Just got the news that Leonard Cohen has passed away at the relatively young age of 82 and guitar great Al Caiola at 96.

Way back in 1994 (that's 22 years ago for those of you who forget how quickly time flies by) I was a guest on Gil Gross's radio talk show on the now defunct CBS Radio Network. Gil's show was mostly about politics but he made some room for other topics and on July, 29th, 1994 he had me in the studio for an hour-long show called "CDs vs. LPs: which is better?" Can you guess where I came down here?.

Today's AnalogPlanet Radio Show makes a great soundtrack for tonight and tomorrow. All of the songs are either obliquely or directly political. Many are Rorschach test type tunes that can be taken "either way" while others are clearly targeted.

More than 12,000 hi-fi fans will crowd three hotels in Warsaw, Poland this weekend. Here in New York, the show is small, limited to three floors of the "petite" Park Lane Hotel plus a few second floor exhibits. It's sad really, though there was an interesting mix of equipment and it was an opportunity to get acquainted with some area dealers.

(Due to a missing decimal point what was a .2%+ speed error read '2%". However, the published measurements chart is 100% accurate and had anyone done the math it would have revealed the typo. My apologies for the error to Rega, Sound Organization and to you, AnalogPlanet readers).

Can any turntable manufacturer be enjoying the vinyl revival more than Rega? I doubt it. It saw compact discs coming and yet spent a considerable amount of money creating a tool to produce cast pick up arms. I keep mentioning this in Rega reviews but in the face of the digital onslaught it demonstrates their determined commitment to vinyl playback.

This fascinating Record Store Day release last spring probably got lost in a crowd of LPs so you may have missed it. I did. it was recently sent to me for review by Northern Spy Records (NSPY).

You don’t have to be Phil Spector or Brian Wilson to appreciate mono sound, as anyone who’s purchased the recent mono Beatles box can attest. When these records were originally produced, they were meant to be heard in mono both because they were played on the AM radio, which was mono and because the young people buying the music mostly had monophonic record players. Plus that is how The Rolling Stones wanted to be heard, which is the most important reason of all.

According to mastering engineer Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, all of the albums in both box sets were massacred from the analog master tapes with the following exceptions:

The famous high-tech Swedish Toolex Alpha record presses are again being manufactured as Pheenix Alpha in a Stockholm suburb by former employees of the original company using the original blueprints. This according to a recent article in a Swedish newspaper.

According to the story, the last Toolex Alpha left the factory in 1990 bound for Melodiya in the then Soviet Union, though it was believed to have been manufactured a few years earlier.

The email began "My name is Ray Ullmer and I host a monthly vinyl listening club at my home in Mahwah, NJ".