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Ye Olde Editor the seeker:  A moment in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel, 2022 (photograph by John Robinson). Well, actually from Long Valley, NJ, the home base of Bill Parish and GTT Audio.  Because there's significant news from that site. Those of you who have been following my reviews, photo essays, and commentary over the years, you... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor delivering the goods, Corvallis, Oregon, 1972. (Photograph by John Hull.) Yes, I've always been this way. Munich has come and gone...so has my serious bout with pneumonia...and I'd like to get my AXPONA 2024 Audio Oasis! Awards published before any more time goes by. (These are two big shows that are too... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor, AXPONA 2024 (photograph by Bill Parish; image processing by David W. Robinson) Another year, another trip around the Sun, another AXPONA. Apart from the COVID years, I have been attending AXPONA since Mark Freed first invited me personally to do so in late 2014. 2015 was my first show. So, I've been... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor with cigar and match, 2021 (photograph and image processing by John Robinson) Here's the last set of my Audio Oasis! Awards from PAF 2023, together with the final set of photographs. Focal-Naim The Naim-Focal room I'll admit it:  I was very impressed by the Focal-Naim space. Departing from the usual emphasis on... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor, before the tsunami... Personal tsunami, 2023. Such a strange year for me, one that threw me for a loop right in the midst of the two main audio show that I attended:  AXPONA 2023 and Pacific Audio Fest 2023. Normally, I'm able to issue my considered judgements and Audio Oasis! Awards within... Read More »

As I explained many months ago last May in Issue 127, my 2023 show impressions for both AXPONA and Pacific Audio Fest were derailed and terribly delayed by death...family and close friends...disease, and depressive moments. Top it off with too much work and some travel, and, well here I am. But I'm working on finishing... Read More »

From Positive Feedback, Volume 8, No. 1, late winter 1998/early spring of 1999... For the record, I have not changed my appraisal of DSD and SACD since I wrote this back in the wee hours of 1999. To my knowledge, Positive Feedback was the first audiophile publication to go on the record supporting DSD/SACD, and we... Read More »

David W. Robinson in Jerusalem, 2022 (portrait by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde Editor himself) The Furutech Lineflux XLR NCF The Furutech Lineflux NCF XLR interconnect (image courtesy of Furutech) Furutech. A front-rank, top o' the heap high-end audio headquartered in Japan. I've followed their products for many years now, and for very... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor presenting the first LAOC AS MUSE Award to Abey Fonn…in ink outline, no less! (Photograph by unknown; image processing by yours truly) The weekend of December 2-3, 2023, saw the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (LAOC AS) hold its 30th Anniversary Gala celebration. Following is a collection of photographs that... Read More »

David W. Robinson photographing at Icicle Creek, Leavenworth, WA, during the great fires of 2012. (Photograph by Lila Ritsema; image processing by Robinson.) Headphones…dig it! The spring of 1970. Yeah, that's when it happened. That's when I bought my first pair of headphones. I needed them, since I had become very interested in reel-to-reel tape... Read More »

A Positive Feedback YouTube share from Döhmann Audio... Mark Döhmann of Döhmann Audio is widely seen and appreciated in high-end audio as a very gifted turntable designer. Well known from his days producing the Continuum Caliburn and Criterion turntables, Mark is a first-rank turntable designer who has been a master artisan since the early 1980s.  Now... Read More »

Brian Hartsell in the Atrium at RMAF 2005…back when you could smoke there! Brian Hartsell has passed away. Another good audio man gone. Apparently, he died on Friday, August 4, 2023, while in hospice care. My audiobud Nick Despotopoulos got in touch with me earlier this week to let me know. (Thanks, Nick!) His life... Read More »

David W. Robinson and Leif Swanson:  a Fantasy.   Music and fine audio weren't the only things happening at PAF 2023, though. A group of us also participated in the late afternoon and nightly sessions of the ad hoc Audiophile Cigar Society. To those of us who appreciate fine cigars and excellent pours of adult beverages,... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor with the rare La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull Cigar:  a moment of contemplation. Happy Valley, OR, 2018. (Photograph by John Robinson.) The Pacific Audio Fest 2023. June 23-25 of 2023 in Seattle (SeaTac) WA. The Great Northwest. In a nutshell:  What a blast! World's largest fine audio show. No. World's smallest fine... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor on the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem, Israel, 2022 (photograph by John Robinson) Friendships are the only unregulated relationships. There are legal requirements for marriages, the having of children, and the treatment thereof. Business relationships and financial institutions are subject to laws, claims, suits, and the legal system of this country. Relationships with the... Read More »

E-in-C Robinson enjoying cigars rooftop-style near the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret). Tiberias, Israel, 2022. (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by the elder Robinson.) As I have been doing for many years now at audio shows, my response to the good stuff is to issue my Positive Feedback Audio Oasis! Awards. What are they?... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor at work at AXPONA 2023, in ink outline (photograph by Bill Parish; image processing by Robinson) The years of the plague… It’s no feat of insight to say that the coming of COVID during 2020, 2021, and 2022 was a time that hit high-end audio shows with significant force. One after another,... Read More »

Robinson with cigar. Munich, 2018 (photograph by Bill Parish; ink outline image processing by Robinson) Last summer at the first Pacific Audio Fest, I heard a product that I really liked, first take and all. While in the ModWright/Seattle HiFi/Cardas Audio/Revel/SME/Ortofon/Solidsteel room, I got to hear Dan Wright's newest design. This was his new ModWright... Read More »

Time shift!  Sometimes things stay on track; sometimes they don't. My Brutus Awards for last year fell into that category. There were so many great products that were submitted that it was impossible for me to completely clear them out in 2022.  I have therefore shifted them to the first quarter of 2023, and re-dated... Read More »