Marshall Blonstein, owner/founder of both the DCC Compact Classics and Audio Fidelity labels and a record industry veteran revealed in a recent email that he was retiring and closing down the Audio Fidelity label (the photo L-R is of Blonstein, AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer and legendary mastering engineer Kevin Gray taken during the TRON double LP mastering sessions).

* Mr. Kirmuss insists that the vinyl residue seen in his cavitation tank in this video is not damage caused by his device. Rather, he insists, it is vinyl residue "locked" into the grooves by soapy residue from other machines that his process has removed.)

We first encountered at AXPONA 2018 Mr. Charles Kirmuss and his "In The Groove" Ultrasonic Vinyl Record Restoration System. The system is based upon an ultrasonic bath-type cleaning machine from China, another of which that looked identical was being sold but a few feet away.

In previous years, day four was either a leisurely walk-through in case something analog was missed—important or otherwise, or it was time to leave early and go home. Not this year.

I first met Dave Wilson in the pages of The Absolute Sound in 1980 when he was a reviewer and I was too poor to own much of anything written about in the magazine. Actually, Dave was listed in the masthead not as a reviewer, but as a “Technical Writer”.

This year it took the full four days of High End Munich to cover all of the new analog gear. Even then some might have been missed. Clearly the move is to vinyl and streaming audio. Turntables were playing throughout the show's demo rooms and more were on display in the ground floor halls. Digital die-hards couldn't escape the sound and so were confronted by the reality that today's vinyl playback sounds amazing.

There's never been an official press release about Pro-Ject's purchase of Musical Fidelity from owner Antony Michaelson so this site has held off reporting it until it could be confirmed. Last week, while at the EISA Global Press Convention in Antwerp, Belgium, AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer had an opportunity to speak with Pro-Ject CEO Heinz Lichtenegger about the Musical Fidelity purchase.

Before the start of last April's AXPONA show at the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer and Music Direct's Vice President Josh Bizar drove to Chicago and to the home of online vinyl and audio dealer Music Direct.

High End Munich 2018 day two began with an hour-long interview with Ortofon's Leif Johannsen that's in another video on this website. Even though the show had been open for two hours, long lines of people were still waiting to enter the halls at noon Friday morning. What a show!

A recent bid on eBay won me mono copies of Nat King Cole's Love is the Thing and Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Plays. The descriptions said that the records had some "marks" but that they "shouldn't affect play." The rest of the wording led me to suspect that the seller knew nothing about vinyl, but since the winning bid was $3.15 ($5.65 with shipping), why not take a chance? I have some mono records that look unsalvageable but play fine—especially using the mono Helikon cartridge.