Michael Fremer

Posted stories go to the bottom of the page and then disappear but the eight phono preamps compared story lives on and there's still time to vote for your favorite in this blind listening test.

Bassist Scott LaFaro's death in a Geneva, New York car accident ten days after the Sunday, June 25th, 1961 recording of this Village Vanguard set did more than add a tragic luster to the story. It upended what might have been a very different track order here and on Waltz For Debby, the second record sourced using tracks recorded that day by engineer David Jones on a modified Ampex 350 using Scotch 111 tape.

You've seen videos here of the world's largest audio show, "High End" Munich. Back in the 1990s, the show, held in Frankfurt's Kempinski Hotel, more closely resembled a sleepy American affair—as this vintage video demonstrates. It was a very "German" show at the time, musically and otherwise, though even then you'll hear "Take Five" and "Belafonte at Carnegie Hall". Today's High End show is an international affair.

It's an age-old problem and a problem of old age— particularly in a cluttered listening room: you put the record on the turntable, put the jacket down and then forget where you put it. Has that ever happened to you?

Koeppel Design, maker of neat record dividers and the snazziest LP carrying bag has the solution with its new LP Block.