Last weekend's Florida Audio Expo was another successful show. Attendance was substantial—aided by heavy weekend rains, which is always good for hi-fi shows—and good industry participation, which was a combination of regional dealers and the smaller "indie" manufacturers, many of which also participate in the Capital Audio Fest and its Seattle cousin. However, also participating were some major, well-established and/or up and coming manufacturers. In... Read More

Girls DO count. If you were able to plaster one of those hip Instagram filters over the titanic lore that hovers around Joy Division, you might just be able to make out another side of the Factory Records story. In fact a fair, full spectrum reading of the label that launched that iconic band would more accurately render it as a true indie success story - one built on a semi-fanatical vision in a semi-derelict city that imploded in a semi-brilliant fashion.Now Audrey... Read More

Opened just the other month, Technics' new café in downtown Kyoto is a minimalist space dedicated to the pleasure of listening to records on the company's latest and greatest equipment. Join us for a quick tour.

As expected right about now, the Record Store Day 2024 list is officially out. Amidst the usual gimmicks and barrel-scraping—the 371st reissue of Rumours, 3” Beatles records, or zoetrope picture discs of George Harrison, Blur, T. Rex, and Dio—is a solid smattering of releases sure to lure the RSD-jaded back into the Saturday morning line. This year it’s on April 20; I plan to line up for the first time since 2020. It'll be interesting to see if any specific... Read More

Continuing our coverage of this marvelous box set which gathers together a little piece of recording history, when conductor John Mauceri revived the legendary Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for a series of releases highlighting film music and musical theatre from Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.  This was an important chapter in the ongoing push to give film music and the American musical the respect and exposure they deserved in the catalogue, but didn’t always receive.  In Part 2 I review in more detail the discs contained in this timely reissue. (You can read Part 1 here, where I delve into the history of re-recordings of this often neglected repertoire on vinyl and CD, placing Mauceri’s recordings in context).

This marvelous box set gathers together a little piece of recording history, when conductor John Mauceri revived the legendary Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for a series of releases highlighting film music and musical theatre from Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.  This was an important chapter in the ongoing push to give film music and the American musical the respect and exposure they deserved in the catalogue, but didn’t always receive.  In Part 1 I delve into the history of re-recordings of this often neglected repertoire on vinyl and CD, placing Mauceri’s recordings in context.  In Part 2, I review the contents of this timely reissue.

Rhino celebrates the 30th anniversary of Tina Turner's classic album "What's Love Got to Do With It" with a multi-format release including a 4 CD/1 DVD boxed set that includes the original album remastered on CD1, a collection of edits, remixes and acapella on CD2, and on CD3 and CD4 Turner’s 1993 Blockbuster Pavilion live show remastered plus the live performance on the DVD along with three music videos. The boxed set also includes a poster and a... Read More

The new TechDAS Air Force 10 air bearing pivoted tonearm had its North American debut this past weekend, February 9th and 10th at The Audio Salon in Santa Monica, California. Store owner Maier Shadi's organization is also the North American TechDAS distributor. The two day event brought to the store customers from around the country and featured from Japan TechDAS International Sales executive Motofumi Hirata, Tsutomu Horikawa, the new Stella, Inc.CEO and Hajime... Read More

DS Audio importer Musical Surroundings today announced the debut at next week's Florida Audio Exp of the new "Master 3" set featuring the new Master 3 optical cartridge ($9500) featuring a Microridge stylus bonded to a unique square-section diamond cantilever. The new $18,000 Master 3 equalizer is a 50+ pound single box version of the Grand Master EQ featuring both single-ended RCA and balanced XLR outputs.The new Master 3 cartridge features Independent... Read More

This surprise announcement found this morning in the Tracking Angle inbox. Mastered by Ryan K. Smith from the original tape at Sterling Sound. Includes a 12" x 12" 12-page booklet featuring liner notes by Ashley Kahn and recording session images by Jim Marshall.Happy Valentine's Day. Pre-order here. Read More

February 7th—Blue Note Records today announced a March 29 release of Sonny Rollins A Night at the Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters, a special Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of the legendary saxophonist’s tour-de-force live trio album. The expanded 3-LP set, which can be pre-ordered now on the Blue Note Store, marks the first time Rollins’ complete recorded performances at the Village Vanguard on November 3, 1957 will be made available in a single vinyl package. The... Read More

TechDAS showed a prototype of its new air bearing pivoted tonearm at Munich High End 2023. It's now a finished product that will have its North American launch at The Audio Salon in Santa Monica this Friday, and Saturday February 9th and 10th.In addition to the TechDAS team, Supersense's Florian "Doc" Caps will be there, most likely to play some of his lacquer releases, Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath will be there as well to extoll the virtues... Read More

Mastering engineer Chris Bellman has an impressive catalog of records he's mastered over the decades working at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood California. Bellman regularly cuts records for Neil Young among many other recording greats. Bellman talks about cutting Tom Petty's "Wildflowers" from analog tape for the first time and discusses with me general cutting issues such as sibilants and how he deals with them. The two discuss the great... Read More

Mark Knopfler's new album One Deep River— his tenth solo effort— is set for April 12th release on his own British Grove label, via Blue Note/EMI. It features a dozen new songs.Produced by Knopfler and his longstanding collaborator Guy Fletcher the album was recorded in London at his state-of-the-art British Grove Studios and will be available on CD, double gatefold vinyl, cassette and a special limited-edition box set that will include the album on both vinyl and... Read More

Oft sampled by soul and r&b music fans who couldn't get enough of Hayes's version of "Walk on By" and “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic”when first issued in 1969 and decades later by hip-hop samplers who have (so far) used snippets more than a hundred times, Hot Buttered Soul has stood musical test of time and now gets the "Small Batch" "One-Step" audiophile treatment.From the press release:"As with all albums in the... Read More

With the box set nearly sold out, Intervention decided to offer the three Frampton albums individually at $40.00 each. The Frampton@50 Series 180G reissues are 100% Analog Mastered by Chris Bellman and sound sensational. The flat, heroically quiet 180g vinyl is pressed at boutique press Gotta Groove Records in Cleveland, Ohio.The album art was meticulously restored by IR's Tom Vadakan, and the jackets are "Old Style" tip-ons, beautiful produced on heavy... Read More