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One of the leading music business stories of the 21st century is the continued discovery, sonic restoration, and release of previously unknown recordings—either from the studio or the stage. As the constant advance in digital technology has reclaimed live tapes once thought to be sonically inferior, and refreshed forgotten or leftover studio recordings, record labels,…
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For Wayne E. Goins, Carole King’s Tapestry isn’t just an album—it’s a life marker, from teenage homework sessions on a beloved console to rediscovering its soul-stirring power decades later on a high-end setup.
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Though a digital listener, Jonson Lee argues vinyl’s tactile rituals, emotional resonance, and enforced focus offer a deeper musical intimacy—likening analog to a meaningful kiss, and streaming to a noisy crowd ruining the moment.
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Tracing disco’s roots back to slave songs, chain gangs, and swing countercultures, the article shows how rhythm evolved into a movement — one made possible not by concerts, but by records and multitrack recording.
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Dragged along to T.H.E. Show by chance, Jonson Lee’s wife — a professional pianist — helped crown Heavenly Soundworks’ active speakers as the event’s best, praising their astonishing clarity and bass, all powered by just a $500 streamer.
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Faced with underwhelming SACD and BD playback, Tom Gibbs ditches discs for a digital setup that rips and streams native DSD—revealing astonishing sound quality and a future where optical drives are obsolete.
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As Apple, Amazon, and Spotify shift to lossless audio, smaller services like Tidal and Qobuz may face extinction. Mario St-Laurent warns this seismic change risks squeezing out artist royalties and playback freedom in favor of big-tech ecosystems.
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A recent article by PMA Magazine editor Robert Schryer got me wondering about when I began to think of music and audio — and, specifically, of myself as an audio hobbyist. The answer to “when” can’t be clearly defined by a single moment; it’s scattered across a handful of events that took place over a…
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I’ve been pursuing good sound quality for decades. Along the journey, I learned about various elements that make up a good audio system. And one important lesson I learned is this: Sometimes, those small, seemingly less important elements turn out to be game changers. In an audio system, we pay most of our attention to…
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With our trip canceled due to the pandemic, what to do at home with the money we saved? Build a basement studio, of course! We have two rooms that were storage spaces, recently emptied, because we had time to clean them! We also made a playroom for the little one. He got the big room,…
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Nearfield listening reveals hidden stereo depth and clarity by minimizing room interference—a technique once limited to studio engineers but now common among desktop audiophiles using compact speakers near their screens.
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The High-Fidelity Scene Recording technology revolutionized how music is produced, played, and experienced. From the perspective of experiencing it, to the old model of attending a live concert was added the option of listening to a recorded performance. In this new model, the listener’s role and situation were profoundly transformed; with recordings, listening has been…
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More than 30 years ago, the tabling of the Brundtland report introduced the concept of sustainable development, of which there are three pillars: economic, social, and environmental. This begat fair trade, at the time considered avant-garde, which instituted a set of policies that spanned the world and forever altered the standards we use to buy…
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The human voice is an amazing thing. I can think of no other instrument that moves our emotions and soul as powerfully. The examples are endless: Freddie Mercury, Beyoncé, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby McFerrin, Luciano Pavarotti, Ariana Grande… Just take your pick. And it’s not just singers’ voices that we respond strongly to. How about the…
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Recalling his journey from AM radio to Julian Hirsch-era Stereo Review, Tom Gibbs charts how flashy gear and measurements gave way to the deeper truth: great sound comes from system synergy, not specs alone.