valves Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Resistor Magazine |

March 13, 2022

The Lost Art of Jazz Kissa Revealed in Two New Books

Placing a jazz album from the early ’60s onto a turntable and playing it is akin to time travel, so too, is going through one of Katsumasa Kusunose’s glossy publications exploring the rarified world of authentic Jazz Kissa.

August 7, 2022

SUT: The Moving Coil Step Up Transformer

Black magic. Voodoo. These are the usual replies when asked what’s inside one of the small silver boxes kept near my turntable. The answer doesn’t stray too far from the truth, because the passive step-up transformer, or SUT, offers such a marked increase in the level of performance from an moving-coil cartridge as to be considered supernatural.

August 21, 2022

Listening Space: Esteban Pasquale – New York City

A listening space. What is it to each of us who pursue to perfect this domain? In a hobby divided along tribal lines, each subset fiercely territorial in their machinations, can their be agreement to the parameters such a space should adhere to? I believe there is a deep undercurrent of tightly-held beliefs that above all else a listening space should be where one can escape everyday stresses which pervade modern life in this digital age of information overload.

January 14, 2023

Listening Space: Terry Tan – Miri Sarawak, Malaysia

Much like a Haruki Murakami novel, the main characters of a curated sound system are brought together with a purpose which is not always readily apparent, and only through the investment of learned association can one necessarily reveal motive and purpose.