This comparison was more for entertainment value than anything especially since the cartridges mounted in each arm were different! Let's start there. The comparison was between a $4395 cartridge and one costing $14,295 and an arm costing around $3700 versus one costing around $60,000. The phono preamp was the the $28,995 van den Hul The Grail SX (review will shortly be published). I could not use the CH Precision P10 because it is across the way installed for use... Read More

Opened just the other month, Technics' new café in downtown Kyoto is a minimalist space dedicated to the pleasure of listening to records on the company's latest and greatest equipment. Join us for a quick tour.

Win the Rega Planar 3 50th Anniversary Edition recently reviewed on this website! According to importer Sound Organization, this is the last one made available to them, though there may be one or two lurking at dealers. Tracking Angle is giving it away to a lucky reader, one string attached. Read on!Here are the contest rules:1) you must join our mailing list to enter the contest. It's free and easy to do—just click on the Mailing List Signup" rectangle at... Read More

Model trains are a Christmas tradition. But a real steam train traveling on the New Jersey Transit commuter line at almost 80 MPH is a rare and amazing thing not likely to be repeated but it did happen back in the fall of 1996 and I was lucky enough to take the trip from Hoboken to Port Jervis with my late father in law who worked on the railroads as a kid during the Depression. Half way through the ride to Port Jervis soot clogged the camcorder microphone so for this... Read More

The holiday season is here, though finding gifts for picky vinyl obsessives can be difficult. To help, we’ve compiled a list of records, gear, and accessories that demonstrate why yes, you do carefully listen to your loved one’s rants about fancy reissues and record cleaning supplies. Without further ado, here’s the 2023 Tracking Angle Holiday Gift Guide, independently selected by Michael Fremer and Malachi Lui based on personal opinions and experiences with each... Read More

I probably should have included a track from "Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello" in the video the other day announcing the release but better late than never so here's the opening track taken from the record. Read More

At the bottom of every page is the site's "housekeeping" and indexing area where you can select and go directly to content columnized into "Features", "Music" and "Equipment". The contents are further broken down beneath each header. It's all there neatly segmented as hyperlinks. A newly added link under "Tracking Angle Information" takes you to the Meet the Writers page. In case you don't often head... Read More

A new video on the TrackingAngle YouTube channel has gotten thousands of views in a few hours. It lets viewers hear the same record playing back on two different turntables using the same arm, cartridge and phono preamp. The goal was to put an end to "all turntables sound alike" trolls it certainly did that! The turntables are the OMA K3 prototype I own and a TechDAS Air Force III Premium both fitted with the same SAT CF1-12 arm and Lyra Atlas Lambda SL... Read More

Tracking Angle went live on September 12th, 2022 with a "welcome" post that ever since has been pinned to the top of the home page. It's now retired to its correct timeline position. So much has happened this past year, I do know where to begin: with a grateful thank you to our readers/subscribers, a large percentage of whom made the switch to Tracking Angle. And of course we are continually welcoming new reader/subscribers. Reader comments here are always informed and most often add useful information. It's a community I'm proud to be part of as I think are all of our readers.

In celebration of the Golden Anniversary of the iconic Marvin Gaye album Let's Get It On, Motown/UMe released a digitally a revised and expanded Let's Get It On: Deluxe Edition on August 25, 2023, three days before the album's original release date in 1973 fifty years prior. Featuring a trove of 33 bonus tracks, 18 of them previously unreleased, the Prince of Soul's creative explorations continued to unfold with the production of this pivotal release. Collectively, the bonus material leans into the story of Gaye's multi-layered personal struggles during the album's creation. “Comprised of tracks recorded during an intense six months of sessions in Los Angeles in '73, this newly the album's original eight songs alongside unheard mixes and material from all the sessions along the way, in addition to a trove of funky and fascinating instrumental tracks - and unreleased versions of the ballad recordings Marvin returned to time and again.

(Photo of Rainer Maillard at Emile Berliner Studios, 2019 by Michael Fremer)Tracking Angle invited DGG "Original Source" Series producer/mixer Rainer Maillard and cutting engineer Sidney C. Meyer to respond to Michael Johnson's review of the "second batch" of titles, specifically with the tracking issues he encountered on the Brahms The Piano Concertos disc.Mr. Maillard responded:With each cut we had to make decisions and thereby were forced... Read More

Acoustic Sounds just announced the forthcoming UHQR release of The White Stripes' 2002 double LP "Elephant". The lacquers were cut more than a year ago on June, 22nd, 2022. By chance I happened to be in Nashville moderating panels for Making Vinyl, Nashville and visiting United Record Pressing, Nashville Record Pressing, Welcome to 1979 and Nashville Record Productions. When Chad Kassem told me that Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound was cutting lacquers on... Read More

I used to have major ground noise issues and other problems with my electrical service that I tried to solve as most audio enthusiasts do, with power conditioners and dedicated lines. Those produced some improvements, but there still were issues. The proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" was the installation of an auxiliary whole house generator and its transfer switch, that when power goes out, removes the house from the grid and connects it... Read More

Tracking Angle's exclusive visit to Universal Music Group's Iron Mountain tape vault outside of Pittsburgh includes a tour of Iron Mountain Entertainment Services' facilities. The two companies work together. You'll get to go deep within the former limestone mine where Universal Music Group has one of its worldwide tape storage facilities and see how, with the help of Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, the company catalogues and keeps track of... Read More

Recently, Mark Ward and I joined "Original Source" producer Rainer Maillard, mastering engineer Sidney Meyer, DGG Heritage Director Johannes Gleim and Thomas Mowrey, former DGG producer and U.S. Marketing Director and "godfather" of the original quadrophonic recordings sourced for this series for a lively and very informative discussion about this exciting new project. Read More

The less than enthusiastic review I gave to the UHQR reissue of Steely Dan's "Pretzel Logic" produced some nasty and totally unfair comments aimed not at me, but at Analogue Productions and Acoustic Sounds that I think need addressing now, not later. All of the UHQRs shown in the photo got great reviews on this site from me or from Fred Kaplan. Why? Because they elevated the sound of those recordings to above what either of us heard on any other... Read More

I'm in Pittsburgh, PA visiting nearby Iron Mountain where Universal Music Group archives much of its recorded tapes and other assets. Amazing video coming soon. While I was there I visited Jerry's Records, a famous Pittsburgh used record store recommended to me by my colleague Jacob Heilbrunn. Here's some just shot video. Read More

I spent today at Iron Mountain Entertainment Services where Universal Music Group archives much of its music assets. It was a day filled with open eyed wonder at the richness of the tape and video archives, at how the material is being catalogued and at the Iron Mountain facility itself, which should be labeled the 8th wonder of the world. Video coverage coming soon!Can you see that black rectangle at the back of the room? That's another equally large room filled... Read More

With Bowie-mania sure to surge this summer thanks to the first time release of the full concert version of the digitally restored Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture, 50 years after it originally screened, and playing in theaters beginning July 3rd, I found Harvey Kubernik's interview with Julian Shah-Tayler too good to not grab and publish—and that's before listening to Forget I'm 50, his re-imagined Aladdin Sane album. What most got me interested was Shah-Tayler's telling Kubernik that he first discovered Bowie through the song "Let's Dance" and wasn't impressed, but when a friend played him “Yassassin” from Lodger... . How would a 50 something who wasn't yet born when the album was released, recast in 2023 Aladdin Sane? With undeniable high energy and excitement, that's how. The only contributing artist I've heard of here is Gene Loves Jezebel (Michael Aston), who does an effective "Jean Genie". Shah-Tayler tackles "Lady Grinning Soul" and makes it tribute-fresh (the album is available on streaming services). For good measure, Kubernik includes interviews with D.A. Pennebaker who produced the film and with our friend Ken Scott who engineered and produced Aladdin Sane. Me? I was on the Ziggy tour for three stops (New York, Chicago and Detroit) in addition to the Boston Music Hall show so I can confirm that the hysteria you see in the movie was real. The Carnegie Hall show was a quasi- religious experience.