Phono Stage Shootout at The Shops at Hilltop in Richmond.

Please join us at The Shops at Hilltop in Richmond for a phono Stage Shootout.  We haven’t had a good old fashioned shoot out in a while, so on January 26, 2019 we’ll make it happen! 

Thanks to everyone who offered a phono stage for the shootout!  We had a lot of great offerings, but we had to trim the list down to a manageable number for a three-hour event.  We have a great lineup of equipment with a broad spectrum of price points including in no particular order:

Vendetta SCP-2
Parasound Zphono XRM – $595
CH-Precision P1  –  $31,000
Merrill Caileigh – $5,000 
NAD pp2  –  $170
Whest ll  – $1700
Ming Da – $2,500
Aesthetix Rhea – $4,000

Join us at The Shops at Hilltop for a fascinating presentation by Mastering Engineer Piper Payne. 

Piper is the Owner and Chief Mastering Engineer of Neato Mastering in Oakland where she works on albums for independent artists and major labels.  In addition, Piper is the keeper of Quality Control and a consultant for many vinyl record pressing plants. She recently finished her term as President of the SF Chapter of the Recording Academy and serves on the P&E Wing Steering Committee and the Advisory Council. She is a newly elected Governor of the Audio Engineering Society and she is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the AES’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and she is on the committee of the AES SF Chapter as well as an active member of Women’s Audio Mission. Piper is an audio professor and guest lectures often about mastering and recording.

Specialist in Audio System Optimization

Please join us at The Shops at Hilltop for a fascinating event with Stirling Trayle.  Stirling, as you may recall from Kevin Olson’s post in the May, 2018 Muse, is someone that is an expert in optimizing your existing audio system.  Stirling will get the best sound from your current system using techniques he has mastered during his extensive audio career.  Stirling’s diligence and painstaking attention to detail will get the most out of your system and he’s willing to share his experience and expertise with us.

…