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There's a quiet irony in Brandi Carlile's decision to release an intimate, inward-looking album after the visibility she's built up over the past several years. Returning to Myself feels like a step inward, her own personal Nebraska. Like that Springsteen album, Returning slows the pace, strips away excess, and allows Carlile and listeners to catch their collective breath.

After spending time with Joni Mitchell…

If not for the skill level of the producers and engineers who ensure recordings are able to get to the finish line, we may never have heard some of the best music of the past century-plus sound as good as it does.

To get us further inside the recording process, the organizers of Studio Confidential, a month-long series of events that have been held at the Loreto Theater in the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture on Bleecker Street in New York City, have been…

The popular Mendelssohn begins forthrightly but uneasily: The main lines ought to stand in sharper relief. As the harmonies become more conflicted, the sonority has nowhere to go. After a minute or so, everyone settles in, though the dry, unalluring tone remains a problem throughout. The players shift moods on a dime, with unmarked Luftpausen effectively separating the sections. The agitated development, wandering into…

The musical bounty of 1975 necessitated hard choices. The 15 above were judged most essential. But there are certainly more that merit consideration. What follows is a list of well-deserved contenders from the same year that some would also deem classic, depending on their taste.

Steely Dan: Katy Lied; Little Feat: The Last Record Album; Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti; Bob Dylan and The Band: The Basement Tapes; Donald Byrd: Places and Spaces; Archie Shepp: There's Trumpet in My Soul; Louis Jordan: The Best of Louis Jordan; Tom Waits: Nighthawks at the…

Victor Kung of VK Music in Canada offers Japanese-made tube amplifier kits that cater to DIY enthusiasts. The amps that VK Music distributes are also available fully assembled—but where’s the fun in that?

At the Florida International Audio Expo, Kung showcased his gear with a VPI turntable and Stenheim speakers. In Chicago, he exhibited solo, but his static display still stood out. VK Music’s products at AXPONA included the Elekit TU-8800 monoblocks (kit $2750/pair, assembled $4500/pair).

Also shown were components from Sunvalley, another Japanese manufacturer VK Music…

Following the success of his LC1 loudspeaker, Chesky’s has launched LC2 Reference Monitor ($997/ea.), which resembles the LC1 but expands its dimensions and onboard components. Each LC2 employs one "dual-chamber, aperiodic low-distortion” tweeter, one "high-definition cast-basket bass/midrange driver," and "dual inertially balanced,…

Francis Albert Sinatra's milestone album In the Wee Small Hours was recorded and released in 1955 by Capitol Records. Now, in 2025, this never-out-of-print record has been remastered by Blue Note Records as part of their Tone Poet audiophile vinyl series. November 14 marks the 70th anniversary of the album's release on 12" LP.

The new Tone Poet vinyl edition is produced by Joe Harley and was…

This month, I am writing about what could be the ultimate analog topic circa 2025: A prominent vinyl-only record club is going totally offline. Is it a marketing gimmick? Sure it is, but read on.

I am a former Vinyl Me, Please (VMP) member. In the spring, my membership…

In room 849, the US debut was the Luphonic H2 turntable ($4995), which was running a Hana ML cartridge ($1200). The Hana was helped by an SPL Phonos phono stage ($2500). On the digital source side was an XACT S1 EVO music server ($18,500).

Further downstream were an SPL Director Mk2 preamp with DAC ($4700) and an SPL Performer s900 stereo amplifier ($5500), the s900 powered another US debut, the gorgeous Basel Acoustics Concept…