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I was curious to see how jazz kissaten had inspired other kinds of listening spaces, and a few nights later, following a tip from a friend who had recently moved to Tokyo, I went to Studio Mule. Located on the fourth floor of a homely little building in Shibuya, the sleekly lit space is organized around a wraparound granite bar and a glass wall displaying thousands of bottles of natural wine, most from France and Italy. The interior, I learned, is the work of renowned designer Koichi Futatsumata, best known for his collaborations with Australian beauty brand Aesop…

The main focus of this Follow-Up will be the phono preamplifier on the Simaudio Moon 891 ($25,000). In his January 2025 review, JVS did not review the phono stage because he doesn't play vinyl. JA did examine the 891's phono section, declaring it of a piece with the preamp's overall "state of the art" measured performance. While I had the unit in-house, I also spent some time with the Moon MiND app, the 891's front-panel user interface, and streaming music through it with and without Roon.

Once I'd wrestled the fall-apart packaging to…

The Violent Femmes have long been known for their groundbreaking work in the post-punk and alt-country genres. This seminal record, first released in 1984, has long been celebrated for its inherent innovation, exploring American roots music through the lens of traditional folk influences and their own band's distinctive style. Here the band was joined by banjo virtuoso Tony…

Press notes describe this music as "mirroring the deep tensions of a troubled era." It is especially troubled for someone whose home country is Israel. That is where Avishai Cohen composed his five-part suite for this album. He wrote it soon after the Hamas attack on Israel and the outbreak of war in October 2023. He says that he worked "…

Film soundtracks are a broad canvas that can open many new possibilities as well as challenges for modern composers. On one hand, having an accompanying image allows for expressive freedom, but that is often offset by the often-brief duration of cues. Brief, allusive bursts can make for a jumpy, disjointed album…

Everyone who comes to Callas comes to her in a different way. As a teenager, I kept hearing what a great, genre-defining singer she was. Because opera was in my blood—I was weaned on the acoustic…

The TTT-Compact's particulars, including its battery-powered motor and exceptional ease of setup, are described in detail in that review, which includes a link to a useful animation that shows how…

The Madake's very top produced much of the air and space delivered by some of the cartridges described as "analytical" by some, but without "capital B" brightness or etch. At the same time, the Madake's midrange was well fleshed out and full bodied, just not as fully and…

C'mon! Nobody buys $3000 OTL tube amps built by guys who wear rainbow afro wigs. No, kids today are buying DIGITAL RIGS, and who can blame 'em? These days, LPs are harder to find than crack, and…

In early April 1990 I made a journey to Switzerland to visit Ernst Benz, the manufacturer of the Benz-Micro MC-3 cartridge which so impressed Thomas J. Norton in the March 1990 issue, and to get a feel for the Swiss hi-fi and high-end market.

The Swiss market is a very active one, I soon learned. The timing of my visit coincided with High-End 90, the Swiss high-end show, held annually in the Mövenpick hotel in Egerkingen, located at about equal distance from the three major cities in the German-speaking part of…