Analog Corner #259: Audio Union Döhmann Helix 1 turntable and Schröder CB tonearm

Turntables, tonearms, and phono cartridges are tuned systems. That each of them can be adjusted to maximize the sound quality—especially the quality called tunefulness, which is difficult to quantify—drives vinyl deniers crazy. Today, one of them e-mailed me: “You are the stupidest motherfucker I have ever encountered. Go shove a tone-arm up your ass.” He…

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Bed-Stuy ci·né·ma-vé·ri·té

Click:integrated circuit distributorI would love Art Dudley even if I had never met him, listened to bluegrass with him, or swapped stories about aliens near a campfire under a milky-way-filled Cherry Valley sky. I would love him because he’s Art D. and his audio writings are so I-am-there intimate and engrossing. Unfortunately, every time I…

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Russie : scandale après une soirée de la jet-set à Moscou

Des célébrités court-vêtues, des vêtements transparents, voire carrément absents. En quelques jours, les images d’une soirée moscovite ont suffi à enflammer les débats en Russie. “Tout cela est vulgaire, grossier et indigne de l’élite”, a-t-il été déclaré sur un plateau de télévision. “Presque nu”, c’est le nom de cette soirée organisée peu avant Noël à…

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The Sound and the Image

Photo by Jim Austin, ​Nikon D810, Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VR It’s not surprising that many people, like me, love nice cameras and good stereo gear. In my worse moments, I attribute this to mere consumerism: We love expensive stuff and the thrill of buying something new, whether for reproducing music or creating visual images. In…

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