Made in the U.S.A. – Built by Greg Roberts

The Vittora is a fully horn-loaded, three-way, high-efficiency speaker system that delivers wide dynamic range, high output, and extremely low distortion.

The Vittora utilizes a 15″ woofer in a folded horn to produce solid, accurate, bass.  Even at high output levels, the distortion from this horn is undetectable, and the result is a quickness and definition that you can only get with a horn design.

Cabinet construction is all Baltic Birch plywood, 1″ and 3/4″ thick, with no MDF used anywhere, and the bass cabinets are fully braced.  The Vittora is built to be a solid performer for a lifetime of use.

The cabinets are built in two separate pieces with the top horn section separated from the bass bin, and sitting up on three gold-plated spikes.  The bass bin is supported by three large wooden feet.

The Vittora uses a large wooden midrange horn with a tractrix flare.   The horn has a 2″ throat and uses a BMS 4592ND-MID, large-format midrange compression driver with a 3-1/2″ voice coil.  This combination of large, solidly built wooden horn with a large throat and huge midrange compression driver results in a midrange sound that is effortless and easy to listen to.  There is no constriction of the sound through a tiny throat, there is no edginess, graininess, or honky sound that so many other horn designs suffer from.  The Vittora midrange is smooth and articulate, dynamic and uncolored.  The midrange is truly the heart of this loudspeaker, and the listener is rewarded with a musicality from this speaker that is very rare in this industry, at any price.[Read More]

By Michael Powell – NY Times

“When the economy grows, it’s not because of a new government program or spending initiative. … It’s time to leave that era behind.”

— John A. Boehner, House speaker, May 2011

It might be hard selling that narrative line to the once broken beauty that is the Bronx.

As a teenager in the 1970s, I offered visiting friends tours of the apocalypse. We piled into an old Buick and drove north from Manhattan, which wasn’t in such great shape either, into the South Bronx. We rolled down ghost canyons of burnt-out buildings, saw mattresses and old sinks and tubs piled atop hills of rubble, and encountered smack dealers who cordoned off blocks for open-air markets. (We could not have been safer; they assumed we were white boys in search of a fix.)

It was macabre and infuriating, a core of urban America discarded and forgotten. Nothing, I assumed, could breathe life into this corpse.

I was spectacularly mistaken, a point driven home again on a recent tour in the company of city housing officials. Again I rolled across the Willis Avenue Bridge into the South Bronx, and what is there should (but almost certainly will not) give pause to those who argue that government lies at the source of our ills.

[Read More]

By Science

Scientific inspiration sometimes comes from unlikely sources. Two years ago, Gregory Berns, a neuroeconomist at Emory University in Atlanta, was on the couch with his kids watching American Idol. One of the contestants sang the melancholy hit song “Apologize” by the alternative rock band OneRepublic, and something clicked in Berns’s mind. [Read More]

By Seth Tobocman – The Shadow

On August 6,1988, the worst riot in 20-years erupted outside New York City’s Tompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side. On that night, nearly 500 police stormed into this popular neighborhood, assaulting hundreds, while trying to squelch the protest against a midnight park curfew. The obscure law allowing the closing of the park hadn’t been enforced by the city in decades.

Tompkins Square Park, considered by many as the heartbeat of the Lower East Side, is surrounded by a neighborhood populated by Latinos, punk rockers, artists, eastern European immigrants and a recent influx of wealthy professionals.[Read More]

By Fact Magazine

Legendary producer Martin Rushent has died at the age of 63.

Perhaps best known for his work on The Human League‘s Dare, Rushent began his career in the 1970s, engineering records for the likes of T. Rex, Yes and Fleetwood Mac. His progress to the producer’s chair coincided with the birth of punk, and he was at the controls for key releases by Buzzcocks, XTC and The Stranglers.[Read More]

By Brett Johnson – The BVX

‘Viva Riva!’, a high-octane crime thriller set in the Congo during a fuel crisis, is the first feature film from the country in 25 years. And it’s a riveting, beautifully shot portrait of a country entangled in a violent web of corruption and desperation.

Riva, the charismatic title character played by Patsha Bay Mukuna, returns to his native Congo after a ten year absence with a stolen shipment of fuel and a cocky sense of newfound wealth. But bloodthirsty gangsters, who are bent on reclaiming their property, are hot on his trail. What unfolds is a compelling tale of a developing country entangled in corruption and sometimes brutal violence.

The film, which just won Best African Movie at this year’s MTV Movie Awards, manages to combine the similar pulsating energy of Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles’s ‘City of God’ with a realistic grasp of underworld pathology that recalls Hype Willams’ debut, ‘Belly’.

“My challenge was to push to the limit as far as possible, in terms of being true to the society,” said first-time director Djo Tunda wa Munga (above center, with actors). “Which means talking about the real issues, the prostitution, the sexuality and also the violence.” We chatted with Munga recently about the challenges and triumphs of making a film (which opens in theaters in New York, Los Angeles and Portland on June 10) set in his native country.[Read More]

By DJhistory.com

Loleatta was born in Chicago in 1946 and, like most of her peers, began singing in gospel groups before striking out on a solo career through GRC subsidiary Aware. In 1976, she was signed to the Norman Harris-helmed Gold Mind, an offshoot of Salsoul Records, where she recorded all of her best work, usually working with Harris. Although she made a number of classic recordings it was through her live work that Loleatta excelled, often performing at the gay clubs of the era, like the Paradise Garage and Better Days. Her vocal were later sampled by Black Box for their controversial hit ‘Ride On Time’. Loleatta died on March 21st after a short period of ill health.

Tell me how you got signed to Salsoul?

OK, I was signed to GRC first, out of Atlanta Georgia, on Aware. The owner of the record company went to jail.[Read More]

New release from L.I.E.S.(LONG ISLAND ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS)

Steve Moore
A1. Zero-Point Field
B1. Frigia

Here is the  2nd release.

Two Dogs in a House-Next to You (L.I.E.S. 002) by L.I.E.S.

Two Dogs in a House-5th Floor (L.I.E.S. 002) by L.I.E.S.