. His clapping was crisp, fierce, loud and fast, aimed with reverence at the conductor’s back.

What’s going on? Why hasn’t he turned to face the audience…? 

Silence.

Everyone was staring. The pace of his clapping waned as he looked through watery eyes at the faces around him. Didn’t they like it? What, are these people deaf? How could anyone…I mean… Didn’t you hear?! Too late now. He stood his ground, his clapping quickening in defiance. Salty tears ran races to his shirt as he mined his spirit for resolve. A hundred musicians were looking at him, most of them slack-jawed. The conductor slowly turns. As the maestro sees his face the percussion of his lonely approval intensified, exploding into its own crescendo of gratitude. He couldn’t stop. Their eyes met. A slight smile found its way to the maestro’s countenance as an elderly woman nearby rose slowly from her seat and with delicate hands added power to the day with her soft applause. The young man smiled at her. Others rose. Hesitant kudos dappled across the field of humanity like a gentle wind on golden wheat. The conductor, now in a full yet sheepish smile, bowed deeply, extended his baton towards him and looked out at his congregation. With permission granted and the safety of numbers, the hall erupted into volcanic appreciation. All around, gasps are heard as the surprised musicians rose with their instruments and bows, inciting yet another wave of joy in an undisputedly magical moment.

The next day – as predicted by the gracious older woman who was first to join the young man’s tribute – the entire art world was alive with discussion and fanfare as news of this triumph of beauty over convention spread the globe through hungry media.

Header image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Johnaco.

I will open with a YouTube video of the Holderness family panning the pandemic. These people are hilarious, and I recommend visiting their channel.

Sometimes I feel as though I am dreaming. Pictures of cities full of people wearing masks, not just in the US but globally. There are signs outside every store requiring that all who enter wear a mask. The number of infections and the loss of life is breaking our hearts and numbing our minds. We have an election coming up for the leadership of a country torn apart by conflicting ideologies and problems that have been hundreds of years in the making.

Everyone is separated whether they are working from home, taking the risk of working on site or flat out unemployed in numbers not seen since the Great Depression. The kids were sent home from school in March and are just getting back. A nightmare for the parents, a dream come true for the kidsters.

No March Madness. NBA teams are operating in a virtual bubble and baseball started in late July. The Sturgis motorcycle extravaganza happened with 250,000 bikers whose disdain for masks and social distancing defined this year’s rally. And by the way, the term “social distancing” was coined and forever became part of the lexicon, much like “soup kitchens” from the Depression.

This will certainly be a defining moment for a few generations just as happened after the Crash Of 1929. Little kids and teenagers, moms and dads, the home-schooled and the homeless, grandparents and teachers, milkmen and mobsters will all have their stories. My dad had vivid memories of growing up in a mansion on Turtle Island in Massachusetts. He was one of six children born to wealthy parents. Pop was six years old in October 1929; my grandfather lost everything and became a milkman.

I have been working from home since March. My job is in manufacturing, but we have a crew that has been able to maintain revenue working staggered shifts, while those who could have been working from home. In July I started going in two days a week to support the guys, but I am still at home more than on site.

There has been a great deal of handwringing over having to stay at home all the time. My work is 100 miles from my home and commuting was always too much. For seven years I have had a series of boarding rooms and apartments to stay in during the week, and then I’d go home on Friday. I am still putting in the hours but nowadays the moment I am done with work, I am miraculously already at the house. For those of you lucky enough to go home every night this probably doesn’t seem important or perhaps seems trivial. However, I find myself with more free time in the evenings and I know how crucial it is that I fill that time wisely. If the dear reader will abide, I would like to share some of what I’ve been up to.

A primary tool has been the television. Now, this can be either a bad habit or a learning experience. I’ll admit to leaning towards Jay Leno’s Garage at times, but I have managed to stay away from binging on streaming TV series. I know myself; I am far too susceptible to couch potato-ness. So, I’ve looked for opportunities.

I work for a company that makes high-end audio including hybrid tube/solid-state amps, and I own a few guitar tube amps. [For those who don’t know, WL is the Director of Operations for PS Audio. – Ed.] Quite often I would hear that a fix for a problem with the sound of a product was a change to a capacitor. That always pricked my antennae. I have some circuit design background but could not understand how a capacitor change could affect sound quality. I know if some of you merry pranksters are still reading, you may feel compelled to howl at me because I did not know this. Have at it; I figure I’ll learn something.

I started watching YouTube vids on tube amp repair and circuit design. I tripped over a guy named Uncle Doug who runs a channel dedicated mostly to these topics. His videos on how tube amps work, how capacitors and resistors work in a tube amp circuit, and on amp repairs on amplifiers going back to the 1930s are entertaining and instructive.

Uncle Doug did a video on a repair of the circuit of a 1970s-era Fender Deluxe Reverb guitar amplifier, an amp I happen to own. It was such a gas to sit with the printout of the circuit and have Doug go through the exact replica of what I was studying.

I learned a lot about tube amps but I now have 157 more questions. When we all return to non-socially-distanced work the engineers are going to hate to see me coming.

I am going to admit something shameful at this point, but the tale goes to the essence of my story. For Christmas 1977 my family pitched in and bought me an Ampeg V4B 100-watt head for my bass rig. I added a pair of Sunn 15-inch speaker cabs and I was set as a gigging musician. I eventually came off the road and concentrated on my career, like millions of others. The bass rig was dispatched to the garage in favor of a solid state Peavey that I’d use at the occasional church gig or open mic night. The Peavey was a lot easier to carry around.

My son Dean started playing drums when he was 10 years old, much to our chagrin, and of course he was soon in that first band we were all in at one point. You learn one song and play it to death because you can’t believe you actually know a song, until your parents either stop you or get a divorce. Dean asked if his friends could use the Ampeg/Sunn rig. This was a mistake.

I didn’t see the rig for two years; Dean had left that band (of course) and I had to ask for the stuff back.  When the gear came back it was trashed. There was a missing rectifier tube in the Ampeg head, and the stock two-prong power plug had been rewired as a three-prong in a fashion that must have involved Pee Wee Herman and should have killed somebody. Both the head and the cab were all scuffed up. The cabinet looked like it had been through a flood and the speaker cone was busted. Inside the cabinet were these little plastic beads rolling around.  These jerkamoes had used my seventies-era Sunn cab for target practice!

I know. My fault completely. But we haven’t gotten to the shameful part. The rig went back to the garage, forlorn and forgotten for another ten years.

Watching Uncle Doug’s videos inspired me to take the boys out of the garage and see what I could do to get the gang back together. The natural-finish Fender Jazz Bass that I still have was the bass I used with the Ampeg/Sunn rig in the day. This would be cool.

I took the Ampeg head to a professional for evaluation. No matter how many repair videos I’ve watched I will not go into a vintage chassis with a soldering iron. A few hundred dollars later and the head was fixed and quiet as a mouse. I had to clean and re-build the Sunn cab with a new speaker. But the rig is now in the studio next to the J-Bass and life is sweet.

Meanwhile I started taking bass lessons online from Scott’s Bass Lessons. Scott is a fine player but more importantly a great teacher. The beauty of this method is that you can replay lessons at any time. I fear the tradition of going to a teacher in his/her home or at a music store has been permanently co-opted by current conditions.

Doing online instrument lessons means you can learn how to play one song or dive as deep into theory as you wish. This has really been a great experience. Videos about pedalboards and guitars by Rhett Shull, theory and favorite song construction by Rick Beato, lessons by long time session players like Tim Pierce and interviews with everybody from Vinnie Colaiuta to Steve Cropper and Stevie Vai are a rich representation of a musical world exploring a new experience and practical survival.

You can get just as deep into car restoration and growing tomatoes. A wonderful world.

Many musicians have begun performing on live streams or doing videos themselves. I found Lee Sklar in this way. I had always known the name from the thousands of albums he appeared on but never knew anything about the man. How would I? Sklar was known for being a workaholic; his prodigious catalogue and tour schedules are a testament to resilience. Now he is stuck at his house for the foreseeable future. So he started doing videos on a freaking daily basis telling road stories, playing his bass to tracks he’s played on and generally sharing opinions on everything from where the industry is headed to what his Basset Hounds did that day. I have had a ball getting to know something about a sweet man who always looked like a Doomsday prophet to me.

There is one fact that is ubiquitous about the current climate. We are all going through this together, under different circumstances but because of a common enemy. We may resort to complaining but will survive by adapting. Something fundamental has changed. Life’s systems evolve and so do we. Vive la difference.

Please be safe out there; we may have just seen the middle of this horror.

Header image courtesy of Pixabay.

“So you had better do as you are told/you better listen to the radio.”

(Elvis Costello, “Radio Radio”)

Sanyo catalogued the MR2810 2-Band Radio Cassette Recorder in 1982 I received mine about 1984, when my friend Lee, who had invited me to join his family for dinner, stuffed it into my briefcase. Lee was a generous guy. Or maybe, after several hours of my company, he was bribing me to leave. I know I needed a radio.

I have now completed the 35th year of my field test of the Sanyo MR2810. My conclusions thus far: This unit surpasses all other audio systems in the areas of sound quality, ease of use, durability, and cost-effectiveness. Let’s look at each factor and learn why my Sanyo is red hot and your whatever ain’t doodly-squat.

Sound Quality

When I lived in Seattle, the MR2810 had no trouble coping with alt rock, classic rock, jazz, big band, music of the Baroque era, and 11 out of 17 losing seasons by the Seattle Mariners.

When I lived in Boise, the MR2810 was pummeled by a radio environment almost entirely composed of news, talk, head-banging, wall-to-wall Boise State Broncos, and “fun oldies to make ya feel good” among other things. And yet the radio continued to function at the same high level, threading this minefield to bring in what few hours of jazz and blues were available each week.

Now I live in Portland, Oregon, and with the exception of the Mariners, who I no longer follow, I am back in a Seattle-like spectrum. The MR2810 had no problem readjusting.

Purists might question the aural quality of a device with one speaker and no provision for such exotica as “tweeters” and “woofers.” Chill, purists. My radio has always lived above my workbench in a garage. I am too busy drillin’ holes, drivin’ screws, rippin’ planks, and other proofs of my manhood for fripperies such as the midrange. Everything from Miles to Mozart to Moby rocks.

As an example of the life-like sound quality the MR2810 delivers, I refer you to my first dog, Emma, who guarded the open door of whatever garage I was working in. In the 1990s, whenever the DJ cued up “Been Caught Stealing” by Jane’s Addiction, I knew I had less than five seconds to sprint to the radio and hit the kill switch before the song’s barking began and Emma erupted.

And all this on an energy budget of 5 hard-working watts.

Ease of Use

The kill switch is an excellent example of the simplicity built into the MR2810. It’s a single-pole, single-throw paddle switch; it’s either on or off. The AM/FM selector is a similar switch on the back of the device. The microphone and headphone jacks are also tucked away in back, preserving the sleek 1980s styling up-front.

The radio has been further simplified by time thanks to the demise of the cassette player. With no cassettes, there’s nothing for the microphone to record to. As for headphones – why would I want to hear the MR2810 at a range as close as just outside my ears?

The recording button was red but has faded to orange. I’ve considered repainting it, but I don’t want to ruin the collector value.

Durability

My radio has spent most of its life in dusty environments tinged by car exhaust and paint fumes. In Boise, the radio had to withstand summertime temperatures of more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. In Seattle and Portland, the air is wet and cold for half the year. The MR2810 has survived a lack of climate control, enterprising spiders, two long-haul moving trucks, and inquisitive party guests.

Cost-effectiveness

You can’t beat a radio someone gave you just to get rid of you. But here’s something I’m sure Sanyo never intended: I haven’t had to change the batteries in this century.

That’s right. My sound system costs nothing to run.

The MR2810 came with a power cord, which I lost a couple of houses ago. Without the cord, it requires five D cell batteries to function. Somewhere in the late 1990s, I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I had changed the batteries. I started paying attention. I have yet to change the batteries.

I asked Justanswers.com what might be happening inside my MR2810. This cost me a non-refundable trial membership fee of $5. “That’s pretty strange,” Dustin S., my trial membership electrician, said. Today’s D cell batteries last up to 10 years, he told me, but only if unused and kept in their original packaging, not as part of a live circuit.

He asked me what brand of batteries I was using. How should I know? No way was I going to pop the hatch on the battery compartment and expose the toxic soufflé I suspect is back there. You know that if I disturb this thing, it will never speak again. “Eveready,” I guessed.

“Well,” Dustin said. “What you are describing is possible. It all just depends on the exact type of battery. It’s possible that you bought an early D cell lithium battery. And that you’ve gotten some incredible life out of it.”

Dustin said I have a good advertisement for Sanyo. But the field test of the MR2810 is not over. See you in 2055.

J.I. Agnew:

During the 1973 oil crisis, you fitted several huge fuel tanks to the Manor Mobile recording truck, to give it a range “from Oxford to the South of France and back without refuelling.” Then, in 1978, you were planning on constructing a studio for Virgin Records on Necker island, a deserted island where no infrastructure whatsoever existed, which you expected to fly to with a seaplane. Was there a certain pattern of “going further” in these endeavors?

Philip Newell: There was an enormous spirit of optimism in the Virgin organisation, which seemed to match Richard [Branson’s] adventurous spirit. I think he really enjoyed it when any of us took on challenges and did things that were unusual. He granted us all a great degree of autonomy, and backed a lot of our ideas. I think most of the 1970s Virgin team still have a lot of affection for him.

JIA: What was so special about Virgin during that time, compared to other labels/studios in the UK? What was driving Virgin in the often-unconventional directions it took?

PN: Initially, I suppose it had to be said that it largely all coagulated around Richard and his personality. To me, he certainly seemed like an odd guy, and in many ways, it seemed like he didn’t have much of a clue about anything – and especially not about music – yet it seemed that he could make things happen. It didn’t take long before there was a very creative group of people around him, all individuals, and all full of ideas and enthusiasm, yet all cooperating. It reached a sort of critical mass, after which it disintegrated, but it had sowed the seeds of many ideas with a lot of energy and a very positive spirit.

One of the control rooms inside a Manor Mobile recording truck, 1970s.

At the time, many things in the industry were very set in their ways, but Richard liked to hear about how things could be done better, and the “think tank” surrounding him had the knowledge about how to do them better. Looking back, I am sure that Richard’s prime motivation was building his empire, and he probably saw all of these alternative ways as means of establishing footholds for his upwards climb. However, in doing this, he became an “enabler.” He enabled many people to do these “disruptive” things, and it led to a culture of inspired ideas, and different concepts of record labels and studios, amongst many other things.

JIA: Would it be possible to do such things nowadays?

PN: I don’t think that we could work in the same way today because, certainly in the UK, it is a much more controlled world that we live in. There is so much more regulation and control over so much daily life. Freedom in the UK has definitely gone backwards. I also don’t think that there is the same general spirit of optimism around. In the year before Virgin began, men had just landed on the Moon, and the first Concorde had just flown. Everything seemed to be possible, and things were also not strangled by “health and safety” laws . You could actually go up a ladder, at work, without having attended a training course about ladders. There was much more individual responsibility and much less “nanny state.” I am sure that this helped to allow Virgin to be less conventional, which enabled the creativity to thrive.

JIA: How did you acquire your diverse set of skills, which enabled you to do so many different things on a professional level successfully?

PN: All of those seemingly diverse things are actually linked. I can show you a link between any two of them. Essentially, one thing led to another, sometimes through a chain of events, and sometimes through branching out, like a tree, but they are all linked. [My live sound work at] the Orchid ballroom led to the London studios, which led to The Manor Studio. An engineer at The Manor was learning to fly, which sparked my curiosity. Then I, also, learned to fly, so when Richard bought Necker Island, I converted to [flying] seaplanes, which I became fascinated by. This led me to visit Southampton University, where I was unexpectedly introduced to the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, which led me back to studio design. I could never have planned it all like that, but it was all fascinating. And the fact that things were linked meant that I never had to break contact with any of my past, so I didn’t lose my old friends.

The control room of the Pink Museum (now the Motor Museum) in Liverpool, England in 1988.

I suppose that the fundamental thing is that I was interested in all of these things. I actually wanted to do them, almost as though they were my hobbies. I was enthusiastic about them. So, I would say that it was not about working hard at something so that I could be successful; it was about doing things that I was so enthusiastic about that it barely seemed like work. I think the success came from the commitment (although I am not sure it was as great for my family life).

JIA: What kind of educational path would you recommend to young people nowadays, wishing to build up a similarly diverse skillset?

PN: What I would recommend is to find careers that are based on things that you enjoy doing, so that even the bad times are part of something good. Success will probably follow if people are enthusiastic about doing something that they not only have an aptitude for, but also something that they like doing. However, you have to be realistic. At 62 kilograms [137 pounds], it was no use me wanting to be a professional rugby player or a renowned Sumo wrestler, as I just wasn’t big enough. And, with my dismal lack of interest in gourmet food, I was never going to be a master chef either. Also, hovering around world-class musicians at the age of 18, I soon knew that I was no budding virtuoso, and I didn’t have the necessary dedication to any instrument. Nevertheless, I did have skills which could help the musicians make great recordings, and I began to enjoy it. You have to find where you fit into the team. Being part of a good team can be very rewarding – in many ways.

JIA: Which of the many different phases of your career would you say has been the most fulfilling and enjoyable for you?

PN: In general, what has been special has been sharing a lot of time with so many amazingly creative, enthusiastic and skilful people: whether artistic or academic. Their attributes are infectious. However, my time with Virgin, from 1971 to 1981, was like a rocket ride (albeit sometimes with a seemingly unreliable guidance system). The first ten years of Virgin were something really special. The whole organisation involved a very special team of people. It was the springboard to everything I did later.

JIA: In many of your writings, you have stated the importance of accurate monitoring in studios. How important do you think it is to have accurate loudspeakers and controlled acoustics in domestic listening rooms?

PN: I think the whole concept of high-fidelity music in the home is now disappearing. The culture is changing, and music is becoming just part of the multi-stimulus packages that are wanted more for their convenience than for their fidelity. I remember writing an article in the 1990s called “Hi-Fi or Surround?” You may wish for both, but in reality, once you try to set up music systems with more than two loudspeakers in the home – at least in any way that will accommodate domestic convenience – the performance soon becomes idiosyncratic, with little chance of things sounding the same as in anyone else’s home. In fact, it may sound “great” in many of these homes, but it probably has no fidelity to any reference, and they can’t all be true to any original if they are all different.

So, with the change in the reality and the change in the culture of listening, I really can’t imagine the return of very high-quality sound-systems in people’s homes in the near future. Perhaps that culture is now lost. I come across very few young people, nowadays, who just want to sit down and listen to music on good loudspeakers without simultaneously multi-tasking – or turning off the phone! Also, the convenience of listening now seems to have trumped sound quality. Perhaps we now have to judge things in terms of the quality of the overall experience of all that they are doing at the same time, as opposed to just the sound quality of the music. True hi-fi sound is a relatively rare experience in homes, these days.

JIA: To what extent do consumer listening trends affect how studios are being designed?

PN: I don’t think that they are affecting things much. I think that maybe 10 or 15 years ago there were attempts by some studios to follow end-product fashion, such as by trying to use monitor loudspeakers which gave the best  compatibility with listening on ear buds. However, it proved to be not only impractical, but also to be very short-lived as the listening fashions changed.

Another view of the Pink Museum (now the Motor Museum).

Anyhow, it has been shown in various very large international studies that the average of all domestic listening experiences in all formats is virtually flat [J.I. will elaborate on this in the next issue – Ed.], so the best way to be fair to all of them is to follow the best long-established professional practices. This means working in monitoring conditions with high fidelity and flat responses, which also actually makes things much easier for the musicians and the recording personnel. Any required compromises can then be judged at the mastering stage, and adjusted if necessary, but the basic recording will always have long-term compatibility. So, essentially, nothing has changed in the last 50 years about the concept of what constitutes good studio monitoring. It is just that we can actually do it better now, because we understand more about it.

JIA: If there would be one thing you could change about how the music industry works nowadays, what would it be?

PN: I have no idea, because how the industry works is inextricably linked to changes in the culture, so it is no use changing something if the prevailing culture doesn’t value the change. I think there is a widening generation gap, so it is difficult for me to judge what would now be seen as any “improvement.” Would how I might want [things] to change have any meaning to the majority of other people? Probably not!

The music industry has always been a reflection of its time. It is unlikely that the 1980s electronic new wave music would have had any success whatsoever in a 1960s market, even if those instruments had been invented then. It had no resonance with 1960s general culture. What is more, the industry has also been radically affected by the changes in technology. New synthesisers drove much of the new music in the 1980s, but could many 1980s record companies have flourished once streaming and downloading began? Could any small company have resisted the bullying tactics of the modern multinationals? In so many ways, nowadays, what is happening in music is being led by the technology giants. They have largely taken over the whole show.

Header image: the control room in one of the Manor Mobile remote recording trucks during the 1970s.

“We quit!” Those are not the words I want to hear at six o’clock in the morning. Especially from these two roadies. I had already been warned that they might be trouble, but the way they are going about it is well…a surprise and a really messed up thing to do. Now I have the chore of getting the band’s equipment from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Augusta, Georgia for tonight’s show. That is some 350 miles and that is a problem. But first, a little background…

It was shortly after I left the gig as road manager for Labelle when Wayne Forte from Creative Management Associates (CMA) called me and says, “I have an interview for you with Sidney A. Seidenberg, Inc. (SAS Inc.) He manages Ian Lloyd and Stories and they need a road manager.”Stories is coming off a monster hit single, “Brother Louie,” that was number one nationally for the whole summer of 1973.

I meet with Sid and he tells me that the original road manager is gone but that there are two roadies want that job. They are tight with the band and Sid thinks they are trying to steal the act from him.

He hires me, a good offer, pay and per diem. He instructs me to go to the rehearsal and introduce myself. The band knows I am coming so it is not a surprise for them when I walk in. They are ambivalent when they meet me but not rude. Ken Bichel, the keyboard player, leans into me when we shake hands and says, “not everyone is against you.” In addition to Ken and singer Ian Lloyd the rest of the band at the time included guitarist Richie Ranno, bassist Kenny Aaronson, and Bryan Madey on drums.

Later in the week the band and I meet at LaGuardia airport and fly to Tuscaloosa. The road crew and the equipment are already at the gig unloading. After checking in to the hotel we drive the rental car over to the club. We do a soundcheck and hang around for the gig. I see the two roadies and I ask them about soundcheck, and they answer me in a snarky way with big grins. No problem, I do not need new friends. The show goes well, and the band is quite good, and when they play “Brother Louie” the crowd goes crazy. After the show, it is straight back to the hotel because we have a 7:30 am flight to Atlanta and then we change planes for a commuter flight to Augusta.

…So here I am it is 6:02 AM and I say to these two, “this is f**ked up quitting on the road like this.” “Too bad,” they answer. I really cannot figure out what they are trying to accomplish. It does not make any sense.

Mike Royal, a new hire brought onto the tour as a drum roadie, and with no allegiance to them, speaks up and volunteers to drive the equipment truck to Augusta. “You have a driver’s license?” (You did not need a special license for the Hertz/Penske rental 26-ft box truck] I ask. “Yup,” he answers, and he shows me.

I take the truck keys from the two clowns and ask them again if this is how they want to end it. “Yes,“ they say with a cocky smirk. “Okay, bye-bye,” I say and take Mike with me back to my room. I go over the map with him, working out his route, and give him some float money while instructing him to get receipts for every expense. We make plans to meet up at the club in Augusta that evening. I check out of the hotel making sure the front desk knows we are gone and to make sure those two idiots cannot stay there on the band’s dime.

On the plane, I am still trying to figure out what they were trying to accomplish. It makes no sense. They did not even get paid and now they are stuck down south with no way (that I can figure) back to New York. I tell the band what happened and they just listen with no reaction whatsoever and nobody in the band ever mentions it again, and the beat goes on. Those two never turned up anywhere; I never ran across them again.

Mike Royal makes the drive to Augusta OK and he hires some helping hands at the club to help unload and set the equipment up.

The show and everything else go smoothly and the next day we fly (Mike drives) back to New York. We have about five days at home.

They look like they have some stories to tell.

I go to the office and meet with Sid and he carefully reviews my expense report against my receipts and my cash on hand (he is a CPA). When he is done, he looks at me and says, “it’s good.”

I hire some new guys to bring the road crew back up to three. Tom Butler, general setup, and Frank Levi, keyboard tech and particularly for the Mellotron. The Mellotron is an electronic keyboard instrument in which each key controls the playback of a single prerecorded tape of a musical sound, including strings, horns and orchestra-type sounds. It was a signature instrument for the Moody Blues, Genesis and other 1970s progressive rock bands.

The Mellotron was a precursor of the synthesizer and was mostly a studio instrument. It really was not meant for the road because of its construction, which was quite delicate. Frank is a Mellotron expert and adept at set up, assembly and repair, which we needed because the damn thing broke down about three times a week.

We worked a lot but got to go home every week or ten days. It was different than six- or eight-week national tours to support a new record release. This was touring to play and get paid. If we were home a full week, we got half-pay. This was an ongoing gig for Stories, which was fine by everyone.

Some months later we do a West Coast tour which started in Seattle. JFK to Sea-Tac via Northwest Airlines. One of the stewardesses wanted to know who we were so I invited her to the show that night. I’ll never forget driving to the club in the pouring rain and “Radar Love” was playing on the car radio.

Next day we were off to Alaska for the weekend. Fairbanks, then Anchorage the night after. When we land in Fairbanks the local promoter, a big guy about six foot five inches with long hair and beard, meets us at the airport and assists us with rental cars and getting to the hotel. When we park the cars, he points out that we must plug in the cars at the parking meter to keep the engine warm enough to not freeze up. Wow, that’s how cold it was.

That night we play a small concert hall. It is sold out, about eight hundred people. When the group plays “Brother Louie,” the audience gets up on their feet and some of them rush up to the stage. About half of the audience were native Alaskans and they seemed to be tripping. Not violent but all over the place like zombies and some of them even stumbled onto the stage. As I’ve said before, you never know what you’ll see at a rock and roll show.

After the show, it is close to eleven o clock and the sun is still out, Strange. The next morning we gather in the lobby at five am and the sun is already up. The promoter and his wife meet us in the hotel lobby and we all go to the airport for a sold out concert in Anchorage that night.

While I am checking the band in at the ticketing counter Rich Ranno (the guitar player) comes running over. He says, “Ken! Ken! The promoter is having a seizure!” The promoter’s eyes are rolled back into his head and his arms and legs are out of control. I get on top of him to make sure he does not hurt himself. Then he starts to come around. In my late teens I was a Combat Medic in the Army, a skill that has come into play more than a few times. His wife tells me he is epileptic, but rarely has seizures. Within five minutes he is fine, and I ask if he wants to go to the hospital. “No, he, says I am fine.”

We fly there and the concert is sold out. The show is good but uneventful. That night when we are settling up the box office, I ask the promoter if he feels okay and he says, “sure, why not?” I said, “because of the seizure you had this morning.” He doesn’t remember, and doesn’t believe it until his wife tells him. In my life, I have helped people get through seizures at three different times, and every time, they have had no memory of it.

Ian Lloyd and Stories outside a northern California recording studio. From left: Karen and Ian Lloyd, Rich Ranno, Jessica Sander (my ex-wife), Ken Bichel, Kenny Aaronson and girlfriend. Photo by Ken Sander.

Monday morning we fly down to San Francisco. The band must do some touch-ups (additional recording and overdubs] for their next album in a studio in Sausalito. Some of the girlfriends and wives fly out to spend a few days with us as we tour California. When this happens, which is not often, it is like being on vacation with friends.

That summer we are back on the East Coast in the Mid-Atlantic. One early afternoon found us playing a stadium festival outside of Roanoke, Virginia. The audience is rowdy and fans from outside the stadium start crashing the gates. The police respond and it gets violent so ultimately the cops turn off the power and pull us offstage halfway through our set. The festival is stopped and everybody, me, the band, and crew very quickly loaded our equipment into our truck and got the h*ll out of there. We went back to the motel. All the acts who were slated to play that night returned to the motel and some had never left it in the first place so everyone had an unanticipated day off.

Ian and Kenny Aaronson on stage at the festival before the riot. Photo by Ken Sander.

Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brahms

Back in the day, students were required to take music appreciation classes. The course generally included an introduction to notation and a brief history of music, highlighting important composers and compositions along the way. Unfortunately most kids didn’t appreciate music appreciation and would rather have tried doing ten pull ups or climbing the dreaded ropes in gym than study classical music. Who cared about notating and reading music? Or memorizing the names of composers? Or hearing a Brahms symphony? Put your ear flaps down and go someplace in your mind where you can daydream instead.

Art classes didn’t provoke the same resistance because they included hands-on activities right from the start. The same was true for drama classes: students were involved almost immediately. What got lost among the ledger lines in music classes were enjoyable experiences that would encourage students to lift their ear flaps and play with all kinds of sounds.

Music as a required subject was cut from the curriculum many years ago. To make up for that, the following games and activities are designed to reintroduce music appreciation by helping children focus on sounds without first having to know a G clef from an F. They are also designed to develop listening skills – skills that are not only essential for understanding how music “works” but for developing organizational skills and the ability to concentrate as well. The games can be played in pairs or with a larger number of children led by an adult. They are easy to use, can be modified any time in any place, and are especially useful as an enjoyable break from today’s distance and virtual learning environments.

Ear Training

Outside-in

Ask children to close their eyes and listen quietly for anything they can hear outside the building. After a minute or so, have them open their eyes and make a list of the sounds they heard. Repeat the activity, this time focusing on anything that can be heard inside the building but outside the room. Repeat, focusing on sounds inside the room, without intentionally making a sound. Finish the activity by focusing on anything children can hear inside themselves.

How many different kinds of sounds were children able to hear outside the building or room? Did everyone hear the same sounds? What kinds of sounds could they hear inside themselves (like a heartbeat, bones “popping,” breathing, stomach rumbling)? Variations:

• Listen from the same place at different times on the same day. Do children still hear the same things?
• Listen from the same place at the same times as above but on another day.
• Listen for sounds that are distant, then close by. Discuss which direction children think each sound was coming from.

Sound scavenger hunt

Print the following list and hand a copy to each child. Give kids a time limit of about 10  to 15 minutes. Have them find as many of the sounds as possible inside or outside your home, note what produced each sound, come back and share the sounds they found, then invent their own scavenger hunts for each other.

Point out that every sound has the following qualities: duration (how long the sound lasts), pitch (high or low quality), timbre (the “color” of the sound), and volume (loud or soft quality). If anyone doubts this, have kids choose any sound of their choice and imagine it without one of these qualities.

Find:

• A sound with a crunchy timbre
• A sound that makes you laugh
• An absolutely awful sound
• A scratchy sound
• A hum or buzz with a long duration
• A clicking sound
• A sound that starts then suddenly stops
• A sound that reminds you of how chocolate tastes
• A sound you’ve never noticed before that has a soft volume
• A sound you’ve never noticed before that has a deep pitch
• Sounds you can hear over your head; sounds you can hear below your knees
• Sounds that are made by two objects striking each other
• A sound made by something being shaken
• The strangest sound you can find
• The most beautiful sound you can find

Double talk

Partners tell each other what they’ve done so far that day. Don’t be polite. Both partners  talk at once. Set a timer so partners can stop after a minute or so then take turns telling each other what the other person said. Were partners able to talk and listen at the same time? It’s better to do this late in the day so partners have something to talk about.

Tabletop touch

Working in pairs, have one partner (A) sit at a table or on the floor blindfolded or with eyes closed. Ask the other partner (B) to put a kitchen timer or other object that can make a sound someplace close to (A) where she or he can reach it. (A) should listen, then try to touch the sound without seeing where it is. Move the object several times so  (A) can practice locating where sounds are coming from. Reverse roles. Every blindfolded partner should try for a direct hit.

The sound of silence

Sometimes we don’t listen to soft sounds because loud ones get all the attention.

Take a sheet of paper. Try to pass it back and forth between you and another person as quietly as possible. Keep in mind that any sound made by touching or moving the paper, tapping or rubbing it – no matter how soft – will disrupt the silence. For something even more challenging try passing a page from a newspaper, supermarket ad, or any other large sheet of paper you can find. Ask: Did you ever think a sheet of paper could be this noisy?

Mystery tours

Tell children to imagine they have been blindfolded and taken someplace where they hear the following sounds: water running, dishes banging, and bacon sizzling. Then in another location they hear water splashing, seagulls calling, and foghorns sounding.

Kids would realize, in the first example, that they were most likely in a kitchen. Of course they could hear dishes banging in a lunchroom or restaurant but would only hear this and the other two sounds if the location was in or near a kitchen. The second combination of sounds would tell them they were at the ocean but not whether they were on the beach or on a boat.

Working in pairs have children think of a few places they have been (maybe a zoo, amusement park, in a subway or on a bus) and write down three sounds that would identify each place. Can partners identify each other’s locations? Or name combinations of sounds that are used to help establish locations on TV shows they watch?

Putting it all together

The found sounds orchestra

A found sound is a non-instrumental sound made by a common object found in the environment.

Preparation
Ask children to collect objects that can be made to produce sounds (e.g., plucking the wires on an egg slicer, pressing the keys on a computer keyboard so they click, opening and closing the zipper on a school bag, biting into a carrot). Avoid sounds that can’t be repeated reliably, like those made by the family dog. Have each child choose a found sound to use as an instrument and demonstrate it so everyone can become familiar with all the sounds that will be used.

Improvisation
The conductor’s (leader’s) role is to improvise a piece by directing sounds in and out. As a demonstration conduct the first improvisation, then give each child a chance to lead.

• Point with your finger for a “musician” to start playing, and point again to repeat the sound.
• Wave your hand quickly to the side to stop a sound, raise or lower your hand up or down for a musician to play louder or softer, move your hand quickly or slowly in front of you (like you were turning a crank) to speed up or slow down the response.
• Place a finger on your lips so the musician will produce a soft sound.
• Very young children can conduct by pointing at a musician to start a sound, showing the palm of their hand to stop the sound, and using both hands as much as they’re comfortable with to combine sounds.

Conductors should consider the following: Which sounds do you want to hear alone? Which sounds do you want to hear together? How long do you want each sound or combination of sounds to last? How loudly or softly, and how quickly should the musicians play? How do you want to end the improvisation?

Follow up by playing a recording of Benjamin Britten’s well-known The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra to demonstrate how the sounds of instruments and instrumental families are used to build a musical composition. Although written for children, don’t put you ear flaps down: Adults will enjoy Britten’s composition, too.

Adapted from See With Your Ears: The Creative Music Book by Don Kaplan (Lexikos Press).

Header image courtesy of Pixabay/Victoria Borodinova.

Many of us know that the sound of our stereo changes from day to day or even hour to hour. Very often the better (or more sensitive, or finicky) the system, the more the sound can change over time. You know how it goes – one day your system sounds like magic, everything comes together and the performers on the record sound so present and tangible it’s spooky. Other days, the system is flat, lifeless and un-involving. And you didn’t change a thing. Why?

I’ve seen some discussions about this over the years, but I wanted to gather some of my own thoughts, experiences and speculations. Some of this might sound provocative – OK, crazy and completely unscientific – but I’m interested in your reactions.

As I see it there are three factors involved: the equipment, the listener, and the unknown.

A Change Is Gonna Come

If there is a change to the equipment, the sound can change – pretty obvious. I’ll bet the first thing to come to mind is the quality of the AC power feeding your gear. I live on Long Island, and the power is inconsistent and “noisy” and the voltage fluctuates. Truth: in the summer, the fluorescent lights in my basement actually take longer to turn on than in the winter. Explain that, PSEG!

Audio components, like any other consumer products, are built to a price. (Yes, there are exceptions.) Sometimes compromises are made in the power supply or other design aspects, making a given piece of audio gear more susceptible to the vagaries of the AC coming out of the wall as well as to our twin nemeses, EMI (electromagnetic interference) and RFI (radio frequency interference). At a New York Stereophile show in the 1990s, designer John Bicht did a demonstration where he held a meter up in the middle of the room. The meter showed how much stray interference was in the air – at one spot, around 12 volts. And that was in the 1990s. How much is present in today’s Wi-Fi-fueled world?

No wonder systems can sound better at night, because there’s less crap on the power lines and in the air. As an aside, light dimmers are notorious noise sources. If you have a dimmer in your listening room, try turning it off.

Changes in temperature, humidity and barometric pressure are obvious environmental variables. After all, when we listen, we’re hearing vibrations propagating as acoustic waves through air (unless we’re underwater eavesdropping on dolphins). Air is elastic and its density changes, and if the medium of propagation changes, small wonder the sound can also.

Speaking of elastic, I’ve heard phono cartridges sound different at different temperatures. Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound attributed this to changes in the elasticity of the cartridge suspension and did not want the cartridge to get too cold, which could result in a “harder” sound. To this end, he had a Tensor lamp shining on the cartridge, the presence of which resulted in an unfortunate audio incident one time. Also, I feel that some cartridges can take time to “warm up” to sound their best, around the duration of a record side. And as most of us know, typically the entire system needs to warm up to achieve optimum performance (mine takes about an hour).

Paper loudspeaker cones are absorbent and their behavior can change according to the humidity. Some speaker designers have avoided the use of paper to eliminate this variable. Perhaps a more esoteric consideration: what about the effect of humidity on speaker enclosures? After all, the tops of acoustic guitars can expand and swell in more humid conditions. Would a change in speaker cabinet dimensions, however minute, affect their sound? Is this idea ridiculous? I don’t know.

Degradation in the performance of one’s audio system over time can be insidious. When I owned an Audio Research SP-11 preamp I once asked Terry Dorn (one-time company president) when I should change tubes. “When the magic is gone” was his immediate response. OK, how do you quantify that? But I knew when it was time. If you’re a tube aficionado and not sure, re-tubing may work wonders. Of course, some people simply will not own tubed components, to eliminate such uncertainty. That said, at some point one must face the hard truth that electronic components do change, drift and even deteriorate over time (vintage guitar amplifiers need to have their power supply capacitors replaced as a matter of course), and this will change the sound.

Then there’s system maintenance. According to Received Audiophile Wisdom, one must clean the connections at regular intervals, and checking the turntable, tightening the speaker-driver screws and giving everything a cleaning ain’t bad ideas either. (I confess – I forget to do this, even though such maintenance can spruce up my system’s performance.) On the Steve Hoffman forum, one participant opined that after cleaning his listening room (I forget to do that also), the system sounded better. Which leads us to a gratuitously obvious segue into the next section…

We the Listeners

We as listeners are infinitely more variable than any audio system, which gives rise to all kinds of changes in our perceptions of said systems. A couple of extreme examples: if, like me, you’re allergic to pollen, your system will not sound as good during a high-pollen-count day. If you have a cold, stuffy nose or sinus headache, forget it. Your system will sound as blocked as your nasal passages.

Much has been made of making sure your ears are clean. I don’t think this is something to obsess over, but if you do feel like your ears are plugged, get them checked out.

If I’m in a good mood, my system sounds better. If I’m stressed or distracted over something, I’m not going to be paying attention to the sound as much and I won’t “hear it” as well. Thankfully, the very act of turning on my system and getting ready to listen tends to put me in a good mood. After all, the love of music and great-sounding gear is what got all of us into this!

Getting in the mood for listening is really important. It was really, really, really important to the late Harvey “Gizmo” Rosenberg, audio designer, manufacturer and philosopher. If you can, get a copy of his 1993 book, The Search for Musical Ecstasy, Book One: In the Home. It’s a hard to find but fascinating and often outrageous read. In the book Rosenberg describes his pre-listening ritual, which among other things involves a hot bath by candlelight, a massage, donning a silk kimono, and enjoying a Havana cigar, champagne, and Ben and Jerry’s frozen yogurt. While most of us might not go to such extremes – or might! – he had the right idea.

Many of us do enjoy a glass of wine, beer or relaxant of choice while listening and enjoy a good meal beforehand. The great “Prof” Keith O. Johnson, technical director at Reference Recordings, once told me that with every drink of alcohol you lose 1 dB of high-frequency hearing. That’s certainly one way to mellow out a system, as well as the listener.

“Unknown, Captain.”

Physicists don’t know everything about the nature of reality. What are dark matter and dark energy, anyway, and why isn’t there a definitive Theory of Everything yet? In light of that, I believe those of us in the audio world are also far from knowing everything about something as prosaic as why the sound of an audio system can change from day to day.

What about biorhythms, the idea that we’re affected by three different physical, emotional and intellectual cycles that overlap at different periods? Maybe there’s a “sweet spot” where they all converge and that’s when your hearing and receptiveness to reproduced sound is at its best. Sorry, I don’t believe that, but it leads me to think that maybe there are biological and mental rhythms that apply that we just aren’t aware of yet.

A contributor to an Audioholics forum speculated that changes to a system’s sound could be the result of interacting with Schumann resonances, which according to Wikipedia are “a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth’s electromagnetic field spectrum.” The forum member might have been facetious, but it does bring up the bigger question of the possibility of unseen forces or phenomena affecting us that we just haven’t discovered. Ray Bradbury took this idea to a science-fiction extreme in his superb short story, “Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed.”

Then there’s a corollary of Murphy’s Law: the more important the demo, the more likely that something will go wrong with your system. This happened a lot at The Absolute Sound and I’ve seen it occur at audio shows too many times for me to think that the effect resides only in my imagination.

I’ll leave you with the biocentric universe concept. This theory speculates that life is not a byproduct of the universe, but is the creator of it. Among other things the theory involves quantum physics, the idea that time doesn’t exist independently of the life that is aware of it, and that everything we perceive is constructed and reconstructed in our minds.

Well, if that’s true, is it any wonder that our audio systems sound different on different days?

As Karellen said in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End: I must think about this further.

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In Part One and Part Two of this series (Issue 115 and Issue 117), Robert Heiblim took us through the particulars of the initiation and the design processes. We conclude the series with a look at how products ultimately reach the marketplace.

We’ve gotten to the point in the product manufacturing process where the team has put together a specific design right down to the actual blueprints and files we can share with our manufacturers. We have budgeted the total expense, come up with projected sales estimates and have run the financials against our product plan – but now we have to actually make the product.

If we have our own in-house manufacturing, we share all this information and get an assessment from them. In the case of third party manufacturers and vendors, which may include subcontractors for specific parts or modules as well as contract manufacturers or even more OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and ODM (original design manufacturer) makers with more extensive capabilities, they will all get RFQ (request for quote) requests, which, after signing some confidentiality documents, serve to get them all the same information in order for them to actually bid on making the product, with all of them on a level playing field.

Inside the Rotel factory. Photo reproduced with the explicit permission of Darko.Audio.

There is a lot to decide now. Do we build it in-house, or more or less buy it from others? What tools and techniques are needed to build the item? How many will be made, and will be getting the benefit of scaling up production, which will require paying for a large overhead to do so? Do we trust our outside vendors? Will they keep any confidential, proprietary or patented technologies or methods secure until the product is on the market? These questions and more must be answered before making the decisions and proceeding.

And although we think we have a final design, we most likely do not as there will be a lot more feedback on the way now.

Yes, you think you are there or close, but in reality, now that the product has to be built you are going to find out the real cost of building it, and the perhaps unforeseen impact of some of your design choices. There is a giant gulf between making one or more units by hand and actually producing in quantity. It is often in this process that the choices made also have a very big impact on the final price of the product, so for those that care, take note here as our commentary in Part Two about luxury goods versus more mass production items is especially relevant. (With luxury items, there’s more flexibility for prices to go up.)

This is one way to prototype a circuit! Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Miclan.

The selection of the maker is quite important. Usually, they have some specific tools, machinery and skills to fit the requirements you are sending them. However, just like the rest of us they are probably paying the rent on all of this and so their monthly bill will also reflect in what they have to charge. Also, the more sophisticated the tools they own, the more costly they’ll be and the more likely that they will be seeking to keep those tools busy, so volumes of production come into play. Smaller makers may have some or all of the capabilities of larger shops, but like luxury hotels, their rates may reflect the fact that they can’t amortize their costs over a larger volume of units manufactured the way that larger firms can.

Additionally, the design choices you have made previously now come into play. While works of art, including industrial art, are beautiful, the more unique or non-standard the design, the more it may cost to make it. Uncommon shapes and sizes of anything from cabinets to chassis to PC boards may or may not be compatible with the most efficient and automated tools and machinery. If any hand work is required, this can really run up the bill. I have seen things like PC boards cost five to six times more than usual due to non-standard sizes. These decisions can really push up the cost and resulting selling price.

The factory, whether in-house or outsourced, will look at the designs and validate them. They will examine what the steps of producing and assembling the design will be. The ease or the difficulty of this will determine the time required to make each individual product and the likely yield, which in the end will be major determinants of what the final price of the item will be.

Loudspeaker drivers on a production line.

The manufacturer will need to work hand in hand with metal fabrication houses, cabinet makers, PC board stuffers, transformer makers, chip suppliers and on and on. In addition to their ability to simply make an item, each sub-vendor will have to be evaluated in areas such as their credit worthiness and previous history. For example, do they deliver on time or are they often late?

Along the way, various comments from these vendors on the design choices will arise. Do you insist on using that part or that method of assembly or are you willing to change something to either lower the cost or ease the production? These choices can have a direct effect on the end price of the item to the brand and the final selling price to consumers. Often, the reality is that vendor quotes come back higher than expected and so new choices need to be made to either adjust the price up, or to accept engineering changes in parts, materials or methods to keep the cost in line.

Here a feedback loop often goes back to the initial considerations about the product and the brand. What are you trying to do with this product? Who is it for? How will you market it? The understanding of these things, the biases of the company, the importance of hitting price targets (or not) and other issues will determine the reactions to the feedback, and possibly affect the production timetable and the pricing consumers will see. Looking at a certain type of product – say, a two-way loudspeaker – and considering how many of them are sold should give some insight into the wide range of prices for somewhat similar items and how the amount of them sold can have an effect of their cost.

A wave soldering machine. As a circuit board moves through, a wave of molten solder contacts the board to solder the components in place. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Space11111.

How one takes this brings up the age-old discussion of value. In my view, value is always in the eye of the beholder and depends on their buying motivations. If you think you are buying art, a limited edition or something lovingly made by hand you may be more than happy to pay a premium for these aspects. Others seeking strictly value per dollar will have a different mindset. In audio, as always, the end results will be measured by the pleasure in the listening experience, and I submit that pleasure is not merely the result of a product’s technical performance but a blending of performance, value, and artistic and design merit. It is very nice to look at those handmade cabinets on Sonus Faber speakers. The unique industrial designs of Devialet, Focal and other brands can be compelling, just as the more straightforward solutions and value of products from Emotiva, ELAC, LSA and others may also be appealing. Vive la difference.

Meanwhile, the validation process will continue at the factory. There are two main streams of validation, engineering and design. Engineering will focus on the stability of the design under various demands. These could include drop tests, exposure to high humidity and temperature, and other evaluations. Conformance to UL, ROHS, CE, FCC and other domestic and international standards will also have to be met.

The design validation process will also determine the manufacturability of the product. Yield, or the number of working versus rejected units is important. Deciding on the quality metrics will affect yield. These can include aspects like how true to color a finish must be, or how many non-working pixels in a screen are allowable, or if any deviations at all are acceptable. Determining what level of product quality is passable and will also help determine the mean time between failures (MBTF). These metrics can also affect the frequency of warranty or repair costs for ongoing support of the product. As you can imagine, the price of the product itself and its positioning are extremely important and the price versus yield can be a delicate balancing act – and one that some firms sometimes don’t properly achieve.

As these processes play out, various samples of the parts and modules that go into the product are also evaluated and tested, with possible changes necessary. You can now see this is a highly dynamic process even though one thought you were done earlier! We proceed from 3D-printed parts and handmade models to hand-built samples and eventually get to small-quantity pilot production runs of say five to 100 samples, depending on the item. These are usually “tested to destruction” to see what can go wrong and then modified as necessary to improve performance, durability or manufacturability.

We finally get to pre-production runs and the making of things like “golden samples,” which is the factory showing the brand what they think the final version will be. This too is then evaluated, and once approved, full production will occur. At this stage in the game, any changes get quite costly as large purchases of materials will have been made. These “minimum order quantity” or MOQ amounts vary (whether you’re buying resistors or faceplates, for example) but in general are large bets for the product and the brand, so review and approval of these items at an early stage is serious business and only worth incurring delays or changes if they save the business model by controlling cost, or the market model by ensuring customer satisfaction.

It takes a lot of work to design and manufacture a product like this! The Valve Amplification Company Statement 450S iQ power amplifier.

The Rolling Stones – Goats Head Soup 2020 Deluxe Edition

Late 1972 found the Stones in a period of serious transition; after the monstrous success of Exile on Main Street, they were ready to begin work on the next record. The band was still essentially exiled from the UK because of their tax problems, and Keith Richards couldn’t manage to find any country other than Switzerland who wouldn’t kick him out because of his high-profile drug problems – and he freaking hated Switzerland! It finally became apparent that they could all congregate in Jamaica without problems, so they all flew into Kingston, to start recording what came to be known as Goats Head Soup in November of that year. Keith loudly expressed his gratitude to the Jamaican government for allowing him into the country!

The studio atmosphere was quite different from what they’d come to expect while recording in London; a lot of session musicians from the islands and several African nations were usually in the studio, and available to augment the group sound as needed. And the usual suspects such as Ian Stewart, Nicky Hopkins, Bobby Keys, and Billy Preston were also on hand to provide keyboards and horns to the mix. For some reason, Bill Wyman only played bass on three tracks, but Keith and Mick Taylor covered for him on the remaining tunes. Long time producer Jimmy Miller also came along; Goats Head Soup would serve as his final production credit on a Rolling Stones album. Unsurprisingly, he and Keith had developed pretty serious drug problems, and apparently Mick had had enough by the time the album sessions had concluded. Some additional work was done on the album at Village Recorders in LA and Island Studios in London (apparently, they’d ironed out their tax issues with the British government by this point).

Goats Head Soup was a stark change thematically for the band from Exile, which was essentially maybe the best party record ever. There were darker, moodier songs like lead track “Dancing With Mr. D,” “Winter” and “Can You Hear the Music,” in addition to the album’s first single, “Angie,” a really moody piano-based ballad. “Can You Hear the Music,” with its flute and percussion intro actually kind of hearkened back to the time when Brian Jones was still alive and in the band. There were a few upbeat tunes as well; the second single “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” was a great song, and a really big hit, and “Silver Train” was a pretty great rocker by Keith, even if he’s not in perfect voice. And “Star, Star,” is a great little Chuck Berry-esque paean to groupies. It got the Stones in a bit of trouble later with its in-your-face use of colorful language; (You’re a starf*cker, starf*cker, starf*cker, starf*cker, star!) which got edited out of the eventual CD releases, until the late-nineties Virgin remasterings. I guess by that point the prevailing attitudes with the censors had relaxed a bit.

There’s a pretty deep divide among Rolling Stones fans over their records; either you feel that Exile is their greatest record ever, or the alternative is: you’re not really a Stones fan. I hate that kind of mass categorization; while I would never deny Exile’s greatness, Goats Head Soup is a fine album on its own merit, even if it falls somewhere outside the norm for a Rolling Stones record. I bought this album at the time of its release when I was fourteen; I spent countless months sitting, listening to it over and over again over a pair of Koss Pro 4AA headphones, dissecting the songs and really getting into the music. It might be my favorite Stones album of all time.

In terms of the quantity of music on a deluxe edition reissue, the Stones have really outdone themselves with this one. In addition to the remixed and remastered basic album tracks, there’s an entire disc of demos, alternate takes, and previously unheard outtakes, along with another full album that officially releases the full “Brussels Affair” 1973 concert for the first time, in superior sound. I think the record company has somewhat come around to some of the criticism leveled at the sound quality and rather barebones nature of the last couple of big Stones reissues, and Goats Head Soup 2020 Deluxe Edition is being offered in a variety of choices that should satisfy the buying needs of everyone out there. There’s a 2-CD or 2-LP base package that features the remixed and remastered album plus bonus tracks, as well as multiple CD/Blu-ray/LP sets of varying configurations that feature the additional live tracks along with other bonus materials. There’s also a “Super Deluxe” edition that combines everything into one big box; if you’re a true fan, and a completist, prepare your wallet for a rather large dink.

I did all my listening through the 24/96 digital stream from Qobuz, through my PrimaLuna tube amp, playing into the Zu Audio Omen loudspeakers, and the sound quality was nothing short of superlative. I really found the 24/96 stream to possess a great degree of warmth and clarity, with transparency on par with my 1973 original LP (which still sounds remarkably good!), and I really didn’t feel that the overall sound had been compressed nearly as much as I found to be true of the recent reissues of Let It Bleed and Exile. The unbelievable quiet in songs like “Winter” and “Can You Hear The Music” is absolutely stunning.

Goats Head Soup has been unfairly maligned in terms of sound quality, based strictly on a couple of poor-quality CD reissues in the nineties – it’s a really great-sounding record, and this is especially true of the 24/96 digital files. Among the trove of bonus tracks included, there are three very different takes of the song “Scarlett,” which feature a rare appearance by Jimmy Page; I’ve listened to all three repeatedly, trying to figure out which one I like the most! And the live concert material is also outstanding; the 1973 European tour would be the last one to feature guitarist par excellence Mick Taylor, who was a great addition to the band for the five albums spanning his tenure. His playing here is absolutely stellar; there’s a really superb rendition of “Midnight Rambler,” where he and Keith trade wicked licks throughout the song’s slower, central section, while Mick growls and howls in the background. Unlike most of the Stones live albums from the period, the sound quality here is very good!

Goats Head Soup 2020 Deluxe Edition is a very good album from one of the Stones’ classic periods, presented with a plethora of bonus material, and all in really great sound. Very highly recommended!

Polydor/Rolling Stones Records, 3 CD/ Blu-ray/ 2LP (download/streaming [24/96] from Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Pandora, Deezer, TuneIn)

PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love – Demos

Polly Jean Harvey’s 1995 release of To Bring You My Love was actually her first proper solo outing following the demise of the PJ Harvey Trio; the album was met with strong critical praise and good commercial success. And is widely considered to be her breakthrough album artistically; the lead single, “Down By The Water,” received extensive airplay on both radio and MTV, bringing her music to a much wider audience. At the time of its release, the album went Gold in the UK, peaking at number 12 on the English charts; it also did respectably well in the US, reaching the number 40 position on the charts. That success hasn’t diminished in the least; over the last couple of decades, the album has sold in excess of a million units worldwide. To Bring You My Love has been placed on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Dame Polly Jean Harvey, MBE [Most Excellent Order of the British Empire] – having been recognized by the Queen in 2011 for her service to not only the music industry, but also for her charitable efforts – has always been at the forefront of alternative music, ever since her arrival on the scene in 1988. She’s the only musician to have won the coveted Mercury Prize twice, in 2000 for the album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, and again in 2011 for Let England Shake. And of late, she’s been releasing the demo tapes from many of her groundbreaking albums; now, we have To Bring You My Love – Demos, which gives us a surprisingly fully-formed, hyper-edgy preview of the outstanding studio tracks. I found it really instructive to flip back-and-forth between both albums to get a clearer view of her artistic process.

I’ve loved PJ Harvey from the first time I heard her; I think she captures the essence of what most men who have an appreciation for alternative rock think a female rocker should offer: a voice that in a heartbeat goes from a guttural growl to an absolute scream, and a raw, primal, almost hyper-sexualized approach to hard rock. And it doesn’t hurt that she’s a multi-instrumentalist that literally kicks ass on just about anything she happens to be playing – she’s the total package, and that only earns her an even higher degree of respect. I only thought To Bring You My Love was raw and primal, until I heard this album of demos – she takes raw to an all new level on the demos, making the studio tracks seem perfectly polished in comparison. When she screams – as she does on a number of the tracks – I have to admit, my knees nearly buckle; it’s exhilarating to listen to! I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy this collection as much as I have.

The 24/96 digital files from Qobuz are outstanding; there’s a trace of hiss, which is to be expected: these are demo tapes, after all! No worries – this album comes highly recommended!

UMC (Universal Music Catalog), CD/LP (download/streaming [24/96] from Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon, Google Play Music, Pandora, Deezer, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, TuneIn)

 

Lang Lang – Johann Sebastian Bach: The Goldberg Variations 

I first heard Glenn Gould’s legendary 1955 recording of JS Bach: Goldberg Variations in the late seventies, in a core-curriculum required music appreciation class in my first year of college. It struck a complete nerve with me, even though I was basically an uncultured bumpkin from the sticks of rural North Georgia; I rushed out and bought a cassette copy right away (I had to drive about seventy miles to Atlanta – the ruffians in the record shops in rural Gainesville, GA had never heard of Glenn Gould). Over time, I’ve become something of a Goldbergs (and Glenn Gould) snob, of sorts; you’d probably laugh to see how many different versions of the Goldbergs reside in my digital music library, and now, with Qobuz, the sky’s the limit. I also like Gould’s 1981 revisitation, but, at the end of the day, I still find the 1955 recording the final word, and the version that I compare all others against. That sort of rapid-fire, pianist-on-acid approach of Gould seemed to strike a chord with the record buying public way back in the Fifties; his Goldberg quickly became the biggest-selling classical album of all time.

There’s a circuitous legend that surrounds Bach’s writing of the Goldberg Variations, and how they came to have their current given name; the actual working name of the piece was Aria with diverse variations for a harpsichord with two manuals. Okay, then! Anyway, there was a student of Bach’s named Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who was, apparently, a very gifted player – he definitely figures in the naming process. Otherwise, there’s a fair amount of scholarly debate regarding the actual intent of the variations. And it’s known that only about one hundred copies of the manuscript for the variations were printed in Bach’s day. With very little performance over a period of almost three hundred years, some of them nonetheless survived until legendary Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska made the first recording of them in the early 1930s.

And the variations remained firmly on the periphery of the classical music conscience; that is, until a 22-year old Glenn Gould strolled into Columbia’s NYC 30th Street Studio in early June of 1955. It was hot outside, and Gould arrived wearing a wool tweed hat and a wool overcoat with scarf; removing that, he then removed a wool tweed jacket that was underneath, leaving him with a wool sweater still on in the un-airconditioned confines of the studio. After removing a pill box from his satchel, he snorted a couple of preparations, popped a couple of pills, coughed and wheezed excessively, then pulled out his manuscript of the Goldbergs and began playing. The tapes rolled, and history was made in the process.

I first became aware of pianist Lang Lang in the early 2000s; I’d just seen the movie Shine with its central theme of the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto, and Lang Lang’s 2002 recording of that same work on the Telarc label made a big splash. Suddenly, he was a household name in the world of classical music. He must have a pretty good agent; he’s recorded simultaneously ever since with Telarc (up until their demise), Deutsche Grammophon, and Sony Classical. Anyway, while I’ve had a great deal of admiration for the man and musician, I haven’t always been completely impressed with his recordings; I absolutely hammered a two-disc recording of Mozart by him back in the mid-2000s on Sony Classical. Because, while the studio portion of the disc was superb, I felt the second-disc live recordings had very mediocre sound.

I haven’t followed his career very closely since, feeling that his career became a little showman-like, with his albums being a bit too lacking in focus for my tastes. Regardless, here we are, and it appears that he’s decided to take his stab at the Goldbergs, as most modern pianists also seem to feel compelled to do. The new set is a bit of a curiosity in that it contains two completely distinct recordings of the Goldberg Variations; one recorded live in a single take at the Thomaskirche (Church of St. Thomas) in Leipzig, Germany, and a second recording made in the confines of Deutsche Grammophon’s studio. In the notes for the album, Lang Lang relates that he first played the Goldberg Variations from memory when he was seventeen years old, for conductor and pianist Christoph Eschenbach. And he feels that the Goldbergs, while originally thought of as only a set of complicated practice variations, are perhaps the most multidimensional and exceptionally creative work in the whole of classical piano literature.

Some recordings of the Goldberg Variations sound very pedantic and by the numbers; this isn’t one of them. Lang Lang has a complete talent for getting to the heart of the matter, while still administering his usual excess of flourishes. Compared to a very scholarly version, like that by noted Canadian pianist and Bach scholar Angela Hewitt on Hyperion, Lang Lang takes an approach closer to that of Glenn Gould, and doesn’t observe all the repeats and occasionally alters the tempos. Hewitt observes every repeat, and moves at a more historically informed pace; while her version is still quite entertaining and never feels as though it drags, it runs around 55 minutes in length; compared to Lang Lang’s forty minutes or so (Gould clocked in at 39 minutes), which is an undoubtedly elegant one.

The two recordings are very audibly different, although Deutsche Grammophon does a much better job than my recollection of how Sony Classical did with their debacle a decade or so ago with the Mozart album. Sitting, listening, it’s really very interesting to hear how very different the two pianos sound in studio and live recording situations, and to notice the slight differences in the performances. The 24/96 digital sound quality from Qobuz is exceptional, and this set is very highly recommended.

Deutsche Grammophon, 2 CDs/2 LPs (download/streaming [24/96] from Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon, Google Play Music, Deezer, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, TuneIn)

 

New Order – Substance

New Order rose from the ashes of the band Joy Division. Ian Curtis, Joy Division’s principal songwriter and de facto leader, committed suicide in May, 1980. This happened one day before the band was scheduled to depart for their first US tour, which would most certainly have made them the darlings to the US audiences they’d already become in the UK. Of course that didn’t happen. The remaining members of Joy Division, vocalist and guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, and drummer Stephen Morris, added keyboardist and guitarist Gillian Gilbert, rebranding themselves later that year as New Order. This launched a series of critically acclaimed albums, including Movement (1981); Power, Corruption and Lies (1983); Low-Life (1985); and Brotherhood (1986). During the decade of the eighties, they were nominated for and won a slew of both Brit Awards and NME Awards. Their music had a definite post-punk edge, but also something of an electronica flair with a certain amount of danceability.

At some point, Factory Records, their record company, started remixing some of the band’s songs and releasing them as 12-inch singles; New Order soon became the darlings of the dance floor. However, there was a bit of a disconnect between fans of the band’s albums and fans of their 12-inch remixes; there wasn’t any way to really reconcile them between the two distinctly different listening environments. The post-punk crowd would probably never think of setting foot in a disco, and the disco crowd, well – you get the picture. 1987 changed all that, when the 2-CD set Substance was released; it compiled a host of A-side remixes on disc one, along with a parcel of B-side remixes on disc two. The BBC hailed Substance as one of the two best albums of the year, the other one being Sign of the Times by Prince. And they described the opening six tracks of disc one as “as sublime a run as you are going to get in pop music.”

Substance was available on most streaming services up until five years ago, when it was inexplicably yanked; of course, nowadays you have Tidal, Qobuz and the likes, and now the album has just as inexplicably reappeared for digital stream listening this week. New Order fans, let the rejoicing begin!

As a New Order fan from way back (yes, I still have my 2-CD original issue of the now out-of-print Substance), I can clearly answer what the big deal is all about. While the albums are great, and classic, they’re also almost primordial compared to the content of Substance. Which has successfully distilled the essence of the band, while also building in a level of sophistication and irresistible danceability that makes the 12-inch versions of all these songs absolute classics in their own right. Nine times out of ten, if you happen to hear any version of “Blue Monday,” or “Subculture,” or “Shellshock,” or “True Faith” on the airwaves, it’s not the standard LP issue, it’s the 12-in remix. “True Faith” is a case in point – is there a more powerful and potent – yet infinitely danceable tune that exists from the entirety of the eighties? And take “Subculture”: while the album version on Low Life is great, the 12-inch version adds a level of clarity and sophistication previously not heard – not to mention that non-stop chorus of female singers simply pounding the line “One of these day-aaay-aaays!” into your brain. It’s dizzyingly mesmerizing, to say the least.

Even though in lowly 16/44.1 CD-quality sound, the Qobuz tracks are superb, and this collection will dazzle your senses. Very highly recommended!

Warner/Rhino, (download/streaming [16/44.1] from Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon, Google Play Music, Deezer, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube)

 

Header image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Dave Mitchell.

The Munich HIGH END show or springtime for (you know who) in Germany.

The following story was written in 2007. It was around my first or second visit to the HIGH END show (it’s officially named as such in all caps) in Munich, Germany. My comments on new products are now dated but I think this account in some small way captures the mood. As I write this in August 2020 during the COVID-19 crisis, I wonder if and when I will be able to return there. The last time I visited (May 2019) the show had expanded, filling all the exhibition halls and atriums of the MOC München exhibition center. The next show is scheduled for May 2021. Maybe I’ll see you there.

Jetlagged, smelling of stale whisky and airplanes, I arrive in Munich. The days prior to my trip, my company, Music Hall, had exhibited, to good attendance, at the [now defunct] Stereophile show in New York. Now for the European version.

First stop? Augustiners in the heart of the city. They have been in business for almost 700 years serving beer and sustenance to all sorts of strange people.

I sit down and order a Helles beer. Half a liter of pure gold. On the menu they have Weisswurst. Delicious sausages made from veal and pork. They are served steaming in a bowl of hot water. Sweet mustard and soft pretzels are on the side. No novice I, I peel them with a knife and fork. Mark Fisher, once publisher of Stereophile magazine, taught me this. His German mother always made sure he didn’t eat the skin. The waiter is impressed.

Image courtesy of Pixabay/Rita E.

The sausages are delicious. I order another beer.

Later on, Kai Henningsen, my European distributor, and his associate, Lars, join me.

The food in Augustiners is traditional Bavarian fare. This is basically meat and potatoes, heavy and tasty. I order some sort of Schinken (pork). White asparagus is in season just now. This is amazing and nothing like the tasteless stuff served in the US. The meat is great. So too are the potatoes which are served with extra grease.

I love this stuff. What is it about pork that makes it so attractive to a Jewish boy like me?

But I digress. This an article on the HIGH END Show.

The show is held in the MOC in Munich. The venue is bright, spacious and well lit.

The contrast between this modern setting and the often gloomy hotels we use in the US is startling. Security is very tight as the Germans do not want anyone getting in for free. Not only do they charge retail visitors, people in the trade also have to pay. In the middle of the complex between two exhibit halls is a beer garden serving food. It’s a great place to hang out during these lovely Bavarian days in May.

The Germans take their hi-fi very seriously. They seem to take everything seriously. The upside of this is that they ask intelligent questions like, “What are the resonant qualities of this turntable’s plinth?” How would I know? I’m from Glasgow.

I am at the show to introduce Music Hall turntables in Europe for the first time. (Excuse the shameless plug.) I like selling turntables. They are so antediluvian and tactile. The antithesis of the iPod, turntables, and the people who sell them, are considered quaint in the US. Folks here seem to like them a lot.

This show seems full of turntables. They come in all shapes, colors and sizes. Lots of new ones were on display. Revolver, my old brand, introduced one with a marble base. Max Townsend (he of the silicone trough) is back with a new offering. Clearaudio had a very large room full of them. Strangely enough the display was static and a live band was performing. It kind of took the focus away from the exhibit.

But the biggest surprise for me was the Creek turntable. Mike Creek, my friend and ex-partner has designed a very interesting table with a magnetic bearing, sorbothane suspension (definitely inspired by me) and a very sophisticated speed control. I asked him why he made it.

He said that when he first started in this business, he was unsatisfied with the sound of his amp at home, so he decided to build a better one. This was the genesis of Creek Audio.

Similarly with speakers – thus Epos. Now a turntable? I can’t wait to hear the Creek iPod and see the Creek flat screen TV.

Naim Audio had a remote-controlled Zeppelin flying around the hallways. It was quite large at about 8 feet long. It seemed to cause quite a commotion as it flew up to people climbing the open stairways. I thought it would be interesting if it caught fire and I started yelling, “…oh the humanity, oh the humanity…”

Oddly enough, I never found their exhibit.

On Thursday night I had to deliver a speech to about 20 distributors. They listened dutifully without comment and I felt like a second-rate comedian going dry. The Korean gentleman who slept through my performance didn’t help. The only time they laughed was after I told them about a marvelous product that improves any system.

I produced a bottle of single malt whisky.

The show is very well attended both on the trade and public days. Unlike the US, two-channel stereo is still popular in Germany. In fact there were very few video exhibits. Many parents brought their children, and women (a true rarity in US hi-fi shows) were abundant. There was great interest in the Music Hall tables and I spent a lot of time explaining the features and so on. Germans speak very good English.  Ich sprech nicht gutte Deutsch. So language was not a problem.

Good sound is very important here as people would listen carefully to demonstrations.

The enthusiasm and interest shown is heartening.

Interestingly far fewer people in the street have headphones in their ears. I don’t know if this is for financial reasons or something to do with a lack of popularity of the ubiquitous ‘pod. I hate the sound of the iPod. It does not sound as good as a CD player which, as you know, sounds worse than a record. It is interesting to note that while most new technologies have improved performance, the sound quality of HDTV, cell phones, computers and so on has deteriorated. I think my 78 RPM Victrola at home, totally lacking in bass, sounds better than an iPod. Don’t get me wrong; the operating system and ease of use is brilliant but until people start recording stuff uncompressed it won’t do anything for me.

One of the big events of the show is Stereoplay magazine’s party. They are one of the prominent hi-fi magazines in Germany. Not being on the A-list, I decided to gatecrash but this was too easy as no one asked me for a ticket. And where was it held? In the Eiskeller in Augustiners. Guess what was on the menu?

Tomorrow I fly to Barcelona for a 14-day vacation with my family.

Do you think they have pork there?

 

Header image courtesy of Pixabay/Michael Siebert.