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Michael Fremer and Bob Levi CLARICE from Bob Attiyeh and Yarlung Records Extraordinarily well recorded with every tube and analog bell and whistle, this 45 RPM LP of Clarice, pressed in Germany, is another Yarlung Records treat. Bob Attiyeh of Yarlung Records, 2018. A portrait. Considering that the producer, Bob Attiyeh, has taste levels superior... Read More »

I recently had the opportunity to review Joni Mitchell's classic album Court and Spark, which is part of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's ongoing release of six of Joni's most iconic albums. You can read my review of that superb UltraDisc One-Step set HERE. The UltraDisc is MoFi's ne plus ultra analog statement format, and their... Read More »

A colleague once postulated that audio gear invariably sounds like the people who make it. The line of thinking goes that, if the person is big and bold, then their speakers look and sound the part. High-energy, constantly moving personalities turn out cables big on dynamics and tilted up tonal range. Quietly brilliant masterminds bring... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment has just released Jethro Tull's Still Living In The Past, which updates the band's original 1972 album issue in every possible way. Still Living In The Past is being released as a gatefold double LP edition, as well as an expansive 5-CD+Bluray package, all remixed and remastered by Steven Wilson. The 2-LP set... Read More »

Craft Latino celebrates Latin and Salsa music across a host of subgenres, with eight new LP reissues, many of which have been long out of print. Featuring three albums that are continuing the centennial celebration of "The Queen of Salsa," Celia Cruz; percussionist extraordinaire Ray Barretto's 1975 self-titled album; a pair of albums from salsa... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment is celebrating the musical legacy of the B-52's with multi-LP and CD catalog box sets, The B-52's The Warner/Reprise Years, which collects the band's eight albums from the years between 1979 and 1992. Formed in Athens, Georgia in 1977, the B-52's initially rode the crest of the New Wave with a string of... Read More »

Bach hanging out with John Marks... John Marks continues with the Gentlemen; see HERE for Part 1. QOBUZ Playlist Link https://play.qobuz.com/playlist/33451444 Jesse Colin Young, Light Shine (1974) "Jesse Colin Young" was the stage name of singer-songwriter Perry Miller (1941-2025). He chose that stage name in part because of his admiration for Lotus sports- and racing-car... Read More »

Bob Levi:  a portrait by David W. Robinson (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) House of the Singing Blossoms (click for complete album art and information), a jazz tour-de-force starring Anthony Wilson is recorded at Sam First's jazz club and recording studio by Sam First Records. This two record set with thick stock gatefold... Read More »

This Recent Finds includes an eclectic selection of music from the NativeDSD catalog. What's the common thread? In each case, I found the music engaging, the performers/performances excellent, and the sound quality at a very high standard. Beyond that, it is highly varied group of albums. Frans de Rond us gives another of his marvelous... Read More »

This Recent Finds edition is back to HDTT releases. Some new and some from a few years past that are past due for a review. All are very nice. In fact, four of them are included in my recent Pure DSD256 from Analog Tape: My Top of the Pile listing—albums that were always a reference... Read More »

While browsing the photo gallery on the Node Audio website, I came across a group shot of five finely crafted, elegantly designed objects. They appeared to be variations on a theme, but what was the theme—what were they used for? Sometimes you come upon objects that grab hold of your attention, yet their purpose remains... Read More »

It seems a lifetime ago. For my side hustle as a mobile DJ, I honed my beat-matching and mixing skills with a pair of Technics 1200 turntables at home to apply on the road with a Pioneer CMX-3000 Dual DJ CD player, but after I married Belle in 2011, I sold my gear, reinvested the... Read More »

The Flying Burrito Brothers were formed in 1968 by former members of The Byrds Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons (1946-1973), who both had similar backgrounds in rural music. Their debut album was the critically acclaimed The Gilded Palace Of Sin (A&M SP 4175), released in February of 1969. A few months prior to recording The... Read More »

The Maestro himself! (Portrait and image processing by David W. Robinson) My LP life When writing audio reviews, reviewers are often called on to describe things we readily hear that aren't always easily quantifiable. We use adjectives like 'open,' 'free,' 'effortless,' 'relaxed,' etc. The list goes on and on. Every once in a while, we... Read More »

Over the course of the last twenty-five-years, I've carved out a fairly satisfying niche in audio journalism. One that finds me most often focused on reasonably priced gear that frequently performs beyond its price point—while also playing nicely in more pedigreed audio systems. Many of the companies I deal with focus exclusively on that segment... Read More »

The audiophile digital music software scene has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade. Streaming services have increased their dominance and almost every audiophile I know, has transferred most of their CDs into digital files and stored them in multi-terabyte hard drives, especially since the price of very high-capacity hard drives, even SSD versions,... Read More »

Bob Witrak continues to mine pure gold from the vast past catalogs of great music, great performances, and outstanding recordings. In this edition of Recent Finds, I want to share six new releases I've been very pleased to see: three classical and three jazz, all in outstanding sound quality.  Opera Ballets, Ferenc Fricsay, Berlin Radio... Read More »

John Marks is a multidisciplinary generalist and a lifelong audio hobbyist. He was educated at Brown University and at Vanderbilt Law School. He has worked as a trial and appeals lawyer; as a music educator, recording engineer, classical-music record producer and label executive; and as a music and audio-equipment journalist. He was a columnist for... Read More »

As you know by now, I enjoy the recordings produced by Bert van der Wolf-Oude Avenhuis. So, when I saw that he'd released a series of live performance recordings with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andris Poga, I just had to get them all for a listen. These live recordings are part of a... Read More »