Pulse!

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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February 2025

Rick Beato is a musician, producer, recording-studio owner, and guitar instructor. His YouTube channel, which Beato established in 2015, has 4.7 million subscribers. On the channel, Beato has covered a lot of subjects in the last ten years, diving into everything from music theory to the current state of the recording industry. Beato has become so popular and well established that he’s been able to interview famous musicians on his show, including David Gilmour, jazz guitarist Mike Stern, Rick Wakeman, and Tori Amos.

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January 2025

In my November Pulse! column, I made a prediction about the Capital Audiofest, which took place over the weekend of November 8–10 in Rockville, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC. “I can tell you what I’ll hear,” I wrote. “Diana Krall, Sting, Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughan (the Acoustic Sounds reissue), Kind of Blue (Acoustic Sounds again), any number of MoFi titles, and so on.”

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December 2024

In 1963, after two years of work at a local television station, Lee Mendelson and Sheldon Fay Jr. embarked on a production venture of their own, Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP), in Burlingame, California, about a 25-minute drive from San Francisco.

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November 2024

If you spend any time on the internet—and since you’re reading an article on the SoundStage! Network, I’m assuming you do—you start to get ads and links to articles that are targeted to your interests. A banner at the side of my email homepage includes links to Audio Advisor, Music Direct, and other audio dealers. Facebook throws more stuff at me than I can possibly keep up with, and a big portion of it has to do with high-end audio.

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October 2024

The day the news of John Mayall’s death appeared, my sister called to ask if I knew who he was. I’ve had Mayall records in my collection as long as I can remember, and I’m sure she must have heard at least some of his music while we were growing up. Most of the obituaries I have read have highlighted the many well-known musicians who passed through his bands, but they also did a good job of covering Mayall’s own accomplishments in music.

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