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Welcome to the December issue
Digging through all the good stuff in this issue, it struck me how greatly our rekindled love of vinyl has affected the hi-fi industry and the array of new products on offer. From our Group Test of affordable phono preamps (p32) to enhance your listening pleasure to a brand new turntable from Cambridge Audio (p52) and a rundown of some of the treasures on offer in the forthcoming Record Store Day Black Friday drop (p24), there’s plenty of business to keep vinylistas happy.

But it also made me think about the enduring appeal of the vinyl LP and how, audio quality aside, there’s a kind of magic in owning the music with all the attendant accoutrements that, handy as it is, streaming just cannot match. I’m talking here specifically about album covers and the artwork, info and insights they provide to bring the music even more alive. So, inspired by the piece in our Reasons To Be Cheerful section about Art Vinyl’s search for the best cover of 2022, I thought it might be fun to elicit a few faves of our own. Here’s the deal – write or email us at the usual address with about 250 words on your very favourite album cover of all time and we’ll publish them all in an artwork extravaganza in a forthcoming issue.

Trout Mask Replica anyone?

Enjoy!