News

(photo by Christopher Vetur, who is forgiven for the fingers on the grooves)

A record label, a record store, a high end headphone manufacturer, a college radio station and a well-respected mastering engineer team up with recording artists to present an event touting live music and high quality sound from vinyl records.

Am I dreaming? No. This is the kind of event the audio industry has talked about for decades. I remember David Chesky telling me "You should rent a U-Haul truck and tour colleges with a good audio system to expose young people to the pleasures of listening to well-reproduced music."

When I asked who will pay for this adventure he had no answer.

Now look! First, here's what Butterscotch Records' Allen Farmelo says:

“In our era of compressed MP3s and horrible earbuds dangling from phones, I’m thrilled that people will get a chance to hear our records in analog on some of the best turntables and headphones available. With vinyl and turntable sales skyrocketing, clearly people are craving hi-fidelity experiences again, and we hope to provide a hi-fi experience without the snobbery too often affiliated with it.”

Good for you Allen, but keep in mind that most of the "snobbery" is projected upon the experience by those who are threatened by quality.

Mr. Farmelo's Butterscotch Records is teaming up with the Audeze Headphone folks, UCLA Radio, the Los Angeles vinyl retailer Touch Vinyl and the label's recording artists Graph Rabbit and Wilco's Mikael Jorgensen for the February 22nd event.

The artists will perform live and at special high-end turntable listening stations set-up by Audeze, attendees will get to hear great sound. Also attending will be Masterdisk mastering engineer Alex Deturk.

The press blurb goes on to say "...an event that will celebrate the rising interest in high-fidleity, vinyl and the revival of craft-class record making!"

How great is this? I hope they've got decent turntables properly set up. If you are in L.A. please stop by and let me know!