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Krakow Sonic Society № 144

THREE BLIND MICE,
or Japanese record labels
(yesterday and today)

The Japanese scene of record labels is extremely rich. Its most important actors appeared on it in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and among them the most important label turned out to be THREE BLIND MICE, which has a iconic status among audiophiles. We took a look at both it and other labels from that period, as well as some contemporary ones.

January 20th 2024
KRAKOW ⸜ Poland

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No. 151 December 2016

No. 151 December 2016

REVIEW + KRAKOW SONIC SOCIETY, VOL.1 | KTS Meeting # 105: AYON AUDIO CD-35 - Super Audio CD Player | AUSTRIA

he Super Audio CD Player, Ayon Audio CD-35 turned out to be significantly different from typical products of this type, both in terms of technical aspects, the sound quality and price/performance ratio. We believe that this is the player that changes - in a micro-world, but still - rules of the game, because it aspires to the level previously reserved for true "high-end" while representing a surprising, to say the least, price level. Thus we have decided to devote two separate articles to this device. We begin by describing a meeting of the Krakow Sonic Society, where you will find basic information about the CD-35 and a concept behind it and the opinions of the people who were the first in the world to officially listen to this new Ayon Audio player prepared together with StreamUnlimited. In the second part, which will publish in December, you will find the official test. As I already mentioned ...

No. 147 August 2016

No. 147 August 2016

KRAKOW SONIC SOCIETY, meeting #104: KING CRIMSON on 7” PLATINUM SHM-CD | JAPAN

f one has to use the word "legendary" to describe a musician or band, then when applied to the King Crimson it would be relatively painless from where I stand. Founded in London in January 1969 still the same year, in October they released the album that, let's not start to be modest now, forever changed the world of music. Recorded within just ten days In the Court of the Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson) created without any help from a producer, who didn't understand what this was all about. As Tony Clark said, the guy who was supposed to produce this album, "an organized anarchy is the basis for the King Crimson work: triggering powerful forces of chaos, and then looking for ways to return to equilibrium" (by Wieslaw Weiss, Rock Encyclopedia, Warsaw 1991). Apparently, it was too big a challenge for him. Usually this music is referred to using the "progressive" term, understood ...

No. 145 June 2016

No. 145 June 2016

KRAKOW SONIC SOCIETY: meeting #103 - TARA Labs EVOLUTION SERIES

xpensive cabling systems have become something 'common' - both for you, the readers of "High Fidelity", and for us, the members of the Cracow Sonic Society. On one hand one might consider it a 'sign of our times', the average price of products of high-end companies sky-rocketed, but it's also also a sign of catching up with the rest of the audio world; now we have face exactly the same situation as everyone else. Nevertheless, the release of the next stratospheric set causes an ejection of adrenaline into the blood, goose-bumps and blushing of the cheeks. When additionally this set comes from the brand, which we know and respect, with the products we use, we can't help ourselves, we need to check it out. Do I exaggerate? - Of course, but don't we go overboard each time when a small improvement unnoticeable for 'regular' people is named by us a revolutionary, ground breaking and so on? Isn't ...

No. 144 May 2016

No. 144 May 2016

KRAKOW SONIC SOCIETY, Meeting #102: MSB TECHNOLOGY SIGNATURE DATA CD V – Compact Disc transport | DAC V DIAMOND – digital-to-analog converter | USA

he shadow of our previous encounter had been looming over this meeting. Before, we tested the dCS Rossini Compact Disc player. There were no fist fights, but our opinions of the tested device were so different that it was impossible to reach any consensus. After a few attempts we all entrenched where we were standing and remained there until the end. Even though it seemed to us that a lack of a common denominator is like a half-baked cake, emails from “High Fidelity” readers and phone calls from our friends proved that it was something else: a creative process. Our argument activated many of those people, prompting them to make their own comparisons and to give the problem some thought. On the one hand, I heard that those who had tried to depreciate the dCS player were “jealous”, “deaf” and “envious”, but others ...

No. 143 April 2016

No. 143 April 2016

KRAKOW SONIC SOCIETY: Meeting No. 101 | ROSSINI IN CRACOW – the dCS Rossini Player | ENGLAND/POLAND

hen you kneel, it is hard to keep your head up. When you want to see what is going on around you, you have to stand up sometimes. However, this is really difficult indeed when something literally brings you down to your knees, overwhelms you and does not even let you look around. This is what happened once to all members of the Krakow Sonic Society. The giant that overwhelmed us was the dCS Vivaldi SACD player. It is no exaggeration to say that it was one of the best three signal sources that I have ever heard in my life, regardless of the format. The two remaining ones belong to different worlds – I am talking about the TechDAS Air Force One turntable and the Studer A820 analogue studio tape recorder. We once listened to the latter during a meeting of the Krakow Sonic Society; it also played music during the Audio Video Show 2015. Equating top analogue sources and a digital source ...

No. 140 January 2016

No. 140 January 2016

KRAKOW SONIC SOCIETY: Meeting No. 100 - THE BEATLES AND THE dCS ROSSINI IN WARSAW (at Audio Video Show 2015) | POLAND

he Krakow Sonic Society is a group in which people’s opinions and ideas are shaped, where we have an opportunity to listen to different devices and get to know new technologies together. Since we meet in our private homes, the number of participants in such meetings is limited, which I regret. The events which originally constituted a basis for the Krakow Sonic Society were known as “Audioszołki” (Eng. “Little Audio Shows”). They were popularized about ten years ago by the “Audio” magazine and were open events that took place in audio salons. However, certain things cannot be changed and must be accepted the way they are (as Paulo Coehlo might say :). Therefore, the last year’s unnumbered meeting of the Krakow Sonic Society which took place during the Audio Show 2014 exhibition was some kind of compensation for those ...

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