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Greg Weaver of the audio analyst and I have been working to extend our readers/viewers understanding of DSD at all levels, including the use of DSD256 in the production of LPs, such as Mobile Fidelity has been doing for a number of years now. Other companies like ABKCO have done the same in projects like... Read More »

The ocean swells of the recent controversy about Mobile Fidelity and its unannounced (until now) use of DSD256 continue to roil, whether useful or not. Greg Weaver and I had a long conversation about this, provenance, processing, and the (to my mind) vital role that DSD256 has to play in the future of analog LP... Read More »

James Gang, Bang, SD 7037, ATCO Records, 1973 By the end of the 1960s, following the emergence of such dynamic UK-based trios as Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, one of the brightest trios to appear on the subsequent American scene was the James Gang. Though founded by drummer Jim Fox in 1966 with fellow... Read More »

I can’t imagine that there are too many readers of this journal who will not be familiar with, or at least aware of, the renowned 1981 landmark guitar trio release, Friday Night in San Francisco. Treasured by music lovers and audiophiles alike, jazz author and critic Walter Kolosky has proclaimed it “…the most influential of... Read More »

Three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of introducing you to the two new KRONOS Resonance Suppression tonearms, the Kronoscope RS and the Discovery RS. In that episode's interview with Louis Desjardins, recorded in his factory in Montreal, he indicated that he would be sending me one of the new Discovery RS arms to install... Read More »

Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble, Couldn't Stand The Weather. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, UD1S 2-007,  UltraDisc One-Step, Original Master Recording, 2 x  12" 45 RPM SuperVinyl 180g LPs, Numbered Limited Edition, Remastered, Deluxe Edition Box Set, 2021 First up...the 2021 Mobile Fidelity Ultra Disc 1 Step remaster (UD1S 2-007) as two, 12-inch 45 RPM LPs... Read More »

Today I am pleased to introduce what will be a new series of articles, one which will feature closer looks at some of my favorite recordings. I have been posting such "snapshots" of many of my favorite LPs on Facebook for years as abbreviated takes on specific recordings, often digging into the history and significance... Read More »

Greg Weaver, a fresco portrait. Chicago, 2018 (photograph and fresco image processing by David W. Robinson) It should come as no real surprise that paradigm shifts in the performance capabilities of hyper-audio gear come rarely. In my fifty-plus years in and around this industry, I have witnessed scant few. The first came in the early... Read More »

A portrait of Greg Weaver, Chicago, 2018. Photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson. Greg Weaver is a very good audiobud of mine. I first became aware of him back in the 90s, when I received a copy of his the audio analyst newsletter. His prose and commentary on LPs were top-notch. I got... Read More »

Albert Von Schweikert, March 13, 1945 – May 29, 2020. Founder and Chief Designer: Von Schweikert Research/Von Schweikert Audio Though born in South America in 1945 to a US military officer and the daughter of one of the principal engineers of the Panama Canal, the Von Schweikert family moved to Heidelberg, Germany while he was still... Read More »

From The Beginning… If you are unfamiliar with the name John Curl, you clearly haven't been around the audio industry long. As one of the most accomplished and recognized solid-state electronics designers of all-time, his work has given us of some of the most ground-breaking and performance-setting components in our industry's history. Starting to distinguish... Read More »

What the Hell is That It's no secret that I like to tweak. In fact, I made a name for myself and built a huge following in my early writing career writing about such minutiae. My third paid audio writing gig (after folding the audio analyst© that I had founded in 1988), saw me at... Read More »

If you are (or, when you were…) new to the world of "stereo gear," you're likely familiar with a well-established two-channel specialty retailer based in Great Neck, New York, Music Hall. Founded in the spring of 1985 by audio devotee Roy Hall, Music Hall started out as importer and reseller of (mostly) British audio gear,... Read More »

The New Etsuro Gold Moving Coil cartridge, riding on the Kronos Helena tonearm over the Kronos Sparta Turntable I will admit to more than just a fleeting piquing of curiosity when Believe High Fidelity Owner Joshua Masongsong published a Facebook post just after the first of this year that the first Etsuro Gold MC cartridge,... Read More »

Honey, I Shrunk the Phono stage I've had the privilege of knowing Dan Wright for the past twenty years. Over that time, I've seen ModWright burgeon from its humble beginnings as an upgrade or modification-only service provider, to becoming a respected manufacturer of a full line of products. Over the past two decades, ModWright has... Read More »

The Constellation Audio Inspiration 1.0 Linestage and pair of 1.0 Stereo amplifiers, driving the GamuT Flagship Zodiac Loudspeakers. From the Beginning For a company that just recently celebrated only its 8th birthday, Constellation Audio has proven itself virtually unparalleled in both accomplishment and acceptance. My first take was at their 2010 CES introduction, where I... Read More »

When I first spoke with Scot Markwell, US Distributor of Furutech products, at Elite Audio Video Distribution in LA, and a longtime colleague of, and setup man for, the late Harry Pearson, about the opportunity to review a full loom of Furutech flagship cables and passive power devices, I admit to being more than a... Read More »

The new 1.5-inch tall Critical Mass Systems CenterStage2 footer packaged with two different thickness of shims, provided to assure the best possible contact. I've honestly no idea why I was so surprised to hear from Critical Mass Systems' Joe Lavrencik this past July asking if I'd like to audition the "new" CMS CenterStage2 footers. He... Read More »

The game-changing Critical Mass Systems Center Stage footers, one 25mm, and one 20mm, tall I've been using and experimenting with footers since their very genesis back in the summer of 1983, which saw the introduction of both the Sorbothane™ footed Mission Isoplat and Steve McCormack's machined aluminum ModSquad TipToes, but the Critical Mass Systems Center... Read More »