Los Angeles — January 21, 2026 — In the mid-1970s, the unexpected success of two back-to-back Top 10 greatest hits albums pushed The Beach Boys toward their early surf-and-cars past, fueling hits-laden nostalgia tours at sold-out stadiums and arenas across the U.S. Amidst this era, America’s Band, led by Brian Wilson’s return to songwriting and producing, quietly made some of the rawest, unexpected, and most emotionally exposed studio recordings of their career at... Read More

If you're old enough to have bought Axis: Bold As Love when it was first released in January of 1968, and you were a stoner, you'll not likely ever forget your first spin, especially in stereo, wearing Koss Pro 4A headphones. Eddie Kramer was never shy about using the pan pots and things flew around your head and shifted left to right to left, sometimes without purpose. But it was fun, it was a free-wheeling time and Jimi had as deft a sense of humor as he... Read More

Let’s cut to the chase: Miles Davis’ The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel is one of the most thrilling jazz albums ever, ceaselessly captivating, “the sound of surprise” (as Whitney Balliett once defined jazz) at every turn. A 10-LP boxed set, recorded live at a small Chicago club called the Plugged Nickel in December 1965, it captures Miles Davis, the most masterfully innovative trumpeter of the era (perhaps of all eras), fronting what came to be called his... Read More

Now in its 101st year, Luxman is one audio company you needn't worry about not being around when you need service or parts—not that you're likely to need either. Luxman has always had a solid reputation for excellent build quality and high reliability. With its understated size (17.3" wide × 3.6" high × 16" deep) and business-like front panel, the recently introduced E-07 may appear to be a lightweight but it weighs in at a hefty 29 pounds... Read More

The music of 007 continues to shine in this La-La Land Records' release of - finally - all the music from John Barry's superb score for Moonraker (1979). With substantially upgraded sonics, fans can now enjoy a musical highlight of the series both on CD and vinyl. Includes an interview with reissue producer Neil S. Bulk.

The first time I was a guest on Steve Westman's YouTube channel the subject was the Mo-Fi cuts from digital file story. Steve assured me a "whistleblower" was going to come forward in a few days and break the news. First, I really didn't believe it could be true. Why would a company with such a deep reputation not inform readers about it? If it thought it a superior way to go, make it public and certainly discontinue how the process is described in... Read More

It’s astonishing to consider that Yes was only five years shy of working together professionally when they peaked on Close to the Edge in 1972. The band saw it as a moment defining the ambitious compositional and musical scale they had set out to achieve. Drummer Bill Bruford felt that leaving the group after reaching an insurpassable milestone was the natural progression. Alan White, drummer of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, joined the ranks of a band that was... Read More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Chicago, IL -Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs is known for more than four decades of analog mastering, but that same attention to detail also lives on in MoFi Electronics. With the UltraPhono Pro,MoFi brings much of the performance DNA of its flagship MasterPhono to a more accessible price point.Designed by industry veteran Peter Madnick, the UltraPhono Prois a single-input phono preamplifier built around the same ultra-low-noise circuit concepts and... Read More

WEST SUSSEX, UK - Audio Note (UK) is pleased to announce the release of the Oto SE 35, a significant update to one of the most enduring integrated amplifiers in high-end audio. The release marks 35 years of continuous production for the Oto, which has been a cornerstone of the Audio Note (UK) range since its debut in 1991.Originally conceived by Audio Note (UK) founder Peter Qvortrup and designed by Andy Grove, the Oto was the first amplifier to be fully developed and... Read More

Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), Igor Stravinsky’s primal ballet score, stands at the crossroads of much of music and art. Premiered in the spring of 1913 it sits ominously in between the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, and the start of the first world war in 1914. All three pivotal events in retrospect, are seen as starting points of the modern age. But we must ask: why is this 35 minute ballet deserving of such historical weight? What makes it the point... Read More

Mick and Keith went shopping for a new guitarist after Mick Taylor exited the band. Why not conduct live auditions in the studio while tape rolled and let's produce an album out of that? The original Black and Blue release Spring 1976 was in many ways an anti-climactic affair. An unfocused set of tunes, some great, some less so. A middling quality gatefold jacket, no annotation of any kind, just an inner sleeve showing the "Glimmer Twins" as producers... Read More

MAPLE GROVE, MN (January 28, 2026) – Sumiko, a leader in analog audio innovation, today announced the launch of the Oriole Phono Cartridge, a new benchmark in high-performance sound positioned between the company’s acclaimed Songbird and Starling models. Crafted in Japan, the Oriole Phono Cartridge delivers elevated musical detail and dynamic accuracy through a nude Shibata stylus and low-impedance generator rated at 5.5Ω (0.3mV output). These refinements reduce... Read More

Early January I flew to Phoenix AZ and visited the Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems factory where distributors from around the world, domestic dealers and a few journalists got the opportunity to see how the company builds amps and preamps in an open space environment and listen to the new Momentum Z monoblock amplifier in the D'Agostino's home system. It was a fun and informative event I covered in print and on video for The Absolute Sound. I think... Read More

Frank Sinatra’s classic 1956 Capitol Records album Songs For Swingin’ Lovers! will be reissued in Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Series on March 27 marking the album’s 70th anniversary. Produced for release by Joe Harley, the new Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and comes packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket featuring session photos... Read More

Powerful blasts of syncopated big band brass driven by the core quartet's sinewy rhythmic thrusts deliver an album's worth of adrenaline inducing musical aggression that resonates as appropriately today as it did in 1971 when this Strata-East label's debut album was originally released. As annotator Syd Schwartz points out, the album was a "musical project, self-powered, self-funded and done 100% on their own terms", but others saw it as... Read More

Following the commercial flop of Astral Weeks, his moody, mystical, musically eclectic masterpiece, that years later found its commercial footing, to detach themselves from New York City chaos, Van Morrison and wife Janet (Rigsbee) Planet moved to the Catskill Mountains near the town of Woodstock, New York.Earlier, following the break up of his group Them, he'd signed a contract with Bert Berns's Bang Records and in March of 1967 entered famed A&R... Read More

Hana cartridge importer Musical Surroundings and the Excel Sound Corporation/YouTek Partnership launched Hana's new $11,500 Umami Black cartridge at the Hana G-6 Summit/Hana Umami California Fest last October 7-10. Excel Sound cartridge designer Masihiro Okada and YouTek's Hiroshi Ishihara joined Musical Surroundings Garth Leerer who hosted the event that included distributors and journalists from around the world. While the celebration wasn't intended... Read More

LOS ANGELES – Rhino High Fidelity (Rhino Hi-Fi), the limited-edition audiophile vinyl reissue series, returns with two albums that helped reframe rock at the dawn of the 1970s: The Stooges’ Fun House and the Velvet Underground’s Loaded. Each album was cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at Optimalin Germany. Both releases feature glossy gatefold packaging with “tip-on” jackets and newly written liner notes. They are... Read More

In the mid-seventies Philips recorded Colin Davis conducting the Boston Symphony in a complete cycle of Sibelius’s numbered symphonies, beginning with this classic coupling of the Fifth and Seventh. Now remixed and remastered by Rainer Maillard and Sidney C. Meyer at Berliner Studies, it is one of three new releases inaugurating Decca’s new Pure Analogue Project remastering and remixing celebrated vintage titles.