home

The Vinyl Press

  • Features
  • Records
  • Cleaning – Care
  • Editorials
  • Compendia
  • Ephemera
  • Phono
  • About
You are here: Home / Archives for In Brief

Change is Good- From Proto-Metal to Spiritual Jazz

September 30, 2019 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Change is Good- From Proto-Metal to Spiritual Jazz Spiritual jazz is something I started to focus on in just the last couple years. More recently, I’ve been writing pieces about obscure private or small label offbeat jazz- the material fits under various genre headings, including soul jazz, free jazz and other categories that aren’t always fully descriptive of the music.  This isn’t as much an editorial choice as it is a reflection of my recent listening interests: the level of musicianship is high, and the production quality is often good, in part because the performances... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, In Brief

Stylus Wear – Mike Bodell’s “The Finish Line for Your Phonograph Stylus”

May 23, 2019 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Stylus Wear in Vinyl LP Playback- Mike Bodell’s “The Finish Line for Your Phonograph Stylus”    One thing all of us who play vinyl LPs share, no matter how basic or esoteric the turntable/tonearm and phono stage, is our reliance on the phono cartridge. These intriguing little devices not only make a significant contribution to the sound quality we experience, but are the first interface with the record, functioning as a transducer to convert tiny inscriptions in the groove into an electrical signal that eventually gets equalized, amplified and re-transduced from an... Read More

Filed Under: In Brief, Phono

The Biggest Record Show in Texas (and the United States)- The Austin Record Convention 2019

May 23, 2019 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

The Biggest Record Show in Texas (and the United States)- The Austin Record Convention 2019 Yep, stuff is big here- trucks, some people (fit, not fat), buildings, hair, BBQ, hell the entire state is big. And the Austin Record Convention, which has been operating since 1981, was pretty great this year. Lots of dealers (over 300, according to the website) occupying 40,000 sq feet of clean, well air-conditioned modern space. The show takes place in South Austin, just a stone’s throw from the river in the middle of downtown Austin. It claims to be the biggest record show in the United... Read More

Filed Under: Ephemera, In Brief

Editor’s Note: Turntable Set Up Issues and a Forum?

April 18, 2019 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Editor’s Note:  Turntable Set Up Issues and a Forum? Turntable Set-Up Issues With the arrival of a new tonearm and tone arm pod, I’ve been juggling two tone arms, with the added mass of the arm support pods (each of which weighs about 30 lbs). Balancing this weight on the Minus K isolation platform is a little tricky. One basic step is optimizing arm position for ease of use and pivot to spindle distance. Other, more routine set up steps—alignment, null points, and anti-skate are par for the course. However, the lateral tracker doesn’t involve null points or anti-skate... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, In Brief

The Grizzly Works Record Tote-Bespoke Luxury for Bin Divers

April 15, 2019 by Bill Hart 1 Comment

The Grizzly Works Record Tote I don’t do vinyl as a “lifestyle” and usually don’t offer fashion advice. But this luxe quality record tote–from “Grizzly Works”– is the sort of thing you’ll want if you attend record shows, take records with you for listening purposes to someone else’s home, a store or hi-fi show or you simply want an easy, well-made way to carry some albums. It comes from a vendor in Australia, Anthony Sawyer, a very nice guy whose specialty is custom hi-fi racks and speaker stands. According to Anthony, the conception, fabrication and... Read More

Filed Under: In Brief

A Legend Confirmed- The Koetsu Jade Platinum

April 15, 2019 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

A Legend Confirmed- The Koetsu Jade Platinum Though this site is devoted to the medium and the music rather than the machinery it is played on, I have had to reckon with cartridge aging recently. I tried an inexpensive stop-gap in the form of an older, rebuilt cartridge while my Airtight Supreme goes off for surgery. In the meantime, I finally got my hands on a Koetsu stone bodied cartridge, a Jade Platinum. Much has already been written about these newer Koetsus, which take the legendary midrange sound of the old Sugano-made Koetsu and extends the frequency range through some changes in... Read More

Filed Under: In Brief, Phono

Airtight Supreme v Monster Alpha Genesis 1000 (WuT?) Or the Path to Older Phono Cartridges….

February 6, 2019 by Bill Hart 1 Comment

Airtight Supreme v Monster Alpha Genesis 1000 (WuT?) Or the Path to Older Phono Cartridges…. I know, this seems like a stupid comparison, but bear with me. My Airtight Supreme phono cartridge is aging and I’m looking to replace it.  The price of the top tier cartridges, like Airgtight’s Opus, their current flagship, is just prohibitive when you consider that it is a consumable. Much as I’ve winced at cartridge pricing in the past, I’ve just bitten the bullet—when I upgraded from my original Airtight PC-1 to the Supreme some years ago, the improvement was... Read More

Filed Under: In Brief

The Analog Relax Record Brush

December 21, 2018 by Bill Hart 8 Comments

The Analog Relax Record Brush I have had an unhappy relationship with “dry” record brushes over the many years I used them. Such brushes don’t seem to do an effective job of removing surface detritus and despite the “anti-static” moniker applied to some, I have found that dry brushing can generate, rather than mitigate, a static charge. Some also shed fibers. As explained below, I eventually abandoned dry brushing altogether, instead using an “air puffer” to address any surface lint that was introduced after the records had been thoroughly cleaned using a combination of... Read More

Filed Under: Cleaning - Care, In Brief

Good Things Come in Big Packages- Sammy Miller and the Congregation

September 25, 2018 by Bill Hart 1 Comment

Good Things Come in Big Packages- Sammy Miller and the Congregation Big band style jazz probably reached its peak in popularity before WWII.Sammy Miller and the Congregation aim to bring it back, with a few surprises, a laugh and an impressive, tuneful display of musicianship. If Sammy & Company prove anything, it’s that what we think of as “big band” music is an archetype and does not represent the music itself: vibrant, full of soul, life, blues and joy, with lots of space between the different instruments, offering an interplay of sounds that are immensely satisfying. I used... Read More

Filed Under: In Brief

A History of Ultrasonic Record Cleaning

September 4, 2018 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

A History of Ultrasonic Record Cleaning   Despite the attention paid to ultrasonic record cleaning in the last few years, including the various DIY efforts that have broadened its appeal due to lower cost (as well as providing a more flexible feature set than some of the commercial entries), little has been said about the history of ultrasonic cleaning for records. Mike Bodell changes that with a paper entitled  “The Curious Case Of Record Cleaning In The Quest For Sonic Perfection” which is being published here for the first time. Mike, who has both a science and business... Read More

Filed Under: In Brief

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »

In Brief:

There Is No “Magic Bullet” in Hi-Fi

There Is No “Magic Bullet” in Hi-Fi No Magic Solutions I’ve spent some time on the audio chat fora over the years. Many popular threads these days are devoted to cheap improvements that can be made using audiophile “tweaks” or repurposed non-audiophile products. These can be applied to isolate gear, enhance the signals or connections or otherwise address some perceived problem that, once solved, offers to raise the level of music reproduction. It’s like a cheap solution to upgrade your system: from audiophile fuses, special wires (beyond simply having a high-quality interconnect, speaker wire or power cable) and other tweaks, to contact fluids and other things that you can attach to power sources, equipment, or place in the room (bowls, various harmonizers or active resonators, noise harvesters, etc.) This is apart from room treatment, which is sui generis; that is, every situation is … [Read More...]

Milt Ward Reissue-release date May 6, 2022

Milt Ward Reissue-release date May 6, 2022  Andreas Vingaard, of Frederiksberg Records, dropped me a note that the Milt Ward & Virgo Spectrum record about which much has been written here will be available on vinyl beginning on May 9, 2022. However, several promo emails today, Friday, May 6, 2022 say the record is available NOW via Bandcamp (see link below). The reissue was done with the participation of Milt Ward’s family and includes comprehensive notes in a booklet. Given the price of original pressings, this should be worthwhile even if not taken from the master tape. I plan to get a copy and we’ll do a shoot-out with my “OG” pressing. I’m sure some of you are willing to brook a little sonic compromise to get access to an otherwise very hard to find, expensive spiritual jazz rarity. At the time of this writing there is one copy on Discogs in NM condition for media for over … [Read More...]

Milt Ward Virgo Reissue Coming from Frederiksberg

Although I don't have all the details yet, I have learned that Frederiksberg Records, a small, eclectic label from New York, is in the process of reissuing the hard to find (and even harder to pay for) jazz obscurity, Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum. You can find out more by keeping tabs on Frederiksberg's Bandcamp page, https://frederiksbergrecords.bandcamp.com   I'm told there is a bootleg out there so be careful. Frederiksberg is doing this project with the participation of the family of Milt Ward, which is to be applauded. Hopefully, this will give more access to a great jazz record at a reasonable price. The Roots album reissue from Frederiksberg (which is sold out on vinyl on the Frederiksberg Records bandcamp site) still appears to be available through some online retailers as a pre-order, so that's another one to jump on now if you can find it-- the original is extremely pricey and … [Read More...]

Clem Snide- Forever Just Beyond

Clem Snide- Forever Just Beyond With a name derived from a character in the same literary work as the band name so famously identified with the Walter Becker-Donald Fagen duo, Clem Snide has an extensive discography, typically cataloged as “alt country.” This latest release is the work of one of its founding members, Eef Barzelay, who was responsible for much of the songwriting and singing. According to his bio, Barzelay suffered some serious bumps in the road during the last decade, including a failing marriage and financial ruin. At the same time, he learned that Scott Avett was a fan and they found inspiration in each other, leading to this album- a collaboration of artistry where Avett and Barzelay share some writing credits and Avett produces. The result is a fresh, upbeat set of tunes that are appealing in their simplicity and refreshing in their sincerity. The band is first tier … [Read More...]

Muriel Grossmann- Reverence

Muriel Grossmann- Reverence Muriel Grossmann continues her quest for musical ascension on Reverence, which was released on vinyl in early December, 2019 on the RR Gems label as a 2 LP set. The compositions are Grossmann’s, and the band is much the same as the group of seasoned musicians with whom she has worked for some time (and detailed in the review of her Golden Rule), but for one notable exception: the addition of a keyboard player who brings that rich, woody Hammond B-3 sound to a series of compositions devoted to Africa. In some ways, Ms. Grossmann’s exploration of the roots of jazz deliberately eschews any superficial attempt to make African music. Instead, she draws inspiration from its influences, which are wide ranging and deep—you can hear rhythm and blues sounds mixed with more traditional African instrumentation and polyrhythms and come away with something that is both … [Read More...]

Terms of Use ·  Copyright © 2022 The Vinyl Press.com ·  Privacy Policy
A service of Flying Reptile Media Group ·  Contact


Register | Login to Comment | Comments FAQ

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in