Michael Fremer

This year it took the full four days of High End Munich to cover all of the new analog gear. Even then some might have been missed. Clearly the move is to vinyl and streaming audio. Turntables were playing throughout the show's demo rooms and more were on display in the ground floor halls. Digital die-hards couldn't escape the sound and so were confronted by the reality that today's vinyl playback sounds amazing.

Before the start of last April's AXPONA show at the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer and Music Direct's Vice President Josh Bizar drove to Chicago and to the home of online vinyl and audio dealer Music Direct.

A recent bid on eBay won me mono copies of Nat King Cole's Love is the Thing and Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Plays. The descriptions said that the records had some "marks" but that they "shouldn't affect play." The rest of the wording led me to suspect that the seller knew nothing about vinyl, but since the winning bid was $3.15 ($5.65 with shipping), why not take a chance? I have some mono records that look unsalvageable but play fine—especially using the mono Helikon cartridge.

Imagine Van and organist Joey Francesco getting together for a late night jam session with some friends and running through a set of Van tunes plus an assortment of standards. You don't have to imagine it because that's what this album sounds like and it's close to how these sessions were produced. Van and Joey clearly had great fun making this record. Van hasn't sang this freely and playfully on record in some time.