LATEST ADDITIONS

Sweepstakes
Ortofon 2M Black Phono Cartridge from Music Direct Sweepstakes
Jon Iverson  |  Jun 20, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  564 comments
Register to win an Ortofon 2M Black Phono Cartridge from Music Direct (MSRP $720.00) we are giving away.

From Music Direct:

Music Direct is happy to offer a brand-new Ortofon 2M Black for one lucky subscriber to Michael Fremer’s Analog Planet. The flagship of the 2M line, the Black is absolutely one of the finest Moving Magnet cartridges ever built. The 2M Black has Ortofon’ s best Shibata stylus, which is usually found on much more expensive cartridges.  It’s fast, dynamic, extremely well-detailed, yet supremely musical. A Music Direct best-seller, this $720 cartridge digs deep down into the grooves, playing parts of the groove no other stylus has ever reached. Good luck to all of you.

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

Continue Reading »
News
The Mothers of Invention "Freak Out!" Vinyl Reissue Straight Poop
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 20, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  38 comments
According to mastering engineer Chris Bellman, Freak Out! was cut from a digital source.
Continue Reading »
News
John Prine's Grammy Award Winning "The Missing Years" To Be Released on Double 180g Vinyl
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 20, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  4 comments
John Prine's Grammy Award winning (for "Best Contemporary Folk Album") 1992 album The Missing Years will make its "long overdue" vinyl debut July 9th on his Oh Boy record label.
Continue Reading »
Concert Reviews
Stones Roll, Gather Some Moss
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 19, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  11 comments
The Rolling Stones rolled into Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center Tuesday night for the first of two shows. There was no opening act. The house lights finally dimmed more than an hour after the 8PM "lip" call (there was no curtain) but the full house, aged from teens to the seriously addled, didn't seem to mind.

Continue Reading »
News
Acoustic Signature Wow! Heats up Low/Mid-Price Turntable Segment
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 19, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  11 comments
The addition of the WOW! turntable to the Acoustic Signature line adds yet another under $2000 turntable/arm combo to a growing list of 'tables at this attractive price point.

Continue Reading »
Can I Have My Money Back?
Numerogroup's Rob Sevier Shows Analogplanet "The Dark Side"
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 18, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  14 comments
Yes, I apologized for my over the top reaction to Rob Sevier's The Wire story. Had you told me after I'd read it that he and his partner ran a vinyl record label, you could have knocked me over with an MP3.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Aaron Neville's A&M Debut Remains a Musical and Sonic Treat
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 17, 2013  |  1 comments
Well before Aaron Neville's gorgeous warble turned to wobble and he began using it as vocal ground cover—so much so that Saturday Night Live easily satirized it—his was a gorgeous instrument capable of both technical excellence and exquisite emotional communication as this impeccably produced and recorded 1991 release demonstrates.
Continue Reading »
Turntable Reviews
Acoustic Signature Storm Mk2 Turntable Produces Clear Sonic Skies
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 17, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  15 comments
Acoustic Signature designer Gunther Frohnhöfer has been building mass loaded aluminum-based turntables for decades. Back in 2001 I reviewed and really liked a model called the Final Tool. It ended up being purchased by someone I knew and he’s still using it trouble-free all these years later and it still sounds solid.

Continue Reading »
Analog Corner
Analog Corner #39
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 17, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  2 comments
Are you old enough to remember when New York State, much of the rest of the Northeast, and parts of Canada were blacked out by a power failure on November 19th, 1965 at 5:18pm? I was in my Phi Sigma Delta frat-house library at Cornell, HO model-car racing—for money. At the flick of the wrong switch, all bets were off for the night. I'll never forget that.

Where were you when you heard your first compact disc? I'll never forget where I was: at an early-'80s AES Convention in Los Angeles. It was Roxy Music's Avalon played on a refrigerator-sized machine, and the sound was as awful as the technology was brilliant.

I may not have been listening as an industry insider on the playing field of the audio biz, but I wasn't exactly a spectator in the stands, either. I was kind of on the sidelines. You have to at least be on the sidelines to attend an AES demo of the new electronic future.

Continue Reading »
News
Oh No! An Even Stupider Vinyl Story!
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 13, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  39 comments
The numerogroup can rest easy. An even more foolish vinyl story has just appeared online in The New Jersey Star Ledger.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X