klyne audio arts
June 15, 2009
SORAsound now represents klyne audio arts. yes, stan is around and doing his work, quietly, slowly, carefully, and with a lot of precision.
Tags: klyne art audio, phono stages, preamps
goran bregovic weddings and funerals orchestra
June 14, 2009
today, we went to a goran bregovic concert from the former yugoslavia at ravinia. lots of fun. ravinia is a great venue for concerts in chicago. sound quality certainly is not audiophile approved but they bring some great performances and somehow sharing the joy of music with so many people is a lot of fun.
bregovic also did the film score for the movie underground. to this day, one of the most fun movies i have ever seen. some of our friends played this music at our wedding party in tokyo.
SORA graduated from kindergarten
June 12, 2009
dad and mom are proud to announce SORA’s graduation from kindergarten today. our parents taught us not to show off. but how can i shut up about a six year old who is in the gifted program, speaks japanese and english, studies math at second grade level (exaggerating a bit here), plays a few musical instruments, sings with a higher pitch than her accomplished opera singer mother, and whom we caught googling a word he had no business googling?
like all parents, we are blessed.
Tags: SORA
ZYX ATMOS / ZYX 4D phono cartridge update
June 10, 2009
i received an email from sibatech, zyx global agent, this morning at 4:10 a.m. stating:
“I recall I ever said to GT Audio that 4D was better than Atmos, because I thought ZYX told me so then. I was believing so till this April that the current 4D was improved around last summer, a year ago. Nevertheless I corrected with KT that both are the same. Today Mr. Nakatsuka said that he meant 4D and Atmos would become better after this improvement. In other words both 4D and Atmos shipped till last summer production were the same each other in specs and performance, but no order came for Atmos since more than a year ago. ZYX never intentionally tried to supply you with before-improvement version if you continuously ordered.”
so this confirms ZYX ATMOS and ZYX 4D were made as the same, and always intended to be the same. furthermore any upgrades were intended for both. if indeed upgrades were made last summer, the timing of the release of this information raises some questions. neither me, nor none of the distributors i have talked to were informed. i do not know the nature of the “upgrades.” in fairness to customers and ZYX representatives, everyone should have been informed of the changes immediately, not a year after, and only when questions were asked. if changes are major, then both ZYX 4D and ZYX ATMOS cartridges with the affected changes should have been called MK II. the only solution now is to advice 4d customers which serial numbers are affected.
anyways, we hope this issue now rests in peace. sibatech wrote to me to “please end the dispute on this.” i intend to respect sibatech wish. to our dear customers: please enjoy our prices which are at least half of the new retail prices.
ZYX thoughts….
June 8, 2009
dear friends,
many of you took the 
time to write your thoughts and support us in an audiogon forum thread of about 130 postings. unfortunately audiogon chose not to accept some postings and dropped the whole thread. please feel welcome to enter your thoughts anywhere on this site. as always we appreciate your thoughts and do our best to learn from you.
hannl record cleaning machines
June 8, 2009
we now represent hannl record cleaning machines. these beautiful machines are the best record cleaning machines we have found in the market.
Tags: hannl, record cleaning
good chicago restaurants
June 5, 2009
believe it or not, chicago restaurants are much better, and more innovative than san francisco restaurants. here are a few restaurants you may want to try:
alinea one of the best restaurants i have ever been in my life. in its own class. the tour menu is about $250, pairing wine about $200. easily $500 per person and well worth it. certainly better than the french laundry in napa, and the over-rated charlie trotter’s in chicago.
moto experimental. questions your pre-conceived notions of food. can handle it once a year.
schwa all in all probably my favorite restaurant in america. very down to earth for a $100/course menu. they often call you, “hey man” and “right on.”
green zebra can you believe one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the country is in the meat country?
frontera grill incredible mexican food. not homey but really good.
vermilion contemporary latin american and indian fusion. marvelous.
blackbird president obama and michelle went there on a date a few days after he became president elect. for the year i was commuting from san francisco, i used to go there twice or three times a week. what makes the food so good is that chef paul kahan is also an analog lover. chef paul and his partners have done a lot of good for chicago with blackbird, avec, publican, violet hour, and big star taqueria.
Tags: chicago, restaurants
copulare audio racks
June 4, 2009
today we informed our friends at copulare it is best for them to find a different north american distributor or go direct. i have already offered the line to a few distributors to consider. we still believe copulare is a very good and beautiful rack. we wish gerhard , mathias and their team the best. we now have four audio racks addressing all our customer needs. they are harmonic resolutions, finite elemente pagod master reference series, musical affairs and rixrax.
Tags: audio racks, copulare
