After Peter Frampton exited Humble Pie, but before the double live LP "Peter Frampton Comes Alive!" delivered to him super nova pop stardom (an unexpected career explosion that almost destroyed him) he released a series of superbly crafted A&M albums that caught the ears and eyes of rock cognoscenti worldwide, but didn't exactly light a fire on the Billboard Top 100. In the U.K. Humble Pie was signed to Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Records.... Read More

Hopefully, one day soon Neil will reveal the reason he's so rapidly releasing so many Bootleg series titles, but for now he's leaving fans guessing. According to the Warner Music publicist there will be "many more" titles this year. These releases are not randomly chosen. Behind each is a unique story. The latest two, out April 14th are The Ducks High Flyin' and Neil Young and the Santa Monica Flyers Somewhere Under the Rainbow.High... Read More

Classical music-loving audiophiles can sometimes feel like they've been left out in the cold with regard to all-analogue vinyl reissues. Not so rock and jazz lovers who are well catered to with excellent AAA reissues from Analogue Productions, Impex, Craft, Blue Note et al. Speaker’s Corner used to keep the classical reissues coming, but even their releases have dried up in the last few years - a great shame.However, relief is at hand. As reported by MF and... Read More

Andover Audio just announced the new Spin Deck 2 turntable, budget priced at $299 complete with Audio Technica AT3600 cartridge and acrylic dustcover. The "starter" turntable now features electronic speed control and automatic end of side shut-off and arm return. The Audio-Technica 3600 comes pre-mounted for easy set-up, but can easily be upgraded.The new Spin Deck 2 also includes a by-passable built-in MM phono preamp. In addition, for greater speed... Read More

One way to assure you don't have to wait for your records to be pressed is to buy a pressing plant. That's what the band Metallica just did, buying a majority interest in Alexandria, VA based Furnace Pressing from founder Eric Astor and his business partners.Furnace's Exterior—Photo Taken During November, 2021 VisitFrom the press release:Founded by Eric Astor in 1996, Furnace is known for making extremely high-quality records at its 70,000 square foot,... Read More

In 1970 DGG developed quadraphonic 4 channel tape recording, featuring left, right and rear channel "surround" channels. The tapes were edited using traditional splicing techniques and then down mixed to 2 channels for standard record production, since QS and SQ quad LP technology hadn't been fully developed and when it was DGG chose to not issue LPs in either of those competing formats.For these new reissues, DGG decided to cut directly from the 4... Read More

What exactly is "cavitation" as applied to record cleaning? None of the novelty videos on YouTube explain what it is and most of them make recommendations that clearly indicate the advocates have no idea what they are talking about!  In fact, many of the "cavitation" machines do not actually cavitate.

What are the 7 alignment targets necessary to hit in order to properly align a cartridge? And what are the benefits of proper alignment in addition to better sonic performance?

In the "Starting a Jamaican Music Collection" series, in part 1 we covered ska and in part 2a rock steady, the singer. We now come to rock steady, the groups. To recapitulate, ska lasted roughly from 1960 to the later part of 1966. Rock steady then took over the island. The fast tempi and thundering horns of many ska songs gave way to rock steady's much slower beat. Playing a much more prominent role in the new genre were the bass and drums and along... Read More

Tom Verlaine died on January 28, 2023. He was the guitarist, singer, songwriter for, and co-founder of the band Television. Their first album "Marque Moon", released in February 1977, is a masterpiece and, like all masterpieces, an expression of a unique talent and sensibility that fits in no category or genre. But the media and the streaming services insist that "Marquee Moon" is a "punk" album and Television was a "punk" band.... Read More

Michael Ludwigs who hosts the popular "michael45" YouTube channel will have as his guests tomorrow, Saturday March 4th, in a live YouTube stream TrackingAngle.com editor Michael Fremer and esteemed veteran audio and music reviewer Ken Kessler. The discussion will revolve around music and audio reviewing, but mostly music. What is a music reviewer's job? What are his or her responsibilities to the reader/viewer? To the record label? To the artist? What... Read More

Craft Recordings relaunches Original Jazz Classics – the acclaimed reissue series that faithfully presented more than 850 memorable jazz albums over three decades. The soon to be relaunched reissue series will be focused on audiophile-quality vinyl and HD audio releases. Upcoming reissues include titles from Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, Mal Waldron and Yusef Lateef, with further details to be announced soon via Craft Recordings. First launched in 1982... Read More

The series Includes jewels of the label’s deep catalogue that have long been out of print or have never been available on vinyl, packaged in elegant, high-quality editions cut from the original masters made in Europe analogue production wherever possible 

Last week's Florida International Audio Expo in Tampa truly was an "international" event. Before the show, the "international" characterization seemed somewhat over the top. After all, this is a recent, relatively small regional show organized by non-professionals. But show organizers knew something most attendees didn't: it truly was an international show! Japanese speaker manufacturer TAD took a big room and even company president... Read More

Musical Surroundings today announced the new $2500 Hana-Umami Blue cartridge. From the press release: "The new cartridge follows in the Hana “Brilliant and Gorgeous” tradition of providing the listener with sublime enjoyment. Embodying the true sense of synergy, the HANA-Umami Blue combines the essential ingredients of the HANA-Umami Red with the ALNICO based generator of the HANA ML."The new cartridge incorporates the Auricle™ body design, unique and... Read More

"SAN FRANCISCO (February 28, 2023) – Early in his tenure as Parasound's new owner, David Sheriff made a commitment to the company's legendary designer, John Curl, to bring more of his new ideas to the fore. To accelerate this process, Sheriff has hired Darren Myers as Vice President of Research and Development. Myers was most recently Senior Analog Design Engineer for PS Audio, and earlier a designer for Classe Audio and B&W Loudspeakers. He is a... Read More

Being inside a hotel for three days is not exactly the Sun and Fun in Winter that most make it out to be. No matter. This year I experienced an embarrassment of riches in the form of many impressive high-end systems - and managed to leave the hotel for some Tampa exploration.I started the days with trips to local coffee shops to quell my jonesing for top-flight espresso. I had some serious lattes and a nice cafe Cubano near the hotel. Saturday morning was all about... Read More