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Turning to the ZEN DAC Signature, I measured both the original version, serial number 5502000155, and the V2 version with which JMu did most of her auditioning, which had the serial number 5320000008. The two versions measured identically in all but one respect, which was the maximum output level in variable gain mode. The V2's maximum output in this mode was 2.07V balanced and 1.04V unbalanced, both values 6dB lower than the maximum outputs in fixed gain mode. While the original ZEN DAC's maximum levels in fixed mode were almost identical…

After Michael Fremer reviewed the darTZeel NHB-18NS full-function preamplifier in the June 2006 issue of Stereophile, he bought the review sample. He subsequently replaced it with the NHB-18NS Mk.2, which he wrote about in June 2017. It has been his reference preamplifier ever since.

Although I performed a complete set of measurements on the original NHB-18NS, I never did so on the Mk.2. As darTZeel had sent a new sample of the Mk.2 along with the NHB-108 Model Two power amplifier that Jason Victor Serinus will…

Michael Fremer reviewed the original darTZeel NHB-18NS full-function preamplifier (it includes a moving-coil phono stage) in the June 2006 issue of Stereophile. He bought the review sample, then replaced it with the NHB-18NS Mk.2, which he wrote about in June 2017.

Although I performed a complete set of measurements on the original NHB-18NS, I never did…

Though it was cut on July 5, 1958, at the still-new jazz festival, for some reason I always had the year at '57 and didn't realize my error until recently; I had…

This is exciting news: It's good for all of us when the industry thrives. But another, less welcome thing has been happening, too: Prices have started rising.

In one sense, this is hardly surprising: It's supply and demand, right? If demand increases but supply is…

French earned fame in the 1980s as the lead guitarist for transvestite metal band Twisted Sister, which produced some of the most recognizable—and widely licensed—rock music in history: "We're Not Gonna Take It." "I Wanna Rock."

These days, French stays busy in other ways. He has a podcast in which he chats with other musicians, members of the music industry, and miscellaneous folks. He's a Beatles scholar with an impressive cache of Beatles records and memorabilia—he seems to have kept everything,…

"I walked in and watched this…

The Replacements have a great rock'n'roll Formation Story: Four rough-and-tumble Minneapolis kids, in and out of trouble, bitten by the music bug and headed for either stardom or dead ends. They chose to go all in and make this debut album, which is still heating the blood 4 decades on.

Front-man Paul Westerberg sums up the spirit of Sorry, Ma…

We are at a point in time when most new jazz releases were recorded during the pandemic. Many are direct artistic responses to the crisis. The response of drummer Joe Farnsworth is bound up with the city where he has lived for 30 years.

In New York, the center of the jazz universe, the music stopped in early 2020. Farnsworth says, "I've learned…

For fans of these two highly idiosyncratic artists, the only surprise this album may hold is the music. Others may reel as much at the spontaneous improvisatory nature of the playing as the wildness of the repertoire and the uniqueness of its sequencing.

If there's anything that Leclair's short Tambourin in C major and C.P.E. Bach's Presto, Helm 66 VI have in common with two movements from Jörg…