October 20th, 2023—Deutsche Grammophon today announced the next releases in its highly regarded and well reviewed "The Original Source" series. The titles are "Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4" with Claudio Abbado & The Vienna Philharmonic, Richard Strauss "Tod und Verkärung/Vier letzte Lieder", Gundula Janowitz, soprano, Herbert von Karajan & The Berlin Philharmonic and a three LP set of recordings by William Steinberg and the Boston... Read More

Analog Solutions SL, Fuerteventura, Spain, October 16, 2023- Analog Solutions SL (formerly Swedish Analog Technologies AB) is thrilled to announce it has chosen MIBS Distro NA to manage all aspects of SAT's distribution, marketing and brand management in North America, effective immediately.SAT is among audio's most coveted and exclusive brands. Since the introduction of its original Pickup Arm in 2015, SAT has cemented its place at the pinnacle of the audio... Read More

Clint J. Holley III's Well Made Music mastering studio opened in Cleveland, Ohio in 2010 and began cutting lacquers. In 2021 the company moved from the birthplace of Rock 'n' Roll and home of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to Bristol, Virginia, known as "the Birthplace of Country Music". The studio currently cuts on two restored Neumann VMS-70 lathes (the number refers to the year of manufacture). Both have been in service since the early 1970s. One was obtained in 2009 from somewhere in New Jersey. The second was shipped over in 2013 from The Netherlands.

Here are notes on a selection from my favorite books on the history of recording technology, the history of the record business, and the interactions between recording technology, the record business, and the art of music. One example of what I mean by all that is, in the late 1920s, piezoelectric “crystal” microphones supplanted carbon microphones for radio broadcasting. Crystal microphones had a better signal-to-noise ratio than carbon microphones. Therefore, the... 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

Schiit Audio's new $399 Skoll MM/MC phono preamp features fully discrete, differential Class A zero feedback gain stages and a fully passive RIAA network. No op-amps are in the circuit. Skoll’s gain stage is a compound JFET-BJT pair running on "massive" 64V rails for enhanced linearity and freedom from overload. The result is over 100dB signal to noise ratio for 40dB of gain, and up to 70dB of gain available.Additional features are relay switched inputs... 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

After my last harrowing adventure through Deutsche Grammophon’s “Original Source Series”, I was hoping this next batch would prove less problematic and more up to the standards of what I had appreciated about the first few releases in the series such as the excellent Abbado Rite of Spring. Fortunately, with these two particular titles set to release officially on October 20th, my fears were abated. My colleague Mark Ward has already reviewed the romantic era thrillers... Read More

Pro-Ject has released a series of group and album related turntables, including a Yellow Submarine shaped one, a Metallica themed one and ones paying homage to The Beatles (all white), Sgt. Pepper's... (the drum image in the platter), The Rolling Stones, etc. but none as dramatic as this new one aimed at DSOTM fans. It includes an in the dark light show along with more substantial features listed below. The MSRP is $1999.

The latest round of DG's "Original Source" vinyl reissues delivers an eclectic range of titles, from benchmark classics like Emil Gilels' Beethoven piano sonatas and Rafael Kubelik's Ma Vlast, to less familiar titles like Friedrich Gulda's Mozart piano concertos with Claudio Abbado, and Seiji Ozawa's take on Berlioz's phantasmagoric orchestral spectacular, the Symphonie Fantastique. Tracking Angle's Michael Johnson and Mark Ward drop the needle on the latest batch of eagerly-awaited OSS releases. PART 1 features Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Beethoven Piano Sonatas performed by Emil Gilels. PART 2, featuring Mozart Piano Concertos with Friedrich Gulda, and Smetana's Ma Vlast with Rafael Kubelik - both reviewed by Michael Johnson - will follow shortly.

Here's the press release: FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — Wireworld Cable Technology, a long-standing leader in the audiophile and professional A/V cable industry, recently announced the release of four new cables for turntables with RCA plug connections. These four cables, named Solstice 8, Eclipse 8, Silver Eclipse 8 and Platinum Eclipse 8, feature Wireworld’s patented DNA Helix conductor geometry and Silver Tube RCA plugs, along with ultraquiet COMPOSILEX 3 insulation... Read More

Here are notes on a selection from my favorite books on the history of recording technology, the history of the record business, and the interactions between recording technology, the record business, and the art of music. One example of what I mean by all that is, in the late 1920s, piezoelectric “crystal” microphones supplanted carbon microphones for radio broadcasting. Crystal microphones had a better signal-to-noise ratio than carbon microphones. Therefore, the... Read More

Capital and Pacific AudioFest show producers Gary Gill and Lou Hinkley today announced the SouthWest Audio Fest, a new Dallas, Texas based audio festival, set to debut March 15-17th, 2024 at the famous Hilton/Anatole Hotel. The promoting pair say the hotel is booked, the weather is perfect, and the venue has plenty of room to expand. There are thousands of parking spaces, easy load in (for the presenters), great bars and restaurants, more than fifty meeting rooms and... Read More

During the just concluded "Making Vinyl" symposium 9/28-9/29, 2023 in Haarlem, The Netherlands, Record Industry, one of the world's largest pressing plants, opened its tours to attendees and conducted tours all Friday afternoon. TrackingAngle will have full "Making Vinyl" coverage coming up over the next few days.The approximately 6500 square meter Record Industry originated in 1958 as privately held Artone—which remains the name of the studio... Read More

As The Strokes' frontman Julian Casablancas goes through his mid-life crisis, a new 7” box set of the group’s first 10 singles and a lavish reissue of its 2001 debut LP Is This It hits the market. Legacy acts are the backbone of the music industry: the longer a band (or an artist) maintains its success, the wider the demographic it reaches. When the original fans get older, they’re better able to pay for more expensive concert tickets and a steady stream of... Read More

Eric Astor, Furnace Record Pressing President and CEO invited me to tour the plant for the second time. The first time was a few years ago when the company was just setting up shop in the Alexandria, Virginia building that formerly housed The Washington Post's printing presses. During that first visit, Furnace was still shaking out the vintage Toolex Alpha presses it had purchased in Mexico plus it had added a few new WarmTone presses. This new tour shows... Read More

Once they step behind the rock and roll curtain, whatever runs-ins a journalist might have with famous (or soon to be famous…) musicians can eventually collapse into the mundane. They’re there to sell a record or tickets, and you’re there to help them do that and not much more. If you get to snag a few beers off their rider, all the better. But back during the days glamorized by that largely dreadful “Almost Famous” film, there was, in general, more to it. More fun... Read More

Here are notes on a selection from my favorite books on the history of recording technology, the history of the record business, and the interactions between recording technology, the record business, and the art of music. One example of what I mean by all that is, in the late 1920s, piezoelectric “crystal” microphones supplanted carbon microphones for radio broadcasting. Crystal microphones had a better signal-to-noise ratio than carbon microphones. Therefore, the... Read More

By the early 1970s, time had passed jazz by. The Beatles had happened, James Brown had happened, and “The Sixties” had happened. Young people, both Black and white, weren’t interested in jazz. It was the music of old people who didn’t buy many records or go out to clubs and concerts. Jazz musicians were scuffling for the few available gigs, driving cabs, and working at the post office. Even icons like Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald were having difficulty selling records, and all released albums of pop/rock tunes. The fusion music of Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the smooth/funky jazz of Donald Byrd and Grover Washington Jr., and Keith Jarrett’s sui generis Koln Concert was the “jazz” that was selling.