Acoustic Sounds

April 7th, 2023

Montreal Audiofest 2023

Adventures At A French - Canadian Ear Party

By: Dave McNair

Visiting the Montreal Audiofest for the first time was a similar experience to my 2022 visit to the Toronto Audiofest. While in very different cities, the two shows have two important things in common: show organizers par excellence, Sarah Tremblay and Michel Plante, and a friendly, easy-going Canadian vibe - with lots of French thrown in to flavor the proceedings.Further similarities to the Toronto (and Tampa shows) were my inability to take notes on the model... Read More

Comments: 2

April 5th, 2023

Starting a Jamaican Music Collection-- Part 3a: The Deejays. The Start Of Rap?

delving into the best of first wave Jamaican deejays

By: Willie Luncheonette

So far we've covered ska in Part 1, rock steady the singers in Part 2a and rock steady the groups in Part 2b. We now come to the deejays and how in the early 1970's they became Jamaica's most popular recording artists.Some of the most famous deejays got their start working for sound systems. As recounted in part 1 of our survey, these sound systems often consisted of a truck equipped with a turntable, speaker, cables and amplifiers. The owners,... Read More

Comments: 0

April 4th, 2023

Review Explosion: Lana Del Rey, Lil Yachty, Slowthai, Gorillaz, & Black Country, New Road

Tracking Angle's roundup of recent releases

By: Malachi Lui

Lana Del Rey delivers her best album yet; Black Country, New Road turn obnoxiously theatrical; Gorillaz' new one bores; Lil Yachty and Slowthai turn to rock

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Comments: 1

April 4th, 2023

Would You Buy A $3899 Ethernet Switch?

would you buy any ethernet switch?

By: Michael Fremer

Let’s start with, would you buy an ethernet switch at all? If your music is all in the analog domain, you don’t need one unless it’s for your home theater set-up or for your household Internet and even then, you may be 100% wireless and not need one. And let’s continue with, why is any ethernet switch being reviewed on TrackingAngle.com? And let’s complete the questioning with why is that analog guy doing the reviewing? All good questions.Of course, vinyl records... Read More

Comments: 11

April 3rd, 2023

The KLAUDIO KD-CLN-LP200T Cavitation-Based Record Cleaning Machine

costly, but reliable, reasonably quiet and efficacious

By: Michael Fremer

This is probably the most costly cavitation based machine you can buy and it's also most likely the most ruggedly built and if not the most effective, among the most effective and easy to use. When you read "the most" or "the best" and the reviewer writing or saying that hasn't sampled every possible contender, whether it's a cleaning machine, or an amplifier or a turntable, or whatever, it's pure clickbait and nothing more. And... Read More

Comments: 45

April 3rd, 2023

Blu-spec CD2: Any Difference?

An exploration into Sony Japan's Blu-spec CD2 format

By: Malachi Lui

Long after the Western world moved to digital downloads and streaming, CDs reigned supreme in Japan; only now is Japan widely adopting music streaming. Western collectors value Japanese CDs for their nicer packaging and apparent sonic superiority, but even in Japan, imported American and European CDs are cheaper than their locally-made counterparts. To encourage domestic purchases, Japanese labels often add bonus tracks and/or nicer packaging, but they also flaunt their specialized, supposedly superior CD manufacturing technologies.

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Comments: 10

April 2nd, 2023

RIP Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023)

The Japanese musician dies at 71

By: Malachi Lui

It was a long time coming, yet shocking nonetheless. Today, it was announced that Japanese innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away on March 28th at age 71. The cause was rectal cancer.

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Comments: 11