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News
Lyn Stanley Recording March 4, 2014 At Avatar Studios in NYC With Legendary Recording Engineer Al Schmitt
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 04, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  4 comments
Chanteuse extraordinaire Lyn Stanley was at New York's Avatar Studios (formerly The Power Station) recording songs for her next album Potions, which will consist of '50s era covers. Most distinguished recording engineer/producer Al Schmitt was at the board and yes, the big Studer 24 track you see in the picture was rolling.

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Set-Up Accessory Reviews
Audio Additives Digital Stylus Force Gauge
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 02, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  38 comments
Looking for a good digital stylus force gauge? Once upon time one from Winds cost $800 and was good only to a single digit. Today they can be had good to 3 decimal points for as little as $79 like this Audio Additive by Musicdirect®. Like most today it is made in China.

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Album Reviews
Los Lobos's Kiko Makes Its 180g Vinyl Debut
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 01, 2014  |  10 comments
Nothing Los Lobos recorded previous to 1992’s Kiko could have prepared anyone for this piece of sustained, surreal brilliance. Dreamlike sonic vistas, ominous lyrical horizons, mysterious musical crevices, and spring-like rhythmic compressions and extensions combine to create a dayglo, funhouse-like environment filled with familiar, but oddly drawn musical elements.
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Phono Preamp Reviews
LKV Research Phono 2-SB MM/MC Phono Preamplifier: Affordable Excellence
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 28, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  6 comments
Made in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA, using where possible American parts, designer Bill Hutchins’ LKV Research Phono 2-SB has the kind of Japanese corporate name that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
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News
Blue Note Announces 100 Classic Jazz Titles on 180 Gram Vinyl
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 27, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  53 comments
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Blue Note Records, the label will be reissuing in 2014 100 classic Blue Notes on 180 gram vinyl beginning with five on March 25th: Art Blakey's Free For All, Coltrane's Blue Train, Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch, Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil and Larry Young's Unity.

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Record Buying Tips
Tips on Some Good VICs!
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 25, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  8 comments
You say you don't want to spend hundreds on an original LSC-1806 "Living Stereo" or LSC-1817 or $1500 on the Soria box set LDS-6065? That's understandable. By the numbers: LSC-1806 is the 1954 stereo spectacular "Also Sprach Zarathustra" with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony. Of course RCA couldn't issue it on vinyl in 1954, though it did issue it in stereo on reel to reel tape well before the vinyl, which didn't get released until 1960.

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News
Analogplanet Has Egg on its Record: Academy Records Gets An Apology
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 24, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  19 comments
We screwed up publishing the "records in the dumpster in front of Academy Records" news item. Yes, we confirmed that the records were there but that's not the real story according to Academy owner Mike Davis who was rightfully pissed. We apologize profusely for our error.
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Album Reviews
"The Royal Sessions" Finds Paul Rodgers In Fine Voice
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 23, 2014  |  19 comments
You can argue over who is the greatest rock singer, but there's no arguing whether or not Paul Rodgers would be high up on every list compiled by music critics and fellow musicians alike. Rolling Stone placed him at #55 in its list of greatest singers male and female all rock era genres but I'm more inclined to side with John Mellencamp who in 1991 called Rodgers "the greatest rock singer ever".

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Album Reviews
Beethoven Violin Concerto, Leonid Kogan, The Paris Conservatoire Orchestra Conduced by Constantin Silvestri
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 22, 2014  |  16 comments
The first stereo release from The Electric Recording Company is a reissue of Columbia SAX 2386 first released in 1959 . It is a much sought after record as the used prices for clean copies are nothing short of astronomical— $3000 and up. Kogan was born in the Ukraine in 1924 and died of a heart attack in 1982 at age 58 a few days after playing this piece in Vienna. His western discography isn't extensive and the few he recorded for the Columbia division of EMI are the most collectible.

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Cartridge Reviews
Transfiguration Phoenix MC Cartridge: Same Name, Different Game
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 20, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  6 comments
I reviewed the Transfiguration Phoenix for Stereophile five years ago. This is not really the same cartridge though it retains the same name. In 2012 the low output moving coil cartridge was updated to include larger gauge pure silver coil wire wound on the square permalloy core used on the now discontinued top of the line Transfiguration Orpheus. The revised Phoenix also shares the Orpheus's damping system and uses a variant of the Orpheus's yoke less, double ring magnet technology featuring a powerful neodymium ring in the rear and a samarium cobalt one in front.
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