Michael Fremer

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Michael Fremer | Nov 27, 2017 | First Published: Aug 01, 2000 | 2 comments

Joni Mitchell played The Theater at Madison Square Garden recently, supporting her new CD, Both Sides Now. Mitchell with symphony orchestra sounded like a no-brainer, so we got tickets, though by the time my friend was able to get through online to Ticketmaster the best seats were gone. We got second-best accommodations for $75, which seemed reasonable, given the cost of rehearsing an orchestra, then traipsing around the country with it.

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #62

Michael Fremer | Nov 30, 2017 | First Published: Sep 01, 2000 | 0 comments

What's June without a hi-fi show? With Stereophile's exhibition put on hold for 2000 while emapUSA sorts out future possibilities—Manhattan in May 2001 is the most probable place and date—I flashed on High End 1996 in Frankfurt, Germany, a June show I'd attended and reported on in this column. German audiophiles were still heavily into vinyl back then, so why not hit High End 2000?

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #63

Michael Fremer | Dec 04, 2017 | First Published: Oct 01, 2000 | 11 comments

"Simply Annoying," the section of last February's "Analog Corner" devoted to British reissue company Simply Vinyl, did not result in any clarification from the label regarding its source material—my e-mails went unanswered. Apparently, however, some consumers have had more luck.

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #64

Michael Fremer | Dec 08, 2017 | First Published: Nov 01, 2000 | 5 comments

First, let's throw egg on a few faces. Due to a communications screw-up, I passed on to you some wrong and incomplete information about the workings of the Lyra Helikon cartridge in my August 2000 "Analog Corner." Without assessing percentages of blame, let's just say that the three likely suspects (manufacturer Scan-Tech, American importer Immedia, and yours truly) accept full responsibility for the misinformation and miscommunication. I'm being generous here by including myself, but hey, you know me. (Actually, you don't, which is why I can claim to be generous.)

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #65

Michael Fremer | Dec 11, 2017 | First Published: Dec 01, 2000 | 2 comments

The OTT V.Y.G.E.R. Indian turntable made its debut at the 2000 Top Audio and Video Show in Milan

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #66

Michael Fremer | Dec 15, 2017 | First Published: Jan 01, 2001 | 11 comments

Despite being shown concrete documentation that analog is alive, well, and growing, there are still some audio writers who deny its very existence. I'm talking about some of the folks at Sound & Vision. I haven't popped off in print about other magazines in this column (much)—it's not good form. True, when yakking with industry types, I've occasionally referred to that magazine as Deaf & Blind, and it's obviously gotten back to them: the "Hellos" and handshakes at press events have turned to icy stares. Just joking, guys! After all, we're Stereopile. Then there's The Obso!ete Sound. Ha ha ha ha. Sticks and stones, etc.

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #67

Michael Fremer | Dec 20, 2017 | First Published: Feb 01, 2001 | 0 comments

Comparing DIN-to-RCA phono cables is a daunting enough task without the distraction of watching a nation unable to figure out who it elected president, partly because it relies on 40-year-old punchcard technology to tally votes. Haven't election officials heard that digital is perfect?

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #68

Michael Fremer | Jan 02, 2018 | First Published: Mar 01, 2001 | 2 comments

In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick depicted a Pan American Airlines shuttle whizzing space commuters to an orbiting circular station, where they communicated with earthbound loved ones via a Bell Telephone videophone. Pillbox-hatted stewardesses served up vacuum-bagged space gruel sucked from straws.

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #69

Michael Fremer | Jan 08, 2018 | First Published: Apr 01, 2001 | 0 comments

Every time I attend CES in Las Vegas, I wonder if this is the year the seemingly fragile analog bubble has finally burst. That day may eventually come, but not 2001. On Day One in the Alexis Park's ballroom booth area, where the record and accessory vendors hold court, I ran into Music Direct's Josh Bizar, who volunteered, "This December through the Christmas season we sold more turntables, more cartridges, and more vinyl than in any Christmas we've ever had. This is the biggest vinyl heyday we've had in our company's history."

Analog Corner

Analog Corner #7

Michael Fremer | Jan 11, 1996 | 0 comments

Rhino's excellent John Coltrane compilation is also available on limited-edition vinyl.

A few days ago I spoke with Gene Paul, the veteran mastering engineer who digitally transferred Atlantic Records' Coltrane catalog for Rhino's The Heavyweight Champion—The Complete Atlantic Recordings (Rhino R2 71984)—a superbly packaged "sessionography" on eight CDs (Footnote 1).

The set sounds outstanding for CD (I haven't heard the vinyl yet), and I wanted to know what converter Paul had used. I don't want to rain on anyone's digital parade, but he told me a stock Sony PCM-1630. No Wadia, no Apogee, no DCS, no gazillion-times oversamping, no SBM box—a stock '1630. "Why?" I asked. "Don't you hear differences among converters?" He said that he did, adding that if you want to change the sound, those devices do, but in his opinion the biggest difference is in the analog playback deck. Once you digitize the signal, he said, "the damage is done." The Coltrane masters were played back on a vintage MCI open-reel deck.

Okay, I give! Analog and vinyl reproduction do not have "infinite resolution," as I claimed here recently, but I didn't mean to be taken quite as literally as some letter-writers took me. Film doesn't have "infinite resolution" either, but compared to current commercial video tape, it does.

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Michael Fremer

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