Issue 187

As with the vast majority of disk recording lathes of US manufacture, the 1956 Rek-O-Kut Model V I took upon the task of restoring was configured to spin at the correct speeds when powered by 60 Hz mains. However, one of our customers imported it from the US and wanted to run it at 230 VAC/50 Hz European mains power. We have encountered this situation countless times by now. We had already converted a Presto MRC16 to 50 Hz operation by making new rubber rollers to different dimensions, while some years back, we developed the first version of our Type 191, a stable electronic frequency converter for professional disk mastering lathes, which are often impractical or costly to convert by other means (such as Lyrec direct-drive motors on Neumann lathes, belt-driven Scully lathes, gear-driven Fairchild systems, and so on).

The nameplate of the Rek-O-Kut lathe under restoration.

However, this Rek-O-Kut came with its original rubber rollers in excellent condition and the Type 191 would probably be overkill for a Model V, so we decided to machine a new capstan instead.

The original rubber rollers were still in great shape.

Before starting, we plugged the motor into the 110 VAC/60 Hz supply in our lab, to measure the basic parameters. We have our own clean audio-grade power generation system, and as we often supply customers in the US, we run both 50 and 60 Hz systems. The first problem appeared: It wouldn't even spin! With a bit of convincing, it started up, but would not hold synchronous speed and dropped out. We tried a new capacitor, but the problem was still there.

Apparently, someone had previously opened it up and messed up the reassembly. This explains the low price our customer paid for this lathe. So, we had to spend some time aligning everything properly, so the magnetic circuit could work as intended. A thorough clean-up and lubrication with our Type 1201 oil and it soon ran like new!

The original capstan in place.

So, back to the capstan. Rek-O-Kut lathes use resin-type capstan materials, this particular one being a bit rough. It is a press-fit onto the motor shaft, so it needed a custom capstan extractor setup to remove it without damaging anything.

The custom-made capstan extractor.

Turning a custom drift pin (a tool used to extract press-fit components without damage) on the lathe was the first step. This would bear against the motor shaft, while a special puller plate assembly pulled on the old capstan.

The special puller plate used to remove the capstan.

Fortunately, the capstan had a light interference fit onto the shaft, so it came off easily.

The next step was to take some proper measurements of the shaft, at different points along its length.

The new capstan was designed based on the shaft diameter and the required value of the external diameter, so that the linear velocity would be the same at 50 Hz as it was at 60 Hz with the old capstan.

The material of choice for the new capstan was a brass alloy, which lends itself to a good surface finish and dimensional accuracy (once the heat generated during machining is factored in and compensated for), while being durable in service for this particular application.

We like making things that will last longer than us!

For the level of accuracy required, the use of a quality 4-jaw chuck was called for, since the stock diameter exceeds the collet capacity of the super-precision headstock spindle. The stock was dialed in and center-drilled.

Machining the new capstan.

The tailstock, with a special custom-made precision center, was moved in for maintaining rigidity and the turning began, stopping at regular intervals to measure our progress. The desired dimension was achieved to better than 0.00003" accuracy, and our attention shifted to the accurate dimensioning of the center hole for the calculated interference fit on the motor shaft, without causing distortion or altering the external diameter, which would affect the speed accuracy of the platter.

We added some finishing touches (it might as well also look good after all this effort) and eventually cut off the completed capstan to clean the chips and cutting oil and carefully inspect our work.

The finished 50 Hz capstan was now ready!

The new, finished capstan.

Comparing the new part with the old 60 Hz capstan, the difference in external diameter is clearly visible. The synchronous AC motor spins more slowly at 50 Hz, so the capstan must be bigger to ensure the exact same linear velocity for the friction drive system to work as intended.

Now it was time to press the new capstan onto the motor shaft.

It worked exactly as calculated. An engineering background certainly comes in handy for such projects, as things get done right the first time, with no unpleasant surprises.

The new capstan mounted on the motor shaft.

But we were still far from being ready.

First of all, the original capacitor was no longer of the appropriate value, since the motor would now be operated at a different voltage and frequency. The new value was theoretically calculated and the nearest practical value selected and tested on our motor test rig, to ensure correct operation.

But wait, what do you mean, different voltage...?

Well, this motor could not be run at 230 VAC, but what many people do not fully appreciate is that you cannot run it at 115 VAC either, at 50 Hz, as it would overheat. The approximate voltage value for most 60 Hz motors to run at 50 Hz has been implemented in our Type 1760 step-down transformers, but we prefer, whenever possible, to actually test the particular motor on our test rig and find the exact value. Then we can make a custom Type 1760 transformer for a particular motor, for best results.

What is the difference?

Well, lower noise, less vibration and lower operating temperature, which means better performance of the lathe and longer service life.

This article originally appeared on the Agnew Analog Reference Instruments blog and is used by permission.

It was a beautiful 2022 fall day in New York, the kind that makes you feel you are in the center of the world, especially near the new buildings towering over Hudson Yards.

It’s been one of those years. Too many things going on, several distractions at home, travel schedules, inflation, and my constant state of mental disarray lately all meant that AXPONA 2023 had nearly slipped my mind this year. My normal modus operandi was to arrive Thursday before the show to get settled in, then spend three days gung-ho trying to cover the monstrosity that AXPONA has become.

Instead, I decided to cut it back to two nights, but Hyatt had other plans – they decided that my modified reservation meant I would pay roughly 40 percent more for the same room than previously. So, screw Hyatt – they only got one overnight out of me. And for the accommodations I got, they were grossly overpriced. (I mean, who doesn’t enjoy an air conditioner blowing on you all night, inches from the bed, as you try catching up on your e-mail with Wi-Fi running slower than a 1200-baud modem while the toilet cycles on and off due to a slow leak?) But eh, that’s Chicago for you.

Thankfully, my other Copper colleagues were able to see more of what AXPONA 2023 offered. For my part, I arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday, and departed mid-afternoon Sunday. That didn’t leave me much time to take in the show, so I had to pick and choose what I would cover. Since many show reports tend to focus on the big-ticket items or new equipment introductions, I decided to emphasize some of the odds and ends of the audiophile world – the accessories that we use to enhance our systems.

One of my first stops was to pay a visit to Butcher Block Acoustics. I’m all for a natural look in my family room/listening room, as it’s primarily done in earth tones, woodgrain, and Southwest décor. Having purchased a Technics SL-1210G last summer (part of a mad 10-hour dash to and from Music Direct), I wanted to improve its isolation. My choice was one of the Butcher Block Acoustics isolation blocks, a three-inch thick maple block that I rested on some IsoAcoustics Iso-Pucks.

I had expected a high quality of fit and finish on the block and I was not disappointed. I have been meaning to look at their racks to replace what I am using currently, and their selection of custom sizes and wood combinations make for some attractive shelving options in their rigidrack® series. My favorite combination for my own system is maple (light) shelving with walnut (dark) legs.

Butcher Block Acoustics also offers various speaker and amplifier stands, isolation platforms, and a unique dust cover platform which is a block with a dust cover for turntables that are not available with one. All the products are made in Pennsylvania by another division of the Wood Welded companies, which make butcher block products for commercial and home applications.

Butcher Block Acoustics products at AXPONA 2023.

I also saw two other unique options for isolation. I use various IsoAcoustics isolators under my equipment, but there are plenty of other choices that work well and also don’t require a mortgage payment to protect one’s components. One of these options is Gingko Audio. One product they demonstrated was the Cloud22 isolator, which uses wool to control vibration. What impressed me at this exhibit was the use of an accelerometer to show the amount of vibration and noise being removed, and how much of the audio spectrum the product controlled.

The Gingko Audio Cloud22 isolator.

Another Gingko Audio isolation product is the ARCH Acoustic Resonance Clarifier. They are designed to flex in a way that provides wideband isolation. There are sizes available for everything from electronic components to speakers.

Gingko Audio's Arch resonance clarifier.

Another interesting approach to isolation comes via AV RoomService, Ltd. The two products I took note of were the EVP Equipment Vibration Protectors and CVP Cable Vibration Protectors. The EVP is comprised of glass fibers that compress under the weight of the components placed atop them, and come in various sizes and densities for everything from the lightest components to heavy floorstanding speakers. Two variations are available. The felt-clad EVPs are for use under components where you may want to slide them around, whereas the rubber-clad EVPs are for larger items you won’t want shifting, like speakers.

AV Room Service, Ltd.'s EVP Equipment Vibration Protectors.

The CVP is a “pillow” of sorts with a glass fiber filling, but aside from mechanical isolation, they offer two variations on the jackets of these pillows. One is the EC – the Electromagnetic Coupler (matte finish), which prevents cables from generating an electrostatic field when they are elevated off of the floor. The other is the EI – the Electromagnetic Insulator (glossy finish, available in two sizes), which prevents field coupling from cables that are placed close together. The CVPs come with a Velcro strap to affix them to the cables.

CVP Cable Vibration Products from AV Room Service, Ltd.

In another realm of controlling sound in the room, I paid a visit to GIK Acoustics. I shamelessly admit I am a fan of their products. Amidst the pandemic, I ordered some of their absorption/diffusion panels to use behind my electrostatic speakers. Back then, the order took about nine weeks to ship. The current lead time is in the neighborhood of two weeks. (GIK Acoustics’ business boomed during the pandemic as everyone stayed home.)

GIK Acoustics offered a wealth of room treatment products in various formats and sizes.

Their products have functional styling, so that your listening room doesn’t start to look like an anechoic chamber or laboratory. The panels I ordered are available with multiple colored fabric options, and a few choices in the color of the wood facing. There is also an option where you can have an all-fabric panel produced with a photograph, either from their library of images, or high-resolution images you provide yourself. GIK’s offerings include the absorption/diffusion panels I ordered, along with other panels that provide either absorption (check out their hexagon-shaped DecoShapes) or diffusion, bass traps, acoustic foam panels, and even insulation and fabric if you would like to build your own sound absorbers.

Room treatments are an important step in tuning your listening room, and GIK Acoustics has an online planner where you can lay out your room and either test-fit various products for yourself, or have one of GIK’s staff recommend solutions for your environment.

The Marketplace at AXPONA is often a place where you can find inexpensive but incredibly useful gadgets. If you have ever hooked up a modern home theater receiver with a seemingly endless number of speakers to wire up, and fumbled around with the typical banana plugs, a company called Speaker Snap sells banana plugs which accept a stripped length of speaker cable and clamp down on it with a simple, spring-loaded single lever, attaching the wire lead securely. The conductors inside the Speaker Snaps are fully gold-plated, and the banana plugs themselves fit firmly into the banana jacks, so no worries about the plugs working themselves loose. These are not only a great solution for end users, but A/V installers will also find these to be an enormous time saver.

 Speaker Snap offered these ingenious time-saving banana plugs.

Record cleaning products were out in full force. Ultrasonic cleaners seem to be the product du jour and there was no lack of options. Music Direct had the Degritter on display. There was also a booth of “rotisserie” ultrasonic cleaners in many different configurations.

On the intensively scientific side of record cleaning is the Kirmuss Ultrasonic Record Restoration System, which offers a deeper cleaning that goes beyond what other ultrasonic cleaners offer by ridding the vinyl of dirt and chemicals, including mold release compounds. That it costs much less than a Degritter almost makes me regret buying the latter.

The Kirmuss Audio exhibit.

In the throwback department, how many of us owned a Discwasher brush in the 1970s and 1980s? A near follow-up is the GrooveWasher, a similarly-outfitted record cleaner using a microfiber cleaning pad with a walnut handle. The Discwasher is still sold by RCA, but this nostalgic set from GrooveWasher brings back memories of the 1980s, as my Discwasher system is very similar (although mine also has the Zerostat anti-static gun, the only part of the kit I still use).

Getting in the groove: The GrooveWasher record cleaner.

I paid a visit to a few rooms during the show, but didn’t have time to take part in the comprehensive top-to-bottom coverage I have attempted in years past. (And trust me, you want to start at the top. The five elevators in the hotel are woefully inadequate for an event of this size. If you can get to the show before it officially opens, ride up to the top floor and then walk your way down each flight of stairs; you’ll be ahead of the elevator rush.)

I purchased a Technics SL-1210G Grand Class turntable last June. I had gotten tired of dealing with all the fuss and bother of belts and the lack of speed stability, not to mention the poor build quality of my previous brand of turntable. The 1210G has exceeded my expectations, especially after I added a few accessories like a proper platter mat and periphery ring. But is there anything beyond the 1210G?

Technics for decades made the professional SP-10 direct drive turntable, for which an end user provided their own tonearm. Technics revived it in their Reference Series as the SP-10R. It is a dimensional match to the original SP-10 models and is a drop-in replacement, with even the separate control unit matching original dimensions. It’s also available with a tonearm as the SL-1000R. The turntable supports up to three tonearms with the use of optional outriggers.

Technics displayed a number of attractive turntables including the SL-1000R.

Despite the “slasher” vibe of the “KIMBER WELCOME” door signage to their room, Kimber Kable had an interesting setup to compare speaker cables. They had two pairs of speakers custom-built with components matching each other as closely as possible, and had them stacked one atop the other, with the ability to switch between two sets of cables and compare them instantly.

The door to the Kimber Kable room. 

The dual-speaker comparison setup at Kimber. 

 
“Can’t we just have normal music that people actually listen to at hi-fi shows? –Angela Cardas

Perhaps the most fun room at AXPONA had to be the Flashback Lounge, presented by Cardas Audio. As Cardas already had their cables in numerous rooms at the show, they decided to set up their own as something akin to a teenager’s bedroom throughout the decades. From the lava lamp and retro television programs to the Farrah Fawcett and iconic 1980s Lamborghini Countach posters on the wall, they nailed it. Their retro-themed system centered around the reissue JBL L100 speakers, with their orange foam egg-crate grills to complete the vibe. (Perhaps the only faux pas was the liquor next to the lava lamp – as teens we learned to hide the booze in the closet before the parents came in.) Josh Meredith even brought his guitar but sadly, I did not get time to head back and listen to some of his shredding. (Next year, Josh!)

Above: The ultra-cool Cardas Audio room.

I’ve already covered a handful of products found in The Marketplace, but here are some random photos of a few of the spaces. Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, Elusive Disc, and others were selling plenty of vinyl and accessories. Music Direct also displayed their Mobile Fidelity line of turntables (below), as well as the new Andrew Jones-designed SourcePoint 10 speaker.

Music Direct had plenty of turntables, accessories, vinyl and other fun items on hand.

Acoustic Sounds was one of the many exhibitors offering new and used vinyl.

Elusive Disc was another vinyl vendor with a superb selection of records.

Turntable manufacturer SOTA has always had a display at the show, and it was good to see they are still active.

SOTA was there in full force with a wide range of turntables.

Anyhow, I hope I can set aside more time for next year’s AXPONA. My attendance last year was prevented by taking part in a Lemons Rally that same weekend. Who knows what next year’s schedule will be? But between now and then, I’ll have time to find a hotel room further out from the show that is more affordable, and more comfortable, than this year’s trainwreck.

These interestingly odd speakers came from a Panasonic all-in-one system, possibly from the 1970s. We suppose they looked cutting edge back in the day!

This classic logo was everywhere. From The Audio Classics Collection, photos by Howard Kneller.

A Simpson Model 250 multimeter, year unknown. We love the look of these old Bakelite-cased meters. From the author's collection.

The paint-filled etched lettering has stood the test of time.

Attention electronic hobbyists: do these Nexium pills remind you of anything? From the author's collection of antacids.

 
We can't get enough of old Philips ads and brochures. This one from 1957.

Howard Kneller’s audiophile adventures are documented on his YouTube channel (The Listening Chair with Howard Kneller) and on Instagram (@howardkneller). His art and photography can also be found on Instagram (@howardkneller.photog). Finally, he posts a bit of everything on Facebook (@howardkneller).

I’m calling this “Impressions of AXPONA 2023” rather than “AXPONA 2023 Show Report” because this time out, I didn’t get to walk the show floor much. I was based in the PS Audio booth, which had land-office traffic, and was able to see about 20 other rooms out of a show that had something like 10 times that many. There’s always something of a chaos factor at these shows, with missed appointments, missed exhibitors and missed friends, and AXPONA 2023, which took place at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois from April 14 through April 16, had more chaos than usual. 

This was a good thing, as attendance was up and the number of exhibitors was enough to have reached a point where I’d say that it’s now impossible for any single person, whether reviewer or attendee, to see everything at the show even in three days. The show has become that big. This opinion was confirmed by a number of my peers, most of them wearing comfortable shoes.

The mood was upbeat. Last year the specter of COVID hung over the show, with many if not most showgoers voicing concerns that attending AXPONA 2022 had some risk. Going into an elevator that year was cause for anxiety; same for shaking hands or giving someone a hug. This year, although COVID was still a concern, I didn’t run into a single person who was really worried about it. (As of this writing I’ve heard of two people in the audio community who got it.)

Since I spent my limited floor-roaming time trying to see as much as possible, some of my descriptions don’t include chapter and verse on model numbers and pricing since I didn't linger in any of the rooms. Last year I had three days to cover the show. This year, about three hours.

I’ve said this many times, but now with a new slant: I don’t make definitive judgments about exhibitors’ sound at audio shows, for a number of reasons. The rooms may be unfamiliar to the manufacturers, or just lousy acoustically, or inappropriate for the speakers on exhibit. The power can be, shall we say, less than optimal. (In the PS Audio room you could literally see this via the front panel display of one of their power regenerators – the incoming AC wave was clipped and distorted.) People might be talking over the quiet passages in the music. (I’m OK with that – attendees should be able to engage and have fun, and an exhibitor can always ask for silence.) And even if you spent an entire day in a room, you wouldn't have the opportunity to hear, say, a pair of loudspeakers with different electronics, cables and so on.

I also hedge my bets because my hearing is compromised. I’ve made no secret of this before, but as I get older my audiogram is starting to look more and more like a badly-performing stock on the Dow Jones. I will have much more to say about this in an upcoming series, “Staving Off Retirement,” part of which will involve my recent adventures with hearing aids. And let me emphasize: I may be a compromised listener, but I’m an experienced one. I don’t use hearing aids when judging audio systems, and I can hear (or perhaps more properly stated, am aware of) nuances many less-experienced listeners might not know are there. (I have done some experimentation with hearing aids when listening to stereo gear, which I will elaborate on in the near future.) So, I'm not making any Pronouncements from On High about what I hear at shows.

I’m as serious a gearhead as any audiophile, and there was no lack of eye-popping equipment at AXPONA 2023 to covet. But for me the absolute highlight of the show was a session by Abey Fonn of Impex Records and Nick Getz, son of jazz saxophone legend Stan Getz. They conducted a number of seminars in different rooms at the show where Abey and Nick played cuts off the upcoming Impex 1Step LP reissue of Getz/Gilberto. One of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, this 1964 recording is a masterpiece – it launched the career of Astrid Gilberto, and features classics like “Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars),” Desafinado,” and “The Girl From Ipanema,” which received the Grammy for Record of the Year.

Part of the PS Audio exhibit, showing the aspen FR30 loudspeakers, PerfectWave Series electronics, and the upcoming AirLens music streamer.

Abey Fonn of Impex Records and Nick Getz in the Luxman room for a presentation of the upcoming Getz/Gilberto reissue.

I don’t want to give too much away, since I will be reviewing Getz/Gilberto and interviewing Nick Getz when the record comes out later in the year, but for now I’ll tell you that the record will be all-analog, cut from the master tapes, and utilizing Impex’s 1Step vinyl mastering, which eliminates the usual father-mother stamping process. This results in a vinyl disc that has less generation loss and is closer to the sound of the master tape.

When Abey and Nick started the Q&A portion of the presentation, I raised my hand and said, “how many questions can I ask?” Like I said, I’m going to be a tease but I will tell you that among the other things I learned were that Stan Getz would make the other musicians nervous before cutting an album – but not for reasons you might expect – that Getz/Gilberto almost went unreleased, and that Getz’s wife Monica was an important part of the album’s success and Getz’s career.

And that the test pressing they played sounded sublime.

Here's some of the other gear I got to see at the show.

Auralic featured their G2.1 digital audio streamer ($6,099), complemented by Auralic electronics, ATC Tower Series SCM100ASLT active loudspeakers, and AudioQuest cables.

Elite A/V Distribution showcased the Kuzma Stabi S turntable, new Safir 9 arm and CAR-20 cartridge, Plinius and Manley Labs electronics, Furutech cables and power conditioners, and the Chapman Audio Systems Model T-7 loudspeakers ($14,995/pair), featuring drivers that are calibrated to within +/-1/4 dB.

Furutech had a dazzling display of cables, power conditioning products and accessories, including their new Project V-1 high-end power cord $9,550).

 Gryphon Audio exhibited their speakers and electronics including their Apex mega-amplifier (see Jay Jay French's show report), and these attractive EOS 2 speakers ($22,000/pair), featuring the company's Line Porting design for better bass control, a carbon fiber woofer, and a beryllium dome tweeter.

American Audio & Video put a smile on my face when I saw and heard the reissue Mission 770 speakers, looking both retro and timeless, combining classic looks with updated components. The system shown also included Audiolab 9000 Series electronics and a Dual CS 618 turntable. The other systems in the room featured Audiolab 7000 Series electronics, Mission M700 and LX2 speakers, a Dual CS 429 automatic turntable, and the compact Mission 778X integrated amp.

 The HiFi Rose RS150 B music streamer ($4,995) in the MoFi Distribution/Piega/ Balanced Audio Technology room offers a choice of "virtual" faceplates, from the one shown to displays that look like 1970s receivers, modern-day streamers and much more.

Estelon debuted their Extreme Mk II loudspeaker ($269,000/pair), mated with Vitus Audio electronics. The system also included an Acoustic Signature Ascona NEO  turntable, Stromtank battery power supplies, Innuos Statement music server, cables from Crystal Cable, HRS equipment racks, and various accessories. It was being touted as the "million dollar system," which it in fact was; the total system cost was actually more.

Joseph Audio always has a standout room and this year's was no exception with the premiere of the Pearl Graphene speaker ($43,999/pair). The room also showcased Doshi Audio's EVOLUTION vacuum tube electronics, a J. Sikora Reference turntable ($47,000) and KVMAX g tonearm ($11,750), Lyra Atlas SL Lambda SL Cartridge ($12,995), cabling by Cardas Audio, a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference 3 ($28,000), the Aurender N30A 8TB Music Server ($25,000), and HRS EXR stands.

 Middle River, Maryland retailer Just Audio displayed a range of retro-new components from LEAK, including the Stereo 130 and Stereo 230 integrated amps ($1,195 and $1,695) and CDT CD transport ($895). They had plenty of other gear including a spectacular selection of vintage Japanese receivers...see Rudy Radelic's report in this issue.
 

 What the heck is this? I am known for my terrible sense of direction. In an effort to avoid the crowded elevators I took a stairway on the third (or was it the second?) floor and somehow wound up in this huge corridor, in true Spinal Tap fashion. Luckily I ran into a hotel worker who showed me the way out.

Acora Acoustics exhibited their new top-of-the-line VRC-1 speakers ($218.000/pair), featuring granite enclosures. They were complemented by Valve Amplification Company (VAC) electronics, an Oracle turntable setup, the LampizatOr Horizon DAC, and Cardas cabling.

Here's one of the most beautiful turntables I've ever seen, the new matte white Technics direct-drive SL-1500C-W. it features a switchable phono preamp, dual-layer chassis and platter, and an S-shaped tonearm. It will be available in May for $1,299. Technics also premiered their SU-GX70 networking integrated amplifier ($1,999), featuring an HDMI ARC connection for optimum sound, compatibility with popular streaming services and digital source components, and even a phono stage.

 There was no lack of components with visual appeal as well as high-end sound, like those from T+A. The company showcased a wide range of electronics and speakers, in several different series and price points. In a world of cheap, almost disposable consumer electronics, it was refreshing to see companies like T+A and others at AXPONA 2023 who are committed to such high levels of quality, sound, fit and finish.

This was the most adorable product I saw: the McIntosh MHA200 headphone amplifier ($2,500). Measuring about 9 by 6 by 6 inches, it looks like a miniature version of a classic Mac tube amp (and has 12AT7 and 12BH7A tubes, the latter used as power tubes). It was part of the merchandise and records offered for sale at Chicago retailer Saturday Audio Exchange, and every time I walked by it I wanted it really badly just for its un-toppable coolness factor.

Saturday Audio Exchange also offered a wide selection of audio components and speakers from Bluesound, NAD, Lenbrook, PSB Speakers, Pangea Audio, and GoldenEar.

The Haniwa Audio room played LPs from the late Harry Pearson's personal collection, which founder Dr. Kubo acquired some years ago. I was unable to stop in, and it would have been fun and touching, to again listen to the very records that Harry and I spent all those days and nights enjoying.

Header image: McIntosh was smart in showing this display in one of the main lobby areas, with the music playing quietly so as not to intrude upon the other exhibits. DALI did the same thing in one of the second floor lounge areas.

Above: The PS Audio crew and friends (from front left around the table): Mike Bechtel, Cindi Bechtel, Jay Jay French, Chris Brunhaver, Aaron Marrs, James Herod, Jim Laib (doing his impersonation of the Flash), Chris Harden, Scott McGowan, Terri McGowan (partially hidden), Paul McGowan, Frank Doris, Rudy Radelic, Jessica Carson (Octave Records).

While I don't know how many readers of my columns regularly go to high-end hi-fi shows, I can say that this year's AXPONA was an eye opener for me in ways that I didn't anticipate when I decided to go.

Full disclosure: I had credentials for the event from two companies: PS Audio (thank you Paul McGowan and his entire hard-working PS Audio staff) and Magico (thank you Alon Wolf and Peter Mackay). I own equipment and speakers from both companies.

I wanted to go to AXPONA this year, first and foremost, as the last show I attended was pre-COVID and I wanted to get out there again to see old friends in the industry and see and hear what the latest toys were like.

I started going to hi-fi shows in 1978 when such a thing was still relatively new. I would go to the old Statler Hilton hotel on Seventh Avenue in New York CIty and roam room to room with what seemed like thousands of audio fans. The show was called the New York Hi-Fi Stereo Music Show in those days.

Some of the exhibitors, to name a few, back then included Kenwood, Onkyo, Technics, Tandberg, Bose, Dynaco, Dahlquist, Nakamichi, Ohm, Advent, Koss, Hafler, Luxman, Sennheiser, Phase Linear, SAE, Revox, Acoustic Research (AR), Pickering, Audio-Technica, Advent, JBL, and Altec Lansing.

To the best of my memory, the gear on display did not cost “sticker shock” money (unless one had absolutely no idea how much a nice 2-channel stereo system would cost). The point is that an investment of $2,500 – $5,000 (Today’s equivalent, about 15 to 20K) got you a really good stereo.

I remember thinking that I could buy most of what I saw at that show, and at no point did I think that any of the gear was insanely overpriced.

In those days there also was no high-end cable industry.

No rack systems, record washing machines, not many accessories to speak of except for items like the Dust Bug or Discwasher record brushes. There were reel-to-reel machines, and you could buy outboard Dolby noise reduction units for them. 

Phono cartridges topped out at about $175.00.

The rooms were always packed and the sound was erratic, but it didn't matter because you just wanted to drool over the hardware.

A Revox A700 reel-to-reel was about $1,600 back then and if you were in the music/studio business, that was certainly an obtainable object.

I hadn't gone to many shows from that point onward, as I was always traveling, but over the past 10 years I had started going to some of the smaller New York shows again.

In 2019 I was convinced by Ken Kessler and several other Munich audio show veterans to attend the Munich HIGH END show.

The Munich show was huge, packed, and as I walked through the front door, I was met by the first display:

it was by Acoustic Signature, who had their top-of-the-line Invictus turntable (as well as their entire lineup of tables, arms and cartridges), placed right up front. The table, priced at about 150K, made me realize I wasn't in Kansas anymore!

On exhibit at AXPONA 2023: the Acoustic Signature Montana Neo turntable.

Interestingly, as crazy as that was, after not too long a stroll down an aisle, I came across the very large Pro-Ject/ E.A.T. (European Audio Team) display which had dozens of affordable (yes, that is a relative term in this hobby…LOL)  turntable options. The way the show was laid out, it just didn't quite hit me that most of the gear was unobtainable, at least not at first. As one meandered into all the separate halls, you came across the big toys, but it all seemed somewhat “normal.”

That brings me to AXPONA.

At first my thoughts were that I would simply just report on certain displays and gear.

I would keep it all neutral.

I couldn't know what the respective rooms would sound like or how all of the associated gear would function. For PS Audio, their gear and room display was totally from the company except for the cables. Speaker companies, such as Magico, partner with a host of different companies and that can become an issue of synergy as it relates to the products being demoed.

You really can't, for example, show off a $2,500 speaker with $150,000 worth of electronics. Well, you could, and probably make the speakers sound as good as they could possibly sound, but trying to explain that exercise is just not worth the time.

To that point, I did just that in my listening room for about six months when my apartment was being remodeled and was in between having new reference loudspeakers.

I had my front end (approximately 130K of electronics, cables and power conditioners) connected to a pair of $599 retail speakers.

My wife told me that it was the best my room had ever sounded!

So….

I loved attending Munich and had planned to go again this May, but I had to attend a family wedding and I decided to attend AXPONA. I got to Chicago a day early, went to the Renaissance in Schaumburg where AXPONA was held, and had the pleasure of watching two rooms being set up.

There usually is some griping at shows about how many of the rooms sound bad. That is understandable, as these rooms, whether large or small, are either meeting rooms or hotel rooms and suites and none of them are designed for music reproduction. It takes a lot of work to get them prepped for a show.

I watched Peter Mackay work to get the Magico S5 Mk II loudspeakers optimized in both a large conference room and a smaller hotel suite. The large room was partnered with all-Luxman products and the smaller room with Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) electronics and other gear.

Getting big rooms right is the biggest challenge as far as I can tell.

PS Audio also had a large room. In both the PS Audio and CAT rooms, the rooms were acoustically “shortened” by either large dividers or baffles. In both cases, the effect of the room acoustics was curtailed, which gave the gear a much better chance to sound good. I also watched how long it took the PS Audio crew to get their room together.

I want to be clear about these observations. These were really good-sounding rooms, as were many others. There also were poor-sounding rooms, mostly the large ones.

I found that many of the smaller rooms had appropriately-sized speakers and electronics that really showed off the gear. Smaller rooms are so much easier to control.

The choice of music was mostly from streaming devices. There were a lot of turntables on hand but it probably became much easier for the exhibitors to just pick streaming tracks (Qobuz was a sponsor, hence all streaming was through Qobuz) and let them play. It also allowed listeners to request their favorite tracks, which I suppose was both a blessing and a curse for the manufacturers, who usually like to control all aspects of a demo.

What was my takeaway?

After three full days of walkthrough it became clear that our “little” hobby’ has reached an economic strata that few could ever have imagined would happen.

The Clearaudio Statement V2 turntable.

Whereas in the ’70s I believe that 95 percent of the displayed gear was reasonably obtainable, at the AXPONA show it looked to me like 95 percent of the gear was not. The show has become, in my opinion, an aspirational display of the mostly unobtainable.

Someone is buying this stuff, right? Of course! But I think most of those people do not go to hi-fi shows.

I met one of the biggest TechDAS turntable dealers in the country, who has sold several TechDAS Air Force Zero ’tables (500K without tone arms, 550K with the titanium platter), and he had just installed a system that listed for…SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS!

But for the most part, those buyers do not go to these shows. I think most of the people (and by the way, the show seemed packed) seemed like tire kickers.

Yes, they may read the magazines, but how were they reacting to the price sheets that were displayed outside of the listening rooms that told you what you were about to see and hear and how much the stuff cost?

An example:

In one room they were demoing the following:

• Wilson Audio Alexia 5 loudspeaker, $67,000 ($79,500 in the special finish shown)
• Clearaudio Innovation Wood turntable, $20,000
• Turntable stand for above, $16,000
• Hana Umami Blue moving-coil cartridge, $2,500
• DCS Rossini Apex DAC, $32,800, plus DCS clock, $10,850
• Audio Research line stage, phono stage and power amps, $108,000
• Kubala-Sosna cables, $88,000
• Ultra Q equipment rack, $23,335

Total list for the room: $380,985.

And this was not the most expensive room. There were exhibits with well over one million dollars of equipment.

How many audiophiles have systems that are even five percent of that?

When my friends ask me how this stuff sounds, I say, “It sounds good!”

Because it does sound good, but when there are now monoblock amplifiers that cost more than 100K per pair and are considered appropriate for your home audio system, then we have reached another level of crazy.

I call these purchases the “I am not married!” systems.

  The rear panel of the mighty Gryphon Apex amplifier. Talk about dual-mono: note the dual power switches and power cord receptacles.

Most of the turntables I saw on display (the show has become so big it’s impossible for one person to cover it all even in three days) were priced at or near the “budget” number of $10,000, although I saw a Clearaudio Statement V2 for around 300K and an SME 60th Anniversary for $73,000. Yes, some tables in the $10,000 - $13,000 range (the Thorens TD125 direct-drive, the Luxman PD-191A) had hard-wired arms, but some didn’t, and one would have to factor in that additional cost (say at least 2K) and you would probably be spending let’s say $2,000 on a cartridge and another 3K on interconnects and power cords and at another 3 to 5K on a phono stage…well you see where this is going.

 Luxman's PD-191A turntable.

The SME Model 60 turntable, celebrating the company's diamond anniversary.

 
The Pure Fidelity Harmony, another turntable with striking visual appeal.

In the Nordost room, with four VTL (Vacuum Tube Logic) monoblocks, I took a peek behind the amps. From what I could surmise, I was looking at about $300,000 of Odin 2 speaker cables and interconnects on the floor.

That just about says it all.

In almost every Letters to the Editor section in Stereophile and The Absolute Sound, someone is canceling their subscription because the reviewed gear is way out of the reader’s price range. One can, after walking around AXPONA, sympathize with these comments.

As someone who has been in this game for 50 years as both a consumer as well as a salesman, I'm shocked – but I can also put together great entire systems for $10,000 (about $2,500 in 1979 money).

They should think about demoing that level of gear in several rooms.

Was there a “budget” room at the show?

Kind of…

There was a very big room dedicated to records and gear, which was full of vinyl from Music Direct, Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc and others, and also on exhibit were lower-priced turntables, music streamers and other gear, along with a lot of record cleaning machines, racks, and accessories.

You need to give people hope!

Having said all of this, I can tell you that the two rooms I spent the most time in, PS Audio and Magico/Luxman, sounded excellent and the listeners all seemed very impressed with what they heard, as I expected they would.

The Magico/Luxman room.

You want monoblocks? We got 'em! The VTL/Stenheim/Nordost room.

If you believe that inflation is the culprit for today’s prices…well, even if you consider that the dollar is worth about four times more now than it was in 1979, it's not about inflation.

90 percent of the companies that displayed gear in 1979 at the New York Audio Show are no longer in business.

I just want to say at this point that current inexpensive systems (let’s say under 10K all-in) by  a number of well-known manufacturers can sound fantastic, because lots of the crazy expensive technology of yesterday can be had for bargain prices today, proving it does trickle down…if you know where to look.

I wonder who of all the companies I saw at the show will still be around in 2060, and, more importantly, how will we be listening to music then?

The beauty, I guess, is not knowing, although like college tuition, the cost of reaching audio nirvana (to some folks) continues to soar, unabated.

The many seminars at AXPONA 2023 were informative and well-attended.

All photos courtesy of the author except for the header image, courtesy of Stephen Alexander.

It’s safe to say that the Nevilles are probably New Orleans’ first family of music. Art “Poppa Funk” Neville was vocalist and keyboardist with the Meters, the seminal New Orleans funk band and one of modern music’s most sampled groups. Art also founded the Neville Brothers with Ivan’s uncles Charles and Cyril, and Ivan’s father, vocalist Aaron Neville. The Nevilles’ musical range has spanned a spectrum that includes pop, soul, R&B, jazz, carnival rhythms, and more.

Ivan Neville is now that legacy’s principal torchbearer, now that Aaron Neville has announced his retirement from touring (Cyril Neville is still active) and Charles and Art Neville are deceased. Ivan is perhaps the family member with the most expansive set of collaborations, bringing his musicianship to bear with mainstream acts like Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, Spin Doctors, and Don Henley. With his band Dumpstaphunk, for 20 years he has taken every one of his experiences and has found a way to infuse them into a funk sound that continues to remain transformative and new.

Ivan Neville’s sense of adventure, alongside his commitment to honoring his family’s past, take a new creative turn with the release of his fifth solo album, Touch My Soul. It’s his first solo record in 20 years and it’s been in development for over four. It richly combines funk, soul, jazz, and more in a way that is uniquely Neville and remarkably contemporary as well. To no one’s surprise he is accompanied by many collaborators on this 10-track journey. The album opener, “Hey All Together,” features vocal contributions from Bonnie Raitt, Aaron Neville, Michael McDonald and David Shaw (The Revivalists), with instrumental sparkle from Troy “Trombone Shorty’ Andrews and violinist Theresa Anderson. It perfectly kicks off the record melodically and sets a tone of promise and hope that is delivered with purpose and a very deep groove.

Ivan Neville, Touch My Soul, album cover.

Copper caught up with Neville to talk (and laugh) about how the record came about, why it took so long, how he picked his collaborators, and what’s next for this tremendously gifted artist.

Ray Chelstowski: It’s been 20 years since your last solo record. Why release one now?

Ivan Neville: My initial thought was “why not?!” (laughs) It wasn’t intentional, because it hadn’t even occurred to me that I should do a solo record. It just happened. I wrote just one song about four years ago called “Hey All Together.” The spirit of community and the idea of being neighborly toward one another inspired me, because in recent times I haven’t seen enough of that. People have become so divisive about everything and I just felt the urge to write this song. I was able to get a bunch of cool friends to all be part of the tune.

Dumpstaphunk had the opportunity to sign with a label and put out some music we had been working on and that gave me the chance to do an “Ivan record” in conjunction with that. I had this one song, now I only needed eight or nine more. It just kind of worked out. The pandemic gave us a lot of time to be creative in a different way.

RC: How did this whole thing kick off?

IN: The first person that I got involved with this was Michael McDonald. He happened to be in New Orleans doing a show and I think it actually got rained out. So I played him the idea I had had up until that point and he came over and sang some harmonies with me and I took it from there.

RC: How did you decide on using guitarist Doyle Bramhall ll for the song “Dance Music Love?”

IN: When I was developing that song I began to realize that its only one groove. The turnaround is the chorus, then there’s an instrumental section where I had thought about adding a horn. Then I thought about Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar fills on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” In the spirit of that, not a typical solo, just some badass licks, is what I had in mind. If Stevie Ray was still around I’d have had him play on it. We were friends and I got to know him when he did a tour in the mid 1980s where Bonnie Raitt opened. So the next thought was, who do I get to do this? The two names that came to mind were Doyle and Gary Clark, Jr. I know Gary a little bit but I know Doyle better and I was able to get ahold of him. I sent him the song and a period of time passed. Then one day I got a call from him and he was hanging with [guitarist] Charlie Sexton, playing together. Charlie had engineered the section of Doyle playing on this song, and it was totally beautiful. They called to play some of it for me and I told them to keep doing what they were doing and when they were finished to send me what they had. I couldn’t have asked for a better result.

RC: You have worked with so many talented people. Is there anyone you turn to, to conduct a “taste test” on material that you’ve created before you share it with a wider audience?

IN: There’re a few people that I do that with. There’s a guy named Charley Drayton and I send him stuff. He actually played very subtle drums on the song “Touch My Soul.” I also bounce stuff off my dad Aaron Neville and my uncle Cyril.

RC: The photo of you on the album cover has a real NOLA vibe to it.

IN: The album cover is pretty deep. It’s a picture of me with candles. It represents a lot of [my] ancestry because I can see my dad in that photo, I can see my grandmother, I can see my mom, I can see all of them coming out of those eyes.

RC: Are fans going to have to wait another 20 years for another solo record, or do you have something else in mind?

IN: No, it won’t be that long (laughs). I’ll probably start kicking around some stuff later this year. This record kind of kicked off a little buzz in me about writing. I’ve written and co-written songs with Dumpstaphunk, and I had a project called Neville-Jacobs several years ago with Chris Jacobs who did collaborate with me on some of these songs. We have a pretty good working relationship. I can have a few ideas like a chorus and some verses and I send them to him and he sees if there’s anything he’s working on that might match up. So, I’m ready and it won’t take that long for there to be another record.

Touch My Soul by Ivan Neville includes the following songs:

1. Hey All Together (feat. Aaron Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Michael McDonald, Trombone Shorty, David Shaw)
2. Greatest Place On Earth (feat. Trombone Shorty, Ben Jaffe, Charlie Gabriel)
3. Might Last A Lifetime (feat. Cyril Neville)
4. Dance Music Love (feat. Doyle Bramhall II)
5. Touch My Soul
6. Stand For Something
7. Blessed
8. This Must Be The Place
9. Pass It All Around
10. Beautiful Tears

Header image courtesy of Steve Rapport.

The WBridge Standard ($6,600) from South Korea's Waversa Systems is an interesting digital hub and signal converter that offers a choice of seven types of inputs and outputs including Ethernet, coaxial, BNC, optical, AES/EBU, USB, and HDMI). Just choose an input and the WBridge Standard converts the signal to up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD 256 and reprocesses it via one of several proprietary technologies, including WAP (Waversa Audio Processing), WAP-X (Waversa Audio Processing Extension), and WNDRR (Waversa Network Direct Extension). WAP, for example, has a multi-stage design that uses proprietary FIR (fixed impulse response) and IIR (infinite impulse response) filters. It upsamples the incoming signal, performs error reduction, and uses other processing to improve the quality of the waveform.

The WBridge has an attractive, uncluttered design.

There are plenty of connectivity options, making the WBridge an unusually versatile digital and networking hub.

The simple front-panel control layout offers access to a variety of features. 

The WBridge offers four battery-operated Ethernet ports, which allows it to function as an off-the-grid network switch. It also contains external master clock connectors, a built-in linear power supply, and a battery slot. It’s Roon-ready, Roon Advanced Audio Transport (RAAT) certified, and supports DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), Waversa Network Direct Rendering (WNDR), Apple AirPlay, and 4K/60 Hz HDMI 2.0 video transmission. WNDR is said to require less buffering and to offer increased performance over DLNA.

The WBridge is Exhibit A to my observation that Korean audio manufacturers tend to develop in-house, proprietary technologies rather than buy off-the-shelf prepackaged solutions from third-party vendors. In my audio system, this very neat product smoothed sharp sonic edges, improved soundstaging, body, and harmonic density, and reduced noise.

A view from the top.

This has to be one of the coolest logos ever.

All images courtesy of Howard Kneller.

Howard Kneller’s audiophile adventures are documented on his YouTube channel (The Listening Chair with Howard Kneller) and on Instagram (@howardkneller). His art and photography can also be found on Instagram (@howardkneller.photog). Finally, he posts a bit of everything on Facebook (@howardkneller).

It seems to me that in recent years the lyrics to Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” have never been more relevant when looking through the lens of musical instrument shop retailers. What was it that Joni sang?

“Don’t it always seem to go/
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”

These are poignant lyrics from a personal relationship point of view alone, but the significance of this sentiment has of course resonated through the decades. Perhaps this idea of loss has been exemplified in some of our retail sectors, some of which now resemble something of the aftermath of a forest fire. However, after a forest fire, at least there is a subsequent revitalization of essential minerals and nutrients back into the ecosystem, which can then provide substantial and long-lasting resources for the next generation of blossoming seeds, striving saplings, and new cultivators.

Where are these blossoming seeds in retail circa 2023? Apart from the massive-footprint coffee shops and bars which seem to have become essential modern-day pit stops, some brave new entrepreneurs have struck out with fresh concepts borne from their time ruminating during the pandemic lockdown. In Plymouth city center, UK, my original hometown, I’m now seeing new artistic expressions in the form of local talented recycled clothing designers, deeply detailed illustrations from graphic artists, and new market stalls selling a wider variety of foods from all over the world than ever used be the case. Admittedly, none of these things are game changer-new per se, but they perhaps are more reflective of the increasing volume of independent stores trying to make a go of their skills, passions, abilities, and a pure drive to simply go for it.

Other growing seeds may include the hundreds of trained and government-supported retail apprentices in the UK who have gained new formal academic qualifications in music instrument retail knowledge and music instrument retail skills from BTEC (the Business and Technology Education Council) and NVQ (National Vocational Qualification).

Who are these striving saplings? These are the resilient music instrument retailers that have weathered the storms of the pandemic C-word, and have continued in their determination to survive despite the odds stacked against them. The trend toward growth is also literal – some of our garden centers and outdoor sporting equipment suppliers in the UK seem to have capitalized on the staycation mentality, not least of all borne from the recent reappraisal of what one holds truly nearest and dearest to one’s heart: the enjoyment of natural surroundings, listening to inspiring music, eating good food and of course, time spent with family and friends.

My immediate neighbor’s wife works in a local garden center and I am reliably informed that business has never been booming so much as it is now. So much so that during our recent Easter period they have had to open new tills. Additionally, where my parents live, (one hour away by car), the local garden center there has had a massive structural extension and an internal overhaul of the former premises. It is now so popular that you are lucky to get a coffee in their coffee shop, and if you want to eat in the restaurant, making a reservation is now non-negotiably essential. I don’t even spend much time in garden centers! It’s just that they are apparently bursting at the seams with popularity and importantly, profitable sales. I have never seen so many different varieties of needle-nose pruning shears in my life.

Who, then, are the new cultivators? Aside from the aforementioned retail establishments, they include those that hope to make a difference in how High Street (Main Street to those not in the UK) and other retailers will perform in the future. New urban developments, architectural plans and cityscape design engineers have labored over countless iterations of what will look attractive and entice new shoppers into town to spend their hard-earned.

However, will they all succeed?

Perhaps only as much a budgie with no beak. One example is our local Barcode Cinema complex, which has been running at a loss for several years since its inception, and it appears that the novelty factor of its large screens and IMAX presentations will not outlive its anticipated projected turnover. This is a 53-million-pound leisure and entertainment development spanning more than 100,000 square feet. It’s not succeeding, despite new parking lots (400 spaces), an abundance of fast-food restaurants and even a neighboring traditional barber shop.

A touching tribute to the lost trees of Plymouth’s retail town center. Photo courtesy of Russ Welton.

Take it away, Joni:

“They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot
(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop)”

I’ve personally experienced the loss of treasured local High Street music instrument retailers. One is the intended closure of Mansons Guitar Shop of Exeter, and another the somewhat pained transition period of urban redevelopment plans within the neighboring city of Plymouth. (Editor Frank Doris and Copper contributor Jay Jay French have personal experience with the glory days of the music stores on 48^th Street in Manhattan and that street’s gradual demise, the result of increasing rent costs.)

I have so many fond memories of Mansons Guitar Shop. I recall the abounding joy I felt when I first learned that they would be branching out to a second store in Plymouth. (Having one local, albeit small store, tunefully named Vibes, in town was already exciting enough.) You know the buzz! A shop dedicated to selling guitars. I was that kid with his nose pressed up against the window almost making my face ache, freezing into dumb expressions as I fawned over the droolworthy instruments inside. Garth Algar had nothing on me! If you think I’m kidding, you should know that when that Plymouth branch came up for sale, we (as a family business) bought it.

Returning to the Exeter store, though – I recall the colorful Joe Satriani Ibanez signature model guitars finished in Joe’s own handiwork. I have an abiding memory of picking up for the first time a Steve Lukather Mark I signature model Music Man guitar and being blown away by its amazing playability. The small V-shaped, tapered neck profile, small frets and low action coupled with a Floyd Rose tremolo system and active EMG pickups made for an ultimate ‘keeper’ instrument. I regretted having to sell the “Luke” models I had owned over the years as necessity dictated, and re-learned just how good a thing it was when I was able to repurchase a re-issue of the Mark I some two decades later. Mansons’ reputation was made under their own brand name, and by making signature instruments for people like John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Matt Bellamy of Muse. I enjoyed playing one of the original seven-string guitars that was eventually sold to the Muse front man.

So, it was with some sadness that I learned that plans to sell the Exeter branch of Mansons to new owners was on the horizon in September of last year. It was sadder still to learn that the Manson’s partners had ultimately decided to close the store after a glorious run of 31 years, when the lease expires this June.

Mansons’ Hugh Manson (an excellent custom guitar maker) stated: “retail, particularly in Exeter, is becoming incredibly challenging. Exeter City Council seems to be hell-bent on destroying any independent retailer. You just have to look at transport, parking, rates and so forth. Who is going to pay £2.60 to park to buy a set of strings?”

Mansons' DL-OR Origin Reissue guitar, as used by Matt Bellamy of Muse. From a Mansons Guitar Shop news release.

Although these observations are quite true, they highlight perhaps a bigger challenge:

Do we prefer to buy online for convenience or just prefer to buy online by default?

This often is the case whether it’s convenient or not, despite taking in to account things like delivery issues and receiving items not as described, not to mention protracted and contested insurance claims when returning goods that are damaged by couriers. Online purchasing appears to be the default option of so many younger customers, and online retailers pander to this demographic, suffering reduced profit margins as a result to compete with Amazon.

Thinking about Hugh Manson’s observations further – given the rise in popularity of Patreon-supported YouTube channels, where regular viewers can choose to financially support these specialist equipment review (or other) channels for their informative or simply entertaining content – wouldn’t it be good if everyone adopted the same mentality towards supporting our specialist music stores? I’m not saying we should all subsidize their existence with a monthly contribution, but rather, refresh our perspective on how valuable these establishments really are.

Surely, they are worth purchasing from, whether via their own online websites or in person, by virtue of the fact that they have knowledgeable and informative staff and can offer a higher level of service than some faceless online provider. The tactile experience of hearing, feeling and playing a musical instrument which has been properly set up for your own delight is a precious commodity, and something that should not be taken for granted, like listening to a well-set-up stereo system you are considering purchasing, or simply enjoying audio demonstration perfection,

Joni’s words are so significant that I think we could take her lyrics a step further. We could say that some customers won’t know what they’ve got until it’s gone, but how many of them knew what they had lost in the first instance? 

Header image: Plymouth City Center Urban Redevelopment Project, April 2023. Courtesy of Russ Welton.

Having been inoculated in rock and roll since picking up the instrument at the age of seven, 20-year-old guitarist Nick Lisanti has come a long way. The shredding six-stringer for Canadian rock band Sticks N’ Stones has quickly made a name for himself, impressing fans and the likes of Alice Cooper's Ryan Roxie and Megadeth's Kiko Loureiro. Those in the know will recall the bombast of the Sticks N’ Stones. debut EP Rev it Up, and the word is that more is to come soon.

I recently talked with Nick Lisanti to dive into his origins in music, his love for Gibson guitars, and what’s ahead.

Andrew Daly: What first inspired you to pick up the guitar?

Nick Lisanti: My grandfather played guitar and sang in a calypso/soca band for years, and I watched him play his guitar during multiple family get-togethers. When we would visit, he would play different genres of music for me from some of his favorite musicians, [like] Chicago, Santana, Tina Turner, and more.

In 2008, my parents, who also have a love of many genres of music (my mother played piano and French horn), bought my brother and me the Rock Band videogame [that came] with the guitar and drums. This videogame confirmed my interest in the guitar, so I started guitar lessons in September 2009 at the age of seven and haven't stopped playing since.

AD: Can you recall your first guitar, how you obtained it, and if you still have it?

NL: My first guitar was a black Epiphone SG which I received from my parents on my seventh birthday. I do still have it! It is hanging in my music studio, and it is signed by guitarist Jeremy Widerman from the band Monster Truck.

AD: What was the first riff and the first solo you learned?

NL: The first riff I learned was Green Day's "Brain Stew" during guitar lessons at my local music school. The first solo I learned was the classic Tony Iommi solo from Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." I struggled for a long time to get it down, but with the help of my instructor, YouTube videos, and a lot of practice, I was able to play it at [my school’s] annual recital. I was also asked to sing, which is what piqued my interest in singing as well.

AD: What led you to progress to where you are today?

I started guitar lessons at the age of seven and, at the age of nine, began lessons with Jim Book at Musician's Choice/Drummer's Choice In Brampton, Ontario [no longer in business – Ed.]. Jim helped me establish the fundamentals, along with learning proper technique and form. He [has] had a huge influence on my playing and remains one of the top guitarists I have had the pleasure of knowing. In 2020, COVID restrictions halted in-person lessons, so I continued to learn online, as many musicians did. I started online sessions with Bandwagon, an online industry mentoring initiative created by Leon Harrison of The Lazys.

Leon, along with John Harvey of Monster Truck, helped my band with the writing of Sticks N' Stones' first EP, and it was here I met guitarist Ryan Roxie of Alice Cooper. After Bandwagon, Ryan and I became friends, and his wealth of knowledge and industry experience was invaluable. From playing tips to stage presence, pre/post performance etiquette, marketing, promotion, and more, he has been extremely supportive of my musical journey.

In 2022, I was fortunate to join a mentorship program with guitarist/producer/composer Kiko Loureiro of Megadeth and Angra. Kiko is a phenomenal musician, and his experience and support have helped with my song structure, riffs, and solo compositions, bringing out a heavier sound and developing my natural love of hard rock and metal.

AD: Tell me about the original music you're working on, your songwriting approach, and how that continues to evolve.

NL: In 2021, with the assistance of Bandwagon [and people including] Leon Harrison (The Lazys), Jon Harvey (Monster Truck), Dave Langguth, (Nelly Furtado), Kim Mitchell (Max Webster), Vic Branco, (owner of Iguana Studioa), Thiago Diatroptoff (engineer at Iguana), Harry Hess (mastering), Iguana Studios, and the OSESP String Quartet, Sticks N' Stones recorded and released our first five-song EP. In 2022, we released a cover, with Ryan Roxie, of his song "Candy Lovin."

During the pandemic we had to be resourceful, so we built our own music studio, and I invested time into learning how to record, mix, and master music. To further develop, my brother Robert Lisanti (the drummer in Sticks N' Stones), and I collaborated with local and international artists on several covers, where I produced and mixed all of the tracks. Among the people who participated were Frankie Clarke (Frankie and the Studs), Blake Allard and Greg Braccio (Joyous Wolf), Bella Perron (Plush), Giuliana Amaral (BAND, Inc.), Dan Stone (Italian cover band Slash Conspiracy), Andy Colonico (Revive the Rose), Christian Dotto (One in the Chamber), Brandon Gregory (Drop Top Alibi), Abby K, Nathan Carr, and Luke Vasilakos, the bassist for Sticks N’ Stones and Pale Mare. I was able to apply the experience I gained from this to the production and demo recording of the new material we’ve written. I will continue to utilize this skill set and the studio for future projects.

My songwriting approach can deviate sometimes, but generally, it starts with putting together a couple of riffs and a melody. Once I have them recorded, I send them to my brother Robert, and we continue developing the song together. In 2023, we are currently working in Nashville with Grammy-nominated producer Johnny Karkazis. I look forward to releasing some of the new music my brother and I have written and worked on with Johnny in the near future. Our new music has been influenced by our love of metal and hard rock, and we have started developing our sound, which is a mix of both genres.

AD: Who most influenced your sound, and how is that best illustrated in your style?

NL: The guitarists that most influenced my sound on the guitar would have to be Eddie Van Halen, Slash, and, more recently, Mark Tremonti (Creed, Alter Bridge) and Joe Duplantier (Gojira). I grew up a big fan of Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Van Halen, so Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammett, and Slash were my first influences, and I tried for a long time to be able to play as well as them.

In my adulthood, I became a fan of Phil X, Kiko Loureiro, and Ryan Roxie's guitar playing, and have begun to really take to heavy metal music. Mark Tremonti has been a big influence on my riff writing and lead playing, especially as I learned how to play legato licks by covering Alter Bridge songs. Joe Duplantier has also been influential on my rhythm guitar playing and songwriting, as I love his super-heavy riffs.

Courtesy of Nick Lisanti/Naty Roc.

AD: What recordings that you've done so far mean the most to you, and why?

NL: The song that means the most to me is "Silence Another Day," as it's a reflection of what I saw happening to people during the COVID-19 pandemic. So many lives were impacted by loss, either of family members or their livelihood. There was a major impact on the music and entertainment industry, and it went on for so long that there didn't seem to be a way to ever recover.

I was able to hone that fear and sadness into that song, and I received a lot of positive feedback, with many people saying, "It was relatable," as well as complimenting [me on] the use of [a] string quartet [on the song]. The lesson that I learned from writing and recording that song is [that] the more meaning a song has, the more it will resonate with listeners. As well, I learned [that] adding different instrumental sounds, like the string quartet, adds impact and improves the quality of the song.

AD: How do you balance the need to craft quality songs with the desire to shred?

NL: Write music that is guitar-based! In the style of music I play, I am genuinely able to include a lot of solos and shredding. I do try not to overdo it in order to only do what is needed for a better-quality song.

AD: What guitars, pedals, and amps do you use, and why?

NL: I love Gibson guitars; it is the reason I became a Gibson artist. I own a few of them and use my Les Pauls the most for live performances and recordings in the studio. In addition to Gibson, I also play an ESP [and an] Ibanez, and recently acquired a superstrat custom-made by Argentinian luthiers Pardo Guitars.

My go-to amps are a Revv Generator 100P, a Friedman BE 100 Deluxe, and a Marshall “plexi.” My pedalboard is constantly changing depending on the show or song, but generally, I don't use many effects. My string preference is for S.I.T. strings gauged 11-52, and I use 1.14 gauge InTune guitar picks. The microphones I use for recordings and singing are [by] sE Electronics.

AD: What are your most immediate goals, and how do you plan to make them a reality?

NL: My most immediate goal is to finish up our new EP in hopes of catching the eye of a record label. My other is to promote our songs by playing more live shows in Canada and the US, as well as participate in a few festivals and tours with other acts. From there, I plan to continue to grow my band and my brand as I [also] work towards completing my HBSc [degree] from the University of Toronto and getting my second-degree black belt in Taekwondo.

Header image courtesy of Nick Lisanti.

The AES (Audio Engineering Society) conventions are among the most important shows in professional audio, which means that what you hear there today will have an impact on home listeners tomorrow. John Seetoo covered the last New York show in Issue 176 and Issue 177, and I wanted to add my own thoughts – and photos, naturally. (Although the show happened a while ago, I don’t think anything in this article is dated.)

One of the most important aspects of AES is the organization’s focus on education, not only for professionals but for students as well, and their passion for recording music was evident. My interest tends to lay in restoration and archival techniques, and there was plenty to chew on. One of the sessions I attended, “Storage Nightmares,” was held by Kelly Pribble of IMES (Iron Mountain Entertainment Services) and John Krivit of Hey Audio Student. What Pribble described was shocking to fans of taped music.

During a recent transfer of vintage Rush tapes from their 1981 Moving Pictures album, he noticed that after a few seconds of playing the sound essentially turned to flat mush, and searching for an answer, discovered that the tape heads were covered with a white frosting-like dripping goop.

Kelly Pribble of IMES (Iron Mountain Entertainment Services) and John Krivit of Hey Audio Student, discussing “Storage Nightmares,” shown here with tapes in various states of deterioration.

Never having seen this before, he reached out to a number of tape manufacturers, who explained that what he was seeing was lubricant, and during the time the tapes were made, the major tape manufacturers decided to share a common lubricant. This was a practical decision because the companies often cooperated with each other, helping to fill orders when they ran out of product or capacity. And because governments were cracking down on the use of certain chemicals, by choosing a common lubricant, all the manufacturers could share one set of tests, certifications, and approvals, making it far easier to cross international borders with their tape products. Thus, the good news was that he was able to identify the problem and the material that was causing it, but the bad news meant that all the tapes manufactured at that time were subject to the same problem. The leaking lubricant was also corrosive and gritty, causing wear on the valuable tape heads.

Armed with this information, Pribble set about cleaning the tapes and the heads and was able to transfer over the music in smaller chunks, which could later be seamlessly edited together. A repeated, laborious process was necessary – clean, run the tape, clean the heads, clean the tape, run the tape, clean the heads, and so on. So, this was bad enough, Pribble thought. And then the following happened. The band wasn’t happy with one of the transfers, so a few months later Pribble took the now cleaned and transferred tapes out again, loaded them up, and to his dismay, discovered that his tape heads were once again dripping with lubricant. He was able to duplicate his process and complete a new transfer, but the real concern was that the tapes weren’t ultimately cured of the problem.  He termed it loss of lubricant syndrome and confirmed that even though a tape had already been cleaned, it was still shedding lubricant all over again, a fact that didn’t bode well for future transfers or restorations.

You might ask: why did the tape have lubricant to begin with? The answer is that it helps to quiet the tape passing over a tape machine’s rollers, and being wound and unwound onto the reels. So, it’s a critical part of the tape emulsion, coating, and design, yet here was an example of it having an unintended degradation all these years later.

He also discussed adhesion syndrome, where the edges of the tape get stuck together and the tape rips as it goes through the machine. This was a fascinating – and frightening – session that emphatically presented the case for the urgency of transferring music while it was still possible. Krivit had a crush of eager students paying close attention to the presentation. IMES has held archiving workshops in the past to discuss and demonstrate the importance of archiving, dealing with metadata and aging media formats, and other topics, in the hopes of inspiring others to start a career in the vital field of audio archiving and restoration.

A group of eager audio students after Kelly Pribble’s talk.

AES’ educational mission is constant and devoted, with many workshops, classes, and lectures and encouraging its student members. It’s also a home for discussions about audio engineering during meetings, parties, panels, and in the hallways. Manufacturers exhibit their wares, answer questions, and hand out swag. The mix of participants isn’t unlike the giant NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show held in Anaheim, California. That is to say, a mix of musicians, engineers, producers, software developers, sound reinforcement people, digital asset management professionals, archivists, restoration experts, librarians, educators, students, and others, all enjoying the technical, creative, historical, and workshop sessions and the gear on display. From the Library of Congress to immersive audio, if it’s audio, it’s represented. It’s also a marvelously good time.

One interesting aspect of the show is that musicians are paying strict attention, as they are interested in capturing the best sound on their recordings, so at the end of the day, it’s really an educational gathering. From tips and tricks from award-winning engineers and producers to sessions on calibrating live sound systems, everyone seems hungry to learn. With the rise of affordable and professional home recording setups, the days of musicians entering into a studio without a clue while others set up the gear and twist the knobs are long over. Nowadays musicians have honed their skills and knowledge of Pro Tools, plug-ins, and more, so they enter into the studio with a more collaborative spirit and know-how.

One of the show’s many highlights was the gathering of family, friends, and colleagues of the late legendary Al Schmitt, one of the most esteemed engineers in the industry. An extraordinary panel, “Celebrating Al Schmitt,” paid tribute to the former boxer, a tie-wearing, no-nonsense, master of the studio, all the while telling hilarious and touching stories about him. It was clear that he was loved, as much for his perfectionism as for his ears and influence. His work lives on in his protégés. The panel was an audio dream team, with Gary Gottlieb, George Massenburg, Chuck Ainlay, Paula Salvatore, Niko Bolas, Frank Filipetti, Dana Down, and Elliot Scheiner, and the audience was full of admirers. I felt honored to be there, especially since I’d been fortunate to meet and talk with Schmitt several times through the Producers Wing of the Directors Guild of America. Recalling his discography, all one can do is marvel.

The “Celebrating Al Schmitt” panel, left to right: Chuck Ainlay, Paula Salvatore, Dana Dowd, Frank Filipetti, George Massenburg, Elliot Scheiner, and Niko Bolas (moderator).

The putting-on of the ties, in honor of engineer Al Schmitt, during the “Celebrating Al Schmitt” tribute.

Being asked to be a presenter at the Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecture is one of the highest honors bestowed by The Technical Council of the Audio Engineering Society, established as a scholarship fund in 1999. The 2022 honoree was Dr. Gilbert Soulodre, Camden Labs CEO and engineer, who presented his lecture, “A Funny Thing happened on the Way to the Heyser Lecture – The Twists and Turns of a Career in Audio.” The lecture was an overview of his career, which was jumpstarted by a single event: Pope John Paul II’s visit to Canada, which required a sound system designed for a million people. Soulodre met this daunting challenge by the use of multiple speaker towers that required multiple delays. His engineering work has been featured in automotive audio systems found in Ferrari, KIA, Subaru, Volvo, Hyundai, Lexus, Toyota, Maserati, BMW, Lincoln, and others. It was deeply moving to witness Jayant Datta (Vice-Chair of the AES Technical Council) present the Richard C. Heyser Memorial award to Soulodre. It was also a potent reminder that while audiophiles argue over speaker cable lifters, the technological forces that make possible the recordings they argue about are created by people like Soulodre.

Jayant Datta (Vice-Chair of the AES Technical Council) presents the Richard C. Heyser Memorial Award to Dr. Gilbert Soulodre.

Another panel, “50 Years of Parametric EQ,” was a deep dive on how parametric equalizers came into being for use in recording studios, and subsequently trickled down for consumer use. It celebrated engineer George Massenburg, who first wrote a paper about the idea of parametric equalization in 1972. I remember the first time I saw a parametric EQ: it was a Soundcraftsmen sold at FEDCO in Orange County, California. I was convinced I needed one, in fact couldn’t live without one, until I realized that in fact I didn’t need one. But for a while, you weren’t cool if you didn’t have an equalizer, parametric or otherwise, in your rack. And here was a panel about its creation.

Want to understand the birth of the parametric equalizer? “50 Years of Parametric EQ,” explored it, with parametric EQ pioneer George Massenburg, Uldo Zoelzer, Duane Wise and others.

Many of the panels were deep dives into very arcane, but necessary technologies that make our appreciation of music possible. In John Seetoo’s reports, he delved into some of the folks who create the music and mixes you hear. The sessions I attended were mostly about the technology behind the tools of music reproduction, including the computer coding behind say, an EQ filter. It’s another level that barely hints at the complexity of the audio chain.

As I was writing this I was listening to Patricia Barber in high-resolution DSD, played through the new iFi Audio Neo Stream, which is so transparent in terms of the technology that created it that you can forget it’s there. Spending time at AES is a reminder of how vastly complex the tools available for modern audio reproduction are. I for one am glad that such fine minds are hard at work pushing these solutions forward.

Seeing old friends and faces after the pandemic was certainly a warm feeling, and the educational riches were fantastic. The 2023 conference is slated to run from October 25 – 27, 2023. For more information, click here.

Here are more images from the convention.

Copper contributor Larry Jaffee of Making Vinyl enjoys the show with Peter Baker (Audio-Technica) and Lenise Bent (Soundflo Productions).

Rory Geraghty and Gary Boss from Audio-Technica take a break from their busy booth. 

Yiran Chen (volunteer), John Krivit, Lenise Bent, and Sammi Strong gather for a photo op.

Brad McCoy (Library of Congress) and Toby Seay (Drexel University) enjoy a moment after Kelly Pribble’s talk.

David Volpe (JBL) and Paul Kozel (the Sonic Arts Center at CCNY) are waiting for a presentation on spatial audio to begin.

Mastering engineer, journalist and educator Justin Colletti hangs out in front of the Focusrite exhibit.

Dan Hughley of Focusrite demonstrates the new Vocaster Two podcasting system, an easy-to-use tool to improve the audio quality of podcasts.

Frank Filipetti, Chuck Ainlay, Ed Cherney, Elliot Scheiner, Niko Bolas,  George Massenburg, and Bill Gibson on the panel, “Recording and Mixing Drums – Contrasting Techniques from Seven Lifetimes of Recording Experience.”

Engineers George Massenburg, Frank Filipetti, and Chuck Ainlay were hard at work at a book signing.

Al Clark of Danville Signal Processing makes a point.

Just another too-hip New York loft party at AES. They had the strangest liquor selection I’ve ever seen.

It’s the crew from Maxon: Lilli Babb, Joe Smith, Mathias Omotola and Kirk Matsuo.

Jonathan Bauder of Seagate Technology was there to discuss the new Lyve and Exos storage products. Jonathan has been helping the author understand NAS (Network Attached Storage) for years. He's a true storage tech superhero!

Robert Bristow-Johnson of audioimagination raises a question during the "50 Years of Parametric EQ" panel.

Happy AES students from Webster University. Julien Schilly, Rashid Tutu, and Scooter Armstrong are holding up a very cool T-Shirt from the 14^th Annual Central Region Audio Student Summit.

Here's Fraser Jones of CEDAR. Ever wonder how you can hear someone talking into on a microphone in the middle of a noisy environment? It might be due to CEDAR Audio noise reduction. Trying their demos in a crowded audio show with music and noise all around you is astonishingly convincing.

We’ve all heard about the cloud and I thought it was in some dark basement or under the ocean, but it turns out the Cloud (from Studio Network Solutions) was in New York the entire time. 

Women in audio: Amy Zimmitti (The Los Angeles Film School), Kerry Pompeo (First Agency), and Lenise Bent.

All images by the author.

When one thinks of some of the iconic records from the 1970s through the 1990s, albums and songs like Steely Dan’s Aja, Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love For You,” Carly Simon’s “You're So Vain,” Ringo Starr’s “Photograph,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” by Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand, and “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, to name just a few, often come to mind. These songs are still played on the radio and have achieved iconic status.

The man who sat behind the mixing board capturing those performances and blending the musical elements into the final recordings that we have all come to know and love, was an immensely talented and humble gentleman named Bill Schnee.

Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, Schnee was a keyboardist who developed a fascination for the recording process and progressed so fast in his craft that he received his first Grammy award engineering nomination for Carly Simon’s No Secrets while still in his early 20s. Among the other artists he has worked with are Dire Straits, George Benson, Toto, Natalie Cole, the Pointer Sisters, Boz Scaggs, America, Bette Midler, Kenny Loggins, Teddy Pendergrass, Chicago, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Randy Travis, and Michael Jackson.

In addition to becoming a first-call sound mixer for CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) artists like Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, Andrae Crouch, and Carman, Bill Schnee has also been a mentor to other engineer/producers, most notably Jack Joseph Puig.

Schnee’s autobiographical memoir The Chairman at the Board: Recording the Soundtrack of a Generation, was reviewed in Copper Issue 160. It covers his career during the latter half of the 20th century. Thanks to Ken Franklin of RadioTV.com, Copper was able to interview Bill Schnee about his book and go more in-depth on his body of work.

Bill Schnee, Chairman at the Board, book cover.

John Seetoo: You mention in your book that you are a perfectionist and that overthinking mixes and sessions has been a problem for you in the past. Now that you have the luxury of hindsight on an incredible career, are there things that you recall from past projects that you would have done differently at the time?

Bill Schnee: I don't believe I overthink in recording sessions, but I often do overthink mixes of songs I have produced. One example that comes to mind is from a record I produced with Colin Blunstone, the great lead singer from The Zombies. A friend had turned me on to the song "Never Even Thought" by Murray Head, and I thought it was a great fit for Colin. It was one of those times when I had the entire concept and 80 percent of the arrangement in mind before we hit the studio. I worked really hard on the song, and pushed Colin on the vocal harder than I've ever pushed an artist. He came through with flying colors, and killed it. Jeff Porcaro and James Newton Howard were absolutely brilliant on the record. When I got to the mix, I got intimidated and could never get happy with it. It's like the left brain kept challenging the right brain. I don't think it's a bad mix, but I know I could have done it better.

JS: In one example, you cite Three Dog Night's second album, Suitable For Framing, as your "baptism of fire" so to speak, and that you were still very inexperienced, yet managed to get a good record completed. Looking back, would you have used different mic setups or positioned musicians differently with the knowledge that you now possess?

BS: That was my tryout to work at Richie Podolor's great rock studio, American Recording, where my band [had] recorded three years earlier. As a result, I just copied everything Richie did, because I knew it worked. Honestly, at that time I didn't know enough to have tried anything different. It wasn't until I left Richie's and went independent that I started to figure things out in greater detail. By the way, I only recorded two tracks on that album, and a bunch of overdubs. But [in order] to learn, I did spend every hour I could watching Richie work.

JS: Your first engineering Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Album was for Carly Simon's No Secrets. In that year, Stevie Wonder's Talking Book took the Grammy, and you mentioned that you thought Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon should have won. What aspects of that record (i.e., panning, use of reverbs, mic placements, etc.) impressed you so much to warrant such praise?

BS: At the Grammys that year, Bob Margouleff, one of the two engineers of Talking Book, came up to me after the awards ceremony and very kindly said he thought I should have won. I told him I thought The Dark Side should have won. I think No Secrets is a very good sounding album – in great part due to the terrific job of recording Robin Cable did. I just think Alan Parsons did a wonderful job engineering Dark Side. I can't point to individual aspects of that album that cause me to feel that way…I just love the way the music feels.

Bill Schnee at an earlier time in his career. Courtesy of Sallie Schnee.

JS: Steely Dan's Aja was a landmark record on a number of levels, but in addition to your engineering Grammy win, Aja has become many producers' preferred reference disc for auditioning and assessing monitors in unfamiliar studios. Why do you think this has occurred?

BS: I have to give a great deal of the credit to the musicians and the simple, but elegant arrangements of that group of songs that seemed to come at the time from another world. I think that the confluence of elements happened to line up to create that "magic" that us older veterans in the business sometimes refer to.

JS: Was there a special combination of events and equipment that allowed you to achieve that pinnacle of audio fidelity, and were you cognizant of how special Aja would become when you were working on it?

BS: I had recorded albums at Producer's Workshop [recording studio] before and after Aja. It was a great little room with an amazing-sounding console. I remember driving home each night playing a cassette of the day's work and thinking, "What is this? It's not really rock, it's not jazz, but it gets jazzy from time to time – even a bit bluesy sometimes. I don't know what it is, but it sure is great!"

JS: You were called in to remix the Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warnes duet "Up Where We Belong" from the movie, An Officer and a Gentleman, which in 1983 went on to win an Oscar and a Golden Globe award for best original song, and a Grammy for Best Duo or Group Performance. How do you approach remixing a song on a project where someone else has recorded it, versus one for which you were also the recording engineer?

BS: For the purpose of answering your question, let me simply divide a mix into two parts: how it feels and how it sounds. Of those two, the feel is much more important to me. The feel is from the music itself, so between music and sound, the music is much more important. Mediocre-sounding great music is better for me than great-sounding mediocre music. Obviously the goal is to make both great. If I have recorded the tracks and hopefully done a good job, the process will be a little easier, since I know how all the pieces fit together. The exception is when I've produced the song and I get hung up on mixing because I'm trying too hard, like I mentioned earlier.

JS: Do you need a certain amount of time to attain an objective perspective from when you were recording the songs, or if you've heard the previous mix which may have been done by a colleague?

BS: I like to move quickly in all aspects of recording. That's when my creative juices flow the best. So on every mix, I try to jump in and get things moving right away.

JS: In your book, you talk about Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," where after the strings were recorded, David Foster added some percussion and guitars and then mixed it. There was a rough mix the assistant had done after the string session, and Clive liked that rough mix better than the final one and that became the record. Do you have your own guidelines or protocols as to when too much sweetening and overdubbing detracts rather than adds to a track?

BS: I didn't do that final mix that Clive rejected, but I did hear it. There are plenty of cases where too much overdubbing hurts a record instead of making it better. More sugar doesn't necessarily make a cake better. However, this was not one of those cases. I have to say I think the real mix was better than the rough [that] Clive released. David fought really hard with Clive to release that mix, almost to the point of damaging his relationship with Clive. Would it have sold ten more copies? Probably not. But I do think it would have felt a bit better on the radio.

JS: In an unusually humble move, you acknowledged being too close to the material for Huey Lewis and the News' Hard at Play to be able to mix it objectively, and selected Jack Joseph Puig to mix it with you. When you make a decision like that, is your choice of an alternate mix engineer predicated on their similarity to your approach, or do you want somebody coming from a completely different perspective to inject new elements and ideas into the process?

BS: That record was a very long but fun process…but long! I knew that would have been another example of me trying too hard on the mix, so I asked Jack to help me. I had spent quite a few years with Jack assisting me, and he was [then] coming into his own. I believe that's the only time I ever had someone help me with a mix. It worked out really well because Jack came up with some great drum sound ideas that inspired me, and he kept me on track.

JS: You are an engineering pioneer of direct-to-disc recordings, with Thelma Houston's Grammy-nominated I've Got the Music In Me and Lincoln Mayorga's Distinguished Colleagues in particular. Although the microphones and equipment used at the time were state-of-the-art, the basic protocol of recording live with no opportunity for post-production is not all that different from when Thomas Edison created his original paper and cylinder recording devices. Can you go into some of your memories of that experience?

BS: Until we started recording on magnetic tape, all recordings were [of] a live performance, usually of just one song. Magnetic tape is not a mirror, meaning it does not give you back exactly what you put into it. It has a sound of its own that is added to the music, and once we started recording on tape, that became the sound of music. With multitrack recording, we got two doses of that "sound" [because of having to mix the multitrack tape onto a second-generation stereo tape]. So going direct-to-disc eliminated that sound, giving a much more real depiction of what was happening in the studio. Digital promised to do that, but initially didn't deliver without unwanted artifacts, for years. I have now been doing live recordings at 24-bit/192 kHz with proprietary equipment that sounds like the best of the direct-to-disc recordings I did back then.

Right before Sheffield Lab president Doug Sax passed away, we had lunch and he told me the most exciting record they ever did was Thelma's, and the best-sounding record they ever did was James Newton Howard and Friends. I honestly never thought some of my Grammy noms for Best Engineered album deserved to be nominated. On the other hand, I've always felt JNH and Friends should have been.

The studio I did Thelma's d-to-d in was Producer's Workshop, the same studio where I tracked Aja. It had changed hands a few times and was a long way off from where it was in the ’70s. About a dozen years ago, a guy rented the space and was working hard to put it back to where it once was. I went to visit him, and found the recording room itself was virtually untouched. I couldn't believe how small the room was – so much so that I wouldn't attempt to do the Thelma album in there today. It shows the bravado of youth.

JS: Lupe Fiasco and Jay-Z took a sample from the song "Pressure Cooker" off the album, I've Got the Music In Me for "Pressure," which earned a Grammy nomination. What are your opinions about sampling and how it's used on many contemporary recordings?

BS: "Pressure Cooker" was a rock instrumental I wrote for Thelma's album. I was quite surprised when Lupe and Jay-Z sampled it, and have never been able to find out who listened to Thelma's album and found the song. I am open to all forms of musical creativity, so I don't have a problem with sampling, as long as the original songwriters are getting paid.

JS: Although you are primarily known as a studio wizard, you have also done live remote recording, such as Marvin Gaye Live! Have you done many other live recordings, and how would you compare your approach for doing a live remote recording versus recording in the studio?

BS: At the beginning of my career, I did a Barbra Streisand live album. I didn't think I could do it, but producer Richard Perry said he knew I could, and talked me into doing it. Two years later, I did Marvin's live record, and then recorded a Neil Diamond live [album]. Several years later I traveled with The Jacksons and did their live album, and after that I followed Miles Davis around recording a European jazz festival tour. The approach to a live album is the same as a studio album, only you don't have as much control as you do in a studio. The choice of microphones and how they're placed will be a little different also. The mission is the same – capture the performance.

JS: You appear to have mastered the art of diplomacy to the extent that you have worked on repeat occasions with a number of people known to be difficult to work with in the music industry due to their strong personalities, such as Richard Perry, Barbara Streisand, Miles Davis, and Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan, just to name a few. Was this trait something innate or was it a skill that you had to develop over the course of your career?

BS: It must be innate because I've always just tried to be myself with artists. I feel that engineering and producing are servant's roles – meaning you are there to serve the artist and their music. With the great producer Richard Perry and his constant search for something better, I certainly had to bite my tongue many times. I've worked with Barbra quite a few times over the years, and can honestly say I've never had a problem with her.

JS: Ringo (1973) was the only near-Beatles reunion of newly-recorded material until Jeff Lynne produced "Free as a Bird" in 1995, which featured the then-surviving Beatles with a reworked John Lennon demo recording. As you had worked with Richard Perry previously on Carly Simon's No Secrets, the Barbara Streisand records, and other projects, did you approach recording and mixing Ringo any differently, and if so, in what ways?

BS: I look at that album as Ringo's mates all jumping in to give his solo career a leg up. My approach to recording it was the same – capture the performances as best I could. The big difference was my nerves – first, recording a Beatle, then two, and then…three! The session for John's song, "I'm the Greatest" was the only time after the Beatles' breakup that three of them would be in the same room actually playing together. At that time, Paul had had a drug bust that kept him from coming to America for an extended period. As a result, Richard (Perry) and I had to go to England to record the song Paul and Linda had written for Ringo. If that weren't the case, maybe there could have been a real reunion.

Track sheet for "Oh My My" from the Ringo album.

Track sheet for "Photograph" from the Ringo album.

JS: You note in your book that due to plug-ins [computer software that mimics the sound of recording studio hardware, often classic gear – Ed.], the signature sounds of certain studios and their echo chambers are now accessible to anyone with a digital audio workstation in their bedroom. As a result, this has led to a homogenization of sounds on contemporary records, with a particular studio's sound no longer having an overall bearing on an album.

You also note that the DIY trend on recording has led to new releases being a compilation of individual overdubbed tracks with ever-decreasing live ensemble performances, due to costs.

Do you think these trends, along with streaming, have contributed to a return to the emphasis on singles, and do you see albums and studios with signature sounds ever making a comeback?

BS: As I said earlier, I am open to all forms of musical creativity. But honestly, there is a difference between musicians playing in a room together and doing the recording piecemeal. You can get great results either way, but there's nothing like a group of talented musicians in a room, pooling their talents and expertise towards a common goal. It's definitely a more expensive way to make a record, but it's a positively brilliant experience!

I think the emphasis on singles comes from the fact that we're not making a product to sell anymore…just to lease, so to speak. The good news is there are more people making records than ever before. The bad news is many of them probably shouldn't be. But if they enjoy it, why not?

JS: There are a number of heralded producers and engineers who are in either the digital or analog camps when it comes to recording. Some, like Alan Parsons, who recalls having to extract a single note from a multitrack tape with an X-Acto knife, would be ecstatic to never have to touch analog tape again. Others, like Steve Hoffman, love analog so much he remastered Jethro Tull's Aqualung by searching the Warner Brothers library in order to splice in a section from the analog safety to replace a stretched portion of the original analog master, rather than comping it from the digital master. Where do you find yourself in the digital versus analog spectrum and why?

BS: Having spent a good number of years with analog, I know the ins and outs of it pretty well. I think the worst aspect of analog tape – especially all the later low-noise [recording tape] versions – is that the sound doesn't stay on the tape. If you put a freshly-recorded track away and play it a month later, you will find it has lost some of its zeal. Some of the low-level high frequency information (the hardest thing to capture with analog) will be gone, and the track will be a little less punchy. And that doesn't include what punishing the tape by playing it over and over for overdubs will do to the sound.

There are some that want to get that warm and friendly sound of analog tape. I find an interesting comparison between the history of recorded sound and making movies. Movies started being made on film – the only medium available at the time. Later, when the video recorder was invented, people wouldn't accept a movie being made with one because it didn't "look like a movie"…it was too lifelike. The look of a movie was etched in people's minds, and that was from the colorations of film. If video had been invented first, that would have been the "look of a movie." If later on someone made a movie on film, people would have said how the colors weren't real, and there were distortions in the picture, etc. The sound of music we all knew after the late ’40s was from analog tape. Digital definitely gives a more lifelike picture, unfortunately in most cases with unwanted artifacts.

I loved working on analog because it was all we had. I went kicking and screaming into the digital world because I didn't think early digital sounded very good. However, when I saw the production value of a DAW, I knew digital would take over, no matter how it sounded. But in the last 30 years, we've learned a lot about digital and, as I said earlier, a 24-bit/192 kHz recording with the best converters can be breathtaking. I now love working with Pro Tools.

JS: Do you have your own studio, and if so, what kind of equipment are you using?

BS: I built Schnee Studio and operated it in Los Angeles for 34 years. When I saw the handwriting on the wall about the future of the music business, I decided to sell it. I kept all the equipment including my large vintage mic collection. I'm actually in the process of re-purposing the modules from the console, packaged in pairs by Teegarden Audio, to sell. I now have a mix room where I mix in the box [on computer – Ed.]. To get the best sound I can, I sum the mix with 24 stems out of Pro Tools through 16 custom solid-state D/A converters and eight tube D/As. Then the stereo analog mix goes through a Mastering Lab tube amp, and is printed through a custom analog to digital converter. All the custom equipment (except the Mastering Lab tube amp) has been designed by Josh Florian of JCF Audio.

The main room at Schnee Studio. Courtesy of Sallie Schnee.

The console at Schnee Studio, custom-built in 1980. It has no transformers except at the mic input. Every component was hand-selected, including the IC chips. All the switch contacts, including the relays, were doubled. The idea was to keep the amount of circuitry to a minimum in order to preserve sonic purity. Courtesy of Sallie Schnee.

JS: What kind of hi-fi equipment do you use for your own listening pleasure? Copper's audiophile subscribers are always interested in what professional producers and engineers like to use at home outside of the studio.

BS: I do most of my listening in my mix room where I have Tannoy [speakers] with 10-inch woofers and Mastering Lab crossovers. However, I also have a much more hi-fi system for phonograph records…a MoFi Electronics preamp and turntable, a JCF-modified Yamaha 2200 power amp, and TAD Compact Reference One speakers.

Header image courtesy of Diane Mileson.

Like the recent AXPONA hi-fi event in Chicago, deemed by all to be a roaring success, the latest Tonbridge AudioJumble in early March was certainly one of the best, but for an unusual reason. The Howes family which runs it had chosen to have only one gathering this year, bypassing the autumn fair, so the professional dealers needed to maximize the selling opportunity. All the tables were filled. As for the public, they, too, had to attend for an annual, rather than semi-annual fix of vintage and pre-owned hi-fi equipment. Early arrivals were plentiful.

As ever, the hardware on offer at the AudioJumble gives a street-level view of what British enthusiasts are craving. Over the years they’ve arrived lusting for Radford electronics, BBC LS3/5A loudspeakers and Garrard 301 or 401 turntables. All were present in some capacity or another in March – I saw a nice pair of 15-ohm Rogers LS3/5As for only £1,200/$1,490, and some hugely desirable Radford solid-state units – but the ongoing revival in interest in both open-reel tape and cassettes continues unabated. Nobody after a decent deck could fail to score something worthy.

While I concentrated mainly on finding out which open-reel decks were up for grabs, there were a number of interesting and/or rare cassette decks, including a slew of Nakamichis, but it was a mint circa-1978 NEAL 302 that caught my eye. This is a fascinating UK brand, best known on my side of the Pond for supplying recorders to police forces throughout the land.

A Ferrograph Series Seven, in its carry-case for mobile recording.

This year's TonBridge was well-attended.

Like the Sony TC377, Akai 4000DSs are always plentiful at the AudioJumble and still represent a cost-effective way of entering the reel-to-reel community.

MkII and MkIV Revox A77s – my fave machines.

As I have bleated countless times, I am now in the midst of a moratorium on buying anything – machines or pre-recorded tapes – because I am at that stage in life where I must downsize. Besides, no sane person has nine reel-to-reel machines and six cassette decks. Regardless, there were plenty of superb machines which caught my eye, especially a couple of superb Ferrograph Series Seven reel-to-reel decks – like NEAL, a UK manufacturer of great repute.

Away from tape decks, I was also up for acquiring one of the underpriced Quad 405 power amps or perhaps one of the plentiful 34 or 44 pre-amps, but mainly because I have a sentimental attachment to the brand as its history was the first book I authored. As I write this column, my listening room floor is covered with amplifiers old and recent, the former being gently reintroduced into my system with a Variac. I look forward to hearing my only all-tube tape deck, a Revox G36, played through its contemporary electronics, including a Dynaco PAS3 and Stereo 70 combination.

Also in the spirit of the AudioJumble, as well as the nostalgia which has overwhelmed me of late, I have now taken delivery of Steve Smith’s ValvePower amplifiers, which no anachrophile could possibly resist. Smith manufacturers BRAND NEW – note the shouty all-capitals – Leak Stereo 20 and Quad II power amps. They massacre the originals because they’re better-built than Leak or Quad ever achieved back in the day, while the custom-made transformers are of a standard which exceeds the original spec. Through LS3/5As or Tannoy Mini-Autographs, the sound is magical – vintage and modern at the same time.

If you're a masochist, visit valvepower.uk/index.html because the bad news is – I believe – that they’re UK-only offerings. When I tell you that a pair of his astounding Quad IIs sells for £850/$1,055 including UK delivery, and the equally magical Leak Stereo 20 is only £1,200/$1,490, you’ll know exactly how I feel when I see the US price of Magnepan LRSes…

A cool portable from Telefunken, the Magnetophon 2o4 TS, a circa-1966 solid-state quarter-track machine with a built-in 6-watt amp and three speeds.

I've always loved TASCAM decks, so it broke my heart to have to pass on this 2-track Model 32 to go with my 22-2.

An early Philips machine, ideal for playing those horrible British pre-recorded mono tapes. for £25, a no-brainer for someone with a collection  to feed.

Another deck I would have jumped at before swearing off buying any more is this amazing Akai 77 – a space-saving rival to the superb Pioneer RT-707 – and there were two at AudioJumble to torment me.

For the money, it's hard to beat this TEAC 3440 4-track recorder.

Lacking a number of bits but ideal for a restorer was this Revox E36, one of the company's earliest stereo decks. 

Here's an absolutely mint example of the hugely successful Tandberg Series 15, a superb compact deck.

Most Otari MX5050s are well-worn, but this looked to be intact and useable.

This AIWA 1800 deck was immaculate and found a home with a savvy cassette collector. 

This Fostex 8-track, like the Otari, shows signs of wear, though clearly in reasonable shape, but multi-track machines have fewer takers at the AudioJumble than two- and quarter-track decks.

A Walter Playtime recorder, a classic example of cost-effective British tape deck engineering back in the 1950s. It's a single-speed 3.75 ips mono recorder with four-tube-plus-metal rectifier amp, loudspeaker and crystal mic.

Header image: Quad gear was plentiful at the AudioJumble, as expected given the huge affection for this British brand.

All images courtesy of Ken Kessler.

Darlene Love is one of those artists who took much too long to gain fame on her own terms. The first half of her career is so closely intertwined with Phil Spector that she was in danger of becoming a permanent footnote in the history of R&B. Happily, by the 1980s, she had squirmed out from under Spector’s shadow and become a genuine star on her own.

Gospel music was the main soundtrack of Darlene Love’s childhood. Born Darlene Wright in 1941, she was the daughter of a minister in Los Angeles. The allure of popular music in her teens expanded her range; in high school she sang with a doo-wop group called the Echoes.

In 1958, she joined a girl group called the Blossoms, replacing Nanette Williams, who left to start a family. Spector heard the Blossoms in 1962 and invited them into the studio. Love’s big break happened by accident: on the day “He’s a Rebel” was supposed to be recorded, Spector’s usual group, the Crystals, couldn’t make it to the session. Spector had the Blossoms do it instead (although the Crystals got the credit), and assigned Darlene Wright to sing lead. Can you imagine that song sung by anyone else?

Soon Spector renamed her Darlene Love, and she became a force on his label, Philles Records. But he did not treat her with the professional respect she was earning. The Crystals were once again credited for her recording of “He’s Sure the Boy I Love.” Despite the unfair treatment, Love and Spector were a hit-maker singles machine, churning out songs like “Wait Til’ My Bobby Gets Home.”

Among the many projects to which Spector assigned Love was the group Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans. The male singer, Bobby Sheen, was considered the star, with Love and Fanita James (a fellow member of the Blossoms) singing backup. But it was Love’s voice that made the group shine.

Their only album was a four-track EP called Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, recorded in 1962. The EP was named after the song the group recorded for Disney’s animated film Song of the South, and this version became a hit single. Love sang lead on the title track as well as on “My Heart Beat a Little Faster,” by Ellie Greenwich, best known for the Crystals hits “And Then He Kissed Me” and “Da Doo Ron Ron.” Love’s soulful but perfectly controlled voice drenched the song with a gospel vibe.

The Blossoms continued to perform throughout the 1960s. One of the their highest-profile moments was their appearance on Elvis Presley’s comeback TV special, Elvis, in 1968. After a few more years working mainly as a backup singer, including with the famed Ronettes, Love stepped away from the music business to raise her kids.

But she was not finished! In a comeback that rivaled that of the King himself, Love became – and remains to this day – a beloved solo star.

She dipped her toe back in the water in 1981, playing small rooms in Los Angeles. To her amazement, audiences remembered her fondly, and the gigs kept pouring in, all over the country and then the world. But her most significant venue was The Bottom Line in New York’s Greenwich Village, where she put together a couple of nostalgic, autobiographical solo shows. They led to an annual invitation to sing the 1963 Phil Spector hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on David Letterman’s TV show.

As Love became a household name, it made sense to start recording new material. Her first solo album was Paint Another Picture, released in 1988. It’s mostly synthpop-meets-R&B, in the rather vacuous style of the times, similar to Whitney Houston or the Pointer Sisters’ biggest late-’80s hits. However, there are some nice horn arrangements by Darrell Leonard and a musical jewel at the end, Love’s rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
 

Rather than carry another solo release on her shoulders, Love instead chose a duo project with Lani Groves, an R&B singer who had worked with Stevie Wonder in the 1970s. Bringing It Home, released on Shanachie Records in 1992, is not a typical duet album: it contains very few duets. Mostly the two singers take turns singing solo tracks.

One of Love’s contributions is a cover of The Beatles’ “Let It Be.” There’s some solid musical architecture in this arrangement of Lennon/McCartney standard, which grows from voice and acoustic piano to a Phil Spector-sized “wall of sound,” complete with backup singers, Hammond organ, and electric guitar. And, of course, Love sings her heart out.

It was hardly unexpected that Love should return to her earliest musical roots by making a gospel album, 1998’s Unconditional Love. As her producer she chose Edwin Hawkins, who was only one year her junior and well known as a gospel musician and arranger. Importantly, he was associated with the so-called urban contemporary gospel sound, which had developed in the 1960s.

For the album, Hawkins arranged his own composition, “If You Ever Need Him (You Need Him Now),” with an R&B groove that represents one branch of urban contemporary gospel.

As a sign of her universal impact on the music industry, Love was honored with a unique multi-artist project in 2015. Rather than fellow singers performing songs that had made Love famous, this was a much cleverer idea: songwriters who had been influenced by her wrote songs for Love to sing. Introducing Darlene Love, on Columbia Records, boasted new compositions by some top names, including Steve Van Zandt, Joan Jett, and Bruce Springsteen.

One of the highlights is Elvis Costello’s “Forbidden Nights.” Costello often borrows musical tropes from the 1960s in his songs, so this was the ideal milieu for him. It’s not hard to imagine Phil Spector wanting one of his girl groups to record this number, with Love singing lead. This time, though, she gets her name in lights.
 

Darlene Love was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. It should have happened long before that, but like her career in general, she eventually got what she so richly deserved.

Header image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Wes Washington.