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Analog Gear News
Buzzcocks a different kind of tension Reissued by Domino
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 05, 2019  |  7 comments
Domino has just re-issued two of The Buzzcocks’ four albums with the sticker on the masterful classic a different kind of tension reading “Sourcing the original ¼” tapes for the first time since the original 1979 release.”

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Cartridge Reviews
With the Donatello Gold MC Cartridge Gold Note Plays “The Price Is Right” (Revised)
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 05, 2019  |  28 comments
The first item up for bids today on “The Price is Right” is Gold Note’s Donatello Gold moving coil cartridge! Vacuous bimbette hostess, tell us all about it!

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BeatlesCan I Have My Money Back?
Michael & Malachi Exchange Thoughts on, Among Other Things, QRP’s “White Album” Pressing
Michael Fremer,  |  Jul 03, 2019  |  18 comments
Malachi Lui: First and foremost, let’s note that while this is a review of Quality Record Pressings’ version of the Beatles “White Album” 2018 stereo mix, it’s really more of an excuse for me to humiliate Michael in the best ways as much as possible (laughs).

(For those who don't know, QRP pressed the 2 LP set worldwide. Optimal in Germany, pressed the 4 LP box set worldwide, containing the original 2 LP set plus the 2 LP Escher demos).

Michael Fremer: Always up for that! It’s a way of life.

ML: If you weren’t up for it, then I’d force you to be!

MF: Of course you would!

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Album Reviews
UMe's Birth of the Cool Is A Sonic Abortion And a Reissue Disgrace
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 02, 2019  |  29 comments
First off, UMe touts this reissue as "...newly remastered from the original 1949 analog tapes for the first time since 1957." That's nonsense: Bernie Grundman cut this from the original analog tapes for Classic Records back in the 2000s. And I believe the RVG CD did as well (correct me if I'm wrong). Facts matter.

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Features
AnalogPlanet Visits CH Precision in the Heart of Swiss Watch Making Country
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 30, 2019  |  18 comments
Following "Making Vinyl Berlin" and a week before "High End Munich 2019" AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer visited high performance Switzerland-based electronics manufacturer CH Precision (among others). This is the first posted video from that trip.

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News
A Wally Malewicz Memorial
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 28, 2019  |  4 comments
Dave Gordon, who is Audio Research's Brand Ambassador, and who I've known for more than a few decades was a neighbor of my late mentor and friend Wally Malewicz. Dave sent this note and asked for people to share with others who considered Wally a friend. If any AnalogPlanet readers have gotten any good vinyl playback information from me, most of it originated with Wally, so consider him a friend. Therefore here's Dave's note:

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Album Reviews
IGOR, Tyler, the Creator's True Masterpiece, is Essential Listening
Malachi Lui  |  Jun 24, 2019  |  22 comments
Hours before its release, Tyler, the Creator tweeted a set of listening instructions to anxious fans about to hear his new magnum opus IGOR. “This is not Bastard. This is not Goblin. This is not Wolf. This is not Cherry Bomb. This is not Flower Boy. This is IGOR. Pronounced eee-gore. Don’t go into this expecting a rap album. Don’t go into this expecting any album. Just go, jump into it. I believe the first listen works best all the way through, no skips. Front to back. No distractions either.”

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Cartridge Reviews
Sumiko's Songbird is a New, Moderately Priced High Output Moving Coil Cartridge
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 20, 2019  |  21 comments
Any resemblance between Sumiko’s $899 “Songbird” high output moving coil cartridge and the rest of the Reference line’s “bird” cartridges—the $1249 Blackbird (available in both low and high output versions) and the new $1899 “open architecture” flagship Starling is strictly intentional. Sumiko has been in the cartridge business for decades and these are all made in the same reliably high-quality factory that I visited a few years ago.

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Analog Gear News
"Aretha's Gold" Is Limited to 4000 Copies and Should Already Be Souled Out!
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 18, 2019  |  2 comments
Mobile Fidelity's double 45rpm reissue of Aretha's Gold (originally issued in 1969 as Atlantic SD 8227) gets off to not such a great sonic start because though "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" and "Do Right Woman-Do Right Man" are musical classics that belong at the head of the hits lineup, the Rick Hall engineered recordings at his Fame Record Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama pale in comparison to everything else in this molten set recorded at Atlantic Studios in New York City.

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Cartridge Reviews
Ortofon MC Quintet Black S Follow-Up
Malachi Lui  |  Jun 17, 2019  |  20 comments
Though my initial February review of Ortofon’s $999 MC Quintet Black S cartridge was quite favorable, one part of my system wasn’t best optimized for the cartridge: the Rega RB330 tonearm’s lack of adjustability meant that my VTA was off by two degrees (90 degrees instead of the preferred 92-93). To combat this issue, AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer and I installed Acoustic Signature shims underneath the back of the Rega tonearm. However, with sufficient shims installed to increase the VTA to 92 degrees, unless the tonearm was raised from the record surface, the dust cover wouldn’t close. Since in my house a dust cover is absolutely necessary, I sacrificed having ideal VTA and we only ended up installing a set of 1mm shims to increase the VTA by half a degree.

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