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Stoughton Press located in California's City of Industry, recently installed a $2.8 million dollar state-of-the-art Heidelberg printing press in order to keep up with the demand for the "vinyl fad".

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Does Vinyl Have Wider Dynamic Range Than CDs? Here's Some Math Michael Fremer | Feb 02, 2015 | 60 comments

While many of us seem to hear wider dynamic range coming from vinyl, the numbers would seem to point in the opposite direction. Or do they?

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This is Your Brain on CD Resolution Sound: Read The Study Michael Fremer | Jan 29, 2015 | 128 comments

Why does CD sound not only annoy many people, but also cause them to not want to listen or to listen in the background while doing something else?

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Bring Out Your Dead! Which Grateful Dead is Best? Michael Fremer | Jan 24, 2015 | 30 comments

Workingman's Dead and American Beauty have long been considered to be the two Grateful Dead albums for people who don't think they like the Grateful Dead.

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Vanatoo's Transparent One Powered Compact Loudspeaker Michael Fremer | Jan 04, 2015 | 5 comments

While analogplanet doesn't regularly review loudspeakers, the recent Vanatoo Transparent One speaker giveaway prompted us to have a listen.

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Tour the Tesla Tube Factory Michael Fremer | Dec 28, 2014 | 2 comments

Back in 1999 I reviewed in Stereophile the KR Audio VT 8000 monoblock vacuum tube amplifier. I wrote in the review: "Virtually every part in the amplifier is custom-made in-house or sourced from associated facilities, including the metal fabrication, the transformers, and the circuit boards. The internal wiring is Swiss in origin. And, of course, the vacuum transducers themselves are made in-house by hand, and that includes all of the tiny internal components, which are stamped out one at a time by hand on dies custom-machined in-house. Even the glass for the tubes is turned and formed by hand. If I hadn't seen all of this with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it."

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A Hearing Aid For You From Doppler Labs Michael Fremer | Dec 18, 2014 | 7 comments

The term "hearing aid" strikes terror into the hearts of audiophiles of all ages. Glasses? OK. But "hearing aid"? No one wants to admit to needing one so that's why you need a set of DUBS Acoustic Filters now.

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Tour the SME Factory Michael Fremer | May 20, 2014 | 20 comments

Following Munich's High End 2014 show I flew to the U.K. where I met up with Chad Kassem and Chad Stelly of Acoustic Sounds, the new American SME distributor. On Monday, May 19th we took a train to Shoreham by Sea to visit turntable and tonearm manufacturer SME.

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Dreams Are Still Born In Hollywood Michael Fremer | Dec 31, 2002 | 0 comments

Hush Puppies are hip again among celebs. They were sofar out, it was inevitable they'd come back in. Not on my feet or yours- we'd probably just get laughed at- but seen on the right feet? Next day everyone's wearing them. Strange how that works: if everyone's wearing Doc Maartens, what's the boldest thing you could put on your feet instead? Hush Puppies, of course!

I don't know what Van Dyke parks on his feet today, but back in 1967 when he posed for the cover of his epic debut album Song Cycle (Warner Brothers WB 1727) he was wearing Hush Puppies. While many music critics raved about, even respected the album, the public at large wasn't suede by either it, or his shoes. Dreams are stillborn in Hollywood.

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Ry Cooder Scores!

Michael Fremer | Jun 30, 2003 | 0 comments

Beginning with his eponymous 1970 debut, and continuing throughout eleven Warner Brothers solo albums, Ry Cooder has demonstrated that in addition to being an extraordinary folk/blues guitarist- particularly on bottleneck, and a serviceable, though hardly distinguished vocalist, he is also a high caliber musicologist and A&R man. While Cooder’s specialty has been mining the more obscure tributaries of the rich vein of American music deposited during the Great Depression, he has also unearthed musical riches from around the world, particularly the Caribbean and Mexico.

His solo albums are sprinkled with unknown and out-of-the-way delights like Dickey Doo's "Teardrops Will Fall" and the calypso "F.D.R. In Trinidad"- as well as some better known songs like "One Meat Ball", Woody Guthrie’s "Vigilante Man" Huddie Ledbetter's "Teardrops Will Fall", The Drifter’s 1954 hit "Money Honey", and Johnny Cash’s "Hey Porter".

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