The famous high-tech Swedish Toolex Alpha record presses are again being manufactured as Pheenix Alpha in a Stockholm suburb by former employees of the original company using the original blueprints. This according to a recent article in a Swedish newspaper.
According to the story, the last Toolex Alpha left the factory in 1990 bound for Melodiya in the then Soviet Union, though it was believed to have been manufactured a few years earlier.
According to mastering engineer Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, all of the albums in both box sets were massacred from the analog master tapes with the following exceptions:
The jazz subscription vinyl-only label Newvelle, which had a successful first year, releasing albums by Frank Kimbraugh, Jack DeJohnnette, Noah Preminger, Don Friedman, Ben Allison and Leo Genovese (feauturing Esperanza Spalding and Jack DeJohnette), just announced its second year kickstarter launch.
In a cross-label move similar to the Stones stereo box sets from ABKCO and UMe, Tom Petty's complete vinyl catalog will be issued in two 180gram box sets: one featuring his MCA output (1976-1991) and one covering his later Warner Brothers catalog (1994-2014).
I am so sorry to report the passing of Basis Audio's Armando ("A.J.") Conti, one of the audio industry's nicest, most interesting and talented turntable and tone arm designers.