LATEST ADDITIONS

In the 55 years since its release, Maggot Brain, Funkadelic's funk-rock masterpiece, has gone from being called "a shattered, desolate landscape with few pleasures" and "horrible mush" in a 1971 Rolling Stone review to coming in at #136 in that same publication's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."

Clearaudio's origin story dates from the depths of the Cold War, in Czechoslovakia. It was 1968, and the Prague Spring uprising against the Soviet Union had collapsed. A young man escaped the carnage on a motorcycle, crossing the Iron Curtain into West Germany. That young man, Peter Suchy, went on to found Clearaudio in 1978.

Miles Showell, the modern master of the half-speed master, has been busy. Besides helming a score of reissues from the Alan Parsons Project's Arista heyday (see "Miles Showell, Half-Speed Master"), the affable audio engineer found time to put an indelible half-speed stamp on seven entries in Supertramp's studio catalog.

If Part 1 of Robert Schryer's Toronto Audiofest 2026 report was any indication, this year's show—which was held on October 16–18, 2026—continued to deliver on its intended promise of collective cheer, great gear, and musical bliss. Here's the second of installment of his three T.O. show reports to further state the case.

Jazz critics tend to live in the now. Just-released records. Tonight's concert. New breakout talents. One of the few things I dislike about being a jazz critic is that I rarely go back and dig out old albums I loved and listen to them again just for pleasure. This week, I did.

When we first took an interest in reviewing the T+A elektroakustik A 3100 HV Reference fully balanced dual-mono solid state stereo power amplifier ($29,900), every existing unit had been earmarked for a dealer. Then, just as Jim Austin and I were scratching our heads, T+A founder Siegfried "Siggi" Amft informed Jim Shannon, T+A's longtime US media contact and reassuring presence, that he could expedite an amplifier—just one—from Germany.

I first heard the Consonance Compact Monitor ($1680/pair) at AXPONA 2025. I called the room—Mike Stephens's Western HiFi of Farmersville, Texas—"one of the ... top five systems at AXPONA."