Roads to Rome

One of the most unique things about high end audio in the diversity of ideas present in the hobby. I've always believed that there is more than one road to Rome. While every path doesn't make sense to me as long the traveler arrives at the destination, which is musical enjoyment of course who am I to judge? When a designer looks at their products as something that is created, rather than simply manufactured that is always a good sign. After all if they aren't passionate about their offerings what's the chance that anyone else will be? After all we aren't talking about toasters or washing machines. Audio equipment acts as a conduit through which an artistic is conveyed. Just some ideas that these two videos inspired. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh9n9v4bNhY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1KpWkhGFlM

Them Crooked Vultures

In many ways John Paul Jones was the most under appreciated member of Led Zeppelin. Until recently his post-Zeppelin work has been pretty sparse but recently he seems to be making up for lost time. In the last couple of years he has released two excellent solo albums, "Zooma" and "The Thunderthief" and produced a couple of others. On Tuesday, November 17th his next project will be released. The album is a collaboration with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame titled Them Crooked Vultures. It is currently available to stream through youtube.

Even more Beatles remasters news

In addition to The Beatles remasters being released on CD in mono and stereo versions Mojo recently broke the inevitable news that they will also see a vinyl release as well. Thus far there is no news on pricing, stereo and/or mono, or whether they will be sourced from the 24/192 digital masters or analog masters. But it's good news for record lovers everywhere. For those on the complete other end of the spectrum the catalog will also see release on a USB drive according to Reuters news agency, just in time for Christmas of course. Apparently, the release will be limited to 30,000 units. Probably in much the same way that the mono boxed set was "limited" to 10,000 units. In addition to the 320 Kbps MP3 files the drive will also contain the albums in FLAC at 24 bits 44.1 Khz. It's good to see that they are offering people something at higher resolutions than MP3. Now the only question is when will they release the music in 24/192 (possibly on Blu-Ray) because we ALL know that it's coming sooner or later.

The Beatles Mono vs. Stereo

There has been quite a bit of discussion on this blog about the importance of The Beatles catalog in mono. This video does a great job of demonstrating many of the variations.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0p6tOVlKK8&fmt=22