Audiophile PR person extraordinaire, Paul McGowan from PS Audio has a new project that will benefit all of us in the high end audio community and hopefully help the new arrivals to our world as well.

He has gone to great lengths to launch the Audiophile version of Wikipedia, called appropriately the “Audiophile Wiki”. This project just started, but should become a virtual repository for all things related to audio.

Already, yours truly is joining the likes of Michael Fremer, our pal Chris Connaker from Computer Audiophile and others to help explain what makes our hobby so exciting to those less informed.

You can find this fledgling project at:
audiophilewiki.org

Stay tuned, it should be fun!

If you read my feature on slack key guitarist Makana in the April issue and are curious about hearing more, now’s your chance. Wildly popular in his native Oahu, Makana has started his tour of the United States to spread his slack rock message to us malihinis (newcomers). We got to check out his live show last night at the WoW Hall in Eugene, Oregon, and I have to admit that everything I’ve heard about the energy at his live shows is true.

While the crowd was probably small compared to what Makana is used to back home, one audience member said it best when he shouted, “Promise to come back, and we’ll each bring five people to show them how great you are!” After the show, we got to meet Makana, and he’s as warm and genuine as his songs. He even dedicated one of his songs to Jeff’s daughter Monique, who was celebrating her 14th birthday.

Check out makanamusic.com to see if he’ll be coming to your town soon. And tell him your brahs at TONEAudio sent you!

Just got the new Running Springs Dimitri off the UPS truck an hour ago!

From the guys who make the award winning Haley, Duke, Danielle and Jaco, this takes everything they’ve learned at RSA to the next level. Along with more goodies on the inside, the Dimitri has a cool carbon fiber face plate, which will look more at home on your rack.

As I own at least one each of all the other RSA boxes, I am anxious to see how much of an improvement the Dimitri will be. I’ll keep you posted and expect to see a review in TONE online in about a month.

The Dimitri is $4000 USD without power cord, $4500 with a RSA Mongoose power cord and $5800 with their new top of the line cord. (don’t know what they are calling it yet!)

You can get more information at:
www.runningspringsaudio.com

Sorting through some past family pics, I came across this shot from 1983.

While things have come a long way since then, things were pretty good back in the early 80s.  It’s a bit hard to tell from this small picture, but next to my trusty Conrad Johnson PV-2a, is my complete CD collection!  Only 10 little shiny discs.

Who knew?

Arrgh!

No internet service for a few days can really bring you to your knees!

I have no idea what the magician at Comcast did, but when he got over to my house the other day, he made a few measurements, muttered something under his breath and called someone.

A little more muttering on the phone and pow!  Everything worked again.

Stay tuned, we’ll be back to our (almost) daily posts starting tomorrow.

It’s just speakerama here at TONEAudio.

The ML Spires are breaking in rather nicely, Wilson is sending us a pair of Sophia 2’s to review in the near future and I came home to a package from ACI, makers of the TONE Exceptional Value Award winning Sapphire XL.

Inside the box a pair of their newest small speaker, The Emerald XL.  For 700 a pair, these look to be pretty exciting.  Watch our website for a review in about 6 weeks!

www.audioc.com

Next on the list, while in the Salt Lake City area was a trip over to the guys at ZU Audio.

While their approach is a bit different than the folks at Wilson, their passion for music and commitment to quality is just as strong.  Adam Decaria and Sean Casey were in the middle of expansion and remodling, but had enough time to give me a full tour, grab some lunch and give me a great demo of their flagship speakers, The Definition at Adam’s house.  Playing through some 300B amplifiers from Melody, the sound was killer and Adam sent me home with a list of cool records that I need to pick up. Read More »

Sorry about the blog updates, was out of the office in the beautiful state of Utah for the last couple of days.

First stop, Wilson Audio.

By many considered to be the number one company in high end audio, a tour of the plant shows why this reputation is well deserved; these guys are very dedicated to excellence!  With 50 full time employees and a facility clean enough to assemble formula 1 engines, the Wilson plant is a model of efficiency and technology. Read More »

Yep, this guy’s not thinking about VTA, or system synergy at all. Just chilling out in the neighbors lawn.  He does this EVERY day.

I do believe there is a lesson to be learned here. Read More »

I whipped out my iPhone camera, shot a picture and when I turned around, he was gone.

You tell me.

After waiting for the doors to open at the Aladdin Theater for 5 hours, (yep, I was FIRST in line) I got the pleasure of seeing Mutlu, the opening act for Joe Jackson.  Think a big dose of originality along with a few parts Hall and Oates (Abandoned Luncheonette period), and perhaps a bit of early James Taylor as well.

But make no mistake Mutlu has his own sound.

A great singer-songwriter in the Philly tradition, he played a short acoustic set and announced that his new CD would be out in June.

I invite you to peruse his website at: www.mutlusounds.com

This guy is awesome!

-JD

I bought the new Elbow album, The Seldom Seen Kid, a couple of days ago, but I didn’t get a review done in time for Issue 15.  Needless to say, I’m really hooked on this album.  Elbow is one of those bands that releases an album every 3 or 4 years, enough time to almost forget they exist.  And then when a new album does arrive, you get excited about them all over again. Read More »

The short solutions to this situation are:

1. Forget it
2. Run Parallels on your Mac
3. Get a separate Windows only machine

I’m not a Windows hater, so #1 isn’t a good option, but I have to tell you that #2 Suuuuuuks.

After throwing a day of my life away trying to get Parallels to work on my shiny new Power Book Pro with 4gb of RAM, I gave up.  Turns out those in the know said that the only way it will work is with Windows XP.  Hmmm.  Vista users, forget it.  Save yourself the stroke and just get a dedicated Windows box.

I suggest a Mac Mini!  That’s what I’m using and it’s awesome!

The friendly neighborhood freight guy had a surprise for me a day early;

“I’ve got two big cartons for you that aren’t very heavy…”
“Are they from Martin Logan?”
“Yup” Read More »