It's late. Very late, and I am lucky. Primarily because I am of a mind to trade space (reputedly infinite, yet queerly hoarded in bold defiance of the economics of supply and demand by advocates of modern design) for large objects that disturb space. I refer (of course) to a fetish for what shall henceforth be called "big-ass speakers".  Why deny a portal to a delightful abstraction proper space to generate a viable illusion because of something so mundane as real estate and "square-footage"? The only thing clumsier than a square foot is a cubic-foot...
  To paraphrase Sir Mix-A Lot:  I like big-ass speakers and I shall not equivocate.
 
    Time however, shall be subdivided mercilessly in the service of timelessness.

New words coming soon! Fresh verbiage approaching! Pictures too! Like this:

Fifi Waits

    Meanwhile, in another part of the mind:

Bobo Flounders


Never much for wearing hats, I've taken to using my hat holder-uppers for other purposes such as listening to the

delicate barking of dogs at raccoons on the roof while sleeping. 

Also Music.

"Best of 2012" continues....

   Bonzo Dog Band  "Keynsham"  1969 Liberty Records
Another weird, endearing and in my opinion brilliant record. A wide variety of styles here- Very, Very British. Friends with the Monty Python gang, Neil Innes of the Bonzos is the coconut wielding "horse" of Sir Robin The Chicken Hearted. A masterpiece. If I didn't know better I'd swear it was Paul McCartney singing "How Sweet to be an Idiot"...
    And here, the format abandons the concept for the love of felonius page-turning gimps (not literally of course- how could one simultaneously love and refer to the loved as a felonius page-turning gimp? Begs it's own question!). Forced to precede the introduction with a conclusion, the entirety is lost to blustering whim in the nascent chaos of the moment; revealing the purpose of all at the beginning of the end, only to circle back upon itself,  an entity that disappears itself by ingesting its own foot until invisibilty is its inevitable consequence. To  recapitulate in a more concrete fashion and for the sake of brevity, please disregard what you've read up until now and continue with the next blog entry as if you'd not read this. After reading the page below, continue to the top of this page and read the first paragraph, then stop. Yes, really (I know)...

Best of 2012

 My "Best of 2012" list starts here...

    Beginning with the postulate that good music is good music regardless of it's date of issue my "Best of..." will consist of music I found captivating this year; the stuff that got/gets played the most without regard to its release date.
   Like many folks I've been leaning toward the sound of vinyl records more heavily this year. The list will reflect that- surprises from the shelves of local thrifts. Most of these cost me a buck. Do I like 180 gram vinyl? You bet I do. Do I like discovering new music? Sure! Would I have paid $18.99 for any of these not having heard them first? Likely not. (With the exception of Ween "Quebec")

   The list:
      Emmylou Harris: "Luxury Liner"  1977 Warner Bros.
  When you've got Albert Lee, James Burton and Ricky Skaggs working together on your record,
you're somebody. One of a few singers to eschew vibrato for tremolo...unbelievable ability to record her own harmony parts in pitch.Backing harmony is so subtle I missed it the first couple of times through.
      Supertramp: "Breakfast in America" 1979 A&M Records
 Okay it's cheesy, I know.The guys voice bugs me sometimes.The cymbals are sibilant crap on this recording. The bass line/drum pacing during the "Take a look at my girlfriend..." bit (title track) is a good indicator of system synergy- speakers/amps with weak bass will wimp out.
       XTC:  "English Settlement"   1982 Virgin Records
 Hugh Padgham production. Superior sonics meet the unique nasal-whine of Andy Partridge. Rickenbackers aplenty and lots of toms sprinkled with percussive fairy dust and imaginative production. Odd meter will sneak past you and you may not notice the effortless fretless bass.
      Elvis Costello: "King of America"  1986 CBS Records
T-Bone Burnett produced this rather odd sampling of Elvis Costello's attempt at Americanized pop- or at least leaning toward traditionally American instrumentation/musicians.  Jim Keltner, James Burton, David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) bring a unique flavor to table here. The cover "Don't let me be misunderstood" is well done- the marimba in particular...
      Ten Years After: "A Space in Time"   1971 Chrysalis Records
 Alvin Lee covers a lot of ground here- heavy blues, acoustic space-rock, heartfelt confessions of drug-abuse, straight up rock-n-roll (Jimmy Page might/should buy Alvin a drink at the very least;not a note-for note theft, but he sure as hell copped the feel!).  I've been listening to Ten Years After "Cricklewood Green" for years, "A Space in Time" allows a more human side of Alvin Lee to come through.
     Ween: "Quebec"  2003 Sanctuary
  I'm not going to mince words; I love this record. It's a touch windy and conceptual in one or two spots but the good bits are fantastic. These guys (Dean and Gene Ween) are master satirists ala TheTubes, or Frank Zappa, but somehow manage to be satirical without resorting to blatant parody. If you haven't heard them or doubt their songwriting ability, Listen to "Chocolate Town" or "Transdermal Celebration". Frequently I have no idea what in the f*&^ it is that they're singing about. I guess it's a part of what keeps bringing me back.                                        (to be continued...)

 Elac Miracord 40H

     The Chrysler Imperial of turntables.  Slapping a record on here is like gassing up on a summer morning knowing theres a 440 under the hood. There are many things this turntable does really well. Low-end torque makes for very solid bass. Every other turntable I've ever owned  needs a separate ground wire to eliminate hum; not true here!
 Imaging is great! Vocals at center stage and the stereo image extends beyond the outside edges of the speakers on many recordings; a very good sign. I almost dismissed this turntable, thinking it an outdated relic; albeit a handsome devil despite the clunky headshell.
   Ten Years After "A Space in Time" is a delight with this table- Alvin Lee's vocal is centered and just a little bit recessed, but still in front of the drums- enforcing the impression that his voice is not coming "from" the speakers but is floating between them. The guitar resides just below his voice in the sound-field except for the electric guitar which has a disembodied life of it's own- easy to imagine Alvin running from one side of the stage to the other whilst soloing.  Jeff Beck's "Star Cycle"(I haven't listened to this cut for many years) SLAMS on this table! Tony Hymas staccato basslines are cleanly articulated and Simon Phillips drum kit has a real presence; tom fills skittering across the stereo field.
  This turntable is a sleeper.  If a tired state trooper were to see you floating along at 120 mph in grandpa's '64 Chrysler Imperial, he'd write it off as an hallucination- which is exactly how you want him to see it if you're the driver.  I'm pretty happy to get this kind of performance from ANY turntable. To get it for far less than the price of a Thorens and completely under the radar is just beautiful.

 Equipment used:    Elac Miracord 40H with Shure M55E cartridge.   Marantz 1120 Integrated Amplifier.   ADS L-910 Loudspeakers on factory stands (R2D2 looking bastards).

 In the Halloween spirit, I hired a ghost-writer to post this months segment of HiFiFreq. The copy he/she/it (please, let's not sexualize the spirit world also) turned in was all: "BOO!" and "Woooo - WOOOoooo"; Provocative and windy rubbish filled with ephemeral descriptors bemoaning the current state of High Fidelity. Having established an imaginary rapport by virtue of a common enemy (the cynical ghost) with you the reader, I continue:  Whilst hunting snarks ( a rather convoluted way to convey the mysterious nature of following or seeking something that remains as yet undefined, but whose allure is more than sufficient to justify continued tracking) sometimes a spooky feeling is induced- I imagine mythic tales of the golden hind evoke a similar haunted glade, shadowed in wraiths of fog and vivid musty odor...a sense of being led as a willing participant down into a darkening valley-lured by sirens and a hunch that unseen riches are just over the next rise, and "Hey, it looks like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed right over there..."  More plainly put, a Craigslist inquiry led to a day trip foraging the innards of a vintage radio repair shop and it's innumerable treasures; one of which being the vocabulary of the proprieter. I imagine this was quite like what heaven must be: a tinkerer's paradise with a nearly unlimited assortment of transformers, a box of old vacuum tubes, and a nearby field where truckers put hand-held citizens-band mics out to pasture. I skip through these Elysian-fields, a butterfly-net wielding idiot in full sunlight, un-ashamed at the joy I feel hefting a vintage speaker with what is surely a 15lb AlNiCo magnet. I'd love to tell you that I filled the car with vintage treasure and handed the owner a fiver, but that would be misleading provocative windy rubbish filled with ephemeral descriptors glorifying a bygone era, a golden age of audio and broadcast electronics and their concomitant technology. I did buy the cutest little tube amp I've ever seen (okay, the Z-vex Nanowatt MIGHT beat it out by a smidge), and a fixer-upper receiver that shall for now remain anonymous.
And, the owner gifted me a couple of coke-bottle shape 5U4 rectifier tubes for an amp I'm restoring and suggested I come back soon. I've started compiling a list...

P.S. As I finish writing this I hear two owls hooting in the backyard. Perfect! Translated, they tell me that the state of HiFi is exactly as it should be.

    The Latest HI-FI-FREQ Installment!!!
                                                                       EXPOSED!

                                            MARANTZ 1072 Console STEREO Amplifier

              The post-surgical detail above illustrates just some of the possibilities in the exciting world of the audio triage unit. We dare not call it necromancy for fear of awakening discerning yet sometimes cruel semanticians slumbering lazily over tomorrows philology sermon.  This here integrated amplifier presented with myriad symptoms, most notably incapacitating distortion in both channels which was traced to a demon lodged in it's spleen. Okay, it was actually a resistor that was  out of tolerance.  8.5 thousand times higher than its target value of 220 ohms, to be approximate. Problem Solved.

          As the author has become disenchanted with surgical metaphor, we will continue in a more colloquial vein. (Un-intended pun; I swear).  I have replaced all of the electrolytic capacitors (very much like the flux-capacitor that made it's acting debut in "Back to the Future") with the highly regarded ELNA SILMIC II; after 30 years the original "caps" in these stereos are on their last legs. The sound? For 36 watts per channel, nothing short of stupendous. Some forums assert that new capacitors need 30 hours of playing to break-in. I've listened for about 20 so far and WOW!  Soundstage is wide, tall and deep. Still retains the Marantz character; strong, rhythmic and tuneful bass; liquid midrange and sparkling treble without a trace of glint or glare. Frankly, this 1072 sounds WAY BETTER than I thought possible from a relatively low-powered integrated amplifier. I fixed and re-capped this with an eye toward selling it. It may be awhile...