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Among my music recommendations is a handful of favorite holiday records in my collection – some new, some classic. ’Tis the season!
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It’s Awards Season! HF&MS celebrates the year’s finest in HiFi, from groundbreaking speakers to game-changing amplifiers and DACs.
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Decades of hi-fi tweaks taught Paul Bowes that optimizing gear—not endless upgrades—unlocks music’s full potential. From speaker placement to EMI fixes, these methods elevate performance dramatically.
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There’s a peculiar weight to history when it happens in real-time. December 5, 1965, at the Liverpool Empire Theatre wasn’t just another stop on The Beatles’ UK tour—it was a homecoming charged with energy, nostalgia, and, unbeknownst to most, a bittersweet farewell. For the 2,550 fans lucky enough to score tickets from a pool of…
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The FTC’s 2024 Amplifier Rule aims for transparency but sparks backlash for outdated testing, unrealistic standards, and a loophole echoing pre-1974 marketing chaos.
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Imagine it’s a chilly December 1 evening in 1957. TV screens across America flicker to life with that iconic Ed Sullivan introduction: “And now, ladies and gentlemen… Buddy Holly and the Crickets!” For just a few minutes, Buddy Holly—only 21 at the time—commands the national stage, bringing rock ‘n’ roll into America’s living rooms like…
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Tom Gibbs didn’t just like the performance of the US$ 1000/pair XSA Labs Vanguard monitors—he was gobsmacked!
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From courtly halls to Zen temples, the shakuhachi evolved from a Tang Dynasty import into a meditative tool and global musical icon, resonating with timeless beauty.
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Frank Doris continues to mine his experience accrued over 50 years of playing in bands, offering insight into brand identity, having a set list, and playing music you don’t like for the sake of entertaining the crowd!
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Affordable hi-fi tweaks like ferrite cores, Sorbothane pads, and mains conditioners offer subtle but measurable improvements, tackling interference, vibrations, and noise in your audio setup.
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November 21, 1955, wasn’t just another Monday. For Elvis Presley, it was the day a $35,000 contract (equivalent to $400,000 in 2024) pulled him out of a regional spotlight and thrust him onto the global stage. RCA Records, sensing that the young singer from Tupelo, Mississippi, was more than just a passing trend, purchased his…
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After a visit to My Little Bar in Seoul, South Korea, writer Jonson Lee contemplates the enduringly strong relationship South Koreans have with McIntosh gear.
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Walt Disney’s radical 1940 film Fantasia demanded a sound system that didn’t yet exist. In response, William Garity and J.N.A. Hawkins built Fantasound—the first surround sound, decades ahead of Dolby. The system flopped commercially but changed cinema forever.
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Welcome to the November Vinyl Beat! This month at Casa Rudy we’re enjoying a couple of Doobies, being overrun by Rhinos, wearing a Tutu, adding some salsa to life’s recipe, and operating under an assumed identity.
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In the glittering circus of pop music, where smoke, mirrors, and synthesized beats reign supreme, few scandals hit harder—or landed messier—than the Milli Vanilli debacle of 1990. This wasn’t just a little hiccup in the pop machine. This was a full-on implosion, a moment when the flashy veneer of the music industry was peeled back,…
