Finding your groove: getting into vinyl with Audio-Technica
I’d like to think that I could’ve been friends with the late Hideo Matsushita, founder of Japanese Hi-Fi powerhouse Audio-Technica. If I could, I’d travel back in time to 1960’s Tokyo, where a young Matsushita curated “vinyl listening sessions” at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts, exposing visitors to the sounds and possibilities of high end audio and the warmth of vinyl records. I imagine sitting with him in a mod coffee shop, listening to the stories of what he witnessed in those sessions, the conversations he had with visitors, and what ultimately motivated him to head back to his small apartment above a ramen restaurant and start an audio company of his own. In the histories I’ve read regarding AT’s humble beginnings, Matsushita’s motives seem clear. Produce high end audio at affordable prices, bringing audio excellence into spaces and to customers that simply didn’t have access to it before. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3 phono cartridges did exactly that, and...
Dec 6, 2023
Buggles: I Am A Camera. Good proof for an early digital recording (short on bass). Tchaikovsky; Nutcracker Suite: Arabian Dance, and March (Neville Marriner, Academy of St Martin In The Fields). This DDD classical recording has so much dynamic range it will challenge just about any rig - and the early-digital-recording artifacts (music sheets rustling, chairs creaking etc) are excellent proofs for sensitivity Everything But The Girl: Talk To Me Like The Sea. Excellent for soundstage/separation testing. Everything But The Girl: Lullaby of Clubland: for mid and bass tests; this track is everything I Am A Camera isn't. Chris Botti: Indian Summer: good for mids and highs testing. Liane Foly: Les Parfums d'Autrefois. Great vocal from an amazing singer. Julia Fordham: Where Does The Time Go? Ditto. Clannad: Coinleach Ghlas An Fhomhair: excellent acoustic recording, with significant dynamic subtlety. Howard Jones: New Song. Jones' hard-edged synths should sparkle with the right set of cans. Ultravox: All Stood Still. Good for all-around wall-of-sound performance checks.
There's more of course but this would be a good place to start.