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June 2026 Jazz Record Reviews

Michel Petrucciani: Kuumbwa
Petrucciani, piano; Dave Holland, bass; Eliot Zigmund, drums
Elemental 5990459 (2 CDs; also available as 2 LPs). 1987/2026. Zev Feldman, prod.; Russell Greene, eng.; Marc Doutrepont, remastering.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

Osteogenesis imperfecta afflicted Michel Petrucciani, the brilliant French jazz pianist who died in 1999 at the age of 36. Just 3' tall, Petrucciani used a special attachment to reach the piano pedals. Despite constant pain, he played with captivating verve, in a style influenced by Bill Evans but more exuberant. This…

June 2026 Rock/Pop Record Reviews

Avalon Emerson: Written into Changes
Dead Oceans DOC369CD (auditioned as CD). 2026. Bullion, Rostam Batmanglij, prods.; Keivon Mehdi Hobeheidar, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****

Avalon Emerson built her reputation crafting immersive deejay sets in Berlin's most vital clubs and on festival stages like Coachella, where she threaded together house, techno, and punk with nary a seam. Those sets were unpredictable and intuitive.

When the pandemic brought that world to a halt, Emerson, like everyone else, turned inward, writing and recording her own material at home. Her…

June 2026 Classical Record Reviews

Lutosławski: Concertos for Cello and Orchestra
Bloch: Schelomo
Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello; Luxembourg Philharmonic, Gustavo Gimeno, cond.
Harmonia Mundi HMM 902714 (reviewed as 24/96 WAV; available on CD). 2026. Polyhymnia International B.V., prod.; Karel Bruggeman, Marko Schneider, engs.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****

This fine recording, distinguished by copious color, excellent bass, and a deep if edgeless soundstage, showcases two phases of Lutosławski's compositional career. The Concerto for Orchestra was composed when he was in his early 40s; the far more "…

Recording of July 2022: <I>Growing Up</I>

The Linda Lindas: Growing Up
Epitaph (16/44.1 stream, Qobuz). 2022. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Carlos de la Garza.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

When your uncle is an award-winning producer and engineer, a band formed by you and your cousins has a higher-than-average shot at going somewhere. But even that family advantage can't explain the immediate success of the Los Angeles–based Linda Lindas; they've earned their accolades through talent, hard work, and ingenuity. Their first album, Growing Up, offers proof of their worth and the promise of a stellar musical…

Zen & Quality Audio

If you had to describe the kind of audio system that you would like to have, with only one word, what word would you choose? Some would choose the word "quality." In a book titled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, from 1974, Robert Pirsig considers the word and concept as a worldview, as a fundamental way of thinking about things that encompasses both reason and feelings, in the pursuit of value, excellence, truth, nobility, perfection, goodness, and beauty. He capitalizes the word throughout the book. I'll do the same here.

Somewhere in the work of the…

Audio Group Denmark makes its mark at High End Vienna 2026

Ola Björling speaks with Emil Kristensen of Audio Group Denmark about the company's new Børresen A-Series speakers and BM2 subwoofer, as well as the Aavik U-301 Unity amplifier that also incorporates streaming and DAC capabilities in one chassis, in a video interview that's now posted on our official YouTube channel.

For more with Audio Group Denmark, see Miguel Barrio's report on their setup at AXPONA 2026.

Klaudio comes clean at High End Vienna 2026

Ola Björling speaks with Isaac Choi of Klaudio at High End Vienna 2026 about the company's new KD-CLN-LP200U ultrasonic record-cleaning machine, in addition to their Magnezar auto-clamping and non-clamping turntables and Tangential tracking tonearm, in a video interview that's now posted on our official YouTube channel.

For more with Klaudio, see Michael Trei's Spin Doctor #34 review of the Klaudio KD-CLN-LP200T ultrasonic record cleaning machine.

MSB Technology displays a titanic trio of DACs at High End Vienna 2026

Ola Björling speaks with Frank Vermeylen of MSB Technology Europe about the company's formidable, crafted-in-California DAC lineup that includes the brand-new Palisade, the Cascade, and the Sentinel, in a video interview that's now posted on our official YouTube channel.

For more with MSB Technology, see the Stereophile online archive.

Gramophone Dreams #109: Stax SR-009D, Grado Signature HP100 SE, HiFiMan Susvara Unveiled headphones

Last year, I reported on Stax's glamorous new SR-007S electrostatic earspeakers ($2390) in conjunction with the Stax SRM-700S driver amplifier. This report was extra fun because I was just finishing up a long romantic affair with a loaner pair of vintage Stax SR-Omegas about which, in his 1995 Stereophile review, Tom Norton declared: "If you want the truth, however—at least as honestly as I've heard it in any headphones—you want the Stax SR-Omegas." I declared the new version to be the most gloriously lifelike transducer since the Quad 57 and Stax's own F81 floorspeakers.

My taste in…

Warsaw wraps up royally

Note: As we arrive onsite to prepare for our coverage of High End Vienna and its many satellite shows, we share more of Jason Victor Serinus and Rogier van Bakel's coverage of Europe's second most important audio show, Audio Video Warsaw. Audio Video Warsaw 2026 will take place this fall, October 23-25, 2026. For Jason and Rogier's previous Warsaw show coverage, go here.

The final day of Audio Video Warsaw 2025 ended with claims that it was the second or third largest audio show in the world. Unique visitors reached a record 14,881. (High End may not count unique visitors, but…