This Helicon release of a 1985 concert with the Israel Philharmonic brings to five the recordings of Mahler’s Ninth by Leonard Bernstein, which span his early advocacy of the composer in the 60s through to ...

Several decades ago before the high end acquired both its name and its status, moving-magnet pickups reigned supreme among audiophiles. They were relatively easy to build, neutral in tonal balance, flat in frequency response, low ...

Alan Shaw’s Harbeth Monitor 30.1, which has been released in time to celebrate the company’s thirty- fifth anniversary as a manufacturer of high-quality loudspeakers, is the best compact two-way speaker system I have ever heard, ...

The Leto preamplifier, a linestage that is the second product of George and Carolyn Counnas’ Zesto Audio, is cut so completely from the same sonic cloth as Zesto’s Andros PS1 phonostage I reviewed last year ...

The name “Hautonga,” given by the New Zealand-based Plinius company to its new integrated amplifier, is a coinage of two Maori words that together are meant to suggest “a strong clean wind” or “breath of ...

The latest in Sony’s continual repackaging of its Bernstein holdings, this blockbuster portrays the conductor as a world- striding interpreter of symphonies: 60 CDs in an LP-sized case containing most of his Columbia (aka CBS ...

The new version of Alan Shaw’s Harbeth Monitor 30.1, which I am reviewing now, is the best compact two-way speaker system I have ever heard, regardless of design type, cost, or complexity. It’s an updated ...

David Chesky’s latest CD consists of a concerto for electric guitar and two ballet scores, all unified in celebrating the cultural and ethnic diversity of New York City, where Chesky lives. Stylistically an extension of ...

I wrapped up the review period of the new Hanss T‑60 turntable and Graham Phantom II Supreme‑44 tonearm with a clutch of new vinyl releases I’d picked up from the Newport Audio Show, which included ...

Choral conductor and singer Paul Hillier has modeled this unusual and unusually attractive program around the Nine Lessons and Carols of Christmas services from his youth in Great Britain. For this recording, based on seasonal ...

Though I don’t usually care for chamber-sized Beethoven, Paavo Järvi’s exciting new cycle with the forty-some strong Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen gave me much pleasure. The playing is sensational: alert, responsive, virtuosic—a good thing too, since ...

The Danish designer and manufacturer Johnnie Bergmann named his Sindre, a new straight line tracking integrated turntable, after Sindri, a dwarf in Norse mythology who forged Odin’s golden ring and Thor’s hammer. While forging and ...

When Benchmark Media’s DAC1 digital to analog converter was introduced a few years ago, it not only garnered rave reviews, but those reviewers who performed rigorous laboratory tests only wound up confirming Benchmark’s claims that ...

Am I alone in being puzzled or amused by what has long seemed a curious contradiction in high-end audio? On the one hand, components are made for long use, the prominent buzzword when it comes ...

If we are living in the twilight of vinyl, it has to be the longest lasting twilight since mechanical watches and fountain pens.1 LPs and equipment to play them are undoubtedly a niche market, but ...