When we saw some cool Plinius gear in the system utilized for a Kuzma demo at AXPONA 2023, it reminded us that we needed to see what’s been going on with the vaunted New Zealand-born company of late — and thus, here we are with our eye firmly planted on the Plinius Koru phono preamp. Read on to get all the Koru spec details. . .

Who's making their picks on this week's episode of AXS TV's Vinyl Obsession? Glad you asked. This upcoming Sunday, May 7, Ajay Popoff of Lit and 'NSYNC vocalist Chris Kirkpatrick bring us along during their respective shopping trips at Grimey's in Nashville as they each seek out their Top 5 LPs. Read on to get an AP-exclusive sneak preview of that ep. . .

ECM Records is back! Well, they never really went away in the eyes and ears of many audiophiles, but now the legendary ambient jazz label has decided to rejoin us here in the vinyl pool, and the idea couldn’t have come at a better time. Read on to glean Mark Smotroff’s capsule reviews of five current ECM LP releases from John Scofield, Avishai Cohen, Tord Gustavsen, Enrico Rava & Mark Turner. . .

It’s never too late to reclaim your legacy on vinyl. British guitar icon Steve Howe knows this concept quite well, in fact, and it’s the main impetus for what you see here —namely, the full revamping of his pre-Yes 1960s band Tomorrow’s debut February 1968 LP, now duly recast and retitled Permanent Dream, which was released in its new, 140g 1LP form by Spirit of Unicorn Music/Parlophone on April 28. In a recent Zoom interview with AP editor Mike Mettler, Howe discusses his “psychedelicized” impetus for revamping the original Tomorrow album, why the Permanent Dream tracklisting needed to be both revised and resequenced, and why the song that takes up the entirety of Side 1 of Yes’ iconic December 1973 double LP Tales From Topographic Oceans is actually shorter than it was intended to be. Read on to found out how Howe decided to bring Tomorrow into the vinyl world of today. . .

Beatles fans generally fall into two camps when it comes to how they feel about Paul McCartney’s solo and Wings eras — they either love them, or they more or less loathe them. That said, one Wings album we’ve really grown to love over the years is April 1973’s Red Rose Speedway. We’ve explored different pressings of this LP all along the way, and it’s always hinted there might be something sonically stronger hidden within the grooves. And now, with the half-speed mastered Record Store Day 2023 180g 1LP release of Red Rose Speedway, we finally have an answer. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to find out why this new RSD 2023 vinyl edition is worth your spinning time. . .

Welcome back for Part 2 of our AXPONA 2023 show report! Furthering what we did in Part 1, we continue to dive even deeper into our reporting on some of the truly amazing turntables and other cool analog gear we saw and heard in some of the listening rooms and expo-hall booths alike at this truly great Chicagoland event. Read on to see what our Julie Mullins found during Part 2 of her in-person AXPONA adventure. . .

Who's on this week's episode of AXS TV's Vinyl Obsession? Glad you asked. This upcoming Sunday, April 30, Charles Kelley of Lady A and country singer RaeLynn take us along during their respective shopping trips at Grimey's in Nashville as they each seek out their Top 5 LPs. Read on to get an AP-exclusive sneak preview of that show. . .

Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson has been on a deeply entrenched spiritual quest of late. On Tull’s latest and 23rd studio album overall, RökFlöte, which was released on vinyl via InsideOut Music on April 21, he addresses the tenets of Norse paganism. In a recent Zoom interview with AP editor Mike Mettler, Jethro Tull’s once and future leader discusses the inner workings of RökFlöte, when he finally felt like Jethro Tull had gotten the right mix of their music on vinyl, and how the act of breathing is vitally important when it comes to both his singing and his flute playing. Read on to glean all of Ian Anderson’s earthly vinyl proclivities. . .

As we noted in our earlier video-centric post, AXPONA ruled Chicagoland large last week, and now we’re going to dive deeper into reporting on some of the truly amazing turntables and other cool analog gear we saw and heard in some of the listening rooms and expo-hall booths alike. Read on to see what our Julie Mullins found during Part 1 of her personal AXPONA adventure. . .

Last week, AXPONA ruled large in Chicagoland, and we tasked our main product reviewer Ken Micallef to shoot as much video footage as he could of all the cool turntables he came across at the show. Check out the videoclip that’s embedded within this story to see a cavalcade of great turntables, as well as some interesting cleaning products in action, a few new cartridges and tonearms — and some choice vinyl too. . .