Mike Mettler

Tom Waits hit a new creative stride in the 1980s, starting with his acclaimed September 1983 masterstroke Swordfishtrombones — a breakthrough “junkyard orchestral deviation” (his words) — that culminated four LPs later with November 1993’s The Black Rider. Starting September 1, Island/UMe is re-releasing all five of these key Waits midperiod Island Records LPs via 180g black vinyl and limited-edition color variants with the first three titles slated for September 1, and the remaining two to follow on October 6. Read on to find out more about which specific Waits Island-era titles are forthcoming, and what they each entail. . .

We’ve long admired SME’s turntable-and-tonearm combos, but often wondered if/when we’d be able to get any of the Sussex, England-based manufacturer’s fine M2 Series tonearms separately here in North America. Their management and distribution teams must have been tuned into our thought patterns here, seeing how SME and Bluebird Music distribution have just announced four M2 Series tonearms are now becoming standalone product offerings on this side of the Pond. Read on to find out more about the quartet of SME M2 Series tonearms that are being offered, and what their respective SRPs are in both the U.S. and Canada. . .

Triangle Art had such an impressive active room display at the recent Pacific Audio Fest (a.k.a. PAF 2023) that we here at AP felt it was worth shining today’s gear spotlight on a pair of the truly amazing turntables being shown there — especially considering lead designer Tom Vu was on hand to demo them and discuss how they came to be. Read on to see why Vu has every right to be especially proud of Triangle Art’s Maestro and Anubis ’tables accordingly. . .

Those of us needing sturdy wall-mount options for our turntables always have to look quite carefully at shelving-gear specs to ensure these products are truly capable of accommodating the weight of our favored ’tables. To that end, Pangea Audio has upped the ante with their just-announced Turntable Wall Mounted Premier SE Shelf MKII. Read on to see if the new Premier SE Shelf MKII might suit your own particular turntable-shelving needs. . .