With Sonic Presence microphones around my ears I dove into AXPONA 2025 expecting to capture binaural sound in every room. Unfortunately, Shure's Motiv app that worked beautifully at FLAX didn't work at all at AXPONA. Could have been an iPhone upgrade but with so many rooms to visit there was no time to find out!AXPONA 2025 was an extremely well-attended show. It was crowded all three days from morning through closing. The demographic skewed younger and there... Read More

In early 1928, in Avalon, Mississippi, John Hurt was awakened at 2 am by a knock on his door. He recognized the voice of Willie Narmour, a white man and a local fiddler who Hurt sometimes accompanied at dances. Narmour said "Get up John. Here's some people from New York want to hear you play some." Of course, Hurt didn't believe this incredibly unlikely story, but as a Black man, he knew better than to say so. "I didn't say anything to... Read More

Having owned a couple of copies of Mulligan Meets Monk, I’ve always felt that the stereo record magnified the differences between these two musicians by featuring them on different channels and casting too much of a spotlight on Mulligan’s sax. As good as those copies sound, including the 1980’s OJC LP and the AP 45 from the ‘90s, I had little experience with the mono recording that was made in the studio at the same time, except for a Fantasy SACD. So, when I heard... Read More

If my previous Tracking Angle review — on the new Pharoah Sanders Izipho Zam reissue — framed Strata-East within so-called spiritual jazz, this trio of new vinyl pressings should shake loose any such pigeonholing.(That’s the storied, forward-thinking jazz label, founded by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell in 1971, whose new affiliation with Mack Avenue produced that Izipho Zam (My Gifts) reissue — read all about it. As the newly partnered... Read More

Los Angeles, CA (April 9, 2025) – Craft Recordings announces six new reissues from Original Jazz Classics (OJC), the audiophile series celebrating critically lauded, fan-adored seminal jazz albums. The latest installment features newly remastered editions of Bill Evans’ Interplay and Moon Beams, Lee Morgan’s Here’s Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter’s Introducing Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson’s Gone With Golson, and Ken McIntyre & Eric Dolphy’s Looking Ahead. Spanning the... Read More

The initial interest draw here is a supplied Lenovo Tab M8 touchscreen remote, with Belleson’s visually attractive program installed, that lets you set all functionality from where you sit and listen.A powerful, unique convenience feature for sure, but it wouldn’t be sufficient to justify a review if that’s all that was tacked onto a ho-hum solid state phono preamplifier. So obviously there’s more to this American-made, fully balanced $8500 phono preamp that's... Read More

Here are the final six (of a total of a dozen) choral settings of extraordinary value, most of them unaccompanied (a-cappella). The settings are from Medieval times to our era, but are not necessarily in chronological order.

The Qobuz playlist is here: https://play.qobuz.com/playlist/25258347

Roiled by political uncertainty and contention over race and identity, the late 2010s and early 2020s witnessed a resurgence of what’s now commonly called spiritual jazz. And close to the end of his life, with his final statement to the world, Pharoah Sanders found himself at the center of its discourse.The product of myriad cultural and ideological influences, this tenuously defined subset of the music nonetheless has identifiable hallmarks. It runs the gamut between... Read More

“Stunning. They can hang out in the living room”. Forty reviewing years and that comment from wifey was a first! Her response early last Fall seeing the dramatically “painted by nature” Acora VRCs unpacked and sitting in the driveway in the early morning sun.The light made an already dazzling looking speaker look even more so. It also resembled the delivery of our granite kitchen counters back in 2011, during which the narrowest section had cracked during the truck... Read More

Tracking Angle wants to add a few equipment reviewers to our already impressive writer roster. Published experience is not required, though it would be helpful. When I began writing for The Absolute Sound in 1986 it was as a music reviewer/editor but I wanted to review equipment. The late, legendary Harry Pearson was willing to give me a chance so he sent a pair of inexpensive Siefert Research bookshelf loudspeakers for review and over the next few months the... Read More

Here are the first six (of a total of a dozen) choral settings of extraordinary value, most of them unaccompanied (a-cappella). The settings are from Medieval times to our era, but are not necessarily in chronological order.

The Qobuz playlist is here: https://play.qobuz.com/playlist/25258347

The Southwest Audio Fest returned to Dallas, hosted at the beautiful Hotel Anatole . Both media representatives and manufacturers I spoke with were looking forward to a repeat of last year's successful SWAF, which I reported on here. Overall, show organizers Lou Hinkley and Gary Gill have been successful in their efforts, and they announced that the SWAF will return in 2026, albeit with a significant change in date format. Instead of the usual Friday through... Read More

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of France’s most distinctive artistic voices: Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). When one thinks of French painting, they think of Claude Monet. When one thinks of French sculptor’s, they’ll likely conjure to mind Auguste Rodin; and when one thinks of French music, the melodies that enter their head are likely to sound a lot like those of either Claude Debussy or Maurice Ravel. Both composers contributed greatly to... Read More

Today, the audiophile market is a goldmine for vinyl consumers. Whether it's Analogue Productions’ commemoration of Atlantic Records’ 75th anniversary or WMG’s Because Sound Matters venture, the pressings these and other companies are releasing have, for the most part, set a new sonic standard for timeless albums— in some cases outdoing originals. Reissue specialist Rhino Records, which it could be argued started the vinyl reissue ball rolling in the late... Read More

Maximinus Thrax, a Roman emperor from the third century after Christ, was supposedly eight feet tall and possessed of superhuman strength. It was a bold move for Rumen Artarski, the head of Thrax audio, to name his company after this legendary emperor, but he and it have more than lived up to the challenge. After listening to Artarski’s formidably powerful tubed equipment for several weeks, I half expected to hear it ask through my loudspeakers, “Are you not... Read More

Like Sabbagh's award winning Heart, Keepers of the Eastern Door was recorded live to 2-track 1/2 inch tape at 30 ips by James Farber at Power Station C, to the label's custom Ampex 351, and mastered and cut all analog by Bernie Grundman. Like Vintage and Heart, this one is being pressed at Gotta Groove on 180g vinyl. In an email, Sabbagh told me he's been experimenting with 140g vs 180g and 1-step versus "regular" 3-step pressings. He prefers... Read More

One of the most important - and least known - artifacts of 1970s jazz/rock fusion, Neil Ardley's Harmony of the Spheres, arrives in an exceptional AAA limited edition reissue from fledgling label Analogue October Records in the UK. I delve into the background and history of this groundbreaking record, assess the new reissue, and talk in detail with label founder Craig Crane about how this project came together, and his future plans for this label - one to watch.

The Electric Recording Company announced today the "true mono" reissue of John Coltrane's Lush Life cut "tape to lathe" fitted with a mono cutter head. It's how they roll.From the ERC press release:John Coltrane’s “Lush Life”, originally released in 1961 by Prestige Records, is a remarkable snapshot of a transitional moment in the saxophonist’s career. Released over a year after Coltrane had signed to Impulse! Records and compiled from... Read More

How would I define the BMR Monitor’s “Personality”? How about “This loudspeaker sounds like it was designed by an orchestral string player who knows enough engineering to achieve his goals with admirable economic efficiency.” The BMR Monitor is especially remarkable for its timbral and temporal coherence; midrange and treble articulation and detail; and its extraordinary soundstaging and imaging.