The extensive Hana moving coil cartridge lineup manufactured in Japan by the half-century old Excel Sound Corporation (“controversial” factory tour embedded below) is a high value, performance, and quality, logically progressing array that until the release of the $3950 Umami Red was priced from a $475 low to a $1200 high. Remarkably moderate prices in today’s cartridge market.
Why am I reviewing a CD???? The answer(s) are easy. Firstly, this loving tribute to Les Paul featuring longtime trio cohort Lou Pallo and others with whom Les played at Fat Tuesdays and the Iridium is musically fabulous assuming you like the timeless "old school" style.
From the second the stylus hits the…er I mean the laser hits the pits, you'll know this is a stunning sounding live recording of a jazz trio. You'll feel as if you're in the Up Over Jazz Café, where this set was brilliantly recorded by Kato Hideki.
Just concluded day two of High End 2013 in Munich. The MOC Convention Center was packed. It's a large venue sort of like a somewhat smaller Javits Center in New York City. Not all of it was used for the show but much of it was, including an enormous ground level space and much of the second and third floor atrium area.
Even if you are an infrequent TV viewer, chances are you've seen the Dell commercial that uses as a music bed a cover of the great Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman song "This Magic Moment" originally performed by Ben E. King and The Drifters and later covered by Jay and The Americans among others. The only ads running more frequently are the ones that say "your erectile dysfunction is a matter of blood flow".
My understanding, perhaps incorrect, is that because the radio show aired and is archived for streaming on a radio station that is a signatory to the licensing agreement that allows music to be played on the radio and streamed on the Internet in the first place, that it would be legal for me to put the show on Soundcloud and allow you to hear it.
Back in 2015 Wall Steet Journal correspondent Neil Shah wrote a curious piece called “The Biggest Music Comeback of 2014: Vinyl Records”. Curious because while the headline heralds that “the biggest music comeback of 2014” was the resurgence of vinyl records, the story itself threw a mud caked wet blanket over the entire experience, one created by Mr. Shah’s cynical and highly selective use of the information he obtained by talking to people in the industry.
In retrospect it’s easy to understand why these superstars would want to write and perform this codger-esque novelty stuff under assumed names. They must have figured that while writing and singing this lighthearted fare inspired by the music of their formative years was fun, they were hardly washed up artists and had more greatness within waiting to pour forth.
Mr. Hiroshi Ishihara of the Japan-based Sibatech, Inc. showed me the unusual and perhaps revolutionary Rigid Float RFE-02H/7 tonearm. The pivot floats in oil with absolutely no other means of support, but more unusual about this design by Mr. Koichiro Akimoto is that the arm geometry features neither an offset angle at the headshell nor an "S" shaped arm tube!