LATEST ADDITIONS

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 20, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  17 comments
I was lucky enough to see the St. Petersburg Philharmonic play Carnegie Hall recently. They did Prokofiev's Violin Concerto with Julia Fischer, who played wonderfully and then Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony. We get great seats courtesy Joe Kubala of Kubala-Sosna cables who had a scheduling conflict and kindly thought of me. We had to drive through a snow storm to get there but it was well worth it.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 19, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  21 comments
How did this one get neglected? Take a look at the photo supplied by WAM engineering. It shows a stylus in a cantilever. Notice it has been affixed into the cantilever at an angle instead of being parallel to the cantilever. If you use the cantilever to set the zenith angle on this cartridge, which is what I and everyone else recommends, the stylus will not be tangential to the grooves at the null points though it might accidentally be so somewhere else.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 11, 2014  |  52 comments
Was Mel Tormé a jazz or cabaret singer? Or was he both? Some music "purists" actually argue such things. Mr. Tormé's recorded vocal and interpretive talents demonstrate his ability to work both rooms. He wasn't worried about being pigeonholed one way or the other. Though rhythmically adept and an excellent scat singer, the “Velvet Fog” could also croon.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 10, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  6 comments
This year's Fest for Beatles Fans coincided with the 50th anniversary of their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, February 9th, 1964. The "invasion" festivities began earlier of course, including one event held Thursday February 6th at the 92nd St. "Y". That one featured Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon, who also signed James Taylor to Apple and went on to become a major producer/manager), performer Billy J. Kramer, Beatle secretary Frida Kelly and Vince Calandra. The event was hosted by British actor/comedian and Beatle fan Martin Lewis. Donovan was a no-show due to a friend's death.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 08, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  8 comments
Did you compare the two files? The one that most readers identified as harsher and brighter was found to be running .1% faster than the other, so Mr. Distler, slowed it down and again posted the files. I both listened and I looked at them using Audacity. So you could say I "cheated" but it doesn't matter. Forget what I heard.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 07, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  22 comments
Was the recent cable test result wherein approximately 80% of the participants heard a difference and described it consistent with my original observations due to a variable other than the cables (leaving aside that we did note the junction box variable as a possible cause)?

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 06, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  28 comments
Based on numbers publicly disclosed or provided to analogplanet.com by most of the world's vinyl pressing plants, the total number of records pressed worldwide in 2013 was well in excess of 30,759,242.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 06, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  15 comments
I posted a comment under the story:

"3 arrested after theft of $5M Stradivarius violin"

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 05, 2014  |  3 comments
This new double LP pairs Será una Noche with the appropriately titled follow up Segunda two of M A Recordings’ most popular releases, first on CD then on XRCD and later available as high resolution files. Será una Noche was previously released on vinyl and reviewed on musicangle.com. Naturally vinyl cut from high resolution digital sounds better than the same files decimated to 16 bits. Todd Garfinkle’s simply miked, spacious-sounding 24 bit recordings have earned him a following among audiophiles, even though most of the exotic “world” music Garfinkle prefers to record is anything but traditional audiophile fare.
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 05, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  10 comments
M A Recordings is best known for its catalog of superbly recorded "world" music. Producer/engineer Todd Garfinkle records at 176.4/24 bit using a precisely spaced pair of custom-made microphones, Cardas cables and a Fostex DV-40 DVD-RAM recorder.

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