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Analog Gear NewsNews
Channel D's Seta L Comes Out as Transimpedance
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 03, 2020  |  9 comments
Channel D's long in production (10+ years) high performance Seta L ultra-wide bandwidth, fully balanced, battery powered voltage amplification-based phono preamp (Stereophile "Class A" rated) now features a transimpedance (current amplification) option, switchable via circuit board jumpers.

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Analog Gear NewsNews
Phono Box RS2 Is Pro-Ject's Newest and Most Sophisticated Phono Preamplifier
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 02, 2020  |  9 comments
Pro-Ject just announced the release of its newest and most sophisticated phono preamp, the RS2. The no op-amp, "hand made" design built in the E.U. is fully balanced and true dual mono. The RS2 features MM gain of 40,43,46 and 50dB and MC gain of 60,63,66 and 70dB with continuously variable MC input impedance from between 10 and 1000 ohms. Capacitance for MM can be set to values between 50 and 400pF.

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Album Reviews
Modern Johnny Sings: Songs In The Age of Vibe  —Songs to Develop Awareness In Listeners
Nathan Zeller  |  Nov 30, 2020  |  3 comments
Should you ever flip through my music library you’d notice that I actively avoid accumulating too many “simple” pop albums. Needless to say, my selective collecting has its reasons. At this point in time, I’d not be shocked to discover that there are a million songs containing the simple lyric “I love you”; of course, that’s just what that line is: simple. That is exactly why my probable million song estimation truly disappoints.

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AAA VinylNews
VMP's The Story of the Grateful Dead  Anthology Is Worth Considering
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 29, 2020  |  31 comments
I was asked to write a short item for a U.K. business about the high prices of today's new records. I ended up thinking they are not all that high. The Sam Goody's ad from 1973 at the top is for the Led Zeppelin catalog, that at the time consisted of five LPs. The list price was $4.98. The sale price (if you brought in the advertisement) was $3.49. Sounds cheap, no? Well, no.

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Features
Some of My Best Sounding Records Discussed In These Ken Micallef Produced and Edited Videos
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 19, 2020  |  51 comments
Stereophile reviewer Ken Micallef visited (mask on) recently to pick up a turntable for review. He asked if I'd do a video with him showing some of my best sounding records. I agreed and picked a bunch out that I show in these three videos shot during his visit.

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Analog Gear News
SME Introduces New Model 6 Turntable With M2-9 Arm
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 19, 2020  |  21 comments
From the press release:

"The Model 6 brings the legendary SME engineering excellence and craftsmanship to a wider audience than ever before. The turntable chassis is CNC-machined from a high density polymer resin, providing high mass with a small footprint; the result is superb resonance absorption and the musical, dynamic sound quality for which SME is famous.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Smetana's "Má Vlast" Direct-to-Disc Produces A Sonic and Musical Spectacular
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 17, 2020  |  16 comments
“I have to admit that this (D2D) recording technique was completely unknown to me before. When I ultimately realized what it entailed, I had mixed feelings at first.” So admitted Jakub Hrusa, the Bamberg Symphony’s 39 year old Czech-born conductor, who joined the orchestra in 2016. Based on the stunning musical and sonic results it was well worth whatever trepidation resulted from the decision to proceed with the recording of Czech-born Bedrich Smetana, which took place July 2th/26th, 2019 in Bamberg, Germany’s Joseph-Keilberth-Saal concert hall. (please forgive the lack of proper accents over the names).

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News
High End Munich Moves Show Dates To September 2021
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 17, 2020  |  5 comments
High End Press Release:

Good news for the HIGH END 2021: the audio show, which was planned to take place in mid-May, has now been moved to the late summer, namely from 9th to 12th September 2021. By choosing these later dates, the organiser of the event, the HIGH END SOCIETY SERVICE GmbH, is taking a huge step towards a successful relaunch of the trade show and also increasing planning reliability for all parties involved.

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Features
“The New Orleans Collection”— Newvelle’s Crescent City Excellent Adventure
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 15, 2020  |  7 comments
In mid-January, 2020—just as the Covid-19 pandemic began its stealthy American death grip— the subscription based vinyl-only Newvelle Records embarked on an ambitious four LP New Orleans recording project at spacious Esplanade Studios, formerly the Third Presbyterian Church in the Treme neighborhood, destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
A Coltrane Review "Two-Fer"— Verve's New A Love Supreme and Ballads
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 12, 2020  |  17 comments
One ferocious and one mellow, these two John Coltrane albums dropped last month by Verve in association with Acoustic Sounds serve as both a great intro for the unfamiliar and as possibly the best sounding versions of both and of course affordable too.

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