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When we left off (HERE), I had just contacted Rob Fritz at Audio Art Cable about possibly getting set up with a loom of cables for both my digital and analog room systems. While I didn't press Rob to go the "full loom" route, he did agree to send me a full suite of interconnect... Read More »

I've always believed in the importance of well-constructed audio cables, and my systems of the last five or so years have been built around expensive (if not completely esoteric) cables from highly regarded manufacturers. I simply believed that logically, having well-made cables of a higher pedigree would give my systems a more legitimate claim to... Read More »

Impex Records is celebrating the 35th anniversary of Jennifer Warnes' groundbreaking Famous Blue Raincoat with a three-LP, 45 rpm, 1STEP reissue of Warnes' classic 1986 album that has gone on to become an enduring audiophile perennial. For what will surely represent the album's penultimate vinyl release, Jennifer Warnes agreed to supply her personal, first-generation analog... Read More »

Welcome to Ho, Ho, Ho, mistletoe, and all that jazz once again! Craft Recordings brings us another selection of Christmas albums this year, and they're certain to brighten any holiday celebration. Included among Craft's offerings is an expanded reissue version of the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas, available as Super Deluxe Edition CD/BluRay sets and... Read More »

A little over four years ago, I reviewed tech guru Bill Stierhout's ADD-Powr Sorcer X2 Harmonic Resonator, which is manufactured in the USA by his company, Coherence Systems. The Sorcer line of harmonic resonators employ a novel approach to improve audiophile AC power conditioning by using an additive process versus the typical subtractive process of... Read More »

Craft Recordings has just released a new 25th Anniversary Edition of R.E.M.'s 1998 album Up, which was the iconic group's first outing as a trio in the aftermath of drummer Bill Berry's retirement from the band. My limited exposure to post-Bill Berry R.E.M. wasn't particularly favorable at the time of that string of albums' original... Read More »

Craft Recordings is offering another exciting line-up of limited-edition LPs for the upcoming November 24th Black Friday celebration of Record Store Day (RSD). Craft's offering of rarities and specialty releases are just a handful among literally hundreds of cool records that will be available online and at your favorite independent record store. For Black Friday,... Read More »

Craft Recordings continues their impressive Original Jazz Classics reboot with a brilliant pair of live album reissues, featuring the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Jazz At Oberlin (1953, Fantasy Records) and the Bill Evans Trio's Sunday At The Village Vanguard (1961, Riverside Records). Dave Brubeck's Jazz At Oberlin showcases an earlier incarnation of the group that would... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment has just released Devo: 50 Years of De-Evolution (1973-2023), a box set that celebrates the legacy of the iconic band and their 50th anniversary as performers. Devo's genre-bending style of rock and roll bounded across a half-century of art punk, new wave, post-punk, and synth pop, and their nine studio albums never failed... Read More »

Impex Records is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jennifer Warnes' 1992 album The Hunter with a limited edition, individually numbered LP pressed on crystal clear, HQ-180 green vinyl. With compact discs ruling the marketplace at the time of its release, Warnes' Grammy-nominated follow-up to her classic Famous Blue Raincoat was never made available as a... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment has just released a 50th Anniversary reissue of David Bowie's beloved Pinups, his 1973 album of cover tunes that paid homage to songs from the 1964 - 67 period that greatly influenced the teenaged David Jones and helped him get his bearings musically. Despite debuting to a very mixed reception from the music... Read More »

As I mentioned in my last review of late-period R.E.M. releases from Craft Recordings, drummer Bill Berry's departure from the band changed the overall dynamic of R.E.M.'s music so much that I no longer found the group's new music as absolutely essential as in years past. I therefore had very little experience with post-Bill Berry... Read More »

Warner and Rhino Entertainment have just released The Darkness, Permission To Land…Again, which is a 5 LP, 20th Anniversary Edition that celebrates the 2003 debut album from UK glam-metal band The Darkness. Permission To Land was a huge commercial success and runaway best seller, taking the band to the number one spot on the UK... Read More »

Last week, a post on the Facebook group Streaming Music Matters generated quite a bit of interest and a long thread of responses. The post header read thusly: "Is this what Dan Fans have been waiting for?" The subject was the newly Bernie Grundman-remastered, 24-bit/192 kHz high-resolution files for Steely Dan's Aja that are now... Read More »

  Iconic Artists Group is a relatively new venture spearheaded by music industry heavy-hitter Irving Azoff; in what has become the new normal for many recording artists, Linda Ronstadt sold her music catalog to Iconic in 2021. Irv Azoff early on was instrumental in the career of Ronstadt, and was very close to not only... Read More »

Power to Drive Virtually Any Loudspeaker with Incredible Performance at a Ridiculously Low Price   I have a fairly constant presence on social media, particularly Facebook, and I belong to a number of audio-related groups there. So when I saw a post in one of them announcing the new Vera-Fi Audio Vera-Link Bluetooth Wireless Stereo... Read More »

Craft Recordings has just released Nanci Griffith: Working In Corners, a new box set which anthologizes the country-folk icon's first four, long-out-of-print catalog albums. As a companion to the box set, Rounder Records (a Craft imprint) has announced More Than A Whisper: Celebrating The Music Of Nanci Griffith, a tribute album that features performances from... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment has announced an enhanced and expanded edition of alternative darlings The Replacements' fourth studio album and major label debut, 1985's Tim, which was produced by Tommy Erdelyi, aka Tommy Ramone. Which is now being made available as a 4-CD, 1-LP box set, Tim: Let It Bleed Edition. The new box highlights new remixes... Read More »

Thelonious Monk's 1957 classic Brilliant Corners marks the fifth release in Craft Recordings' Small Batch LP series. The Small Batch series utilizes a one-step lacquer process (versus the standard three-step process) that allows for a significantly improved level of musical detail, clarity, and dynamics, while greatly reducing surface and groove noise that might otherwise be... Read More »