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We are thrilled with Stereophile's verdict on the Klimax Solo 800. Jason's considered words acknowledge the innovation and hard work that have gone into development of this new flagship amplifier, in a new category for us at Linn.

John Atkinson's verdict based on his measurements is also graciously received. However, the charts published differ significantly from our own repeated measurements here at the factory. Linn's working assumption is that the model measured by Stereophile was not performing to the level of a current, full-production Solo 800. We have…

When I measured the Linn Klimax Solo 800 for Jason Victor Serinus's review in the May 2024 issue of Stereophile, I was very impressed by what I found. I concluded, "The Linn Klimax Solo 800's measured performance is one of the best I have encountered, offering very high power with extremely low levels of noise and distortion. Wow!"

However, as you can read in their Manufacturer's Comment, Linn felt that, as good as the measurements were, the Solo 800 should have measured even better. They sent me some graphs that the company's…

So, I admired the look of the retro-…

That story is mostly true, though the format thrived for a while in Japan and Germany,…

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Rhino BA2 3104 BD). An old favorite, the seminal heavy metal album (footnote 4) sounds fresh, different, and even more menacing with distinct four-channel mixes.

Santana: Abraxas (Sony Japan SICP 10135 SACD). The quad mix for this classic rock album is quite different from the familiar stereo. Carlos Santana's blistering guitar solo on "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" flies around the four speakers, suggesting a voodoo caldron of sound.

Remastered from the original tapes (except one, for which a digital source was used), all five are available on LP and CD as well as streaming and download. At TomWaits.com and UDiscover Music, the LP versions are available in colored-…

For Abrash, who cut the new lacquers for the UMG reissues, matching the sound characteristics of the original DMM Waits masters made for a uniquely challenging job. "So my thing was, could I reverse engineer the DMM cuts? I studied the groove spacing. They look very good under a microscope. They're very thin, very narrow grooves. The plus thing is that you don't have pre- and post-echo," Abrash said. "For me it was about trying to match the cutting levels as close as I could to the original, not alter the…

Across John Leventhal's 45-year career, he has produced records that won close to 20 Grammy Awards, written songs performed by artists from Joe Cocker to Shawn Colvin, and worked in the studio with musicians as varied as Jackson Browne and Johnny Cash. But until now, he has never occupied the role of "solo artist." That changes with the release of Rumble Strip.

The record combines Leventhal's…

Yarlung's latest "audiophile" recording is a breath of fresh air in every respect. Offering seven accessible, beguilingly fresh works, all composed within the last 53 years (and several quite new), it brings together stellar artistic forces: the 49-year-old Takács String Quartet;…

The jazz piano world is filled with contenders these days, and Caelan Cardello is a name to watch.

This relaxed set, a duo with veteran bassist Rufus Reid, was impeccably recorded at 24/96 resolution at the small venue inside New York City's Klavierhaus, a piano restoration specialist business. The recording is unadulterated; according to the liner notes, engineer Markos only…