The three new Pick it models are the MC3, the MC9 and the Pick it Pro Balanced—a unique "True Balanced" MM design. Parts are sourced in Japan with the cartridges built in Europe. The MC9 uses a Pro-Ject specific "Special Elliptical" stylus and a cryogenically treated cantilever plus a "Telar 57 pure iron square cross coil around which is wound 6N linear crystal copper wire. Output is .35mV, with 1.8g optimal tracking. The body is black... Read More

The Warsaw Audio Show, this year October 27-29th, is an outstanding annual event drawing large crowds of audio/video and music fans. It's an especially family-friendly affair producing throngs of people all three days—sometimes too many people, which makes it difficult to get into some of the rooms. That's the problem all show organizers would be happy to have.150 exhibitors will be demonstrating audio and video gear in 160 rooms located at two hotels and... 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

On this video I tell the story behind the new vinyl record I'm releasing along with my friend Robin Wyatt, on newly formed Liam Records. Bob Ludwig mastered the Duke Markos engineered recording that we collectively mixed with input from "Tone Poet" Joe Harley. Caelan Cardello is an exciting young pianist. Only after we decided the live performance deserved to be released on record did we find out that Caelan has quite a following in the New York area... Read More

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.