The Gearhead

Dynaudio Focus 160 Bookshelf Speakers There’s a new kind of electronic music thriving in its own subgenre these days, one that I enjoy very much. It’s a mix of bebop, jazz, soul and blues in a punchy, creative electronic mix. I’m really not sure what to call it, and attempts I’ve seen so far don’t really capture the spirit of this music, in my opinion. Occasionally, lyrics and a singer are involved, but for the most part it’s an instrumental affair. And a good part of the instrumentation is electronically generated, though much less of it than other electronic genres. Samples are big, binaural recorded samples are bigger, and often real drums, real organ or piano make a notable appearance. See what you think and let me know if you come up with any good terms for this genre. Members include a French multi instrumentalist called Anomalie , a French saxophone and piano player named FKJ (stands for French Kiwi Juice), a Canadian boy/girl duo called Tennyson (my favorite),...

Dynaudio Contour S R Wall Mount Speakers I talk a lot about the sound of speakers or components being “right,” and I want two give a little background on what I mean by that. I grew up steeped in music and surrounded by excellent musicians as the son of a maestro guy, a conductor, composer and choir director. As early as 11 I was helping live-mix or record his large symphonic concerts, and I’ve got a very strong knowledge of the real sound of unamplified acoustic instruments up close. Years of working in a recording studio and even more years of mastering and tweaking certainly have helped inform my ears. There can be many goals for a budding audiophile to aspire to, but one of the most common and hardest to attain is the sense of realism from a sound system. It may be true that if your goal is realism and you achieve that goal, poor or less-than-excellent recordings could become uninspiring, or downright unlistenable. That said, I’ve known a few Harbeths to sound real on a...