Audiophilepure

What a great ensemble. Chris always has some of the most stellar musicians alive playing with him. Just as Sting brought Chris to mass attention by hiring him as his touring and recording trumpeter, Chris does the same with many young and upcoming players. This is a romantic, tongue-in-cheek song about hooking up over a bottle of wine on a Parisian night. The lyrics “quick before I wake up and don’t know who you are.” as an indicator. Upbeat with a strong vocal performance by John, who cites one of his big influences as Marvin Gaye. Slightly reminiscent of Michael Franks, with way more soul, his voice carries more weight and timbre than Franks. The delivery is perfectly matched by the backing musicians. I could talk about Botti’s trumpet sound and control, but the wonderful thing about Chris is he has no need to take the limelight on these collaborations, and so the balance is spot on. The rhythms are of a boss’s nova groove, and the backing musicians were exceptionally well presented across a broad sound stage with plenty of air in between each person and very focused, so you can close your eyes and see everyone in proper space. Drums slightly back and center, piano off to the right, bass slightly to the left of the drums and a bit forward, guitars on either side. When Botti takes a short solo, you can sense he steps up where John is standing at the mic. Splithoff’s vocals certainly channeled Marvin without being a copy. He has a very pleasing tenor to his voice that is presented creamy smooth by the Carnegies. This song makes you smile, and you can almost see the scene unfolding between the two passing casual lovers. What more can you ask of a speaker to deliver than something that not only lets you hear but also see everything unfolding during the performance?

In the last few decades there has been a sea-change of every step along the digital highway of recording. But can those old recordings be made to sound passable? Even good? Or, better yet, musical? Thank goodness the answer is a resounding yes. And that is the magic of the TSI-300. Specifically, the tube preamplifiers. What goes in are 40 year-old digital recordings that sound, well, like 40 year-old digital recordings. What comes out is music! Sweet, sweet music the way it was supposed to be heard. All of a sudden I’m getting that same effortless and freeing feeling that was simply lost in the race to go ‘all things digital.’ Make no mistake, what TLA is doing is both brilliant and stunning. It opened up a whole section of my library that I hadn’t touched for years. 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/dagostino-unveils-momentum-z-mono-amplifier

Later in the afternoon, Burhan Coskun, Vice President of Engineering (seen above), packed additional information into a 12-minute talk. “Using two transformers creates a very low noise floor, ultra-low distortion, and more power,” he said. “We separate the internals into two ‘floors,’ with 99.9% cadmium-plated copper between them to isolate the floors from magnetic fields. The cadmium plating supplies additional cooling and aids fast communication.”The Momentum Z is available in either silver or black. Measuring 13.5″ W x 5″ H x 20.5” D, it is 1 wider, 1 inch shallower and ¼ inch shorter than the M400 MxV. Gain is 27dB, maximum output voltage is 190 V peak-to-peak, and peak output current is 60A peak-to-peak. Power consumption is 17W at standby, 35W at idle, and 3200W at maximum. output

https://www.stereophile.com/content/magico-s2-loudspeaker

After a good two months with the Magicos, I went back and forth about what I’d heard. My reference Focal Scala Utopia Evos remain superb speakers—generous, full-bodied, with intoxicating ease and power. The Estelon X Diamond Mk IIs I’ve been living with are just as compelling, delivering spectacular resolution and visceral impact. Both speakers do many things brilliantly.But the Magicos have forced a reckoning. Their sealed-enclosure approach revealed what I hadn’t fully appreciated: namely, the precision that comes from eliminating port artifacts; the clarity that emerges when group delay drops to almost nothing; the transient energy that makes music feel especially immediate.If I were forced to choose new reference speakers, and assuming the M6s (that I still quietly pine for!) are out of reach, the S2s would be serious contenders. That’s not because the Magicos do everything better than the Focals or Estelons. It’s because they reveal a different kind of truth. Provided you give the S2s serious amplifier power and place them carefully, they offer uncompromising engineering fully in service of accurate music reproduction, shunning embellishments. I could damn sure live with that.

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/riaa-reports-us-vinyl-sales-surpassed-1-billion-2025-representing-nearly-50-our-favorite

On the bigger-picture sales front, the RIAA also confirmed that U.S. wholesale annual revenue achieved a record high of $11.5 billion, which has been buttressed by record labels’ commitment to using technological innovation to (in their words) “deepen the connection between artists and fans.” The latter comment applies mainly to streaming, as the U.S. remains the world’s largest paid subscription market with 106.5 million accounts generating $6.4 billion in revenue. (Premium paid subscription revenues grew by 6.8% to $5.88 billion.)

That all said, now that I’ve just calculated how much I personally added to that 2025 U.S. vinyl sales figure (and to our GDP, for that matter) due to all the LPs I bought in 2025 — a trend that’s clearly going to increase here in 2026, based on the vinyl purchases I’ve already made in Q1 — I think it’s high time to put on some of that new wax and celebrate this news! How about you? Happy spinning, everyone. . .