August 2020

Welcome To Enjoy the Music.com's
Special 25th Anniversary Edition
This month's magazine will be followed by a very special Blue Note Award issue in September.
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin

  Wish there was more time within a day.

While that might may sound like a weird way to start off an editorial during this site's 25th Anniversary issue, 25 years is a very short period of time. With each passing day, there are times the many ideas that never came to fruition haunt my mind. There are, literally, hundreds of ideas that have come and gone over the past 25 years. This month's Enjoy the Music.com Review Magazine celebrates the first part of our 25th Anniversary celebration. During September we'll celebrate our very special Blue Note Awards issue.

Within this month's Review Magazine, my desire was to feature many of the hardworking music professionals who have brought musical bliss to billions of music lovers worldwide. I also wanted our writers to share their love of music too. Their assignment was to (basically) let you know why, and perhaps specifically which, music (albums) they love. Without music, our fancy hi-fi systems are essentially home décor akin to a decorative table or comfy sofa.

As proof we hear you, and we do listen, our Review Magazine has been growing to the point that this month also brings you a true monthly issue. What do I mean by that? In the past we'd lump two monthly issues into one within our table of contents (TOC), yet the TOC with two months' worth of content has grown so large that... and so this month and going forward we're posting monthly TOCs. In other words, our Review Magazine homepage is now a single month's issue due to our ongoing growth and numbers of articles per month. Of course if you want to see any of our previous issues over the past few years there are links at the bottom of each month's Review Magazine homepage.

In This Issue...
First up is my own article Looking Towards The Future, where we take a very brief look back at hi-fi history, including gear and magazines, and then take a bit of looking into the present. Eventually, I also discuss a few tidbits about the (possible) future. Industry veteran Roger Skoff's Music And Me, where he says "When I was a little kid and all through my childhood — even into my college years — first my parents, and then I, just about always had the radio going as the background for whatever we were doing". Music was always there to be enjoyed to the fullest, or at least to the best of then technology could produce.

Next up is an incredible article by Dan Daley of Sound & Communications, who gives us an excellent overview of the GRAMMY Immersive sound and interactive museum. The Recording Academy's 30,000-square-foot combined gallery, repository and salon on the L.A. Live campus in downtown Los Angeles CA was first opened in December 2008. The venue has undergone periodic updates that reflect the relentless and ever-faster cycle of pop music and the other genres it represents.

Within Part 1 of Enjoy the Music.com's special 25th Anniversary issue we're honored to have some of the very best audiophile labels chime in. Mo-Fi Sounds Great On Your Hi-Fi helps to celebrate 35 years of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab working with many talented engineers, designers, and visionaries. Senior Mastering Engineer at Mo-Fi, Shawn R. Britton, gives you an exclusive look into their history and guidance that brings them to today's exquisite-sounding reissues.

This is followed by Marcia Martin, Executive Director Of Reference Recordings, a company that since 1976 has produces GRAMMY-worth albums in audiophile sound quality. Reference Recordings was founded in 1976 by producer John Tamblyn ("Tam") Henderson, who combined his love and knowledge of music with his quest for "the sound of real musicians making music in real space." Next up is the most kind, sweetest, and caring Cookie Marenco, Founder of Blue Coast Records, who shares with us her career as a recording engineer (which started by accident!). She was teaching classical piano and oboe since I was 14 years old, and upon entering college she wanted to study film composing and jazz. Cookies eventually dropped out of school to pursue a career in music, and the rest, as they say, is history. She's doing quite well, imho, for a college dropout.

We also have Abey Fonn, Founder Of Impex Records, who had great family experience helping with Cisco Music. Cisco Music and Impex Records have released hundreds of outstanding recordings, both musically and sonically, during last 25 years. Few may realize the challenges her job entails, as sometimes the recordings are not in great condition, so they're baking the tapes plus lots of TLC in hopes of making the master recording usable. We must all remember that some reels may be unusable, or worst still, lost to high-profile warehouse fires (a tragedy!). The scarcity of original sources is becoming more common in the audiophile industry.

Last, yet certainly not least, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) recently released an over one hour long video featuring the legendary Mastering Engineer Bob Ludwig. This video explores his career and mastering techniques. As an 8-year-old child in South Salem, New York, Bob Ludwig was so fascinated with his first tape recorder he used to make recordings of whatever was on the radio. Bob Ludwig is the owner of Gateway Mastering and a 11-time Grammy award winning mastering engineer. Gateway Mastering Studios goal is to produce the very best sounding masters for their clients – both creatively and technically perfect. We also have a not-to-be-missed video documentary about the history of stereo. She's an old format, to be sure, yet still widely used today. Going from mono to stereo, and the resulting sound gave music better width and depth, and dare we say musical bliss.

The good folks at Linear Tube Audio (LTA) were kind enough to allow us to share their High-End Audio System Accuracy video. What do audiophiles mean when they talk about accuracy? What's your goal with your hi-fi system? Is it accuracy? (And what does that mean anyway?) Or is it a great listening experience? Scott Bierfeldt, founder of speaker manufacturer Verdant Audio, and Nicholas Tolson of LTA, discuss accuracy in loudspeakers and hi-fi systems. Linear Tube Audio is a high-fidelity audio manufacturing company on a mission to bring life back to music at an affordable price. Their amplifiers provide unparalleled accuracy and realism, putting you "in the room" of the original performance.

There's More!
But wait, there's more as we're also featuring a video from A/V RoomService concerning Room Modes 101. Am sure many audiophiles know that improving room acoustics achieves better sound from their sound system. From designing new rooms or working with existing rooms, the emphasis is on noise control, sound quality and viewing acuity. This being modern times, modeling software is incorporated including proprietary modeling programs for optimal room dimensions, speaker / listener locations, and reverberation times. A/V RoomService offers many types of acoustic and electrical analysis.

This month's 10 Questions For High-End Audio Manufacturers features Edwin Rynveld, Founder And Technical Director Of Siltech And Crystal Cable. We also have Lukasz Fikus, who is LampizatOr's Owner and Chief Designer. Another 10 Questions article brings Harman Luxury Audio Group's Mark Glazer of Revel speakers. There's more, as Pear Audio Analogue's Managing Director and Designer Peter Mezek answers our 10 questions too!

It's All About, And For, The Music
Enjoy the Music.com's very own writing staff shares with you their love of music. Here's the breakdown, thugh be sure to read their articles as they are very enlightening!

Music Makes Me Feel Something
Why music feels so important during 2020.
Article By Rick Jensen

Being A Professional Musician
Music has a way of perpetually re-inventing itself.
Article By Dr. Michael R. Bump

Emiko Music: Not Your Typical Audiophile|
Emiko shares her love of music and a desire to connect with others.
Article By Emiko Music

Enjoy What Music?
The most important component in your system. Some thoughts...
Article By Phil Gold

Enjoying The Analogue World
Music taps a part of the brain like dreams do.
Article By Bob Grossman

Tethered To Life
How music plays an important role within our lives.
Article By Dean Cacioppo

The Gift Of Music
We're lucky to be on this journey.
Article By Dr. Matthew Clott

What Music Means to Me
Sharing my love of music with the readers of Enjoy the Music.com.
Article By Paul Schumann

Hi-Fi Gear Reviews
Reviews this month include the ghost-meter enabled Audio Research Reference 160M vacuum tube monoblock amplifier, AGD's amazing Andante Preamplifier and their Vivace Monoblocks, the marvelous MolaMola Tambaqui Hi-Res Audio stereo DAC, a beautiful Brinkmann Taurus Turntable, PureAudioProject's Quintet 10 outstanding open-baffle loudspeakers, and Nordost Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 cable for your digital delights.

Keeping things amp'ed up, we also have reviews of the Kinki Studio EX-M1+ stereo integrated amplifier, Orchard Audio BOSC / Starkrimson monoblock amplifier, and lastly the Coincident Dynamo SE34 MK III vacuum tube integrated amplifier.

As always, in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin