More Placement Tweaks

The Neverending Hobby: Still fidgeting with speaker placement these last few weeks. Apparently the Purity's are VERY finicky about placement. ML recommends toeing in each speaker slightly and using a flashlight pointed at the grill when seated so that the reflection originates from the inner 1/3rd. It also says that toeing steeper inwards causes a deeper sound vs. outwards which increases brightness/treble. I pulled the speakers closer to the couch and toed them in much more. They are now shy of 1/2 panel reflection. As you have been reading all along the unbalanced output from the right speaker has been the bane of my existence. The imbalance has been mitigated to some extent there there remains some dampening on vocals which are thankfully originating more from the center (inside the brain so to say) The goal is to obtain that "transparency" that audiophiles often gush about where speakers tend to "dissapear" leaving you with just soundwaves and the room. Also am noticing an increase in holographic sound with which I use acoustic music and specifically harmonics to test out. I will continue to try moving the speakers closer and play with the toe-in to see if I can solve the above issues.

High Schoolers look to build quality TT's for cheap

With a healthy $2500 grant Bob Hertig and Peter Maltzan high school students at Lexington High see a market opp for no-frills quality turntable and aim to design one from the bottom up. Their target price tag will hover around $150. The rest of the article regurgitates audiophile babble about vinyl being "warmer" and having more dynamic range which are both observations that have debunked in AB AB tests time and time again.
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HGTV Million Dollar Rooms 2 - Kipnis Studios $6 Million Dollar TRINITY U...

My Bloody Valentine re-gifts old blood as new

Put those torrents away because it's official!

My Bloody Valentine have finally confirmed their long-awaited reissue series. On May 7, Sony will reissue their seminal albums (1991's Loveless and 1988's Isn't Anything) as well as EP's 1988-1991, featuring previously unreleased material, rare tracks, and four EPs: Feed Me With Your Kiss, You Made Me Realise, Glider, and Tremolo.

Kevin Shields personally remastered both Loveless and Isn't Anything at London's Metropolis Studios. Loveless will be released as a 2-disc set that also features a previously unreleased version of the record, mastered from original analog tapes.

Watch the video for "Only Shallow" after this epic tracklisting.

Isn't Anything: 

01 Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside)
02 Lose My Breath
03 Cupid Come
04 (When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream
05 No More Sorry
06 All I Need
07 Feed Me With Your Kiss
08 Sueisfine
09 Several Girls Galore
10 You Never Should
11 Nothing Much to Lose
12 I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It)

Loveless:

Disc 1 [Remastered from original tape]:

01 Only Shallow
02 Loomer
03 Touched
04 To Here Knows When
05 When You Sleep
06 I Only Said
07 Come in Alone
08 Sometimes
09 Blown a Wish
10 What You Know
11 Soon 

Disc 2 [Mastered from original ½ inch analogue tapes]:

01 Only Shallow
02 Loomer
03 Touched
04 To Here Knows When
05 When You Sleep
06 I Only Said
07 Come in Alone
08 Sometimes
09 Blown a Wish
10 What You Know
11 Soon

EPs 1988-1991:

Disc 1:

01 You Made Me Realise #
02 Slow #
03 Thorn #
04 Cigarette in Your Bed #
05 Drive It All Over Me #
06 Feed Me With Your Kiss $
07 I Believe $
08 Emptiness Inside $
09 I Need No Trust $
10 Soon %
11 Don't Ask Why %
12 Off Your Face %

# From the You Made Me Realise EP
$ From the Feed Me With Your Kiss EP
% From the Glider EP

Disc 2:

01 To Here Knows When ^
02 Swallow ^
03 Honey Power ^
04 Moon Song ^
05 Instrumental no. 2 !
06 Instrumental no. 1 !
07  Glider [full-length version] &
08  Sugar +
09  Angel *
10 Good for You *
11 How Do You Do It *

^ From the Tremolo EP
! Distributed on a free 7" with first 5000 Isn't Anything LPs
& B-side on the "Soon (The Andrew Weatherall Mix)" 12”
+ Promo-only B-Side on "Only Shallow", France only
* Previously unreleased

Mars Volta new album streaming live on Rollingstone.com

http://www1.rollingstone.com/hearitnow/player/marsvolta1.html

The Smiths take home best reissue award at the NME's

They beat out albums such as Nirvana's Nevemind and The Rolling Stones "Some Girls"
Johnny Marr (guitarist) when asked if The Smiths would ever re-form he answered


"We won't be reforming this week. Maybe if the government stepped down. If this government stepped down, I'll reform the band. How's that? That's a fair trade, isn't it? I think the country would be better off, don't you? I'll do it if the coalition steps down."

One can only dream...

image and quote courtesy of NME

Apple reportedly working on new hifi audio format

According to macrumors.com apple is working on a cutting edge hi-def audio format that will be a part of it's itunes match offering. It apparently will adapt its fideltiy according to bandwidth,latency, and other network conditions.
Will apple finally bring hifi to the masses? If anyone can do it it's Apple. Just look at how they got most of the music studios to let Apple sell their music without DRM.
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