LATEST ADDITIONS

We’re very much looking forward to all the new analog gear expected to be shown at this year’s AXPONA in Schaumburg, Illinois from April 14-16, and Luxman has already given us an advance taste by letting us know they’ll be introducing their brand-new flagship PD-191A turntable at the big show. Read on to get all the respective specs, features, and stats about this cool, vintage-looking new ’table. . .

I don’t know about you, but I still quite enjoy seeing tubes on full display when it comes to the design philosophy behind certain types of analog gear. Case in point: the simply tube-ariffic look of Marchand’s LN112 tube phono preamp, which is available in both MM and MC versions. Read on to find out more about Marchand’s fine phono preamp options. . .

There’s a special intuitive connection certain musicians share that cannot be qualified in technical terms, but can instead be described as being both magical and mysterious. Case in point: the 60-years-and-counting musical mindmeld between lead vocalist Colin Blunstone and keyboardist/vocalist Rod Argent, the twin driving forces behind British invasion stalwarts The Zombies. Still going strong today, The Zombies are on the precipice of the imminent release of their seventh studio album, Different Game, which comes out in fine 1LP form on March 31 via Cooking Vinyl. In a recent Zoom interview with AP editor Mike Mettler, Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone discussed the connective sonic tissue between Different Game and their 1968 masterpiece Odessey and Oracle, why he prefers hearing songs like “Time of the Season” in mono, and why the Odessey album benefitted from some things The Beatles left behind in EMI Studios while they were recording their legendary June 1967 Sgt. Pepper album. Read on to glean all the properly seasoned details. . .

For the love of music. It’s a statement of purpose we can all identify with — and it also happens to be the tagline for Michell, the iconic UK audio brand founded back in the mid-1960s long known for their high-quality reference turntables, tonearms, cartridges, and accessories. Of late, we’ve been enamored with the rebranded and duly updated Michell Gyro SE turntable — which, we might add, can also be properly paired with the company’s TecnoArm 2 tonearm. Read on to find out more about this quite cool ’table and tonearm combo. . .