Mc Chicken

Everybody has their favorite vocal albums. I was a vocal man before but I'm slowly gravitizing to classical music, unamplified music. The splendor and grace of classical music is magnifique, courtesy of improved resolving power of my system. In my opinion, unamplified music is your best reference to timbre accuracy.

A friend who gave up on audio, sold all his audio stuff claimed that he is freed from audio slavery. He now goes live concerts and says even mega systems could not come near to what he is listening. He is right but live events and audioing are two difficult things, liken apple and orange. We audio because we like to tweak, and along the path, we enjoy music, at our convenience, any time, any where, no ticket hassle. The keyword of audioing is involvement. When there is an involvement, you care, you are passionate. That's the difference.

Music genres demand different audio requirements. Pop, jazz and blues demand good kicks at the midbass and PRaT to groove, west coast sound will serve you best. Classical requires a linear tonal balance to sound right, east coast sound. Vocal, British midrange hard to beat, the Brits have an edge there.

Blumenhofer Acoustics? A less known German speaker maker. In general, small companies put more heart into their stuff, don't they? Not another sampler? The thing with most samplers, the moods swing like roller coaster. Pop the disc in and spin, wow, wow, wow! Blumenhofer Acoustics sampler is simply superb. I repeated the sampler three times on its maiden play, tapping foot, moving head. That's how good it is!

Selection of music scores aside, the vinyl tonality really caught my attention. Many companies, Tacet, Analogue Production etc tried ways and means to make red book format sound less digital, their approach succeeded in various degrees. Well, digital has come a long way, today digital sounded remarkably better, less jitter and more of polycarbonate flavor.

Labeled under STS Digital, vinyl direct anolog digital conversion to red book format via MW decoding. Sound cool! Indeed, the sonic fabric is knitted tightly, tons of organic feel to it. Total lack of digitis, no grain, silk like. Vinyl proprietary hiss is even audible. You want to know "presence", this is it.

Painstakingly select 14 scores from 4000 LPs, the selection is truly musically excellente. From pop, jazz, blues, folk, though this sampler did not give me the jerking feel hopping from one music genre to another. Its like ice blended latte, smooth, creamy and aromatic. Forget about audiophile approved tracks, these are real world songs with familiar tunes. Audiophile approved scores have that peculiar unapproachable-ness to them, they called acquired taste. No, this is your regular Mc Chicken.

Track list

1. Steady On                        Shawn Colvin
2. Last days at the lodge      Amos Lee
3. Saltarello                          Dead can Dance
4. Golden Brown                 The Strangles
5. Come to the river             Hans Theessink & Terry Evans
6. Blues Walk                      Lou Donaldson
7. So Strong                         Labi Siffre
8. II Blues                            Sam Lightnin Hopkins
9. House of rising sun         Cynder Petera
10. Come Di                          Paolo Conte
11. Kirya                               Ofrz Haza
12. Homeless                         Paul Simon
13. Wade in the water           Eva Cassidy
14. Money money                 The King Singers

Recording is really good, it has human properties. The brass excites, the double bass is resilient, the spatial is spooky, the tunes are groovy, what more will you ask for.

This sampler can be had from ebay, it is not cheap though. Mentioned above is Volume I, my Volume II is still unopened.