There are days when I need to refresh my listening habits and switch to the analog system headed by the Clearaudio Master Innovation turntable and the Top Wing Suzaku coreless cartridge, before playing music on the SACD player again, vice versa. Prior to receiving the Aurender, hard-disk and Tidal music listening meant connecting a USB […]

Casa Loma Orchestra set the highest standards for excellent musicianship, superb arranging, collective spirit, classy presentation, romanticism and hard-driving dance rhythms.  At the outset of the Swing Era, before 1936 and until the rise of Benny Goodman, Casa Loma was the premier popular orchestra playing hot jazz, sweet tunes, riff-based head arrangements and fully written […]

There ought to be a law against this much quality music being made available. The pandemic is damned, as so many artists are not using that as an excuse to hold back. Back to the front as it were, the Re-Issues, Re-Masters & Miscellany Re-Issues bats 1,000 this week. It has gone from strength to […]

Introduction Until twelve weeks ago, my reference cartridge for the last three years has been a Lyra Atlas SL with which I have been extremely happy. In fact, I could not have imagined replacing it with anything but another Lyra cartridge; however, fate intervened, perhaps to punish me for my hubris. My Atlas began to […]

‘Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a week could be’.  To say it represents and embarrassment of riches would be an understatement. I’m hard-pressed to single out one recording, the banger which stands out in a particular week, but I have to say that Gregory Porter’s latest on Blue Note: […]

The list is short this week but not for want of trying. Nothing struck a chord in the way of Re-Issues and Re-Masters so this week we shall only be having New Releases. Thank t.he heavens for Bebel Gilberto’s Agora. I have been a huge fan ever since her debut and her Tanto Tempo is […]

On more than a few occasions I have been asked to name my favorite actors and while my preference for certain thespians over others doesn’t manage to raise eyebrows, sparking discussion, my opinion surely does. I like the roles actors play to be memorable and for the actors themselves to be not so much. Case […]

This weekend has been somewhat of a blur. I took a mini-vacation at my sister’s home and went 72 hours without access to my music, systems, computers and most of all my sanity. It was a necessary break. A few online interactions in online music and audio forums had me thinking long and hard about […]

Vinyl is alive in 2020 and records have made a strong comeback over the last several years. Unlike CD, SACD, or computer audio, I have always felt that turntables require a certain level of mechanical quality to play them back properly.  While on audio forums I would often read that vinyl was better than digital […]

This quarantine has been difficult and although I do play records a lot during the day, I’ve needed some other things to do audio-wise. So, I have been changing things around in my stereo: swapping cartridges, rolling tubes, and even substituting different electronic components. In this article, I am writing about my experiences and the […]

Jumping right in, once more into the fray. Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience’s To Know Without Knowing is a bonafide banger. It has just about everything I could want an album. The music is challenging, and the integration/melding of styles and genres just blew me away. Recently I have been on a world music […]

In 1954, the Japanese audience in Nagoya, Japan attended the premiere of the original black-and-white movie Godzilla (Gojira) by director Ishiro Honda. Toho Studios produced and distributed the movie and is credited with the invention of the modern-day giant monster movie genre. Godzilla is a giant creature born from the radiation fallout of underwater hydrogen […]

  Real winners this week, I spent a lot of time listening and re-listening to recordings, so let’s dig in. Jennifer Pike’s Elgar and Vaughan Williams. I am such a fan of hers, having attended numerous performances in London and just got lost In the fluidity of the music and the intimacy of the recording. […]

I get several messages and missive folks with strongly worded suggestions and rants, so this week I open the mailbag and address some of them. I do not earn any money off of NARP. There are no affiliate links to Amazon or any other site unless I post a separate link in a separate post […]

When one has a phono stage as powerful and delicate as the Pass Laboratories Xs Phono, he/she is emboldened to expand his cartridge search criteria to include those with ridiculously miniscule outputs. One such example that I came across is the Top Wing Red Sparrow Suzaku at 0.2mV. Who is Top Wing? In 2015, three […]

Another Wells Audio product is in my possession, this time the Cipher tube DAC. It has the characteristic Wells Audio touch: a generous and inviting warmth with ample definition. I am not going to comment extensively on functionality and aesthetics in this first impression article, but will touch on those things in the main review […]

I was sweating this week out as my as it was just about over before the onset of the deluge. A truly mixed bag and some welcome new releases from old friends and acquaintances: The Pretenders’ Hate for Sale: the vocals and the guitar work so distinctive. For all, you kids of the ’70s and […]

Disc ripping and music streaming are all the rage, and many audiophiles celebrate the riddance of their own CD collections in transition to hard drive storage. After having accumulated over 2 TB of music files from CD ripping over the span of a decade, I advice Dagogo readers to not throw away your CDs so […]

As the sheer volume of new releases and re-issues/re-masters abates, I’m not about to sacrifice quality for quantity. I am quickly becoming a fanboy of Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under his baton and leadership. This week two recordings featuring them: Vadim Gluzman, Hannu Lintu, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra – Vasks: Distant […]

The music, words and voice of W.C. Handy reveal a passion for music, the Blues and African American culture.  He dedicated his life to the proposition that the Blues are a legitimate and vital musical form in an era when that idea was rejected or ridiculed.  And he was one of the earliest folklorists gathering […]

Read Part 1 and Part 2 With premium program material The greatest joy of an extreme system is not salvaging poor recordings, it is exulting in superb recordings. Experiencing “you are there” moments, as though planted in front of an artist, is one of the biggest thrills of the high-end experience. In design and execution […]

Always nice for there to be welcome blasts from the past and the familiar to drop albums in these special times. Shout-outs to: Willie Nelson’s First Rose of Spring Paul Weller’s On Sunset James Blunt’s Once Upon A Mind   Say what you want about James Blunt, and I’ve said my fair share, but to […]

Whether you are a tone-phile or a resolution-phile determines if an Audio Note UK DAC is right for you. While Dagogo is about providing “A unique audiophile experience,” Audio Note UK is about being “Music’s Finest Conductor.” Audio Note UK owner Peter Qvortrup’s relentless drive to uphold Audio Note UK’s motto involves development of custom […]

Read Part 1 Critical importance of the amplifier to a system I tried various configurations of equipment to gain an understanding of what the XA200.8 was contributing. Here is one example of a streamlined system intended to have the XA200.8 play a dominant role: Small Green Computer AP i7 4T Roon Server ($2,855) and SONORE […]

This week came up and bit me in the … I wasn’t expecting  it to pick up at the end of the week, so let’s tuck in: Kansas Smitty’s Things Happened Here dropped yesterday on the 26th. I watched the album launch on YouTube and then proceeded to the band’s Bandcamp page to purchase and […]

Introduction If you are like me and have been in this hobby for an extended period, you have encountered manufacturers who for whatever reason seem to update their equipment frequently. Inevitably, your existing piece of equipment 1) cannot be updated and 2) has suffered a significant loss to its resale value. This seems particularly true […]

After reviewing the ultra-high-end Clearaudio Master Innovation turntable system, a curious product came to my attention: a $499 turntable, albeit made by another large corporation, Pro-Ject Audio. Austria-based turntable manufacturer Pro-Ject Audio has twelve series of turntables, which range from the $400 Hard Rock Café Primary turntable in the Artist Series to the $14,000 Signature […]

Late start this week. My mind and focus were taken up with forces greater than I could muster the energy and resources. Blame Canada. An oldie, but a goodie #SouthPark. So some tantalizing must-listens: Blundetto’s Good Good Thing Airelle Dombasie and Nicolas Ker’s Empire Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony taking on Kernis’ Color Wheel […]

Why review the XA200.8 Two years ago, I made a decision that changed my audiophile life. I went to a big box home improvement store where I spied some furniture dollies, and a chill ran down my spine. I was ill prepared should I review some big, immensely heavy amplifiers, ones well past 100 pounds. […]

Yes, we’re quarantined. Yes, we’re locked down. No, that does not give you a reason, a rationale, an excuse to trod out some introspective navel-gazing shallow attempt at impressing with your depth, or in this case lack thereof. Lady Gaga’s SHALLOW notwithstanding, no artist/musician/composer gets a pass on NARP. There are NO free rides. No […]