Musical Surroundings today announced a MK II upgrade to its world-wide best selling Hana S cartridge series. The Mk II upgrade enhances both the line's musical performance and value. Master cartridge designer Masao Okada implements a new tapered Aluminum cantilever with increased rigidity, resulting in a remarkable improvement transferring groove modulation from vinyl record to the cartridge generator. The S Series Mk II features higher specified parts, advanced... Read More

In 1975, Brian Eno released Discreet Music, his first “conscious” ambient album. On the back cover, he wrote an essay that starts, “Since I have always preferred making plans to executing them, I have gravitated towards situations and systems that, once set into operation, could create music with little or no intervention on my part.” With an accompanying technical graph, he describes side A’s 32-minute title composition—a few looping melodies that alternate in and... Read More

Another event for New York/NJ readers: on Saturday September 14th from 3:00-7:00PM VPI is hosting a charity event to benefit The Tunnel to Towers Foundation (set up following the 9/11 attack to benefit Firefighters and other first responders). The event host is Tracking Angle contributing writer JJ French lead guitarist of Twisted Sister For: Food, Drink, Live Music …and $500,000 of HiFi Gear!Prizes, Raffles and Auctions Event Donation is $20 HiFi Cares will feature a... Read More

If you are in the New York metro area, on September 19th Innovative Audio is hosting an album release party for Patrick Leonard's new album It All Comes Down to Mood. Patrick will be there and following playback of the entire album on the big Wilson Chronosonic XVX speakers Patrick Leonard and I will talk about it's creation, the musicians like Tony Levin, Martin Barre and others who participated and if there's time, Patrick's incredible... Read More

Newvelle's Elan Mehler was kind enough to give Tracking Angle an exclusive on this press release and offer. Since there are but 500 copies pressed, here's the story: The legendary Little Freddie King returns to Newvelle Records with a stripped down - and decidedly different - sound. The blues titan appears here just a few years following his acclaimed release Going Upstairs but now in raw, unadorned form. Paul DeFiglia on upright bass and Bobby Lewis on harp... Read More

Here's what happened and why the original review did not include comparisons to the DCC Compact Classics version, the Sax cut double 45 and the Plangent processed edition: just as I'd done the original vs UHQR comparison, it was time for a major loudspeaker install so I was down for two days. Rather than wait I chose to post what I already had. Now here's the rest.First, with the new speakers set up for review (Acora VRCs), I re-listened to tracks from... Read More

An exclusive transatlantic video discussion including an essential new historical video covering the original DGG production of Herbert Von Karajan and the BPO's Bruckner Symphony cycle, hosted by Deutsche Gramophon's Johannes Gleim with Emil Berliner Studios' Tonmeister, mastering engineer and Managing Director Rainer Maillard, cutting engineer Sidney Meyer, Tracking Angle's contributing writer Mark Ward and editor Michael Fremer. This box set is... Read More

Our man in Japan, whose website is Rice Field Records took in the recent Tokyo Audio Fair and produced this video report. The show always has a great vibe. Attendees are respectful and most often want to hear classical music and good jazz. The presentations are useful too. Enjoy! Read More

(There's NEW AUDIO attached to the video below). The German company Sonopress last year announced that it was developing an injection molded vinyl record production process, calling the resulting record an "EcoRecord". The environmentally friendly process is similar to how optical media like laserdiscs, CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs are manufactured (Sonopress developed 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray technology). With optical disc popularity giving way to streaming... Read More

Our friend Charles Kirmuss appeared on The Audiophile Junkie YouTube channel recently and claimed the superiority of tangential tracking arms without explaining the negatives. There are positives and negatives to everything in this hobby so J.R. and I asked to make a joint guest appearance to "cavitate" the situation.The video is below. The comments so far are interesting. My favorite is this one: "Excellent information. Very enjoyable. I sent this... Read More

Kind of a "surprise drop" from Analogue Productions. Bernie Grundman mastered from original analog tape at 33 1/3, AAA all the way, pressed on 200g UHQR Clarity vinyl. New packaging, plus die-cut direct to board jacket duplicates the original. One of the best Doors albums and possibly the best sounding as well. Read More

One-step vinyl pressings continue to fixate both self-described audiophiles and the uninitiated who are curious about the wonders of great sound. These pressings eliminate two of the three steps in traditional vinyl manufacturing (creating the father and mother), thus bringing out more detail from the source material and less surface noise. Audiophiles tend to agree that the results are sonically worth the added cost.Warner Records' Because Sound Matters label... Read More

On August 7th dCS launched its Varèse Music System, characterizing it as a product that embodies "our boldest ideas, realized" and naming it for the French experimental composer who invented the term "organized sound" and who famously said "What is music but organized noises?" The late Frank Zappa was among his most ardent Baby Boomer generation fans and promoters.The new Varèse Music System consists of a multiple task pre-DAC Core that... Read More

At Audio Technica's new SoHo-based Technica House, described by the company as "a shared space of collaboration and inspiration, celebrating the Japanese aesthetic and Audio-Technica's analog philosophy" Audio Technica's chief engineer for cartridge design, Yosuke Koizumi explained the changes made to the original AT-ART1000 "Direct Power" moving coil cartridge introduced in 2016 and designed by company veteran and even back then... Read More

Our man in Tokyo Michael Schoolnik went to the recent Tokyo International Audio Show and shot some footage you'll enjoy watching. And here are some timings.0:00 Intro0:25 Accuphase2:05 Ortofon3:24 Luxman5:12 Sforzato6:43 Triode9:08 Esoteric10:20 McIntosh Read More

In Part 3 of this extended analysis and review of the new Karajan cycle of Bruckner’s 9 Symphonies - remixed, remastered and cut directly from the original 8-track master tapes to vinyl by Emil Berliner Studios - I survey the remastered cycle as a whole, as well as examine how the digital recordings of Symphonies 1-3 were sonically refurbished. (You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here).

Press release: LOS ANGELES — Throughout the latter half of the seventies, Joni Mitchell continued to creatively break ground with her fearless and fluid exploration of jazz. Rather than tread the same path, she challenged and reinvented her style with a folk fusion like no other. Ascending to an unrivaled sonic peak, this innovative sound took shape across the gold-certified Hejira [1976], the gold-certified double-LP Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter[1977], her... Read More

In Part 2 of this extended analysis and review of the new Karajan cycle of Bruckner’s 9 Symphonies - remixed, remastered and cut directly from the original 8-track master tapes to vinyl by Emil Berliner Studios - I focus in on the technical processes behind the original recordings, and the technology used to breathe new life into these classics of the gramophone. A huge thank-you to Rainer Maillard for the time he took to send me his additional thoughts pertaining to this project and much else (beyond his extensive essay in the set's booklet). (You can read Part 1 here, and Part 3 here).

Tracking Angle west coast correspondent Michael Trochalakis recently visited Levi Seitz's Seattle based Black Belt Mastering where the new Because Sound Matters Linkin Park "One Step" released were cut. Olivia Rodrigo's "Sour" and Beyonce's "Renaissance" are among the many other well regarded vinyl issues and reissues Seitz cut at Black Belt. Seitz gives Michael a tour of the facility and discusses his three lathes, then... Read More