Michael Fremer

October 21st, 2018, Matawan, N.J.—VPI Industries today debuted a brand new $15,000 HW-40 Direct Drive Turntable at an event held at its Matawan, N.J. "VPI House" headquarters to help celebrate the company's 40th anniversary.

In an era where virtuosity is seemingly shunned, here comes 32 year old Welsh-born finger picking, multi-instrumentalist Gwenifer Raymond who, listening to this album, you’d swear must have been born on the Appalachian trail somewhere south of the Mason Dixon line.

Before I write about Music Hall's MMF-9 turntable (above), in my March 2003 review, I wrote that the SME 30/2 turntable's combination of attributes "might just make it the finest turntable in the world." Earlier in the review, I'd said, "The SME 30/2 is perhaps the most tonally neutral turntable I've ever heard. Only the Rockport System III Sirius, which includes an integral tonearm, is in the same league, and it doesn't stand up to the SME's low-frequency extension and solidity." I wrapped up the review with: "Overall, the SME Model 30/2 is the best turntable I've heard."

At Making Vinyl 2018, the "Women in Vinyl" panel produced a wide-ranging discussion that mostly stuck to business and occasionally dealt with being a woman in the business world generally and the music business specifically. The first panelist to speak provoked the audience with a spirited defense of the compact disc (you youngsters look that up) and from there the back and forth generated a well focused perspective on the business of vinyl from a female point of view. And yes 'Women in Vinyl'" does sound like a John Waters movie.