LATEST ADDITIONS

AAA VinylFeaturesVinyl Reports
Vinyl Reports: Tales From The Used Bin!
Malachi Lui  |  Nov 28, 2021  |  14 comments
(Vinyl Reports is an AnalogPlanet feature aiming to create a definitive guide to vinyl LPs. Here, we talk about sound quality, LP packaging, music, and the overarching vinyl experience.)

Real-life used record shopping is as joyful as it is potentially frustrating. These days, I mostly find used record bins of previous decades’ detritus; however, a recent browse through Asheville’s Harvest Records yielded luck. Following are reviews of three of those finds, plus one used LP ordered on Discogs.

Continue Reading »
Can I Have My Money Back?
My Final Words on " The In Groove", Lacquers, The Electric Recording Company
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 28, 2021  |  58 comments
Credit The In Groove's Mike Esposito. To his fans he can do no wrong. Clearly he's got a great record store and he usually provides in his videos useful information. To his fans, for daring to criticize him I am a "con man" (in the words of one of them) and I owe him "an apology". For what, I'm not sure, but for them he owes none to The Electric Recording Company though his seriously flawed video trashing of the company I think requires an apology.

Continue Reading »
Features
How Long Do Lacquers Really Last?
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 26, 2021  |  54 comments
How long do lacquers really last? The recent Supersense announcement that it would be releasing lacquers cut sourced from 1:1 master tape copies (the original announcement made it seem as if the company was claiming to be using actual master tapes, which made zero sense and was obviously not the case), produced a torrent of objections and outrage on this website under the original post and on the YouTube channel of record dealer The In Groove.

Continue Reading »
Analog Gear News
Nagra Debuts its New Reference Anniversary Turntable/Tonearm Record Playback System
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 24, 2021  |  27 comments
Romanel, Switzerland – Wednesday 24th November 2021—Nagra celebrates 70 years with a limited edition Reference Anniversary Turntable. According to the press release, the new turntable is the result of four year’s worth of R&D by a team of designers and engineers in the fields of applied physics, mechanical and electronic engineering and material science.

Continue Reading »
Album ReviewsThe Rear View Mirror
The Rear View Mirror: Alexander “Skip” Spence’s Oar
Malachi Lui  |  Nov 24, 2021  |  3 comments
In June 1968, to record their second album Wow/Grape Jam, San Francisco psych rock band Moby Grape traveled to Columbia Records’ New York studios. Towards these sessions’ end, guitarist Alexander “Skip” Spence vanished with an acid mystic known only as “Johanna.” Her LSD induced a three-day trip, during which a paranoid Spence turned against his bandmates. Two days later, Spence reappeared at the band’s hotel with a fire axe; when he didn’t find them there, he hailed a cab to the studio, ready to attack. “His eyes were like one-arm bandits,” producer David Rubinson recounted in 2009. Police arrested Spence, who then spent five months in Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward.

Continue Reading »
Features
ELAC’s $700/pr. Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 Bookshelf Loudspeaker Tells The Truth
Nathan Zeller  |  Nov 23, 2021  |  4 comments
High performance loudspeakers are a trekking pole in an audiophile’s lifelong, arduous journey to “audio nirvana”; without them, one won’t reach the destination. And while controversy surrounds the discussion of whether one should first stride into high-fidelity audio via spectacular loudspeakers or an exceptional source, one undeniably cannot ignore loudspeakers. If this is news, don’t fret. Designed by the renowned Andrew Jones (Jones announced last July 18th that he was leaving ELAC but he's yet to divulge his next move_ed), the ELAC Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 bookshelf loudspeaker meets a growing audiophile’s needs. It’s a high performance reasonably priced loudspeaker.

Continue Reading »
FeaturesShort Cuts
Review Explosion: JPEGMAFIA, Jarvis Cocker, Young Thug, Richard Ashcroft, & Yukihiro Takahashi
Malachi Lui  |  Nov 23, 2021  |  11 comments
(Review Explosion, curated by contributing editor Malachi Lui, is AnalogPlanet’s guide to notable recent releases and reissues. It focuses on the previous couple months’ new releases for which we don’t have time or energy to more extensively cover.)

Continue Reading »
Turntable Reviews
Dual CS 518 Turntable Priced to Be Heard
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 22, 2021  |  10 comments
The demand for new under $1000 turntables remains impressively robust. There are widespread shortages in some but not all markets around the United States with wait times for some models up to 6 weeks and for some even longer.

Continue Reading »
Cartridge Reviews
Sumiko Triple Play: Three New Cartridges—Blue Point No 3 Low and High Output and Celebration 40
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 18, 2021  |  12 comments
Sumiko, celebrating its 40th year, recently introduced to its extensive lineup three new cartridges. Two are in the company’s Oyster line: the Blue Point 3—low and high output versions priced at $499 clams, and a new Reference Line Celebration 40 priced at $2799.

Continue Reading »
Capital AudioFest 2021
Capital Audio Fest 2021 Day Two Coverage
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 16, 2021  |  9 comments
Day two of the Capital Audio Fest began outside where I ran into Theremin manufacturer Arthur Harrison who'd been invited to give two talks on the spooky sounding instrument. The usual show stuff follows that fascinating encounter. I try to not review hotel room sound unless something sticks out as being unusually fine sounding.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X