Mike Mettler

Whenever the calendar turns, almost inevitably, new Steve Hackett music is on the horizon — and thus we have before us the British guitar maestro’s 30th solo album, The Circus and the Nightwhale, which is being released tomorrow, February 16, 2024, as a 180g 1LP set via InsideOut Music. In a recent Zoom interview across the Pond with AP editor Mike Mettler, Hackett discussed the genesis (pun intended) of Nightwhale music, the importance of deploying volume dynamics whenever possible, and why Genesis was in no way going to compromise the depth and the integrity of the song arrangements they came up with for the initial vinyl release of their groundbreaking 1972 LP, Foxtrot. . .

We’re always on the hunt for young companies looking to make their mark in our analog-centric world, and today we put the spotlight on Kestrel Audio. A budding young British manufacturer, Kestrel Audio is now entering its second year of operation by offering up the KT-100 turntable, an upgrade on their entry-level KT-50. Read on to see what the feature set for the KT-100 entails. . .

Table Toppers returns anew here in 2024! Recently, we asked the AP faithful to “show us your turntables!” for an all-new feature section titled Table Toppers — and now it’s time for the first series installment of the new year. Here in Take 3, we introduce you to the system of Vince, who lives in the Santa Cruz mountains in Northern California. Read on to see all the cool gear that constitutes Vince’s setup, what his favorite stereo shop to frequent is and why, how he resolved a noise issue with his table, and what his current favorite LPs to spin on it are. . .

Recently, we here at AP decided to resume reviewing record cleaning machines (RCMs) on a more consistent basis — but where to start? The new Record Doctor X vacuum record cleaning machine (a.k.a. the RDX VRCM) fit the bill perfectly. It’s an RD series update that offers new features like a bi-directional turning motor that alleviates the need to turn records by hand, and it also sports a vacuum swing arm that vacuums the top surface of an LP while the bottom gets vacuumed by way of a slot under a sweeper strip. Read on to see how well the RDX VRCM cleaned both old and new records alike, and if it’s worth the notable price of admission. . .