The K Lounge: Music for Everyone

2005-09-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

Apple strikes again!

I new it would happen sooner rather then later... yes, Apple has struck again, and threw down the gauntlet for the next generation of iPod's and imitators. Steve Jobs, his usual self, launched what can only be described as a totally awesome, revolutionary new gadget, the iPod Nano - words simply cant describe the coolness factor, so here's a few images for your viewing pleasure:

Truly a work of art, no doubt Jonathan Ives, head designer at Apple, has outdone himself with this new iPod design. Also noteworthy is the fact that Apple decided to launch it with 2 colors, white and black; black being particurarly striking. Along with it, iTunes now stands at version number 5, with some nice improvements and overall benefits to the enduser. Not revolutionary as the iPod Nano, but a nice upgrade - http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Stay tuned for more and perhaps a first look if I manage to score one this weekend.

Dell 2405 x 2

2005-09-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

Dell 2405 x 2…

Off to other parts of my cumulative look at electronics and other wonders of modern scientific enlightenment: the Dell 2405, a 24” LCD monitor which you can typically grab for as little as $899 if you spend some time looking for coupons on Dell’s website. Having 2 of these is truly a breathtaking experience, considering that you now have an effective desktop area the size of a small country? Just kidding of course, nevertheless, it does serve a great purpose to me personally, as I typically have anywhere from 10 to 15 apps open at any given time (above is a real-time screenshot capture of my desktop in action). What is so neat about the Dell’s, as opposed to Apple’s equally stunning, if better looking 23” LCD’s, is the fact that 1. They are in typical Dell fashion inexpensive; 2. The LCD used is Samsung highest-end model; 3. They have built in 8 in 1 card readers and 4 (!) USB ports. Image quality is, well, superb with super sharp display and a brightness that will leave you asking yourself how you could have done without it. Editing photos is now a breeze, and my favorite music mastering software, Steinberg’s Wavelab 5 is now stunning in its usefulness. The only caveat: you have to have a powerful video card to run these displays at their native resolution of 1920x1200 – dual dvi capable video cards would be ideal; any decent ATI or nVidia card should do.

2005-09-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Zero One makes music alive again!

www.zerooneaudio.com

You can of course read the review over at PFO, http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue20/zeroone.htm alas, I have to say I am more impressed with the unit now then perhaps even before - the simple reason for that is the fact that since my ZeroOne review, I had been listening to the Bladelius Freja, www.bladelius.com player and lastly, the Naim cdx5 (review forthcoming). While both players are good for the market they were designed to compete in, inserting the ZeroOne back into my system this morning was almost revelatory, as the unit plays on a far higher level of realism and sounds rather alive, if you can follow my drift... I copied a bunch of new cd's onto the HD and was smashed back into my Ikea listening chair as I reveled in maximum sonic bliss. ZeroOne is deffinitley on to something, indeed, it would appear that many are beginning to venture down the road of HD based music servers - if anything, it will perhaps allow for a bridge in the gap from average music listeners to audiophiles who care not only about music, but the means of its content delivery, ie. the sonic's associated with any given performance. Since more then 22 million iPod's have been sold to date (and this quarter's numbers haven't been published yet) it would appear that music is still in the hearts and minds of many, if only they could be all exposed to high quality music playback, well, that would be a good th-aaa-ng! More news and other such trivia to follow shortly... also, stay tuned for Septemeber 12th, when Microsoft will host the annual PDC developers conference, with rumors of a new build of Vista being handed out to attendees.

2005-09-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

Rocky Mountain Audio Fest... almost here!
www.audiofest.net

hard to believe, but a year flew by... almost that time again to pack and get to Denver, CO for a spectacular hifi-show extravaganzza! PFO (Positive-Feedback Online) will be there, and we'll be podcasting from the event, provided no unforeseen mishaps happen along the way...

lot's of interviews with manufacturers and most importantly: YOU! the consumer Yep, no point in any of this audio-mumbo-jumbo unless people dig into their pockets and spend their hard earned money $$$. Feel free to post some questions here on my site; what you would like answered, etc. I'll do my best to pick the say, top 10 questions and your name will be podcast along with it!... wanna be famous? here's your chance...

more updates as we get closer to the event...

Best,

Danny

2005-09-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

Cudos to Steve Eddy,
founder of www.q-audio.com

seriously, Steve's a great guy, and here's why!

sometime ago, I embarked on my mission to launch an all analog recording studio for making mostly live to 2-track recordings, often referred to as minimalist recordings, due to their minimal 2 microphone setup. The foundation for this studio would be two analog super recorders, the mighty Telefunken-AEG M20 and equally stunning, if ever so portable, Stellavox SM-8 "Stellamaster" reel to reel recorder. At some point I gave consideration to also obtaining the Stellavox AMI48 5 channel mixer and mic-preamp equalling the stunning results obtained from using the mic-pre's inside the SM-8, which turn out to be identical and among the finest of preamps ever designed. Of course Kavi Alexander, truly a recording genius if ever there was one, also offered his help and aid (Kavi founded www.waterlilyacoustics.com a superb audiophile music label) and suggested to get a pair of British made vintage Cole microphones, available from another legend in audio, Wes Dooley, www.wesdooley.com Another legend I look up to, Jim Merod, founder of the BluePort Jazz label, also gave his input and simply said this: record something already would you!? To make a long, long story short, I ended up with the Stellavox but due to the design of it, without the appropriate cables! Come to find out, the smart fella's at Stellavox designed their units around the best available connectors (then and now, keep in mind this machine was a late 1984 model) which turn out to be Amphenol-Tuchel connectors, somewhat irregular. After long search and much frustration Steve came to me by way of another good friend and manufacturer, Alan Kafton of www.audioexcellenceaz.com (Alan makes superb power line conditioners "The PowerWing" and the famous "Cable-Cooker"). Shortly after our first contact, Steve had found a source for these Tuchel's and voila, we are in the process of making this all work out just fine. Steve's superb cables will be on their way to me within the next 2 weeks or so...

Can't wait to get to work with this new "office" of mine and capture some awesome music!

Neeldess to say, many friends had suggested I am nutts for going analog, but hey what fun would it be otherwise?

2005-09-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

Moved my blogspot to a new site... right here at Blogger.com!

After a few weeks of flirts with www.libsyn.com I found that Blogger service is far more apt at handling my blogs... as a result I moved all my other entries over to this new server for the time being. I'll keep track of all the progress we will make and see how busy this site will become.

In the meantime stay tuned for another fresh round of podcasts coming soon, and don't forget we will be attending Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, www.audiofest.net

Meanwhile you should be reading my Bladelius Freja review just about the time you read this, over on www.positive-feedback.com

Cheers!

2005-09-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

A new month, a new quirk!

So here I am, finally caught up with uploading all my analog interviews and broadcasts to mp3 format for your listening pleasure and voila, what happens next? My computer develops a sudden and strange dynamic link library (.dll) issue which prohibits me from booting up Windows MCE 2005. All us computer geeks are all too familiar with dll HELL as it is commonly referred to; suffice is to say that no amount of restoring was able to fix the issue - a clean, fresh reformat was on order and a subsequent reinstall of Windows MCE. Now that I can put that safley behind me, I will get around to finally uploading all my podcasts!!! See you on your favorite iPod dial!

2005-08-31T17:14:00.000-07:00

Seems like I was a bit too hasty in (pre)announcing my podcast series - rest assured it's only a brief delay - however, the problem lies in the fact that I am using an older analog model Panasonic micro cassette recorder for the first wave of podcasts; I am supposed to receive a very nice pair of microphones shortly which will form the basis of my studio podcasts. Anyway, come to find out that Windows XP (actually I use Media Center Edition 2005) does not offer any sort of built in software to record sound, ie. from either a mic or line input on your soundcard. The little app they have, only allos for up to 60s of recording time... silly! I am in the process of getting some audio recording software for the computer to transcribe these first podcasts; I should finally have them up and running by this weekend, barring any new problems... Thank's for hanging in there for me!

2005-08-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

this week has been busier then usual for me personally, hence the slightly delayed uploading of the following 3, first ever podcasts: ZuCable interview McCormack interview VMPS Loudspeaker interview and of course, your very own super-host's commentary, analysis and other electronic news and gadgets. Meanwhile I am busy writing up some interesting reviews at Positive-Feedback, including the just received Ortofon Kontrapunkt B, Phase-Tech P-1 and other interesting cartridges... Stay tuned for more exciting action!

2005-08-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

Leave it up to Bob Levi, President of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, "America's Premier Audio Society" to show us all a good time! This time the featured guests and first ever equipment was VMPS, Son of Ampzilla & the McCormack UDP-1 universal disc player, all wired up by Soundstring cables, interconnects and power chords. What was special about this event was the fact that we heard Trinaural playback of 2-channel music. Unlike stereo, which Jim Bongiorno (ampzilla & trinaural processor inventor) feels has its short comings, trinaural playback features 3 identical front speakers for more natural center fill and spatical cues.
The sound was as good as it could be in such a large room; I have no doubt that the system would have been dramatically improved by better room interaction. With me of course my trusted Panasonic dictaphone (all analog!) with some juicy and superb interviews and insights from this great event. Stay tuned to the K Lounge: music for everyone! for the podcast coming soon! Best, Danny

2005-08-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hi all, www.zucable.com had an interesting demo going on this weekend, right here in the good ol' city of Angels. Coniciding with our very first K Lounge podcast exclusive, I have to commend the fine guys at ZuCable for truly seeing what this industry needs: public exposure!

Let's face it, most look at us as some sort of alien lifeform, visiting from another planet; does anyone actually listen to music anymore? You bet! Hint: Apple has sold more then 22 million iPod's thusfar... 22 million people can't possibly be wrong! What's so cool about the guys from http://www.ZuCable.com is the fact that they appear to understand the concept of inviting regular music lovers to visit them and check out loudspeakers and cables that we all can actually afford - hey, now there's a novel concept, clever indeed. For more info and to hear what they are all about from the founder himself, stay tuned for our first ever podcast, "live" from ZuCable so to speak...
The event was pretty cool itself, what with anything from Yello to Diane Krall being played. Equipment wise they had all 3 speakers there, the Tone, Druid and Definition, with low level frequencies being handled by the Method subwoofer. A small-ish, 4 watt per channel DIY japanese tube amp was handling the 101db efficient speakers, with a Consonance player feeding the zero's and one's. Sonically, the event was limited by what you can achieve in a hotel room, albeit a nice one, in North Hollywood - event pictures and such to follow. Nice stuff - everyone should pay close attention to these guys! More to come from tomorrow's exclusive podcast & blog, right here at the K Lounge: music for everyone! Cheers all, Danny Kaey

2005-08-19T15:47:00.000-07:00

Long Beach, August 19, 2005, for immediate release, www.positive-feedback.com

“Friends, Roman’s Countrymen… lend me your ears…” it was only a matter of time until my latest project came to life – announcing the first of a podcast series tied in with my fine colleagues and friends at Positive-Feedback Online, The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society “America’s Premier Audio Society” (http://laocaudiosociety.net/).

Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenon that is taking the internet by storm – it is a fused term consisting of the fabulous Apple iPod and the term Broadcasting = podcasting. All my faithful readers know by now that I have been a firm supporter of the iPod since day 1; if you are new to us and the magazine, feel free to browse through my two articles, http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue8/ipod.htm and http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue10/ipod2.htm to see how I feel about this revolutionary new distribution medium. Most importantly, it has served as a conduit to enjoy what all of use feel so good about and is indeed the essence of this entire industry: music! I feel that the more iPod’s are sold, the more people will listen to music – kind of simple and logical, wouldn’t you think? As an advocate for iPod’s I have taken a fair amount of flak from those who feel the iPod is not worthy of audiophiles and similar attitudes; my answer to all those is quite the opposite: reading between the lines of all audio related publications is the fact that most feel that new members are needed or the industry will find itself on dire straits, after all, all these components and toys need to be sold to someone, somewhere.

My goal then is simple – to create an interest in high end audio within those who have never been exposed to the beauty of well reproduced music. I will create a two way street if you wish for all of us to exchange views, commentary, product features and reviews. If all goes as planned, and I will do anything I can to make sure that happens, we will infuse new members into our beloved hobby by using the very means this group of people feels so connected to: the iPod. Clever I say! My podcast’s will be featured on a weekly basis, the very first one being prepared this weekend at the Zu Tour in Los Angeles, August 20, www.zucable.com. Staying firmly on my toes, I will lead right into the now famously orchestrated and world renowned Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society “America’s Premier Audio Society”, http://laocaudiosociety.net bash on Sunday August 21, featuring commentary and news from the smash event (VMPS, Ampzilla, and many more!).

Needless to say I will also be featuring more mainstream news, covering a wide variety of electronic gadgets and other such devices. On a technical note, the podcast will be featured as an mp3 file, so you won’t need an iPod for playback! Any mp3 player will be just fine and you can of course always burn the file to your cd and listen to it at work, in your car, well, you get the picture. Podcast information will be featured and published on this site as well as iTunes and other such hosting sites, look for links to this page on your favorite websites and thank you for tuning in. And remember, this is Danny Kaey podcasting from Long Beach, California, please check this space frequently and tune in so you won’t miss a beat! Comments, suggestions and other trivia, please send to danny@nobigtalk.com