| Audio Emporium
Newsletter New Catalog
Posted! We have posted our new catalog on the web. Just click on
the cover to download. Or, stop in the store to pick one up. Pioneer
Elite We’ve recently added PE to our stable of flat panel
displays. Their new 60” plasma for $7500 is 1080p and quite impressive. It sets new
standards for an affordable 60. It is better
than the main Pioneer family in that it has better glass, a better scaler, superior color
filters and a two year warranty. It meets ISF spec which the superstore models DON’T.
Stop in to see it with HDTV or Blu-ray. New Top of
the Line Marantz Surround Receiver, SR-8002 $2100 Marantz’s SR-8001 surround receiver has been among
the finest surround receivers available for about two years. At $2k and 125x7 with a
number of audiophile accoutrements, SR-8001 killed the need for any of those ridiculous
$4k receivers. In fact, a test in the September Home Theater magazine
showed the $4000 Denon AVR-4806ci receiver (rated at 140x7) put out a whopping 65x7 at
.1%THD with all channels driven! For $4k. SR-8002, 125x7, is just out. For openers, it has HD
radio. If you’re not familiar with HD radio please read our October Newsletter. We
discuss it with the Rotel RT-1084 tuner. HD Radio alone is worth the change. SR-8002 keeps the cool audiophile stuff- dual layer
copper chassis. Great RFI resistance on the circuit board. Toroidal transformer. Fancy
audiophile grade speaker binding posts. It SOUNDS better than a surround sound receiver
has any right to. What is new besides the HD Radio is: HDMI 1.3, featuring
Dolby True HD and DTS HD. In addition to these new surround formats Marantz realizes that
IPODs are taking over the world. Hence they’ve added a dynamic range expansion
circuit for MP-3 or IPOD use. Maybe you can squeeze a bit more life out of those
compressed files! They’ve also thought about those of us with a pile
of power amps sitting around the basement. You can pre-out from the SR-8002 and just use
it as a very serious surround sound pre-pro-HD tuner! If you want the latest in great
sound formats and connections but already have the muscle, SR-8002 is an affordable
pre-pro with HDMI uplink. You might ask if that was the purpose, why SR-8002? Because it
has the high grade build described above. If you buy a $500-$1500 receiver it won’t
have the same audiophile character of SR-8002. Oh, and there’s that HD tuner too! Marantz does not have video upscaling in its new line of
receivers. They feel that a generic upscaler is
of no value and in fact will HURT your video performance. For example, Anthem has a Gennum
processor in its AVM-50. That impresses Marantz. But the Gennum processor in the SR-8002
would almost double the price, and Marantz doesn’t want to go there. Who makes video scalers? Gennum is the top dog. But
there are many others like A Great CD!
Perhaps the foremost Beethoven interpreter at the piano for the past 40 years has
been Alfred Brendel. He’s easily the dean of the profession right now. I saw him play
a Mozart concerto in Brendel has recorded LVB’s 32 piano sonatas three times over the years. He recorded them as a young man with Vox. He recorded a classic set for Philips in analog in the 70s. Then in the mid 90s he recorded a DDD set for Philips. The DDD set is revered by many piano afficionados as THE best batch of recordings ever made of these works- taking into consideration the audio fidelity as well as the pianism. You might fairly ask why Brendel would want to record these works multiple times. One reason is that recording fidelity has improved light years during his career. But that’s not the main reason. Brendel is a scrupulous researcher. He has evolved his playing over the years after studying countless documents. He felt compelled to record his DDD set because he was still at the height of his powers and could get these ideas down for posterity. Up until now the only way to get Brendel’s take on these magnificent works was to buy his entire set of ten CDs for $160. It’s worth it! But, Decca has just released four of LVB’s most prized sonatas from Brendel’s DDD box, on a single disc. You get: #14 (Moonlight), #8 (Pathetique), #23 (Appassionata) & # 26 (Les Adieux). It’s a marvelous choice of sonatas. You get almost 77 minutes of the finest piano music ever written or recorded for about $15!! It’s in stock. It’s official. Analog TV will be OVER. |