A visit to Czech Republic-based GZ Media recently published on a website includes an un-captioned photo of a large stack of the upcoming Beatles Mono box sets. This has flooded analogplanet.com's "inbox" with emails from readers, some inquisitive, some hysterical and a few spewing expletives.

Last winter analogplanet.com editor Michael Fremer attended a Music Matters event at Denver's Listen Up! retailer. Retailers throughout the country hold these "meet and greet" events for their regular customers and to attract new ones to the store.

Today we mostly think of Tony Bennett as a jazz singer but back in 1962 Tony Bennett was one of Columbia Records' pop music stars. He had his first #1 hit for the label in 1951 with "Because of You". In 1953 Bennett's "Rags to Riches" topped the Billboard charts for 8 weeks. "Stranger In Paradise" only made it to #2 that year but you couldn't avoid it on the radio and few back then wanted to.

Experience Hendrix, LLC in conjunction with Sony/Legacy will release on September 16th these two Jimi Hendrix albums on CD, digital and 180g vinyl mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original master tapes.

September 9th's scheduled "Back to Mono" Beatles box is far from Universal Music Enterprises' only late summer vinyl venture. UMe today announced an ambitious vinyl release schedule for September and October.

First off, to clarify: I am a big Mel Tormé fan. If I describe a product as producing a "velvet fog" (Mel's nickname), it's meant as a compliment! Some readers emailed wondering how I meant the expression. I meant it as a compliment and I used it because the VK-P6's sonics reminded me of Mel's smooth, sonorous voice. If you want a phono preamp more in the Axl Rose camp, there are some. And there are some that manage neutrality or close to it.

Putting in monetary perspective this $1095, 45 watt RMS mono block all-tube amplifier kit manufactured in Detroit, Michigan USA: back in 1960 a Dynakit Mark IV 40 watt mono block all-tube amplifier kit manufactured in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA cost $60. That's about $500 in today's dollars.

Back in March while out in Los Angeles to help with the Audio Fidelity TRON reissue, I followed up on Al Schmitt's invitation to visit him at Capitol Studios where he was working on a still secret all-analog production. Schmitt took me on a tour of Capitol 's famous studios—the site of so much recorded history—and I captured most of it on video.

Monochrome Recordings is a new vinyl label with a seriously exclusive business model.

Back in 1949 Guy Lombardo and then Doris Day had hits with a song called “Enjoy Yourself (it’s later than you think)”. The chipper tune composed by Carl Sigman with lyrics by Herb Magidson advised down in the dumpers to get busy enjoying themselves: