The eager-beavers at PSAudio, not content at moving to direct sales only, are offering perhaps the best trade-in program I can remember from a company. Full retail cost on your old gear (as long as it’s working) in an effort to tempt you into new products. No doubt some will still complain but this seems to me a really attractive option, especially since they will credit you up front and give you 30 days to try their new product. Check out the video explaining the process (apparently despite approvals I can’t embed but you can follow the link)

This is How You Do Trade-In from PS Audio on Vimeo.

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Enjoyed a great performance by Jeff Beck and band at the Paramount Saturday evening. He may be getting on years but Jeff still surrounds himself (mostly) with great musicians and delivers a level of original guitar playing that is unique and powerful to witness. I tried watching his right hand but it’s really impossible to capture how he does this mix of stroking, picking, and turning of knobs simultaneously to create that otherworldly soundscape. Superb.

Slight downside for me was the totally unnecessary appearance of Johnny Depp on guitar and vocals for a few songs near the end.

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Not sure this is getting wide release but it was here in the wonderful Austin Film Society’s cinema for most of a week and made sure to get there last weekend. For those who know and love Miles’ music, this is a fine way to spend a couple of hours. For those new to him, I am not sure how you’ll feel after watching this.

There’s a school of thought that says a musician’s (or artist’s) output is all you need to experience, anything more is noise, PR or both.

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Did I just hear Joe tell parents to make sure their record players were on at night? Man, he gets my vote for this alone:

In absolute terms, physical media sales suffer from the rise of streaming services, but few would have predicted the time when the humble LP would make a comeback to the point of outselling CDs. Seems we’re at that point…

full story here 

I’ll admit, I have a soft spot for PS Audio —  I own enough of their gear and have found it mostly excellent over the years (a couple of items were not as great but their digital front end and power amps are my references). Given their consistently excellent customer service, I was not too surprised to hear they are now going entirely direct-to-consumer, by-passing dealerships and using the web as their storefront.  The official notice is below. What this means for the industry and the general admonition to support your dealer and ‘hear for yourself’ (yeah, I know, the usual defense of the old guard in the press but a near-impossibility for most consumers) is anyone’s guess.… Read the full article

I’m growing a bit cynical learning about newly found recordings of the greats and have been burned a couple of times with the reframing of Hendrix material or the less than stellar recordings of live performances from some jazz greats but this has been a hell of year for Coltrane fans (Both Directions At Once apparently has sold over 250,000 copies!). It is getting to be one of those ‘can I ask for anything more than this?’ periods with the news of a yet another Coltrane release.… Read the full article

www.headphoneslab.com

Just a quick shout out to Headphones Lab, a dedicated review site for those of you given to cans. Despite my best efforts, I slowly find myself listening on ‘phones more and more and while nothing beats my regular rig, it does matter that this alternative offers good sound. Anyway, the site is new one to me, but I think it’s likely to be of interest to those of you seeking an alternative or just further phones reading than the otherwise lively HeadFi. 

As an owner, I was saddened to receive the news last night from KL Audio that they were ceasing manufacture of their generally wonderful ultrasonic cleaner. The reason stated was an inability to sell enough to make a profit…basic business really. A reminder, again, of how limited the market can be for some audio products. Over the years I’ve had a couple of products run out of support, it’s quite frustrating. Meanwhile, I’ll keep cleaning and hope to get through a the thousand+  LPs still awaiting a clean on my unit.… Read the full article