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If you’re unfamiliar with my work, you should know that I am an unapologetic vinyl devotee. Since my initial record-playing days in the early 1960s, my approach to cleaning and caring for my LPs has grown steadily more effective and sophisticated over the decades. And as I am a bit of a historian, let’s take... Read More »

The Band, Music From The Big Pink (Vinylphile, 33 RPM) One of the most iconic and influential albums in rock 'n' roll history, The Band’s Music From The Big Pink was originally released in 1968 on the Capital Records label. As their debut album, it was their first recording effort after touring with Bob Dylan... Read More »

On a recent, really late evening, my phone chimed nearly nonstop as good friend and fellow high-end audio enthusiast Finnbogi Sigurdur Marinosson urgently slid into my DMs. Finnbogi and I are fairly obsessive hardware geeks, and he’d just descended into an inexplicable, almost incomprehensible journey from which there was seemingly no possibility of return. And... Read More »

The incomparable Kitty Wells (1919-2012), whose real name was Ellen Murial Deason, was the first female singer to achieve a number one hit on the country charts. The year was 1952 and the song was “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” Many hits quickly followed, making her the first female star of country... Read More »

In this Recent Finds I'm pleased to share with you two marvelous new recordings by Jared Sacks, one a Pure DSD256 recording of Brahms solo piano music with my favorite pianist, Anna Fedorova. Also included are two excellent opera recordings: Mozart's Don Giovanni and Barber's Vanessa, each in outstanding sonics. Plus more...   Brahms, Intermezzi... Read More »

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf Viola Davis, narrator; Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Gustavo Dudamel Deutsche Grammophon 4868159 (EP, WAV download only) I really ought to listen to Peter and the Wolf more often. It's tagged, unfairly, as a children's piece, but, performed with a modicum of sophistication, it's charmingly entertaining. Here in New York, the Philharmonic... Read More »

Bob Witrak continues to mine the archives for classic recordings to reissue – often in sound that is better than I ever imagined these recordings could deliver. Here are some recent releases that bring back warm memories but, more importantly, are wonderful additions to my digital music library today. Enjoy.   Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5... Read More »

What price, perfection? Put another way, at what point do diminishing returns themselves diminish?  In my view, when an audio system is sufficiently resolving, seemingly minor performance improvements associated with a change in system, source material, or acoustic environment can be profound. I’ve employed Audience’s aR2p family of adeptResponse power conditioners in my system for... Read More »

Our inimitable editor-in-chief, Dr. David, charged me with focusing on DSD256 and DXD recordings. I mostly follow that brief. And today, I have an abundance of outstanding ultra-high resolution recordings to share: six Pure DSD256 recordings and two DXD 32-bit recordings. Their sound quality gratifies my search over decades for the most discerning playback systems... Read More »

If you enjoy pop vocal records from the sixties, you might be familiar with the name Ernie Freeman (1922-1981). Freeman wrote the arrangements for Frank Sinatra’s 1966 album That’s Life (Reprise FS-1020) and Dean Martin's 1963 album Everybody Loves Somebody (Reprise RS-6130). He was also the pianist on the 1962 album Roots (Reprise R9-6057) by... Read More »

My house was built in 1970, and the AC power was pretty ratty. Flickering lights I can handle; visible arcing, not so much. As a plucky new homeowner, I first tried to tackle it myself by replacing some obviously questionable Cutler Hammer breakers and sanding away corrosion – after taping a copy of my will... Read More »

One aspect of my late teen years that I will always cherish, was the time I had the privilege of playing keyboards for a rock band. Not only did it cure me of stage fright, but it also gave me the thrill of seeing the sheer joy on people’s faces when we play them their... Read More »

Initially designed for the record producer and those in the mastering specialty, the MM520 has been upgraded flawlessly to truly include the audiophile. Smaller and more compact than its big brother, the 5S, it is also more efficient and incredibly linear. Having spent quite a few hours with the MM520, I am yet to identify a significant flaw in any sonic parameter.... Read More »

A New Solution to Understanding What Your Digital Audio System Is Doing With the Data Stream - Part 3 A few weeks ago we reposted Ferenc Koscsó's article introducing a minimalist, bit-perfect music player, written in C, with a single purpose: to deliver the music file data stream to the DAC by the shortest, most... Read More »

At the 2023 Munich Highend show, the True Life Audio and the Lorenzo Audio Labs teamed up together to produce a fabulous sounding room. I later reviewed the Lorenzo Audio Labs LM1 loudspeakers and liked them so much that they became to be my new reference loudspeakers. Fast forward two years, I was presented with... Read More »

Bert van der Wolf's lifelong dream of creating a dedicated recording venue with superb natural acoustics and attached mastering studio finally became a reality with the purchase and restoration of a nineteenth-century church in Heerewaarden. Following extensive acoustic renovations, the first recordings took place in late 2025. I've followed this remarkable project since Bert first... Read More »

The following is a repost of an article by the exceptionally talented recording and mastering engineer Frans de Rond, originally published on the blog of his Sound Liaison recording label. You can find the original article HERE. Frans recently included this article in his newsletter. As I read it, I found myself nodding, smiling, and... Read More »

My first Chris Isaak concert was with my wife and several friends at the North Shore Center in Skokie Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It was a December 2011 concert and Isaak played a few Christmas songs along with many of his fan favorites.  He came out in a Santa Claus outfit and quickly had... Read More »

I first met Jeff Wells over 15 years ago when he was the national sales manager for Spectron. He in turn introduced me to Class D amplification via the superb Musician III Mk. 2 amplifiers that Spectron produced at the time. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate Jeff’s no-nonsense approach to high end audio;... Read More »