Freya Ridings - Live at Omeara - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Recommended!

Simple Minds - Live in the City of Angels ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Best live album I've come across for a long time! Resident on my table currently!

Jeff Lynne - Out of Nowhere ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Another good album from Jeff Lynne!

Freya Ridings - Freya Ridings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Highly recommended first album! With a voice like the girl out of London Grammar! Superb recording too!

Jeff Lynne's ELO - Wembley or Bust ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

David Gilmore - Live at Pompei ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Beth Hart - Fire on the Floor ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had never heard of Beth Hart before buying this record but I was pleasantly pleased once I'd listened to it a few times. Some tracks are a bit jazzy which isn't normally my bag but on the whole the album is a really enjoyable listen. Beth's voice is very Tina Turner style I think. The best tracks I think are Love Gangster, Picture in a Frame and Fire on the Floor!

The recording is I'd say pretty good which is why I've awarded it 4 stars! Compared to her latest disappointing offering Black Coffee it's amazing!

Fire on the Floor is a 2016 release on the Mascot Label. You must play it loud!

10 cc - Windows in the Jungle ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Windows in the Jungle is a well recorded album and worthy of a 'top shelf' position in most record collections! Not a massively dynamic offering here but certainly well above average! The sound-stage is good with plenty to interest the audiophile and the music is good too. This is a 1983 recording so it coincides with the creation of the first CD's! Mastered by Ian Cooper at the Townhouse, London and recorded at Strawberry Studios, Stockport, UK!

Neil Young - Are you Passionate? ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A well produced album by Neil with some great songs and a very respectable sound quality from this double album. Produced by Neil Young and Booker T Jones. A very enjoyable listen on my system and I'm sure yours too!

Review - Lyra Etna SL - Low Output Moving Coil Cartridge ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Purchasing this cartridge as an upgrade from a Linn Kandid was a big jump for me, not just in financial terms but in sonics too. At twice the price I had to be sure that it would be cost effective but from past experience I had little doubt it would be!

I've had a few Lyra cartridges in the past and have always enjoyed them so I was fairly confident that this one would be no exception. In fact, despite only having had it for barely a week it is already displaying qualities that the Linn Kandid could only dream of. In fact it is in a completely different league!

I could have installed it myself but Peter at Cymbiosis insisted that he fitted it to my Naim Aro arm and that we tested it first before I left. He seemed as eager to listen to it as I was. He dropped my Aro on to one of his many LP 12's fitted with Aro arms and connected up to Naim amps and a pair of Kudos Titan speakers. We played just one side of an album that I'm quite fond of - Truth is a Beautiful Thing by London Grammar. Within minutes of lowering the stylus the sound transformed itself from pretty good to amazing! I'm sure that if I had suggested playing some more tracks he would have been up for it but I wanted to get it home as soon as possible to play it in my own system.

Having listened to it now for what must be about 15 hours I am completely smitten! Everything about this cartridge, every aspect of how it releases music from the vinyl and every parameter that you can use to describe musical prowess is here in bucket loads! Sophisticated, highly capable, competent and above all completely mesmerizing are just some of the words I can use! When it's playing I can't leave the room! I must remain still and concentrating, listening to all the nuances that I hadn't heard before and enjoying that feeling of 'being there in the studio or concert hall'!

The Etna moving coil cartridge is probably one of the finest cartridges ever made (not just my words but those of one or two highly acclaimed Hi-Fi critics)! It has total control over the sound it produces, breaking each second down into millions of mini frequencies, extracting the absolute maximum from a vinyl record and presenting a sound that is perfectly balanced in both tone and soundstage. The detail that it presents is mind blowing! But even more surprising is that not only does it extract every detail possible but it does it with little or no surface noise! Close your eyes and vocals seem to be there in the room with you completely separate from the rest of the music. All the instruments are firmly placed and separated too. Dynamics are to die for! Put a track on and all seems delicately quiet and controlled, beautifully presented with precision and clarity but then the drums kick in or a powerful bass and the contrast is incredible! Extreme modulations don't seem to worry this cartridge in the slightest! All the time it's saying to me 'I'm in control here, just sit back and enjoy'!

So it's still early days but how can I sum up?

Well it's hard for me to explain but let's put it like this - all I want to do, night after night, is listen to my music. I want to hear lots of sounds that I haven't heard before; I want to experience the atmosphere of the studio; feel the resonances; lose myself in the moment and above all get unparalleled pleasure from my amazing vinyl collection and my now complete audio system! Bliss!

Sia - Everyday is Christmas ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Not at all what it may seem! Just another very clever, beautiful recording by Sia! Superb!

Roger Waters - Amused to Death - Analogue Productions APP 468761 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

For any Pink Floyd fans then this album I think is a must have! This Analogue Productions edition is slightly better than the Sony version but probably not a good as a 'good' copy of the original album! Mastered by James Guthrie, Doug Sax and Joel Plante it is not only a sonic masterpiece but also a moving, thought provoking one too! Performances by Jeff Beck only add even more to what is an outstanding piece of music!

Sia - Some People Have Real Problems ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I think this was Sia Furler's 4th Album released in 2008 and in my view it is her best so far, although she is a very talented lady so watch this space! A double album with 14 tracks all of which are good songs that have much contrast and have been recorded reasonably well and the pressing is pretty good too! OK it's not quite a sonic masterpiece but it is enjoyable to listen to on a good system so in my book that's a fairly good result! I like this girl a lot!

Little Mix - Glory Days ⭐⭐⭐

What? Is this really what this so called 'audiophile' listens to?

Two of my granddaughters, who are 9 and 3, really like this album and they've been listening to the CD and the download in my car. There are a number of tracks that I must admit I've grown to like! 'Power' being one of them! The album is pressed on pink vinyl and sounds surprisingly good!

Lana Del Rey - Lust for Life (not rated)

In 2017 how can any record company produce a vinyl record that costs £24.99 and sounds so dead? It just amazes me! I have never heard such a compressed vinyl record ever - at least not that I can think of! Lana must have recorded this album on her laptop, that's the only explanation I can think of! The tunes might be good but I can't be bothered to listen to them! So disappointing for such a talented artist because Born to Die was quite listenable ( no sonic masterpiece mind in fact far from it ) but great for washing up to whilst in the kitchen! This is just so rubbish sounding that it's unbelievable!  I can't even bear listening to this whilst on the toilet! Record company's, even today, after destroying their industry at least twice, just can't resist ripping us off again can they? Better get wise! Sad!

Donald Fagen - Nightfly - Mobile Fidelity Ultradisc One Step Pressing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Should I open this or keep it as a long term investment I wonder? Only managed to get one from Diverse Vinyl (unusually Juno failed to produce any results despite having it on order for many months). I've rated it 6 stars because I know it will be!

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Hypnotic Eye ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Maybe not quite up to the standard of MOJO but still a very good album with good songs and a very good recording! Produced by Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Ryan Ulyate. Recorded at The Clubhouse, Los Angeles and Shoreline Recorders, Malibu. Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

Sarah McLachlan - Afterglow ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Big sound, wide soundstage, loads of detail and wonderful bass makes this a must have record from Classic Records! Produced, engineered and mixed by Pierre Marchand.

Joe Jackson - Fast Forward ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The CD sounds terrific, but on the LP I hear more air around the instruments, and more bottom-end punch. Graham Maby’s bass in the New York session has more attack, and each note is fuller, with longer sustain. Brian Blade’s brushes on snare drum in the title track are more focused and audible, and Jackson’s piano sounds larger and more impressive. His voice is more centered and out front, and it’s easier to hear the texture in it.

On vinyl, Blade’s drums are set off more in “If It Wasn’t for You,” and his cymbal splashes hang in the air longer. Bill Frisell’s guitar solo in “See No Evil” has more bite, and the background vocals at the close of the track are more layered. “A Little Smile” (Amsterdam) sounds just a little more lively, and Jackson’s piano is more driving. The strings in “Far Away” sound richer, and Stefan Kruger’s drums snap with more body and authority.

On vinyl, the music has more room to expand and deepen. Jackson’s voice in “So You Say” (Amsterdam) is more nuanced and warm, and his piano solo is more natural and sounds clearer. Earl Harvin’s drums in “Junky Diva” (Berlin) ring more sharply, and the reverb echoes more strongly. Overall, this track comes across more subtly on vinyl.

Fast Forward isn’t massively better on LP than on CD -- on either format, it’s a very enjoyable record. But in the small ways that bring me back repeatedly to a recording, the vinyl is the more enjoyable format. Markus Ehrlich’s tenor sax in “If I Could See Your Face” (Berlin) has more timbral detail, with less edginess. Stanton Moore’s drums in the New Orleans session sound impressively large on both formats, but more expansive on vinyl. The instruments in “Satellite” are more balanced on LP; on CD, they sound a bit too close together.

Soundstage

This album, for the sound alone, is definitely 4 star! Generally the music is enjoyable although there is a weird track 'If I Could See Your Face' which refers to a band of brothers tracking down their sister and killing her - not quite the subject of a rock song you may think? Other than that I think the album is good and well worth the purchase. Stand out track for me is definitely 'Fast Forward'!