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When I put headphones on, I feel like I am teleported to a new place. Sometimes, it's to a large venue; other times, it's a small room in a club—and sometimes, it's tight like a telephone booth.

To find out where I might be teleported to next, I visited RAAL 1995's Danny McKinney (shown below) in EG8114 at AXPONA 2026 to see what the hype around his newer ribbon headphones was all about.

I put on the Immanis ($10,500), a triple-ribbon headphone where each ribbon has been tensioned to different resonant frequencies. They were powered by the Allnic ASRA 41-step…

Analog sources: Technics SL-1200MK5 turntable with KAB 3-speed mod, fluid damping, and tonearm wiring; Technics SL-50C turntable; Hana SL MKII, LP Gear The Vessel, Ortofon 2M Red, Audio-Technica AT-VM95C cartridges.
Phono preamplifier: Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2.
Digital sources: dCS Bartók APEX, Rega Jupiter CD player. Minim server.
Preamplifier: Benchmark LA-4.
Power amplifier: Benchmark AHB2, WiiM Amp.
Integrated amplifier: McIntosh MA6500.
Loudspeakers: EgglestonWorks Andra 5, Ø Audio Verdande, Amphion One18, KEF LS50 Meta.
…

Upscale Audio's Kevin Deal talks with Ken Micallef about the Auris Luminis 300B integrated amplifier ($19,900) at AXPONA 2026. According to Deal, the Luminis "runs a pair of 300Bs in each channel in parallel, so you're going to get up to 20 watts of power. […] What makes it different is that there are four power transformers in it. All the transformers are wound in house, in Serbia."

Deal shares more details about the Luminis, its innards, and its performance on our YouTube channel.

Outside of Vincent Van Gogh, Brian Wilson had the most infamous—and ultimately the most valuable—left ear in the world. Wilson—the chief architect of countless Beach Boys pop classics, who passed away at age 82 on June 11, 2025—lost the hearing in his right ear at an early age (footnote 1). One could reasonably argue that he only ever heard all the sonic masterpieces he constructed, for that…

Adrian Belew had an itch that needed some serious scratching. The iconoclastist/vocalist had a hankering to perform material from the three King Crimson albums he fronted during the proto-prog band's 1980s revival—October 1981's Discipline, June 1982's Beat, and March 1984's Three of a Perfect Pair—but how could he go about it in a way that pays respect to and expands upon their original intent, all at once?

First order of business: Make sure King Crimson founder and guitar visionary Robert…

Like many country legends before him, Zach Bryan has lived a life beyond music, and it shows up unfiltered in nearly every song he writes. The Oklahoman has been tested, and those experiences have shaped work defined by authenticity and emotional weight. They've also made him a figure deeply loved and, if the stories are true, occasionally loathed. All of which strengthens music that resists radio polish while breaking attendance records in…

In jazz, all-star bands have a complicated history. Almost by definition, they offer serious solo firepower. But they may lack a unifying ensemble identity. All-star groups are often assembled for marketing reasons. Motion II is the second album by an all-star collective that contains major 21st century…

Once and forever iconoclast Vernon Reid, the Britain-born guitarist for iconic American band Living Colour, is perpetually in pursuit of sonic excellence, regardless the point of entry. "A lot of different things have attracted me—everything from gentle breeze to thunder and lightning," Reid told me during a recent Zoom interview. "I've straddled two centuries where I've been on a mission to explore different emotions, different modalities, and different ways of using the guitar."

Reid's onomatopoeic approach to fulfilling such far-ranging aural pursuits…

John Michael Osbourne was obsessed with the Beatles. Better known by the sobriquet "Ozzy," the cofounding lead singer of Black Sabbath who later turned uber-successful solo artist and still later became a reality TV star was deeply in love with the Fab Four. Osbourne passed away on July 22, 2025, at age 76.

A working-class lad from Birmingham, England, Osbourne saw music as his way out. Those Beatles records were the gateway. "I have such great respect for the Beatles," he told me when we sat down together for an interview at Sony's New…

If you find yourself in Monaco on a Sunday night, make your way to La Note Bleue, a rant and music bar on the beach by the Avenue Princesse Grace. There, you're likely to find a legendary world/fusion guitarist sitting in with a group of young jazz musicians eager to cut heads with the acknowledged maestro of inner awareness and otherworldly spirits. Forever known to some as "Mahavishnu," you can call him by his birth name, John McLaughlin.

"Yes, I have a little group here at my local jazz restaurant," McLaughlin said during a recent Zoom call from his…