Neil Gader
My love of music largely predates my enthusiasm for audio. I grew up Los Angeles in a house where music was constantly playing on the stereo (Altecs, if you’re interested). It ranged from my mom listening to hit Broadway musicals to my sister’s early Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Beatles, and Stones LPs, and dad’s constant companions, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. With the British Invasion, I immediately picked up a guitar and took piano lessons and have been playing ever since. Following graduation from UCLA I became a writing member of the Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theater Workshops in New York–working in advertising to pay the bills. I’ve co-written bunches of songs, some published, some recorded. In 1995 I co-produced an award-winning short fiction movie that did well on the international film-festival circuit. I was introduced to Harry Pearson in the early 70s by a mutual friend. At that time Harry was still working full-time for Long Island’s Newsday even as he was writing Issue 1 of TAS during his off hours. We struck up a decades-long friendship that ultimately turned into a writing gig that has proved both stimulating and rewarding. In terms of music reproduction, I find myself listening more than ever for the “little” things. Low-level resolving power, dynamic gradients, shadings, timbral color and contrasts. Listening to a lot of vocals and solo piano has always helped me recalibrate and nail down what I’m hearing. Tonal neutrality and presence are important to me but small deviations are not disqualifying. But I am quite sensitive to treble over-reach, and find dry, hyper-detailed systems intriguing but inauthentic compared with the concert-going experience. For me, true musicality conveys the cozy warmth of a room with a fireplace not the icy cold of an igloo. Currently I split my time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Studio City, California with my wife Judi Dickerson, an acting, voice, and dialect coach, along with border collies Ivy and Alfie.
Articles
Q&A with Bill Schnee
Bill Schnee is a producer, Grammy Award-winning engineer, and author […]
- by Neil Gader
- Dec 29th, 2020
Lauren Daigle’s Grammy Award Winning Album “Look Up Child” to be released December 11 in 45RPM LP Format
Lauren Daigle Look Up Child Jason Ingram & Paul Mabury, […]
- by Neil Gader
- Dec 09th, 2020
Audience forte V8 Power and forte f3 powerChord
Like me, you’re probably running short of outlets in your […]
- by Neil Gader
- Dec 09th, 2020
2020 Golden Ear Awards: Neil Gader
dCS Bartók DAC $13,500 ($15,000 with Class A headphone amp) […]
- by Neil Gader
- Oct 30th, 2020
Sonner Audio Legato Unum
Sonner Audio is a relative newcomer to the high-end scene. […]
- by Neil Gader
- Oct 14th, 2020
REL Acoustics S/812 Sub-Bass System
The pursuit of the bottom octave in sound reproduction looms […]
- by Neil Gader
- Sep 24th, 2020
Polk Audio Legend Series L100 Loudspeaker
It seems like an eternity ago that I attended the […]
- by Neil Gader
- Sep 03rd, 2020
Q&A with Doug White of The Voice That Is
You’ve played music professionally. How did that lead to high-end […]
- by Neil Gader
- Aug 25th, 2020
Esprit Audio Lumina Interconnects and Loudspeaker Cable
For a surprising number of high-end enthusiasts audio cables are […]
- by Neil Gader
- Aug 11th, 2020
PSB Alpha P5 Loudspeaker
The PSB Alpha P5 is the junior sibling of the […]
- by Neil Gader
- Jul 27th, 2020
Q&A with Laurence Dickie of Vivid Audio
Did your interest in the high end come from the […]
- by Neil Gader
- Jul 22nd, 2020
MIT EVO One Speaker Cable and Interconnect
This review is my first of an MIT (Musical Interface […]
- by Neil Gader
- Jun 25th, 2020
Most Popular
GoldenEar BRX
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KEF LS50 Meta Loudspeaker Review
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- Jul 22nd, 2021
Polk Audio Reserve Series R200
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- Sep 07th, 2021
MBL 126
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- Nov 30th, 2021