Analog Corner

Ortofon's limited-edition MC A90 was the first phono cartridge made with selective laser melting (SLM). Using this technique, metallic powder is fused to build up, layer by layer, a specific shape. SLM allows the creation of complex constructions impossible to fabricate from a block of wood or metal using traditional machining techniques.

In vinyl's heyday, Roy Matthews ran EMI's record-pressing plant in Hayes, Middlesex, in the UK. He even had a hand in designing and building new presses for the company. But when EMI shut down their plant and scrapped most of their presses, Matthews retired. I thought of Matthews when, at the 2013 CES, I spoke with the chief designer of TechDAS's Air Force One turntable, Hideaki Nishikawa.

How was last fall for you? Mine was crazy. I traveled much of October: the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest one weekend, emceeing Chad Kassem's Blues Masters at the Crossroads Blues Festival the next, and the week after that, appearing at two Audio Advice stores, in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina. From there I traveled to Los Angeles to attend a 30th-anniversary celebration for Tron at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Analogplanet.com covered new products exhibited at the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver last October (Stereophile's full coverage can be found here); in this month's column I'll comment on the show generally, and specifically on two seminars.

Their proven success with phono preamps has encouraged Simaudio to now go way upscale: The Moon Evolution 810LP ($12,000) is the company's no-holds-barred entrant in the premium end of the market, and the first phono preamp in its Evolution line of high-end models.

The late Jonathan Tinn of Blue Light Audio, importer of darTZeel electronics and a partner in Playback Designs with DSD expert Andreas Koch, loved vinyl. He approached Wave Kinetics' Matt Schuster and proposed that they together produce a turntable. Matt Schuster came up with the Wave Kinetics NVS Reference turntable ($45,000).

I recently spent a week traveling—it was good to get out of the basement! First up, toward the end of May, was an event at the Audio Alternative, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Owner Rick Duplisea is a vinyl fanatic and Linnie whose store—actually, his sprawling home—is packed with gear and LPs. His record collection beats mine.