BMG and Concord to merge
Tom Fine reports on the impending merger between BMG Rights Management GmbH, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann Group, and Concord Music Group.
Tom Fine
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Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 Bluetooth/Wired Headphones
The first headphones I owned, circa mid-1970s, were made by Pioneer. They jutted out from my ears, with small, paper-cone speakers inside. "Head-Fi" is a whole different world nowadays than it was back then. The biggest change is Bluetooth, which lets us untether ourselves from our stereo systems.
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Rabbit Holes #22: Wish You Were Here 50
Wish You Were Here isn't my favorite Pink Floyd album, but I can't deny its success or how often it has played within earshot over the course of my life. Released mid-1975 to mixed reviews, time worked in its favor: Today many consider it a peer to the group's masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon.
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Onkyo Icon Series A-50 streaming integrated amplifier
There are craftspeople and companies in high-end audio doing admirable work. Those at the cost-no-object end of the business are pushing performance limits and doing new and better things with new and better materials. The ones I especially admire, though, are in the high-value end of the business, making extraordinary equipment at approachable prices.
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ReDiscoveries #12: Interscope Releases the Rolling Stones' Black and Blue
In the Rolling Stones' long history, the Mick Taylor era was a peak, if not the peak. Taylor, who replaced cofounder Brian Jones in the late 1960s, proved a great musical foil for Keith Richards. He was a technical wizard on the guitar; those fluid higher-octaves riffs and runs were the perfect counterpoint to Richards's jabbing and stabbing and growling style.
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Tale of the Tape: Rhino Records' Open-Reel Tape Series
Rhino Records, Warner Music Group's back-catalog label, has jumped into the rarified niche of prerecorded reel-to-reel tapes. Under the Rhino High Fidelity brand, the first two titles were announced in October 2025: T. Rex's Electric Warrior and The Yes Album. Both are limited editions; no more than 500 tapes will be made and sold.
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Technics SL-50C record player
Every first love leaves a strong impression. Hopefully it's a good one. Those of us who are phonography-positive fondly remember our first good record playing system, the first turntable-cartridge combo that let the music turn us on. Maybe it was simple, maybe it was fussy, maybe it was unreliable—no matter, it had that special ability to bring the excitement, beauty, and humanity out of the vinyl grooves, through our audio systems, and into our souls.
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EgglestonWorks Andra 5 loudspeaker
Big loudspeakers are where diligent hi-fi reviewers really earn their pay. Not only are they heavy and difficult to move, but they also require attention and patience to set up so that they sound their best in our listening spaces. They take time to understand and study. And they all sound quite different from each other.
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Rabbit Holes #20: More (and more, and more) songs from Talking Heads
For a lot of bands, the second album is intimidating. There are numerous examples of sophomore slumps, which sometimes lead to a band's quick end. Talking Heads didn't just avoid a sophomore slump; they scored their first top-40 hit and put their career on solid, sky-is-the-limit footing.
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Book Review: Buzz Me In
If you like 1970s rock music, particularly hard rock music, something you love was recorded or mixed in a Record Plant studio. If you have a favorite live album from the '70s or '80s, it was likely recorded by a Record Plant Mobile truck.
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