Ken Micallef

5 days ago | flipboard.com | Ken Micallef

11 hours agoThese Are The Most Cringeworthy Pop Culture Moments From 20 Years Ago That Aged Like MilkWe’d rather forget about "fat Monica." Certain moments in pop culture just haven’t aged well: Think of Friends having Courteney Cox don a fat suit to play “fat Monica,” or Aaliyah’s hit “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number” ― a song written and produced by R.

5 days ago | stereophile.com | Ken Micallef

The Palm Ballroom and adjacent rooms hosted systems from Acora Acoustics, Scott Walker Audio, and VAC—an ambitious collaboration by Valerio Cora, Scott Walker, and Kevin Hayes. The trio presented a range of well-curated systems. Four systems were up and running. Let’s take a closer look. System One featured a VPI Avenger Direct Statement turntable ($36,000)—including a VPI Fatboy Gimbal 12" 3D tonearm—and a Hana Umami Red MC cartridge ($3,950).

1 week ago | stereophile.com | Ken Micallef

Mike Stephens of Farmersville, Texas’s Western HiFi presented one of the show’s top five systems at AXPONA. Built from modestly priced gear, it stopped people in their tracks and kept them planted in their seats—including me. The system’s vinyl front end featured a Well Tempered Lab Amadeus Jr. turntable ($3350) with the matching Ctrl motor controller ($450) and a Dynavector XX-2A cartridge ($2250). A Lejonklou Entity 1.2 MC phono stage ($2795) amplified the signal.

1 week ago | stereophile.com | Ken Micallef

At AXPONA, Nagaoka’s Miyuki Nishii and Jie Ma joined Technics’s Bill Voss to present the full line of Nagaoka cartridges. The Japanese manufacturer is currently seeking US distribution, after years of limited availability in the American market due to a less-than-responsive distributor.

1 week ago | stereophile.com | Ken Micallef

James Farber: Capturing the Live Event...in the Studio Ask the average jazz-loving audiophile to list his favorite recording engineers, and such icons as Rudy Van Gelder, Roy DuNann, and Fred Plaut would top their lists. but if you asked a handful of current and recent New York City jazz musicians to cite their favorites, one name would leap to the front of the pack: James Allen Farber. Farber's engineering and mixing credits span nearly 1000 albums, dating from the mid-1970s to the present day.