It's official: there was more vinyl for sale at this year's Newport show than at any show in American audio show history.

PBN's Olympian PX Fully Balanced Phono Preamp features a hefty outboard power supply and is fully balanced.

The folks who manufacture the Spin Clean record cleaning machine—the least expensive effective record cleaning device introduced a new Limited Edition "Executive Model"....

Germany-based Stein Music exhibited a Benz-Micro based boron cantilevered MC phono cartridge featuring a a brass mounting structure encased in a sandwiched body of Mahogany and carbon fiber

Vinyl's continuing growth and perhaps future dominance of the high performance audio scene was evident on opening day of T.H.E. Show Newport 2012.

My feelings about CDs were expressed early and often. Here with VPI's Harry Weisfeld. It’s a nerdy question, but do you remember where you were when you heard your first Compact Disc? For me it was at a Los Angeles Audio Engineering Society convention in 1982.

I’m neither a recording engineer nor an AES member. My invitation was courtesy the head of the sound department at Walt Disney, where I was then supervising the soundtrack to the movie TRON.”

Youngsters will find it hard to believe there was a time when legendary music existed for most only in whispers but that’s how it was in the late 1960s. We saw what they wanted us to see and heard what they wanted us to hear.

Register to win a Rega RP1 Turntable and the Rega Fono Mini A2D USB Phono Preamplifier from Music Direct (MSRP $620) we are giving away.

Get spinning vinyl in style with the Rega RP-1 turntable and the Rega Fono Mini A2D USB Phonostage. According to Music Direct, "this complete analog package gives you everything you need to play your records and transfer them into your computer."

[This sweepstakes is now closed.]

Me and legendary recording engineer Roy Halee (not down by the schoolyard). Last week I did a series of in-store appearances in Colorado, first at the Audio Alternative in Fort Collins, where I saw a record collection larger than mine. I was jealous! Also attending that event were AudioQuest's Joe Harley who presented a fascinating history of Blue Note Records. Joe is also a partner with Ron Rambach in Music Matters, the Blue Note reissue label

The all-FET, class-A, B2B-1 phono preamplifier ($1749), made in the US by Liberty Audio, is beautifully built inside and out, and comes in a heavy-duty aluminum chassis with a baked-on crackle finish and a 3/8"-thick, black-anodized faceplate. The overall build quality and physical appearance suggest something that costs more than $3000, which is probably what it would cost were it sold through retailers and not factory direct. It comes with a two-week return policy.