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Gramophone DreamsPhono Preamp Reviews
Gramophone Dreams #42: Sunvalley Audio SV-EQ1616D phono equalizer
Herb Reichert  |  Nov 04, 2020  |  15 comments
The 1980s was a decade when I needed three jobs to support my wife, infant daughter, and octogenarian dad. My primary job was to make and sell art, and I'm sure you know how that can go. Between exhibitions, I was forced to do construction work and to find, repair, and resell old tube amplifiers.
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Analog CornerPhono Accessory Reviews
Analog Corner #287: The Charles Kirmuss Vinyl Restoration System
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 03, 2020  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2019  |  23 comments
Back in the 1990s, my friend Nick Despotopoulos and I published an article in The Tracking Angle titled "Zen and the Art of Record Cleaning Made Difficult," describing author Michael Wayne's record-cleaning methodology. That regimen, like the article itself, was the most comprehensive one I knew of at the time.
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Music and Recording Reviews
November 2020 Pop/Rock Record Reviews
Phil Brett, Anne E. Johnson, Dan Ouellette  |  Oct 30, 2020  |  0 comments
Fontaines D.C.: A Hero's Death, Paul Weller: On Sunset, Jenny O.: New Truth and Joan Osborne: Trouble and Strife.
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Music and Recording Reviews
November 2020 Jazz Record Reviews
Thomas Conrad, Fred Kaplan  |  Oct 30, 2020  |  1 comments
Maria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords, Keleketla, Joel Ross: Who Are You? and John Zorn and Jesse Harris: Songs for Petra.
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Music and Recording Reviews
November 2020 Classical Record Reviews
Kurt Gottschalk, Sasha Matson, Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 30, 2020  |  9 comments
Eric Whitacre: The Sacred Veil, Beethoven: 9 Symphonies, Beethoven: The Piano Concertos, Shostakovich: Symphonies 5, 1, Gyda Valtysdottir: Epicycle II and Augustin Hadelich: Bohemian Tales.
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My Back Pages
A gift at war (for Veterans Day)
Jason Davis  |  Oct 29, 2020  |  15 comments
In March 2003, as news networks broadcast images of American tanks racing north toward Baghdad, my infantry platoon dug shallow foxholes in southern Iraq. We were part of a defensive perimeter guarding FARP Exxon, a helicopter refueling point for the Army's 101st Airborne Division.
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Solid State Preamp Reviews
Rotel Michi P5 preamplifier
Ken Micallef  |  Oct 28, 2020  |  5 comments
Before starting this review of Rotel's Michi P5, the 60-year-old, Japan-based audio company's recent preamplifier design, I thought it appropriate to consider "What is an audio preamplifier? What should it do?" There are plenty of opinions to be found at stereophile.com:

"What a preamp ought to do, apart from changing volume and switching sources, is as little as possible," wrote Stereophile Editor Jim Austin in his 2017 review of the PS Audio BHK Signature preamplifier.

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Analog CornerPhono Accessory Reviews
Analog Corner #303: Accessorize Your Ride
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 27, 2020  |  17 comments
In place of my usual Wilson Alexxes, a pair of small (though very fine) two-way speakers has been in my system this past month: the Marten Oscar Duos I review elsewhere in this issue. Without my usual reference speakers in the system, I didn't feel comfortable covering anything that affects sound quality for this column, so, with the exception of one item—the first—this column covers accessories that don't require sonic evaluation.
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Tube Preamp Reviews
Audio Research Reference 6SE line preamplifier
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 23, 2020  |  33 comments
"As long as you're happy."

That's the line long uttered by the most dreaded members of my family, and their friends, whenever they tried to pry into my personal affairs. Often the last word, "happy," was uttered with a downward cadence and accompanied by a shrug.

Then came the kicker. "You are happy, aren't you?" said with eyes boring into my soul. "Well, as long as you're happy."

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Computer Audio ReviewsPhono Accessory ReviewsPhono Preamp Reviews
Channel D Pure Vinyl 5 & Seta L phono preamplifier
John Atkinson  |  Oct 22, 2020  |  11 comments
Ever since I stopped using my Audio Research SP10 preamplifier in the early 1990s—its eight phono-stage tubes used to get too noisy too quickly—I tried a variety of standalone phono preamplifiers. Seeing the most service through the 1990s and 2000s were, first, a Mod Squad Phono Drive EPS, then a Linn Linto, both of which I purchased. But when I measured Channel D's Seta Model L, which Michael Fremer reviewed in the August 2010 issue, the Linto was pushed to one side. The battery-powered Seta L (footnote 1) had the lowest noise and distortion I had encountered in a phono preamplifier, and I eventually bought the sample I had been sent for a follow-up review in 2013.
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