Acoustic Sounds
By: Tracking Angle

September 12th, 2022

Category:

Site Announcements

Welcome To Tracking Angle!

A New Site With a Decades Long History

You’ve arrived at a new website, but one with a rich, more than quarter century-long history of music reviews and feature stories, both in-print and online.

The Tracking Angle published its premier issue in January 1995 as a digest-sized, stapled, two-color, sound-conscious music magazine edited by Michael Fremer. It quickly became a full-color, glossy, perfect bound, full-sized magazine featuring an impressive roster of music reviewers and feature writers.

'The Tracking Angle' print magazine, 1995

16 issues later, at the end of its fourth year, the difficult realities of print publishing caught up with the business—right when a major record label consolidation took place—and in fall 1998, The Tracking Angle ceased publication.

'The Tracking Angle' print maagazine, 1996-96

In 2003, Fremer launched the magazine’s online counterpart MusicAngle, which soon became the hub of the then-nascent vinyl revival. Nine years later, in 2012, then-Stereophile owner SourceInterlink purchased Music Angle and launched Fremer's Stereophile-affiliated site AnalogPlanet, which became a renowned source in the record enthusiast and audiophile communities. With almost a dozen writers, the site published album reviews as well as turntable, phono preamp, and audio accessory reviews. The accompanying YouTube channel also featured footage from factory tours and audio shows around the world, eventually gaining 52,000 subscribers.

'The Tracking Angle' print magazine, 1997

Fremer resigned from Stereophile and AnalogPlanet in June 2022, when he rejoined The Absolute Sound (where he started his audio reviewing career in the 1980s) and launched this new Tracking Angle website and its associated YouTube channel. Tracking Angle features an impressive roster that includes the entire former AnalogPlanet writing staff (Malachi Lui, Nathan Zeller, Michael Leser Johson, Joseph Washek, Mark Dawes, Evan Toth, Willie Luncheonette, Jacob Heilbrunn, and Joshua B. Smith). Also joining us, late of Stereophile, is author/journalist and jazz critic Fred Kaplan.

'The Tracking Angle' print magazine, 1998

Please explore the new website’s features and enjoy its intuitive interface and visually pleasing design. The site will be aesthetically and operationally refined as we move forward, so please be patient as we work out any possible glitches.

TrackingAngle will feature music reviews spanning all genres and formats with an emphasis on vinyl records but also including digital streams and downloads, CDs, SACDs, and maybe even a cassette or two. We will also review turntables, phono preamplifiers, audio and vinyl accessories, DACs, amplifiers, loudspeakers, streaming devices, and more. Our emphasis is on entry level to moderately-priced gear, but we'll occasionally assess more costly products. In addition, we'll have audio show reports, factory tours, and interviews with musicians, technicians, and business owners. 

Please subscribe to the TrackingAngle YouTube channel, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, bookmark TrackingAngle.com, and join our mailing list and Facebook group. Meanwhile, enjoy our opening offerings, which include a mix of new reviews and features and some older ones from the Tracking Angle print magazine.

Note: Some features including comments are not yet "live" but will be implemented in the next few days following the September 12th site launch. If you wish to make a comment now please join the Facebook group (link above) and let us know how we are doing.

Comments

  • 2023-01-02 09:17:43 PM

    Vince wrote:

    So glad you’re back, Michael!

    Happy new year!

  • 2023-01-22 02:04:32 AM

    Rick Isaacs wrote:

    I’m honored to be able to follow you, Michael, in your new post-Stereophile venture!

  • 2023-02-06 03:18:57 PM

    George white wrote:

    Michael Fremer is a honest down to earth guy (most of the time)! Always count on honesty and integrity, no matter how you feel about him Michael will always give you that! Proud to be following Michael's work for 6 years now and counting!

  • 2023-02-09 12:37:46 PM

    J-Claude Drouet wrote:

    I'm aware that Cassett tapes and decks took a downturn, however they never really disappeared completely. It would be nice to see this convenient source return to the industry. I myself record these off my master albums, as I did years ago, Looking forward to the write ups.

    • 2023-07-02 04:26:44 PM

      JACK L wrote:

      Hi

      "I myself record these off my master albums, as I did years ago," qtd J-C Drouet

      Yes, I do the same by transferring my favourite LPs to cassettes. Properly recorded cassette music is a blessing for me to relax in my favourite vinyl music for 45 minutes without going back & forth to flip & replace the records !!!

      JACK L

  • 2023-02-24 06:46:03 PM

    SME12A wrote:

    Thank you for honest approach!

  • 2023-03-22 08:27:02 PM

    Brad Knight wrote:

    Always enjoyed your writing and reviews. So glad to see you set up this site and see you on YouTube. Thanks for your years of love to music and gear! Looking forward to a long run. Okay, how about a long walk, We’re not getting any younger 😆

  • 2023-04-15 12:42:39 AM

    Nicholas Paredes wrote:

    I was wondering if Harry was of Olson Electronics where I used to go with my grandparents as a kid.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_F._Olson

    My grandfather probably met Harry since he also did work for RCA and had patents for permanent magnet speaker designs in the 1930s. It’s amazing that we used to talk about field coil designs when I was a teenager and here I am building a pair of Rullits.

    Nice article.

  • 2023-05-24 08:35:28 AM

    pxx04505 wrote:

    In an article about the stylus tip cleaner named Onzow Labo, there was an article saying that when using this accessory, "adhesive matter remains on the diamond tip of the stylus", but in my experience there is no such thing. Just to be sure, I pressed the cleaner onto the optical glass and observed it under a microscope to see if anything adhered, but nothing adhered. It seems that the article has not been corrected, and I think it is very inappropriate I propose to publish the correction of the article clearly as the responsibility of the media

    • 2023-07-02 08:23:50 PM

      JACK L wrote:

      Hi "adhesive matter remains on the diamond tip of the stylus", but in my experience there is no such thing." qtd pxx04505

      I would not conclude such stylus adhesive impurity NEVER exists though such impurity is not a common thing to happen.

      Such adhesive impurity does not exist on both my MC & MM cartridges styli anyway. They both track flying colours with crystal-clear sound.

      I only concern about the dirts picked up by the cartridge stylus that does affect the tracking, impairing the sound. So I clean it with a small soft nylon stylus brush with 100% pure distilled water (measured digitally: zero parts per million: 0 ppm) whenever I hear the music in the inner tracks start to sound funny. So I brush off the stylus tip dirt with the WETTED nylon stylus brush effectively once I confirm it with my stylus spot light.

      Expensive stylus glu-go fluid ??? I don't need it with my cartridges at all.

      JACK L

  • 2023-06-07 05:02:53 PM

    Craig Warner wrote:

    When I first heard about your divorce Michael and wanted to rush over here to subscribe, show my support and oggle your new wares the place just didn't exist yet, so I put it off and vowed to the audio gods I would be back, and here I am. And boy am I glad I remembered to come back(well I'm glad Google reminded me to come back by showing me a fantastic article you had done which perfectly called out 2022 Revolvers sound problem of being like a shadow of is former self after using the demix tech). And now I am fully signed up for all your lovely shit Michael. I jest a little in this comment but seriously, from the bottom of my heart I fully fully trust your reviews and always seem to say what I am thinking when it comes to describing how music sounds. Thank you for your continued dedication and I know it's because you love it but it's still a lot of work and you are so darn good at it. Keep it coming Michael, Peace and Love, Craig.

    • 2023-07-06 05:33:54 PM

      JACK L wrote:

      Hi

      "When I first heard about your divorce Michael .." qtd C Warner

      It is very wise for Mikey to leave his previous journal of which the new owner from England is way way too cheap to pay up Mikey's decades' audio experience. He returns back to TAS which values his talent!!

      JACK L

      JACK L

  • 2023-06-10 10:27:38 AM

    Georges wrote:

    I didn't see that we could thank you on the homepage for all the work you do just for us music fans. Long live everyone who reads this!