Well folks, after a few days off from finishing issue 16, we are back in action.

Here in Boston to test drive the new Bentley Continental Flying Spur. Not just any Bentley, I might add, but one outfitted with the new Naim HiFi System made specifically for Bentley.

I’ll keep you posted with more pictures and initial sound impressions tomorrow evening.

I’m placing an advance bet that this is a winner.

For a little more information click here:
http://www.bentleymotors.com/Corporate/display.aspx?infid=1292

This is why it’s so great to be Snoop Dogg.

I took my good friend Ken Ball from ALO Audio to check out the show in Portland last night and we had a blast. Snoop did about an hour and a half set and had the whole place up and bouncing.

At the end of the show when he said “how many of you bitches want to get down with Snoop Dogg” about fifty women jumped right up on stage. Awesome.

Read the whole report with more pics on our website in the new section (to be unveiled on Tues) called concert watch, which will be presented by Music Giants.

Last night, staff writer Jerold O’Brien and I took a stroll down to Esther Short Park, here in Vancouver to grab a couple of brats, drink some beer and check out the scene. Legendary guitarist Peter Frampton was the headline act and we were very curious to see if he was just another geezer cashing in on former fame or the real deal.

A great time was had by all, but Frampton looked like he was having the most fun. He played a tight set and proved that he’s still a legendary guitar powerhouse.

From now till the end of the year, he’s got a full calendar. If he’s in your town and you are curious, you won’t be disappointed.

www.frampton.com

This is just bitchin. Takes you back, doesn’t it?

Somehow, the stress at deadline is easily cured by a trip to my favorite used hifi shop, Echo Audio in Portland, Oregon

I dragged the Vinyl Anachronist out for some chow at the Thai Peacock, right down the street from Echo and after a hearty bowl of curry,, we wandered in to see what goodies lurked on Kurt’s shelves.

As usual, it was treasure time. This mint Nakamich 700 ZXL was staring me right in the face. You’ll be reading about this one in TONE one of these days. It’s a keeper.

Lew Johnson likes to say “You can never have too much Conrad-Johnson gear” and I couldn’t agree more. Echo just happened to have a mint specimen of their first amplifier, the MV-75. I’ve owned all of the EL-34 based C-J power amps at one time or another, so it was time to graduate to this one with 6550’s under the hood.

The MV-75 was C-J’s first amplifier back in 1979 and this one still sounds darn good!

Seems like everyone is getting out of physical media these days.

Another good friend stopped by with a few big boxes of CD’s that are now living on a music server. Being the friend of physical media that I am, his 500 CD’s found a happy home. Well, at least 400 of them. The rest are getting passed on to friends. Gotta spread the love around.

If you have a record or CD collection to get rid of, let us know!

Today the Spiral Groove SG-2 turntable arrived along with a black Triplanar arm.

It’s going to have to wait until the new issue is done to set up, but it is gorgeous there!

Having spent some time with the SG-1 when I went to the Immedia offices earlier this year, I know these guys are on to something really good with the SG-2. There’s also a nice new Skala from Lyra to listen to as well, so stay tuned for more analog bliss.

Sorry about the latin that was up here, not trying to be clever, just screwed up!!

With all the rain this week, it was a great time to go through the first shipment of albums that arrived last week and found some great treasures! Nothing like the smell of old albums to make your day.

Surprisingly enough almost everything was in great shape. Some of the covers were a little tattered, but the vinyl inside was good. Nothing a quick pass on my trusty Clearaudio record cleaning machine. Even found a few rarities, a pink Pink Floyd Animals album and an AA British pressing of Steely Dan’s AJA.

Too many more to list. But the sun is coming out soon.

If you are a fusion fan, Return to Forever was probably at the top of your playlist in the 70’s. I know it was for me. Al DiMeola, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White not only redefined the genre, but after RTF disbanded, they all went on to successful solo careers.

In a move that you rarely see with older acts today, Return to Forever is back in action with all the original members. Nothing is worse than going to see one of your favorite bands from a while ago and it’s only half (or even a fifth) of the guys you remembered and a bunch of new, no-name guys in their place.

This is the real deal folks and these guys haven’t lost an ounce of virtuosity. Matter of fact, they are like that really expensive bottle of wine that you bought before it’s proper serve date and is now perfect.

Check out the official website at www.return2forever.com to get tour dates and see a few clips of the guys rehearsing, you will see what I mean. You rarely get to see four jazz greats at the top of their game on the same stage. This is as good as it gets!

Nothing like coming home to 24 cartons of records waiting to be unboxed!

Yep, I live for days like this. One of our writers decided to get out of LP’s for good and wanted to make sure they would have a good home.

The only bad news is that I’m on deadline and I pretty much have to stare at these for about 10 more days till the issue is done. But I did crack open a few boxes and there are some definite treasures lurking.

Got LP’s you want to get rid of, let me know!

And that’s how I found them, asleep in the office.

After a grueling week of finishing the new website, I found our chief designer asleep in her office with the company mascot.

But it’s done!

The new site has some new features that we hope you will find compelling. Now, along with every cover, there is a complete table of contents that you can open up for every issue. We’ve added more music and links for you to purchase said music.

And we have more goodies coming later this summer, so stay tuned and thanks for reading!