Acoustic Sounds just announced the forthcoming UHQR release of The White Stripes' 2002 double LP "Elephant". The lacquers were cut more than a year ago on June, 22nd, 2022. By chance I happened to be in Nashville moderating panels for Making Vinyl, Nashville and visiting United Record Pressing, Nashville Record Pressing, Welcome to 1979 and Nashville Record Productions. When Chad Kassem told me that Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound was cutting lacquers on... Read More

Veteran disc mastering engineer Paul Gold runs Salt Mastering out of a small, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N.Y. studio crammed with tape machines—including a few rare and unusual ones you'll have to watch the video to see— and a pair of Neumann lathes. He contacted me to say he's just completed a "shaker console" he's been working on for fifteen years! And he thought I'd enjoy seeing it. I did. It's not like Shaker furniture. Gold goes back... Read More

Overnite Sensation FZ's legendary 1973 album's 50th anniversary super deluxe edition celebrates 50th anniversary with expanded fifty seven unreleased and rare studio and live tracks. Eighty eight track, five-disc edition includes 4 CDs and Blu-ray disc with outtakes, alternate edits and unedited bonus vault masters plus two previously unreleased shows recorded at The Hollywood Palladium and Detroit's Cobo Hall. Blu-ray includes original Quad mix, plus new surround sound and Dolby Atmos mixes of the core album. 180g vinyl set of greatest interest to Tracking Angle readers: 2 LP 180-gram black audiophile vinyl reissue with the album cut at 45 rpm for the first time ever from the original analog tape by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in 2023 and a bonus 24” x 12” poster of the complete cover art.

BOSTON - (Aug. 23, 2023) - U-Turn Audio, an independent American maker of award-winning turntables, announces their first ever refresh of the beloved Orbit Turntable lineup. Building off a decade of success, the next generation of Orbit takes turntable design and technology to the next level with a range of new features like its high-tech magnesium tonearm, electronic speed control, revamped drive system, and more customization options than ever before. U-Turn Audio... Read More

"TOM WAITS’ ENTIRE METAMORPHIC AND GROUNDBREAKING MID-PERIOD ISLAND RECORDS STUDIO CATALOG NEWLY REMASTERED FROM ORIGINAL TAPES AND PREPPED FOR RELEASE ON VINYL "AND CD FOR FIRST TIME" (all caps from press release)

Here are notes on a selection from my favorite books on the history of recording technology, the history of the record business, and the interactions between recording technology, the record business, and the art of music. One example of what I mean by all that is, in the late 1920s, piezoelectric “crystal” microphones supplanted carbon microphones for radio broadcasting. Crystal microphones had a better signal-to-noise ratio than carbon microphones. Therefore, the... Read More

When the new batch of Deutsche Grammophon Original Source records arrived from the label for review, fellow Tracking Angle writer Mark Ward alerted me that I was on deck. And while I can’t hope to match his tour deforce review outlining the first four titles in this series, I have been eager to put into words my thoughts on the ongoing results of this monumental undertaking.While I didn’t formally review the first four titles, I did listen to all of them, and they... Read More

Tracking Angle writers Mark Ward and Michael Johnson sit down to discuss their collecting history with the storied German label, and the advent of the new "Original Source" series cut by Emil Berliner Studios. Filmed in late July, look for the follow up to this conversation in Michael's review of the second batch of Original Source titles. . Read More

If you read Fred Kaplan's review of Jason Moran's From the Dancehall to the Battlefield you may have been sufficiently intrigued to order the Bandcamp download Moran uploaded for purchase this past New Year's Day. I was and I did and glad to have done it. Moran just announced a limited to 300 copies double LP $39.99 vinyl edition available now for pre-order, to be shipped early September. ● 2 LPs ● 180 Gram Vinyl Pressing ● Direct Metal Mastering ● Full... Read More

I used to have major ground noise issues and other problems with my electrical service that I tried to solve as most audio enthusiasts do, with power conditioners and dedicated lines. Those produced some improvements, but there still were issues. The proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" was the installation of an auxiliary whole house generator and its transfer switch, that when power goes out, removes the house from the grid and connects it... Read More

Here are notes on a selection from my favorite books on the history of recording technology, the history of the record business, and the interactions between recording technology, the record business, and the art of music. One example of what I mean by all that is, in the late 1920s, piezoelectric “crystal” microphones supplanted carbon microphones for radio broadcasting. Crystal microphones had a better signal-to-noise ratio than carbon microphones. Therefore, the... Read More

Rhino's next two releases in the "High Fidelity" series were announced yesterday. They are Van Morrison's "His Band and the Street Choir" and Jaco Pastorius's "Word of Mouth". Both are available today exclusively at Rhino.com and internationally at select WMG stores. Each release is limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies and priced at $39.98.As with the previous two superb sounding reissues from The Cars and John... Read More

Online used record seller AudioPhileUSA offers a few accessories on its website including Mobile Fidelity Original Master Sleeve, but until now, the company, which was founded in the U.K. decades ago by online record selling pioneer John Turton, who brought it to America before selling it to the current owner Mark Hoover, didn't offer record cleaning accessories. That's now changed with the introduction of the GrooveWasher record cleaner line.While the basic... Read More

The comment feature is back up. For now, it's the slower format we attempted to replace with something faster, which created a problem. So please post comments. However, hit the button once and wait for it to post rather than hitting it repeatedly, which will repeatedly post your comment. Thanks! The photo shows the first Mobile Fidelity reissue of Music From Big Pink (MFSL 1-039) mastered 1/2 speed by the late Stan Ricker on the Ortofon cutting system, released... Read More

Top shelf U.K. journalist Allan Jones second collection of pieces from Rock's front lines

Tracking Angle's exclusive visit to Universal Music Group's Iron Mountain tape vault outside of Pittsburgh includes a tour of Iron Mountain Entertainment Services' facilities. The two companies work together. You'll get to go deep within the former limestone mine where Universal Music Group has one of its worldwide tape storage facilities and see how, with the help of Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, the company catalogues and keeps track of... Read More