This is a story about a $1375 commercial turntable accessory and a free tweak—the latter discovered while installing the former, although the two things exist quite independently of one another.

Here's how it all went down: Earlier this year, I was sent a review sample of a perfectionist-quality platter bearing called the Buddha Bearing, intended for Garrard 301 and 401 turntables. I was happy to receive such an interesting product but slow in trying it, partly because my record player sounded so good at the time that I didn't want to go tearing it all apart, and partly because there were other review samples in line ahead of the Buddha Bearing.

On Saturday, August 24th, Command Performance AV will be hosting an open house event in collaboration with MoFi Distribution. Also in attendance will be IsoTek's "headmaster," Keith Martin, visiting from the U.K.

I expect every lover of jazz and classical music will want to check out Decca’s new recording of jazz great Wynton Marsalis’ thoroughly engaging Violin Concerto and Fiddle Dance Suite.

If you're a music fan—and if you're reading this, you probably are—you've heard this already: On June 11, the New York Times Magazine published an investigative report about a 2008 fire that destroyed a vault at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

Workers were repairing a roof on an oft-reused movie set, heating asphalt tiles with a blowtorch. Protocol required the repairmen to stick around for one hour until the asphalt had cooled, to guard against fire. But shortly after they left, a fire broke out. Hundreds of firefighters fought it, pulling water from the lake once inhabited by The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

A dale is a broad valley. The Yorkshire Dales are broad, picturesque valleys in Northern England, mostly named for the rivers or streams that run through them. One of these is Wharfedale, which is the upper valley of the River Wharfe—and which was the original home of British firm Wharfedale Wireless Works, founded in 1932 by Gilbert Briggs.

Every year, the Expert Imaging and Sound Association hands out awards for the best products in each of 19 hi-fi categories, as determined by a panel of judges from the world's leading hi-fi magazines.

Notice the word "world"—for, EISA, one a European organisation, has gone global, with members from Japan, Hong Kong, Australia—and the United States, where Stereophile is the only member of EISA's Hi-Fi Expert group. (Stereophile's partner publications, Shutterbug and Sound & Vision, are also EISA members—in the Photography and A/V categories, respectively.)