simonmoon
Responses from simonmoon
| The best opening act you've ever seen & heard? In 2000, at the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd, I saw Porcupine Tree open for the French band, Magma. As much as I love P-Tree, they couldn't hold a candle to Magma. Magma was so intense, the musicianship was at such an extreme level, the way th... | |
| The best opening act you've ever seen & heard? I saw the amazing prog band, Renaissance, open for an even more amazing prog band, Gentle Giant at the Shrine Auditorium here in LA. This was in 1976. Annie Haslam’s 5 octave voice, with near perfect intonation, power and emotion, was always an a... | |
| Spiritual/soul jazz from early 70s and later. I love to see some recent entries in the spiritual jazz subgenre mentioned above! Muriel Grossmann, and Kamasi Washington are great modern successors. For more contemporary spiritual jazz, also check out: Nat Birchall Shabaka and the Ancestors... | |
| Did you ever hear of Karl Jenkins? Love his jazz-rock work with Soft Machine, and Nucleus. He also did some work with Mike Oldfield that I like. Don't like his classical music at all. It is way too tonal, and influenced by pre 20th century classical music for my tastes. My tas... | |
| What speaker has the best tweeter? I have never heard anything better than a plasma tweeter. It’s hard to beat a speaker diaphragm that has no mass. Lansche Audio uses them to great effect, as does Acapella Audio Arts in the horns. My current speakers use an Aurum Cantus AST2560... | |
| Who positions their speakers straight ahead (zero tow in) and why. My just recently completed Curt Campbell and Jim Holtz designed, "Bordeaux" speakers sound better in all ways with no tow in. The in room response is flatter, and they image and create a huge soundstage best with no tow in. There are ac... | |
| Axiom to remember @rvpiano It’s not how the music shows off your sound system, but how your system shows off the music. I see a couple of problems with this "axiom". First of all, the 2 ways of listening to one’s system are not mutually exclusive. For ... | |
| The $27,900 disappointment? Wilson Audio Watt Puppy 8 issues. As a long time builder of high end DIY speakers, using high quality parts, good engineering practices, and hours of listening with a panel of several people to "voice them". I can state pretty confidently, that the modifications and upgrades Dann... | |
| Who positions their speakers straight ahead (zero tow in) and why. I can't immediately which ones, but there are speakers on the market with rising high frequencies, that are too bright when toed in, but sound great when toed out. The slight loss of high frequencies due to horizontal off axis response, compensa... | |
| What were your top musical discoveries of 2024? @dlevi67 ARCHORA / AIŌN Album by Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir, Eva Ollikainen, and Iceland Symphony Orchestra Þorvaldsdóttir (Thovaldsdottir) is a pretty recent discovery of mine too. I am not usually a fan of the Spectralism school of classic... | |
| Can we make major musical discoveries at age 50, 65, or 80? There have been several studies that show, the vast majority of people stop searching out new music when they reach the age of 30, some studies show 33. Their tastes become set at that point. Here's one: Stop Discovering New Music This may not b... | |
| What were your top musical discoveries of 2024? Here are some new discoveries for me. These are artists, bands, musicians, composers, that I was unaware of until 2024. My tastes in music tend to lean toward the progressive and avant-garde, so, YMMV. Prog: Greco Bastian - With a Little Hell f... | |
| What were your top musical discoveries of 2024? @mksun I also love spiritual jazz, old and contemporary. Ingrid Laubrock is not spiritual jazz, but more in the progressive jazz vein. | |
| What were your top musical discoveries of 2024? @mksun Great call on Muriel Grossman! You should also check out Ingrid Laubrock. I think she is a better composer. Checkout "The Last Quiet Space". | |
| Favorite scream in rock? Thys Van Leer from the Dutch prog band, Focus. He does not usually scream, but on their song, "Hocus Pocus", he screams at the end of some impressive yodeling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ouPGGLI6Q On a side note, even though this song is... |