While the new iPhono 2 appears on the outside to be identical to the original iPhono, reviewed back in 2012 on analogplanet.com, don’t let the similar appearance fool you: the iPhono 2 is a completely new and vastly improved phono preamplifier—and the original was already plenty good.

Joe Jackson's "angry young man" stance came late in the cycle and so at the time was less than fully convincing. Elvis and Graham had already been there and done that. The picture of Jackson on the back cover of his debut Look Sharp just wasn't convincing.

Today’s show covers new and recent vinyl releases but it begins with a tribute to recent fallen rock heroes. There’s also a false start (two actually) so give it a minute to get going because it’s a very entertaining show!

Levin Designs, the German company that manufactures a very stylish wood-handled record cleaning brush recently introduced an equally stylish stylus cleaning brush.

Analogplanet.com editor Michael Fremer returned home yesterday from Japan and had planned to run an old show today, but somehow that didn’t seem right.

During my visit to Audio-Technica in Machida City, Tokyo, Japan, I was I given a tour of the factory, which mostly produces microphones along with some headphone components. Other than the new ART1000, all of the cartridge manufacturing and assembly takes place either at another factory in Fukui, Japan or at an Audio-Technica owned factory in China.

Yosuke Koizumi, 36, who took over the ART 1000's final production supervision brought some of his 45rpm collection on the second day of my visit...perhaps to assure me that he's way into vinyl and not just doing a "job”.

Analogplanet recently visited Audio-Technica’s new Machida, Japan headquarters opened in 2015 to learn more about the fifty four year old company founded by the late Hideo Matsushita, and today run by his son company President Kazuo.

Analogplanet reported from Munich's High End 2016 show on Audio-Technics's "evolutionary" new ART1000 phono cartridge.

Reunited with his old friend, producer and engineer Roy Halee, Paul Simon delivers an imaginative and vital record—his most fully realized since Graceland., though its musical complexity and mood more closely resemble Rhythm of the Saints”