BEST OF THE REST: The classical CDs we missed in 2022

THE GUARDIAN / Andrew Clements It took Maurizio Pollini more than 30 years to complete his recordings of the Beethoven piano sonatas for Deutsche Grammophon. The first instalment of that series, which appeared in 1977, was devoted to the last five sonatas, including magisterial performances of the two paired on this new release, which was […]

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MQA: The Rolling MQA Debate: A Sound Quality Test on TIDAL That Leaves More Questions than Answers – writes Trav Wilson

A recent video published (on April 15, 2021) by GoldenSound has once again stirred up the MQA pot. In the last couple of weeks, the video made the rounds (again, and again) through most audiophile groups, and, as of writing, has racked up about 150,000 views. Additionally TIDAL (the main distributor of MQA) has announced […]

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HARVEY MANDELL: News

THOM DUREK / allmusic.com Who’s Calling is the 16th solo album by guitarist Harvey “Snake” Mandel, and his second for Tompkins Square. He is widely considered one of the most innovative guitarists to emerge from Chicago in the 1960s, alongside icons Charlie Musselwhite, Barry Goldberg, Steve Miller, Michael Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Corky Siegel. Along […]

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192kHz: What’s this fuss about it?

Have you ever wondered why there are so many different sample rates and why? The compact disc samples at 44.1kHz/16 bits. But then there’s these other rates like 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz. Wow, that’s a lot and the spacing doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. How did we get to these numbers […]

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FRANZ LISZT: News

isa’s Piazza dei Miracoli, also known as the Piazza del Duomo, contains the Cathedral, the Baptistry, the Campanile (aka the Leaning Tower) – and the Camposanto Monumentale. Among its murals is an impressive fresco entitled Il trionfo della Morte: ‘The Triumph of Death’. Once attributed to Orcagna, nowadays to Buonamico Buffalmacco or, by some scholars, […]

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INDIGO GIRLS: News

STEPHEN THOMAS ERLEWINE / allmusic.com Look Long, the title of Indigo Girls’ 15th album, appears to be an imperative to their audience and a creative challenge to themselves — an attempt to look beyond the internal and familiar. Reuniting with producer John Reynolds, who previously produced the duo’s 1999 LP Come On Now Social, Indigo […]

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HIFI PODCAST OF THE DAY

PS Audio’s Senior Analog Design Engineer Darren Myers and The Music Room Testing Technician Duncan Taylor discuss all things hifi audio, covering such audiophile topics as speakers, amplifiers, DACs, preamplifiers, vinyl, cables, music, stereo soundstages, tweaks, adjustments and much more. https://the-hifi-podcast-with-darren-and-duncan.simplecast.com/

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VINYL REPLAY: News

A record-pressing plant on Teesside is to double production after a successful first year in business. Press On Vinyl opened in Middlesbrough in early-2022 with the aim of producing 50,000 records a month. Co-founder David Todd said the continued resurgence of vinyl records was due to factors including collectability for fans and profit margins for […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

DIMINISHING RETURNS: Is audiophile quality diminishing?

Michael Vronsky asks: Neil; Do you think the market for audiophile quality is diminishing, or static or expanding? If I believe the reports I read it’s been diminishing under the onslaught of alternative ways of spending money on home entertainment like home cinema and video games etc. I think there is a very serious core […]

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BACHMAN TURNER OVERDRIVE: Sad news

Robbie Bachman, the drummer for Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Brave Belt, has died age 69. His brother and bandmate Randy Bachman confirmed the news on Twitter, describing Robbie as “an integral cog in our rock’n’roll machine” and writing that “the pounding beat behind BTO … has joined mum, dad and brother Gary on the other side”. […]

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JOHN LYDON: News

THE GUARDIAN: Former Sex Pistol competing to represent Ireland with love letter to wife of 44 years who is living with the illness John Lydon has said he is competing to represent Ireland at this year’s Eurovision song contest primarily in order to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. The former Sex Pistols frontman (once known […]

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Q&A

Q&A: Can you hear a difference in quality between Spotify’s 320 kbps stream and TIDAL’s HiFi lossless audio stream?

DANIEL FALLMAN: Yes, absolutely. If you can’t hear the difference between say Spotify and Tidal’s FLAC streaming you might have either or all of these three problems — all of which have to do with the dynamics of the music: 1. Your equipment isn’t good enough. If you’re listening to your music through your iphone […]

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HANDEL: He conquers London

Richard Wigmore marks the 300th anniversary of Handel’s era-defining move to London in 1712 Never short of confidence or savoir faire, the young Handel seems to have set out to become the supreme musical cosmopolitan. After a thorough grounding in the contrapuntal tradition of his native Saxony, he honed his command of form and fluid, […]

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