It takes nerves of steel and a healthy serving of humility to agree to record direct-to-disc a solo piano recital but that's what Katie Mahan signed on for here. The results are both musically and sonically rewarding. Mahan gave her first piano recital at age 6, having decided at age 4 that she wanted to be a concert pianist after attending a performance of Gershwin's "American in Paris". From her online bio:

Sign of the times: My local Compact Disc World store in Paramus, New Jersey, now has a vinyl section—a good one. The LPs are selling well enough that some folks I know shop there often so they don't miss out. Even Burger King is in on the action. If the artwork on its new soft-drink cup is any indication, the fast-food franchise has transferred its familiar "Have it your way" slogan from hamburgers to music carriers...

FIRENZE, Italy: Italian High-End manufacturer Gold Note – just introduced the PSU-10 external power supply developed to enhance the performance of the PH-10 phono stage.

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.