Hi-Fi Audio Ultra-Fi DIY Headphile Blog - Stereo-Untypical

Curse Of The Golden Flower (Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia)

Technical achievements 9.0
Merit purely as a film 5.0
Overall enjoyment 7.0

This is quite an interesting film. We watched it in Blu-Ray on the Playstation 3 which has recently come into our home for evaluation. This film is visually stunning, no question. The details, colors, set design and costumes must be some of the best ever commited to film. The palace of the Forbidden City is amazing, it’s like the 8th wonder of the world. I can’t even imagine what kind of budget this film had; just the costumes and flowers must have run in the millions. It’s absolutely gorgeous. In Blu-Ray on a big 1080p display there are some scenes where the use of CGI is too apparent, but it’s never distracting - not nearly as bad as Spiderman 3, for example. Mostly you just sit watching mesmerized by the orgy of visual cues on screen.

The story revolves around an empress (Gong Li) who is slowly being poisoned by her recently returned husband. She becomes aware of the plot and attempts to rally her sons against him in revenge. As far as the action scenes, they are very well done - the problem being there just isn’t enough of them. The story of treachery and deceit builds very slowly, I think many people may become bored by the first half of this film. Only in its’ final act does this feel like it may be an epic. It does build up to quite a climactic (and tragic) ending, but along the way it gets a bit too domestic and tedious…and there are enough holes in the acting and plot that you have to admit this does not rate so well against the (recent) best films of this genre.

Director Yimou Zhang has perhaps overshot the mark with this insanely ambitious undertaking, and the result is more Heaven’s Gate than Apocalypse Now. It’s by no means a terrible film, but it falls short of expectations. It must be said that Chow Yun Fat is superb as the deplorable emperor. But the supporting cast is rather weak, and the screenplay often feels contrived. Again, this is still a good film, but whereas Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or indeed Yimou Zhang’s own Hero or House Of Flying Daggers would each merit a 9.0+ rating (all near-perfect films and each for their own reasons), I can’t really give Flower more than a 7.0 rating. Definitely worthwhile for the hi-def movie buff.

Tags: HD Films by admin
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It was bent already, from a mishap a few months ago. But after realignment it was still working well. So this week I went to perform some mods - denuding, and possibly the ‘Uwe clone’ wood body. But I didn’t get far. I was able to denude the cartridge pretty easily; which left it looking like a Lyra with a very bent looking cantilever. So I got greedy and tried to bend it back ever so gently. I heard (or felt) a tiny ‘pop’ and thought, “uh oh…”. It looked ok still - to the naked eye - but sure enough, after a bit more handling, it just snapped right off.

Sometimes vinyl is just one frustration after another.

Live and learn…..

Tags: DIY, Turntables, Vinyl by admin
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This all began about 7 years ago as a ‘group buy’ DIY project, led more or less by Chris Brady and Thom Mackris. The concept was to design and build a high-end turntable based on the following components: a large, finely machined stainless steel main spindle bearing in a brass well, using a steel ball bearing and Delrin thrust plate; an outboard, belt drive motor assembly with an optical strobe speed control; and a massive, two-inch thick acrylic platter. Additional components were eventually offered that made up the Teres “kit”, these included an acrylic armboard and a Delrin record clamp.

Eventually Chris decided to take this work commercial, and the result is Teres Audio, whose turntables now span numerous models, and no kit offerings. In early 2002 I purchased a motor/controller assembly from a Teres user, and a platter and bearing (and clamp) from Teres. I mounted them on a homemade Cocobolo (rosewood) base, along with my Fidelity Research FR-64S tonearm. The sound of this analog front end was pure magic - it had weight, resolution and musicality…in spades. I eventually settled on using a Denon DL103D cartridge and RS Labs RS-A1 tonearm with my Teres.

Unfortunately the time came when I needed to rationalize my system, and I sold the Teres components to a friend, who has been enjoying them ever since. I still miss “my creation”, which is listed as Teres #34 in the ‘hall of fame’.

Tags: DIY, Turntables, Vinyl by admin
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Released 2006 on Lost Highway Records.

This is my favourite pop album of 2006. Another Fine Day is the 4th release from the loose collection of musicians known as Golden Smog. And it’s the first one I’ve really enjoyed, to be honest. With eight years elapsed since the last one, there probably was more curiosity than pent-up anticipation…lol.  Well, AFD proves that the group survives and lives. Nowadays the Smog is more or less led by Gary Louris, Kraig Jarret Johnson and Marc Perlman (all former Jayhawks), with Dan Murphy and bits of Jeff Tweedy rounding out the current personnel.  (Tweedy leads Wilco and Loose Fur… busy guy)

There is hardly a weak song among the 15 tracks presented here. The tunes are fairly adventurous, ranging from upbeat power pop numbers like ‘Corvette’ and ‘Hurricane’, to mellow folk-rockers, like ‘Listen Joe’, ‘Strangers’, and ‘Think About Yourself’. Other gems, like ‘Beautiful Mind’, and ‘Cure For This’, are harder to classify…let’s call them “excellent”.  This record just works.

Tags: Favorite Records, Music by admin
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