For a while, I didn’t think I’d post another review of a Satoko Fujii release from Libra Records. It’s not because this Japanese avant-garde pianist isn’t my cup of tea–she is. It isn’t because the […]
I know what you’re thinking. The LSA VT-70 integrated amplifier is probably too good to be true. Living Sounds Audio isn’t exactly a stranger to delivering great sound for an affordable price—Walter Liederman, aka Underwood […]
When you name your ensemble the Cortez/Williams Project, and your new album is called Hermanos, you might think that this is all about two longtime friends, musicians, who finally got enough free time to hang […]
Van den Hul? I finally get to review some Van den Hul? Honestly, I’m not entirely sure I’ve even heard a Van den Hul product before. Maybe at a high-end audio show or in a […]
In most cases, I use this opening sentence of an integrated amplifier review to tell you why I love integrated amplifiers. I can’t quite do that with the AVM Ovation CS 6.3 streaming CD receiver […]
Sometimes I see the structures underneath my contemporary jazz reviews veer toward the formulaic. I realized that when I reviewed the new album from guitarist Juan Carlos Quintero, Table for Five! A casual listen would have […]
Co-hosting all these Brit-fi podcasts with Brian Hunter on The Occasional Podcast has certainly whetted my appetite for BBC monitors. Lately we’ve been fixating primarily on the LS3/5a, but I can’t tell you how excited […]
It seems as if the better part of last year was focused on reviewing the Brinkmann Taurus turntable. First, I arranged for a series of cartridges and phono stages that would be suitable for this […]
These have been prolific times for legendary composer and trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith. Over the last year or so I’ve received so many new recordings from Smith, and we’re not talking single albums. We’re […]
I have a theory, after all these months, that the Audio by Van Alstine DVA “digital” preamplifier was sent to me by accident. Do I really have a use for a line level preamplifier that […]
At PTA we have an affinity for Italian speaker company Sonus faber–their Maxima Amator won Product of the Year for 2021–and we also have an affinity for premium wireless speaker systems. So we’re pretty excited […]
I shouldn’t have to convince jazz lovers that four CDs’ worth of previously unavailable live Bill Evans on Resonance Records is something special they want to own, but these two new releases are quite special–not […]
After receiving that half dozen albums from Zoho Music, I’ve realized that this record label is heading off into slightly different directions for 2022. While I’ve applauded the longtime vision of Zoho–using South American and […]
If I drift away from contemporary jazz over the next few months, it will mostly be the fault of these European jazz releases that keep finding their way to my mailbox. For example: Teis Semey […]
The Naim SuperNAIT 3 integrated amplifier, above all, is about trying to reconnect with my past—at least a little bit. Back in December I traveled down to Los Angeles for the first time in at […]
Pianist Pete Malinverni and his new album On the Town comes at a time when I’ve already been thinking about Leonard Bernstein. It’s a day after the Oscar nominations came out, and Steven Spielberg’s new […]
This is twice in one week that I’ve reviewed an album that focuses on the idea of the bassist as leader in jazz. With the David Finck album, he was simply an extraordinary bassist who […]
The Koetsu Urushi Black phono cartridge reminds me that in my more pretentious moments as a journeyman audiophile, I referred to myself as a “Koetsu Guy.” This was after decades of less expensive and mostly […]
As a matter of fact, I do want to open up the Circle Labs A200 integrated amplifier review with another statement about why I love integrated amplifiers. This time, I won’t talk about interconnects or […]
Manisero, from Zoho Music, reminds me a lot of my father who passed away in 2020. He loved all types of classical guitar recordings, was a big fan of Rodrigo and John Williams, and in […]
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