Michael Lavorgna
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The Breeders: The Last Splash Tour
Michael Lavorgna, Music Downloads
Michael Lavorgna • May 07, 2013 • 0 comments
Last night The Breeders, Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs, Jim Macpherson, and violinist Carrie Bradley splashed down at Webster Hall in NYC and played their platinum-selling album Last Splash before a sold out crowd. This tour represents the first time this band has played together since 1994 and its hard to believe 20 years have past since we were first treated to "Cannonball" which opens with Josephine Wiggs unforgettable bass line. The band and their songs were as tight as ever and as loose as can be, playing their hook-laden music that had the crowd singing along and some thrashing about like it was 1993.
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Coming Soon
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Apr 29, 2013 • 5 comments
Focal Professional Solo6 Be ($1,350/each)
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"Its 18": A NY Show Story
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Apr 17, 2013 • 3 comments
from Wikipedia: The Birkin bag is a handbag by Hermès, handmade in leather and named after actress and singer Jane Birkin. The bag is a symbol of wealth due to its high price and elusiveness to the public. Its price ranges from $9,000 to $150,000. Costs escalate according to the type of materials.

"Eighteen thousand?" The curious show goer asked. "No, eighteen hundred." The exhibitor answered.

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Live vs. Recording
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Mar 30, 2013 • 19 comments
I saw and heard Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds on Thursday night at the Beacon Theater in NYC. For an added treat, Sharon Van Etten opened the show and later joined the Bad Seeds and the Harlem Voices as background singer. Cave opened with a few tunes from his newest LP, Push The Sky Away which is a wonderful record if somewhat lyrically superficial. As a show, the show was first-rate. When Cave started in on his older heavier material, the audience stood up and many remained so for the duration. At one point Cave encouraged as many people as could to squeeze down the isles toward the stage, much to the chagrin of the security forces on hand. "It's OK" Cave told them and added, "Don't worry, it's a union thing".
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Swimming in DSD DACs
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Mar 27, 2013 • 21 comments
from the top left (clockwise): Fostex HP-A8, Teac UD-501, Auralic Vega, Mytek Stereo192-DSD DAC (flanked by the Acoustic Plan DigiMaster w/linear power supply)

I was just looking at my lovely Box Furniture equipment rack and realized this is probably somewhat of a rare sight. Reviews forthcoming.

Alan Watts on Life and Music
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Mar 23, 2013 • 0 comments
Coming Soon
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Mar 18, 2013 • 4 comments
MSB Technology The Analog DAC ($6,995)
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The Ever-Expanding DSD DAC List
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 18, 2013 • 11 comments
Vol. 08 Winter 2012 of Net Audio included an entire section devoted to DSD

There are a few lists that I maintain for AudioStream including the ever-popular HD Download Sites and what began life on November 2, 2011 as "DSD-Ready DACs (A Short List)". At that time, there were four DACs from three companies including Playback Designs, EMM Labs, and the then lowest-priced contender the Mytek Digital Stereo 192-DSD DAC ($1,695). Today this list has grown to include some twenty eight companies.

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Coming Soon
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 14, 2013 • 7 comments
Teac UD-501 Dual-Monarual PCM/DSD USB DAC ($849)
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Stereophile's 2012 Records To Die For
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 26, 2013 • 0 comments
The Bill Dixon Orchestra Intents and Purposes

Stereophile's 2012 Records To Die For has just come online. R2D4 is one of my favorite features and John Atkinson was kind enough to ask me to participate for the first time in 2012. You can see my picks here.

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The Importance of the New
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 25, 2013 • 12 comments
It seems like every generation feels that their music is the best. Our music is the most original, the most artful, the most meaningful. All this new stuff is just crap or worse, derivative crap, and all of the older stuff is mostly just oldies. Some people will stretch their veneration a generation or century or more in order to land on their music-of-choice, but the tendency to lay claim to a specific point in history as being the origin of the best music (or art or literature or architecture) is common. And that's a damn shame because we're missing out on other worlds of bests.
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Coming Soon
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 22, 2013 • 1 comments
Schiit Modi USB DAC ($99)
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The $99 Schiit Modi USB DAC, a Preview
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 04, 2013 • 29 comments
I'm usually not a fan of the review preview which often times strikes me as simply a means of generating more page views (I'm also not a fan of splitting up reviews into multiple pages when one would suffice) but I will put aside my crusty perspective and say that I just received the Schiit Modi DAC which costs all of $99, hooked it up last night, and am listening to it right now. And I'm breaking my no preview rule mainly to say after seeing and handling the very nicely built Modi—how'd they do that for $99?
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The Road to Analog-Sounding Digital: Are We There Yet?
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Dec 27, 2012 • 0 comments
You can now read my As We See It, "The Road to Analog-Sounding Digital: Are We There Yet?", in its entirety on Stereophile.
As We See It
Michael Lavorgna
Michael Lavorgna • Dec 16, 2012 • 10 comments
The current issue of Stereophile magazine includes, among many other interesting articles like a review of a pair of speakers for under $40!, an As We See It titled, "The Road to Analog-Sounding Digital: Are We There Yet?" penned by yours truly. I'm not going to give anything away except to say that regular AudioStream readers should recognize my point of view.
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