LATEST ADDITIONS

Can I Have My Money Back?
When Is The Used Album You Buy Online Not the Album You Bought?
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 03, 2020  |  33 comments
Charles Lloyd pointed me towards the Chico Hamilton album A Different Journey (Reprise RS R9-6078) on which he plays, is musical director and wrote all of the tunes. I'd never heard of it or even seen it, so I went on DISCOGS and found a copy.

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Can I Have My Money Back?
Adam Schlesinger, 52 — He Had "All Kinds of Time"
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 03, 2020  |  8 comments
The Coronavirus got singer-songwriter and Fountains of Wayne co-founder Adam Schlesinger on Wednesday. He was 52. That wasn't supposed to happen to someone so young. He had "All Kinds of Time". Though that FOW song from the album Welcome Interstate Managers is about a football quarterback standing in the pocket, it was the first song I played after learning the virus had gotten to Schlesinger. it's a stop-action suspended animation song with an oddly downcast mood that fits the news.

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Cartridge Reviews
High Performance, High Value Hana ML and MH Cartridges (Reversed Channels Fixed)
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 01, 2020  |  63 comments
Though AnalogPlanet reviewed the low output $750 Hana SL cartridge back in 2017 in a “shootout” with the $999 Ortofon Quintet Black S, we’re kind of “late to the fair” on these two newer Hana models, in part because they’ve been reviewed by others in Stereophile (and of course elsewhere), where I mostly (but not exclusively!) cover the top end of the high performance market.

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Album Reviews
Big Thief's U.F.O.F. Steals a Page From '60s era Psych-Folk Rockers
Jeff Flaim  |  Mar 31, 2020  |  15 comments
Brooklyn- based quartet Big Thief formed after all four of its members— Adrianne Lenker (guitar, vocals), Buck Meek (guitar, backing vocals), Max Oleartchik (bass), and James Krivchenia (drums)— had graduated from the Berklee College Of Music.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
A Dream of a One Step Monk's Dream  From Mo-Fi
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 30, 2020  |  22 comments
If you're saying Monk's creative juices had begun to dry up by the time he signed with Columbia Records and released this 1963 label debut album you'll get no argument from me. But Monk, all of 46 when this was recorded, had a secret weapon: his rock'n'roll band of the hard-blowing Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, John Ore on bass and Frankie Dunlop on drums.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
Easy to Warm Up to ELAC Alchemy’s $1250 PPA-2 Phono Preamp
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 29, 2020  |  23 comments
ELAC Alchemy designer Peter Madnick is well-known to veteran audiophiles as the man behind, among other companies, Audio Alchemy, the “high end” brand that during the 1990s made high performance affordable. With Madnick designing and the business side run by Mark Shifter—a guy who could sell ham to a Hasid—Audio Alchemy had a formidable, decade long run before it folded.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
Parasound Z Phono XRM MM/MC Phono Preamp Offers A lot For $595
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 27, 2020  |  11 comments
Parasound’s $595 ZPhono XRM is a compact, versatile MM/MC phono preamplifier that offers flexibility and features not usually found at this price point including gold-plated balanced XLR outputs (and gold-plated single-ended RCA outputs), a mono switch, an 18dB/octave rumble filter and for its MC input, continuously variable loading from 50ohms to 1050ohms.

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NewsPlayback Accessory Reviews
StylusTimer, The Handy "Cartridge Odometer" Now For Sale
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 27, 2020  |  1 comments
The recently reviewed StylusTimer, not quite ready for purchase then, is now available for sale at the StylusTimer website.

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News
Grado Consolidates & Upgrades "Statement" and "Reference" Series as "Timbre" & Intros OPUS3 Cartridge
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 27, 2020  |  5 comments
Grado Labs just announced a new "Timbre" series of cartridges that consolidates under one "roof" the previously separate mid-range "Reference" and "Statement" wooden bodied phono cartridges. Grado also introduced a new $275 OPUS3 cartridge. All, including the budget Prestige series, now incorporate techniques developed and incorporated into the top of the line Lineage series.

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Interviews
A Conversation With The Great Charles Lloyd
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 26, 2020  |  1 comments
You never know what to expect when you call up someone to conduct an interview. In the case of Charles Lloyd, all I knew was what I heard on record over his 60 or so year vinyl and CD recorded output. That told me Lloyd was adventurous, eclectic, at one time idealistic, spiritual, and you might say over-optimistic, and someone willing and eager to mix it up within various musical genres. He's played with some of the world's greatest musicians both as a band member and as a leader. The latest release, the deluxe box 8 recorded two years ago, celebrated in concert his 80th birthday. Were it not for the Coronavirus outbreak he'd either now be on tour, or preparing to tour and too busy to talk, so getting this interview was kind of a lucky break.

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