Get hip to the latest equipment for players and listeners alike in our Gearhead and Audio Files columns.
It’s a big, heavy, low-pitched brass instrument. It can go oom-pah-pah, if that’s what you desire. But despite these familiar characteristics, and despite its name, … Read More “Gearhead: The (Somewhat) Heroic Tale of the Wagner Tuba”
It’s great to listen to Miles Smiles in the living room—but even better to keep listening to it when you head into the kitchen to … Read More “Audio Files: How to Get Multiroom Audio in Your Home”
In the 21st century, intellectual property (IP) has become a hot-button issue for musicians and composers, specifically as it pertains to the distribution of music … Read More “Gearhead: Spotlight on the Sarrusophone”
It’s impossible to shop for audio products without confronting specifications—numbers included in web pages, brochures, and ads to lend scientific cred to marketing claims. In … Read More “Audio Files: What Product Specs Actually Mean”
In the 1980s, as synthesizers and drum machines threatened to take over popular music, electric guitar manufacturers tried to come up with instruments that were … Read More “Gearhead: The Bond Electraglide”
Vinyl enthusiasts love to brag that last year, the dollar volume of record sales surpassed that of CDs for the first time since the 1980s. … Read More “Audio Files: All-in-One Turntables Are Starting to Sound Better”
These days, if you’ve got the right apps, you can recreate the sound of just about any instrument on earth. In the early 1970s, when … Read More “Gearhead: Appreciating The Optigan 50 Years Later”
It was the peak of the Roaring Twenties, and a great time to sell saxophones. More than a million of the instruments were already in … Read More “Gearhead: The Conn-O-Sax”
Back in the 1960s, tone controls were considered a must-have feature for audio gear. But in 1974, their reputation sank when famed audio entrepreneur Mark … Read More “Audio Files: The Return of Tone Controls”
Old hardware of any sort often carries a certain cachet. But vintage audio gear, produced from the 1950s through the 1980s, has become an obsession … Read More “Audio Files: Is Vintage Gear Any Good?”
