January 2026
The first time I heard of Steven Wilson was when I received a copy of Porcupine Tree’s seventh album, In Absentia, for review in 2003. Wilson was the group’s leader, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He also produced the band’s albums and has served in that role for other musicians as well.
December 2025
Last month, SoundStage! Xperience posted part one of my list of LPs that I think are worth hearing. The records on my list aren’t as popular as others that get heavy airplay or show up in articles in classic rock mags, and they didn’t necessarily sell many copies. But I like them and think they deserve more notice than they often receive. Here are my remaining recommendations, to round out my list to ten.
November 2025
In September, I wrote a piece about ten LPs that would make a good start toward building a record collection. Those albums are all well-known and highly regarded, and I chose them because they deserve to be in any good record collection.
October 2025
The second week in June was a tough one for anyone who grew up in the late 1960s. Two great musicians and troubled souls, Brian Wilson and Sly Stone, died within days of each other at age 82. Both were Californians, although Sly was born in Texas. His family moved to the Bay Area soon after he was born. Brian was born in southern California and spent his life there.
September 2025
My publisher here at the SoundStage! Network, Doug Schneider, has given me free rein for the nearly 24 years I’ve written for him. Brave man. A few weeks back he sent me an idea for a column: “Ten Great Albums to Start Your Record Collection With.” I responded, “By genre?” To be honest, I was hoping to get three columns out of the idea—one for rock, one for jazz, and one for soul/R&B.
July 2025
Last month’s print edition of The Atlantic included a noteworthy article by Spencer Kornhaber, a staff writer for the magazine. The piece, entitled “Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?,” also appeared on the magazine’s website. Kornhaber’s article included conversations he’d had with several critics about the state of contemporary culture. He took a lengthy look at the visual arts and made a few quick references to film and television, but the bulk of the article was about pop music.
June 2025
Earlier this spring, SoundStage! Access editor Dennis Burger set up a video chat with a few SoundStage! Network writers to discuss phono preamps. Thom Moon, Jason Thorpe, and I shared our opinions about the advantages of phono preamps over the phono stages included in an integrated amp, preamp, or receiver. We also discussed the phono preamps we liked and why we preferred them over others. Our preferences were subjective, of course.
May 2025
I turned 14 in the summer of 1970, and I went to my first rock concert that fall with my friend Wes. John Sebastian was appearing at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania’s Bucknell University, about a half-hour from where we lived at that time. We had seen the movie Woodstock just a few months earlier, and Sebastian was one of the performers featured in the film.
April 2025
When I attended the Capital Audio Fest in November, I experienced many demo rooms full of impressive gear. I found myself being pulled into a few of them because, even as I was passing by in the hallway, I could hear music that sounded not just good, but lifelike. As I wandered into one such room in particular, I was immediately impressed by the appearance of the turntables, integrated amplifier, and speakers on display. They looked natural, organic, and inviting.
March 2025
A little more than a month ago, SoundStage! publisher Doug Schneider posted a message on Facebook that caught my attention. To be honest, I usually look out for Doug’s posts—they let me know what’s going on at the SoundStage! Network, and in the audio industry in general. This one hit home because it referred to something that has always been at the root of my interest in hi-fi.
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