One-step vinyl pressings continue to fixate both self-described audiophiles and the uninitiated who are curious about the wonders of great sound. These pressings eliminate two of the three steps in traditional vinyl manufacturing (creating the father and mother), thus bringing out more detail from the source material and less surface noise. Audiophiles tend to agree that the results are sonically worth the added cost.Warner Records' Because Sound Matters label... Read More

On August 7th dCS launched its Varèse Music System, characterizing it as a product that embodies "our boldest ideas, realized" and naming it for the French experimental composer who invented the term "organized sound" and who famously said "What is music but organized noises?" The late Frank Zappa was among his most ardent Baby Boomer generation fans and promoters.The new Varèse Music System consists of a multiple task pre-DAC Core that... Read More

At Audio Technica's new SoHo-based Technica House, described by the company as "a shared space of collaboration and inspiration, celebrating the Japanese aesthetic and Audio-Technica's analog philosophy" Audio Technica's chief engineer for cartridge design, Yosuke Koizumi explained the changes made to the original AT-ART1000 "Direct Power" moving coil cartridge introduced in 2016 and designed by company veteran and even back then... Read More

I can already hear you asking, "Ken, why are you reviewing a product introduced in 2014?" Good question. It is rare to find an audio component design with a lifespan of over ten years in today's industry, and I am intrigued by the longevity of this product series. While much has been written about various Point 8 amplifiers and industry legend Nelson Pass, this review will cover the amplifier's sound quality and explore the reasons behind Pass... Read More

Our man in Tokyo Michael Schoolnik went to the recent Tokyo International Audio Show and shot some footage you'll enjoy watching. And here are some timings.0:00 Intro0:25 Accuphase2:05 Ortofon3:24 Luxman5:12 Sforzato6:43 Triode9:08 Esoteric10:20 McIntosh Read More

In Part 3 of this extended analysis and review of the new Karajan cycle of Bruckner’s 9 Symphonies - remixed, remastered and cut directly from the original 8-track master tapes to vinyl by Emil Berliner Studios - I survey the remastered cycle as a whole, as well as examine how the digital recordings of Symphonies 1-3 were sonically refurbished. (You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here).

Press release: LOS ANGELES — Throughout the latter half of the seventies, Joni Mitchell continued to creatively break ground with her fearless and fluid exploration of jazz. Rather than tread the same path, she challenged and reinvented her style with a folk fusion like no other. Ascending to an unrivaled sonic peak, this innovative sound took shape across the gold-certified Hejira [1976], the gold-certified double-LP Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter[1977], her... Read More

David Murray was the tenor saxophonist of the 1980s and ‘90s, first as junior member of the World Saxophone Quartet, among the most innovative jazz groups of the era, then as leader of a dozen different ensembles of varying size, from duets to big band and everything in between, playing a range of music (much of it self-composed) from frenzied avant-garde to swooning ballads, his solos sweeping arpeggios in pleasingly jarring intervals laced with Sapphiric blue notes,... Read More

One of my favorite demo LPs—heck, one of my favorite LPs, period—is the 45rpm reissue by the late, lamented Classic Records of the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures At An Exhibition, which was originally released by RCA on its fabled "Shaded Dog" Living Stereo label. It was recorded in 1958 at Orchestra Hall and features the Chicago Symphony led by the legendary conductor Fritz Reiner. A young Adolph Herseth, probably the best orchestral trumpeter of the past... Read More

In Part 2 of this extended analysis and review of the new Karajan cycle of Bruckner’s 9 Symphonies - remixed, remastered and cut directly from the original 8-track master tapes to vinyl by Emil Berliner Studios - I focus in on the technical processes behind the original recordings, and the technology used to breathe new life into these classics of the gramophone. A huge thank-you to Rainer Maillard for the time he took to send me his additional thoughts pertaining to this project and much else (beyond his extensive essay in the set's booklet). (You can read Part 1 here, and Part 3 here).

Tracking Angle west coast correspondent Michael Trochalakis recently visited Levi Seitz's Seattle based Black Belt Mastering where the new Because Sound Matters Linkin Park "One Step" released were cut. Olivia Rodrigo's "Sour" and Beyonce's "Renaissance" are among the many other well regarded vinyl issues and reissues Seitz cut at Black Belt. Seitz gives Michael a tour of the facility and discusses his three lathes, then... Read More

Between 1975 and 1982, the renowned Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra recorded and released the nine numbered symphonies of the great Romantic composer Anton Bruckner for Deutsche Grammophon. For Karajan it was the culmination of a lifetime studying and performing these works. The cycle, coming at the beginning of the Bruckner revival, was one of the earliest complete recordings, and has remained a benchmark ever since.... Read More

Ryuichi Sakamoto once again sits down at a Yamaha piano in NHK’s Tokyo studio. Microphones and cameras are set up as normal, just like the other times he’s played here. He performs 20 compositions, alone as usual by now. The result, Opus, was at least the third time this decade that he filmed (and saved) a solo piano performance.Yet these sessions in late 2022 were the composer’s final performances of the repertoire that over nearly five decades built, cemented, and... Read More

Musician, recording artist, label owner, Gillian Welch partner in life and in the studio, and all around analog aficionado Dave Rawlings invited me to visit his Woodland recording Studio during last June's Making Vinyl where we finally sat down face to face to talk about the things we both know and love. This meeting—something we both talked about doing for almost five years now—was worth the wait as you'll see and hear. Over the past almost half-decade... Read More

Prog rock and jazz fusion both have an otherworldly quality. I’ve never seen either live, so listening to recordings created with the intense discipline, musicianship, and complexity these styles demand, I’m often amazed that real people are behind the instruments. If you feel that way, you’ll find the late Chick Corea’s Elektric Band's latest live album, The Future is Now (Candid), a mostly accessible showcase of high-level musicianship combined with... Read More