Cassette tapes are in the midst of enjoying a major comeback — and perhaps it has been a somewhat unexpected development, at least to some. Read Leslie Shapiro’s insightful feature on the history of the longtime leading cassette manufacturer Maxell, the true origins of the infamous Blown-Away Guy, and the bigger-picture reasons for why the cassette format lives on (and on). . .

File this one under, “Reborn under a good sign.” Craft Recordings recently announced a Deluxe Edition release of In Session, the legendary December 1983 collaboration between the late, decidedly great blues guitar icons Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, as an expanded 180g 3LP set on October 18, 2024 — as in, tomorrow! This historically important live performance — culled from King and SRV’s early-1980s joint TV appearance together in Canada — will be available in its entirety in various formats, but the best way to cue this one up is most definitely on vinyl. Read on to see AP editor Mike Mettler’s listening impressions of this new collection, what its three first-time-on-vinyl tracks are and how they sound, and what the SRP is for this new tri-gatefold set. . .

The O.G. has returned to the fold — or rather, to the spindle. In conjunction with BBC engineers in London in the late 1960s, Keith Monks developed the first commercially produced electric device to clean records in order to meet the “exacting standards” of FM radio broadcasting — and thus, what we now refer to as a record cleaning machine (RCM) was essentially born. Fast-forward to the modern era, where the late company founder’s son Jonathan Monks has just seen fit to introduce the company’s latest RCM model, the ReduxTwo. Read on to see all the features and specs for the ReduxTwo RCM, and when it will hit the marketplace. . .

How does the limited-edition Denon DL-103o moving-coil (MC) cartridge fare when it’s paired with different phono preamps and SUTs? Read Ken Micallef’s review to see if the 103o is in alignment with Denon’s rich DL-103 cartridge series heritage. . .

The challenge of writing a review about a band you are admittedly not intimate with — one that some interwebs sources consider to be “the most successful group of the 21st century,” having sold more than 100 million albums and counting — has upsides, as well as down. Such is the case with Coldplay’s new 140g LP Moon Music, which was released by Parlophone on October 4, 2024, on a new vinyl alternative called EcoRecord. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if the songs on Moon Music spoke to him, and how well the EcoRecord format got across the band’s intentions. . .

In our ever-expanding search across this ever-spinning globe of ours for all things of analog-oriented interest, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drop this one on the AP faithful: Bay Area alt-punk progenitors Green Day have gone all-out punk personified with their Dookie Demastered project, billed as “the way it was never meant to be heard.” Dookie Demastered features 15 truly alternative format options if ever there were, including wax cylinder, X-ray LP, 8-track, music box, piano roll, and more. Read on to see why you should plop down an entry into the Dookie Demastered pool to get one (or more!) of them in hand for your own collection. . .

Many of us use platter mats to dampen resonances and minimize other vibrations whenever we play our LPs. For those not entirely in the know, these mats are typically “waffer-thin,” to borrow the enunciation of a quite specific Monty Python bit, and they go directly underneath the LP that’s spinning and in turn reside right on top of the turntable platter beneath it. Seeing how I’ve been getting, shall we say, a bit restless with my current mat rotation, I wanted to take a fresh look at and listen to something new, and that led me to the Mat Chakra Limited — a cool, current platter mat from the Italian manufacturer Sublima Audio Research. Read on to find out more about company founder Alessandro “Alex” Cereda’s philosophy behind the design of the Mat Chakra Limited, and how this platter mat just might work for enhancing the performance of your own LPs. . .

We love Goldring for their top-tier phono cartridges, their Ethos SE moving coil cartridge and E4 moving magnet cart being but two relatively recent introductions of note. Today, we’re even more chuffed (to use some British parlance) to see the stalwart company announce the GR3, their first new turntable in more than 20 years. Read on to see all specs and features of the new GR3. . .

A new 140g 1LP reissue series from Elemental Music that’s officially been dubbed the Motown Sound Collection has been underway since this past May, so it’s high time we’ve gotten around to covering some of the LPs that have come out under its umbrella in the interim. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts review to see how five Elemental-reissued vintage Motown titles from The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, and The Supremes all fared on his turntable. . .

In honor of Audiophile Day (October 2), I spent the balance of my afternoon and evening hours spinning some of my favorite LPs, both new and old alike. With that in mind, let me tell you a story about The Doors and the big beat of Analogue Productions’ new 200g 1LP UHQR edition of their April 1971 studio swan song with Jim Morrison behind the mike during his lifetime, L.A. Woman. Read on to see why this new Clarity Vinyl edition belongs on your turntable now. . .