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I measured Mytek's Brooklyn Bridge II Roon Core using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. I powered up the Mytek then connected it to my router with an Ethernet cable. However, the processor remained inert—it needed to be powered up after the Ethernet connection had been made. When I opened the Roon 2.0 app on my iPad mini, Roon identified two Brooklyn Bridge IIs in the Audio Settings window, one a generic ALSA device, the other a networked audio device not yet certified. I managed to enable the latter.

The Brooklyn Bridge II was recognized as a Roon core. I…

Her father is John Lenard Burnett of Lenard Audio, a veteran designer, researcher, and educator whose work has crossed over from recording studios, concert halls, and commercial spaces to hi-fi for the home. The Opal 4-way active loudspeaker system is the senior Burnett's signature product and serves as the foundation of Lenard Audio's hardware and strategic…

Japanese culture is so formal that there is a precise etiquette of how to offer one's business card: Hold the card lengthwise in both hands, gripping it between thumbs and index fingers, and present it with a slight bow. For someone with so long and distinguished a career…

Setup and use
Though its headshell screws are inserted from the bottom up, threading into nuts atop the shell (as in Miyajima Laboratory cartridges), the AT-ART1000's securely locking stylus guard reduces anxiety during installation: Cleverly designed holes in the transparent-plastic guard let you install the cartridge with the guard in place. Still, setting overhang and tightly securing the cartridge to the shell with the supplied slotted screws can be tricky, unless you have a very short screwdriver.

Setting zenith angle and overhang are more difficult, because the AT-…

Pit Pony is a young band that hails from Tyneside, Newcastle, an English region once best known as one of Britain's main coalmining areas. In the early days of British coalmining, pit ponies were the engines for moving coal. They rarely saw the light of day. I truly hope this Pit Pony does, because this, their debut, is a powerhouse of an album. It may be my Album of the Year.

Labeling music is risky, and calling Pit Pony punk or post-punk might create…

If you don't love Dire Straits, either you're too young to remember the '80s or lack good taste. Mark Knopfler was one of the anointed. "Money for Nothing" and "Telegraph Road" are immortal. "Sultans of Swing" is as perfect a song as rock'n'roll ever gave birth to.

Arne Jansen is a German jazz musician who didn't start with jazz. He started…

Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett developed an interest in classical music midcareer, performing music by J.S. Bach and Shostakovich—whose linear styles he presumably found congenial. From the booklet: "I heard the Württemberg Sonatas recorded by harpsichordists, and I felt there was space for a piano version." He recorded them in 1994. This is their first release.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach occupies…

When it comes to evaluating equipment, audio engineers—especially those who specialize in naturalistic recordings—have an advantage. Someone like John Atkinson—I wrote "someone like," though really…

In 2022, PJ Harvey published an epic poem called Orlam. Harvey's 10th studio album, I Inside the Old Year Dying, isn't exactly a musical setting of Orlam's English- and Dorset-dialect poetry; rather, it's an interpretation of the poem with added improvisation. The result is as bizarre and fascinating as one could hope.

The story, if that's the right word, feels ancient. On a farm in Dorset, a girl…