March 25th, 2025
Nagra Launches "Compact Phono" Phono Preamplifier now available in the U.S. for $4950By: Tracking Angle
Nagra today announced the release of a new "Compact Phono" phono preamplifier now available in The United States for $4950. Here's the Word Doc that somehow didn't make it into our "in-box":Romanel, Switzerland – 25th March 2025 —Perpetuating a long legacy of excellence in phono stages since the Nagra PL-P, the new Nagra Compact Phono offers the greater part of its predecessors’ quality and performance in a compact and elegant housing.... Read More
March 6th, 2025
London Decca Cartridge Rebirth "Cat Out of the Bag" Through Canada stranger launches have happened but......not many!By: Michael Fremer
For the past few years my old friend, U.K. based audio writer supreme Ken Kessler has been telling me about an upcoming re-launch of the fabled line of London Decca phono cartridges. But it's been "hush-hush". As many of you surely know, the Decca name is/was owned by a U.K. based record label now owned by UMe and it has recently re-launched that label—probably after seeing the great success DGG has had with the Original Sound Series (thanks in great... Read More
March 6th, 2025
Clearaudio Launches New Flagship Diamond Jubilee MC Cartridge limited to 45 units, priced at $29,000By: Tracking Angle
(Press release): Erlangen, Germany Thursday 6 March 2025 – for immediate release-German analogue audio specialist, Clearaudio has launched the Diamond Jubilee MC, a flagship moving-coil cartridge design that uses patent-pending technology to offer the ultimate in vinyl playback potential. Limited to just 45 units – representing the company’s milestone 45th Anniversary – the Clearaudio Diamond Jubilee MC is the most sophisticated design in its history. It comes in... Read More
February 17th, 2025
Clearaudio To Debut New Flagship Unity Pivoted Tonearm at Florida Audio Expo 2025 Unity arm originally developed for 45th anniversary Master Jubilee turntableBy: Tracking Angle
Clearaudio's Unity tonearm, originally developed for the Master Jubilee turntable that celebrated the company's 45th analog manufacturing anniversary is now available in either black or silver finish as a "stand-alone" product for use with Clearaudio and other turntable brands. Price is $20,000. Clearaudio Universal tonearm owners receive 100% trade up allowance when upgrading to the Unity.The Unity combines classic Clearaudio features such as... Read More
February 13th, 2025
Ortofon Announces the New $5499 MC 90x—an Update of the Classic A90! One's here for review and I can't wait to install itBy: Michael Fremer
Ortofon celebrated its 90th birthday with the release of the now legendary and truly revolutionary MC A90—the first cartridge to use SLM (Selective Laser Melt) technology to build up from metallic powder (stainless steel for the MC A90) a cartridge body shape that would have been impossible to "machine away" from a block of stainless steel, aluminum or other materials. The shape was about self-damping and resonance control, not to create a fanciful... Read More
February 10th, 2025
Musical Surroundings Hires Industry Veteran Chris Thompson As Service and Product Manager customer support and product repairs are critical, yet importer/distributors often shortchange or ignore bothBy: Tracking Angle
Oakland, CA. Feb. 10, 2025—Musical Surroundings is excited to announce the appointment of Chris Thompson as Service and Product Manager. Chris was the Quality Control and Special Projects Manager at Parasound in San Francisco for 11 years. One of Chris’ many responsibilities was developing and supporting the Parasound line of John Curl designed phono stages.Moving across the bay to Oakland, Chris now works with Mike Yee, designer of the Musical Surroundings’ Phonomena... Read More
January 25th, 2025
Turntable Set-Up Guru Chad Stelly Returns to Acoustic Sounds an all-brand set up expertBy: Michael Fremer
Press release: Acoustic Sounds - the global leader in analog expertise - is proud to announce the return of Chad Stelly, a renowned turntable setup specialist and audio guru, to their team. With Stelly back in the fold, Acoustic Sounds will offer customers the same level of personalized, and solutions-driven equipment sales that defines their best-in-class, in-house brands, Analogue Productions and Quality Record Pressings.Chad Stelly, affectionately known as... Read More
January 25th, 2025
dCS Debuts Varése DAC at Innovative Audio Press Event you are invited to watch and listenBy: Michael Fremer
U.K. based dCS debuted its new Varése DAC at NYC's Innovative Audio, January 23rd, first in a mid-day press event to which you are invited (in this video) and later in the day to the public. dCS Managing Director David Steven, North American Director Emron Mangelson and Programme Director Andrew Szelke were on hand to make the presentation of the company's new $270,000 DAC. You will see in this video what went into the research and development of this... Read More
December 16th, 2024
New Musical Fidelity M6xTT Turntable With or Without Arm Coming February, 2025 inspired by the M1 co-designed by M-F founder Antony Michaelson and Heinz LichteneggerBy: Tracking Angle
According to Musical Fidelity, the newly introduced M6xTT combines "the inert mass" of 14.5 pound metal alloy platter and "zero resonating" hand polished double acrylic base structure plus an electronically controlled (33 1/3, 45rpm) outboard motor. The 9" aluminum tonearm features azimuth and VTA/SRA adjustability and a 5pin DIN jack output. The M6xTT sits on four height adjustable feet and includes a leather mat and high mass aluminum record... Read More
December 13th, 2024
Sierra Sound Announces American Distribution of Connected Fidelity's TT HUB Turntable U.K. brand specializes in designer Michal Osborn's acoustic isolation and other high-end audio productsBy: Tracking Angle
The TT-Hub turntable and its included isolation base are constructed of bamboo ply—a material chosen for acoustics, durability, and sustainability. The belt drive turntable features a quartz clock-regulated controller with fine speed tuning, feeding an outboard AC-synchronous motor housed in a heavy aluminum chassis. A precision bearing, consisting of a PEEK (polyetheretherketone) thrust pad and jeweled ball, supports a 30mm thick acrylic platter with a special... Read More
November 12th, 2024
Gandy Gifting Full Ownership to Employees in an EOT (Employee Ownership Trust) Not retiring but magnanimous gesture assures smooth succession and also prevents V.C. vulture buyoutBy: Michael Fremer
On October 28th Rega co-founder Roy Gandy (the "ga" part of the company name) gifted 100% of his shares (which represents full company ownership) to his employees as part of an EOT arrangement. Read the statement below and be amazed and if you are a Rega turntable owner, a dealer or distributor, be assured. Hopefully other companies will do likewise or follow a similar path. Given the hollowed out, sad states of some other veteran companies have become under... Read More
November 7th, 2024
At Capital Audio Fest, Musical Surroundings Introduces A Tube-based DS Audio Optical Cart Equalizer + The AFI "Record Flattener/Relaxer" we've seen the AFI in Munich for a few years now.By: Tracking Angle
Rockville, MD, November 7th, 2024— Musical Surroundings debuts two significant new products at this year's Capital Audio Festival. The first, pictured above, is a vacuum tube-based equalizer for DS Audio optical cartridges. The TB-100, available December, 2024 is a dual mono, single-ended design with RCA jack outputs. It features four selectable bass curves and uses "quad-matched" ECC82 (12AU7) dual-triode tubes, measured and classified using a special... Read More
October 31st, 2024
Like the Old Burger King Ad, Pro-Ject Says "Special Orders Don't Upset Us" in fact the only way to get the Classic Reference turntable is to special order itBy: Tracking Angle
Mistelbach, Austria – October 28th, 2024 – Pro-Ject Audio Systems introduces The Classic Reference turntable. Consider it a supremely upgraded Classic EVO or an enhanced version of the VPO (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) 175 limited edition turntable, The Classic Reference merges aesthetic appeal with the latest and greatest hi-fi implements by Pro-Ject. For this latest innovation, the brand used the EVO 9 AS HG tonearm. High-precision ABEC 7 bearings are housed in a... Read More
October 30th, 2024
Blue Note Records Announces "Blue Note Review: Volume Three" – TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLEE MORGAN a definite BN collector's item follows a six year pause—Vol.2 was in 2018By: Tracking Angle
The long-awaited third edition of Blue Note's acclaimed vinyl boxset series, returns November 1st with a celebration of Blue Note legend Lee Morgan. Curated by Blue Note President Don Was, the limited-edition set encapsulates the continuum of the legendary jazz label’s 85-year legacy, showcasing both its storied past and auspicious future. “Tone Poet” Joe Harley supervised vinyl mastering and manufacturing, with vinyl mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio... Read More
October 29th, 2024
Next Two Rhino High Fidelity Titles Promise Good Rocking Tonight (and every night) here's the press releaseBy: Tracking Angle
(October 24, 2024 - Los Angeles, CA) Rhino High Fidelity (Rhino Hi-Fi) continues its series of acclaimed limited-edition, high-end vinyl reissues by going punk rock! New Rhino Hi-Fi versions of The Stooges’ self-titled debut LP The Stooges and The Ramones’ seminal fourth full-length album Road To Ruin will be available on November 1, 2024, exclusively at Rhino.com and internationally at select WMG stores. Each release will be limited to 5,000 individually numbered... Read More
October 26th, 2024
VPI Introduces New Model One Turntable—Part of a New, Upgradeable "Forever Series" includes a new tonearm and suspension systemBy: Michael Fremer
At a press event held at the VPI House in Old Bridge New Jersey, on Friday October 25th, VPI Industries introduced with the new Model One, a new upgradeable "Forever Series" turntable featuring a new gimbaled bearing "S" tone arm, a new 300 RPM motor and platter module and a new 3 point floating suspension. The new turntable, available with a hinged dustcover and blank armboard, includes a 10 year warranty. (I am at the Warsaw Audio Fair so was... Read More
October 16th, 2024
darTZeel's Hervé Delétraz Responds to Rumors of the Company's Demise the future admittedly is dicey but the company soldiers on and those who know will continue to love the unique productsBy: Michael Fremer
darTZeel founder and brand creator Hervé Delétraz, responds here to a YouTube video posted by an equipment churner posing as a legit "audio reviewer" (whose understanding of journalistic ethics is null and void), based upon a rumor that Swiss specialty electronics manufacturer darTZeel has gone "out of business?" (the YouTuber added the question mark thinking it legitimized his pathetic rumor-mongering and makes hilarious his claim to be a "primary source" for audio information), spread by someone who really should know better since he is an industry veteran and his significant other is a publicist for a competing company has sparked a brouhaha second only to the ridiculous post on the Consequence of Sound website claiming "Vinyl Sales Plummet 33% in 2024", when of course 2024 is hardly over and the big Xmas season is ahead so how can he even suggest such a ridiculous headline, and the COS writer hasn't the professional chops to cite the source, which was a Billboard story that was also malignantly uninformed about Laminate's statistical modeling change that resulted in serious underreporting in the first half of 2024 and yes this is a run on sentence but so what, because as my source who knows what's really going on told me when I asked him before choosing to not publish a story based on the Bullboard story, when 2024's sales totals are calculated vinyl sales will be up by approximately 11%, which is very good considering how big the growth was in 2023 and yes I own darTZeel preamplifier and amplifiers and a phono pre-amp manufactured by the other company and the two companies, the individuals at both companies and their products work and play well together and now on with the show....
Read MoreOctober 16th, 2024
Pro-Ject Launches Flagship Signature 12.2 Turntable claims it's "A Serious Assertion of High-End Sound & Build"By: Tracking Angle
Mistelbach, Austria – October 14th, 2024 – Pro-Ject Audio Systems is immeasurably excited to announce the release of their latest Flagship turntable, the Signature 12.2. Over 80 lbs. of mass and 100+ high-precision CNC-machined parts comprise this masterpiece. All manufacturing is done in-house at the Pro-Ject factory, keeping costs down and passing savings along to serious vinyl enthusiasts. The 12” tonearm with removable headshell will keep cartridge lovers busy for... Read More