Roger Skoff, Author at Positive Feedback

Audiophile Economics (Part 1)

Roger Skoff — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 21:48:26 +0000

Roger Skoff, a portrait, Orange County, CA, 2023 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about why things cost what they do Like everything else, the cost of HiFi gear has escalated over the last few years. Some might say that that's just because the whole world is caught in an... Read More »

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Art and Audio

Roger Skoff — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 15:24:26 +0000

Roger Skoff doesn't write about sour grapes In a previous article, I wrote about how one manufacturer of exceptionally fine High-End audio electronics had had to raise the price of his products in order to be able to sell them. It was all a vicious cycle that worked like this: In order to get the... Read More »

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The Strangest Hobby

Roger Skoff — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 15:19:59 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about audiophilia No matter how busy we are with home, family, making or spending money, or any of our other more mundane concerns, all of us have time and resources that are not demanded for something else, and things that we do or enjoy for no reason other than simply that we... Read More »

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Market Research

Roger Skoff — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 16:14:58 +0000

For a change, Roger Skoff wants to ask your opinion instead of just telling you his… I'm old, and quite possibly out of it, so what I see going on in our hobby may very well be completely wrong. I hope it is. I became a HiFi Crazy (as we kids used to call ourselves),... Read More »

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How Can It Do That?

Roger Skoff — Fri, 03 May 2024 21:46:40 +0000

Roger Skoff answers a question that many audiophiles have, but never ask... On one of the audiophile groups on Facebook a few days ago, I saw a question from one of the group's members that I had wrestled with, myself, many years ago, when I first got into our hobby. Here it is: I'm very... Read More »

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Eating Soup with a Fork

Roger Skoff — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:47:33 +0000

Roger Skoff of RSX Technologies at the LAOC Gala, 2023 (portrait and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about doing the right things the wrong way You wouldn't do that, would you—eat soup with a fork? Or paint your house with a Q-tip cotton swab? Or run a cement mixer in a... Read More »

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Is it Really all BS? Part 2

Roger Skoff — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 23:37:47 +0000

Roger Skoff of RSX Technologies at the LAOC Audio Society Gala, December of 2023 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes more about the weirdest thing about our hobby. In Part 1 of this article, I wrote how some people who claim to be audiophiles seem to be constantly on the... Read More »

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Is It Really All BS? Part 1

Roger Skoff — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 22:49:12 +0000

Roger Skoff, President of RSX Technologies, at the LAOC Audio Society Gala, December 2023 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about the weirdest thing about our hobby On one of the larger Facebook audio groups, a question currently being asked is "Who is the biggest proliferator of audio BS?", and... Read More »

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The Bottom Line

Roger Skoff — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 23:36:21 +0000

Roger Skoff at the 2023 Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society Gala (portrait and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about how to save money on great sound Of all the components of your system, the likely most expensive are the speakers and, almost certainly, the most expensive part of building... Read More »

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Is There a Best Hi-Fi System?

Roger Skoff — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 02:31:47 +0000

Roger Skoff tells it like it is, and why When I recently Googled the question, "What is the best HiFi system in the world," I found that American Songwriter magazine had published the following (HERE). Quick Summary of the Best Home Stereo Systems Denon D-M41 (Best Overall) Bose Wave SoundTouch Music System IV (Best Compact Home Stereo... Read More »

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Now Starts the War!

Roger Skoff — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 01:49:26 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about what's good enough. A great many years ago, I briefly owned a genuine Italian race car. It was a Siata factory team car, built for the 1953 Targa Florio. It was red. It was gorgeous. It was homologated and barely street legal. It came equipped with both two seats and a... Read More »

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High Fidelity – to What?

Roger Skoff — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 23:44:49 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about an aspect of our hobby we sometimes forget... I've been calling myself a HiFi Crazy for well over half a century, I've seen the birth of solid-state electronics, of stereo (it was all mono when I got started), of CDs, DVDs, and every other kind of digital audio technology. And I've... Read More »

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A New Way to Do an Old Thing

Roger Skoff — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 02:23:25 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about HiFi kit building When I first became a HiFi Crazy, I was twelve years old and, like virtually every other twelve- year-old kid, I had no money. That didn't stop me, though; I'd become an audiophile; been "bitten by the bug"; and had to have a hi-fi system of my own,... Read More »

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In Unity There Is… We May Never Find Out

Roger Skoff — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 20:19:53 +0000

Roger Skoff picks up the cry for a new HiFi Industry Association Do you remember electric trains? Practically every family who had kids owned one. Even adults loved them, and they could be bought almost everywhere, including toy shops, hobby shops, department stores, and even some "dime" stores. At Christmas time, there was hardly... Read More »

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Whizbang 9: An Unbelievable Review of an Absolutely Incredible Preamp

Roger Skoff — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 23:22:10 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about the very latest hot setup "The Whizbang 9 High-End audio preamp is a remarkable piece of audio equipment that aims to deliver an unparalleled listening experience. With its sleek design, advanced features, and excellent performance, it caters to audiophiles and music enthusiasts who demand the highest quality sound reproduction. First and... Read More »

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Three Good Ideas for Beating Hi-Fi Inflation

Roger Skoff — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 22:11:59 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about dealing with something that affects us all There's no denying that inflation is real. When Eater magazine recently described a $23 Brooklyn hamburger as "controversial" and the thing they said was controversial about it was not its price but the mustard, catsup, and maple syrup sauce used on it (HERE), it... Read More »

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When Does the Game Actually Change?

Roger Skoff — Sun, 07 May 2023 03:39:21 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about incremental improvements and value Is there anyone out there who doesn't know that, in addition to writing these articles, I also own a cable company? (RSX Technologies, for those who don't.) Positive Feedback, and I, and every other publication that I've ever written for, have all gone to great lengths to... Read More »

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Who Made That?

Roger Skoff — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 15:47:19 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about the things we buy Did you know that if you drive a Mercedes-Benz, or a Toyota there's a good possibility that your car wasn't made in either Germany or Japan? It's true; to avoid taxes and duties, to save shipping costs, or even to ensure greater safety, higher quality, lower cost,... Read More »

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Nothing Isn't Possible

Roger Skoff — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 01:15:51 +0000

Roger Skoff's new article is, hopefully, less ambiguous than its title. In a recent comment on one of my articles for this publication, a reader named Michael wrote in to say that he was clearly able to hear differences between some kinds of cables (specifically AC power cords and speaker cables ) but not between... Read More »

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It's a Mystery

Roger Skoff — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 22:18:26 +0000

Roger Skoff writes about an all-too-common Audiophile problem From its very beginning, our hobby has been one of tinkering and do-it-yourself-ism. Much of that was for very good reason: in the mid-19th century, when the first telephone was attempted; in 1877, when Edison built the first phonograph; and even in 1920, when KDKA, the first... Read More »

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It's the Little Stuff: Roger Skoff Writes About the Importance of Details

Roger Skoff — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 16:33:29 +0000

Enid Lumley, the long-ago first female reviewer for The Absolute Sound, was possibly a little over the top, but at least a major portion of her observations were dead on. She was right, for example, in thinking that lifting speaker cables off the floor (she ran them over short pieces of two-by-four) would improve the... Read More »

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How to Sell Cables the Easy Way

Roger Skoff — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 02:21:12 +0000

Cables are controversial among many in high-end audio. Nay-sayers, skeptics, audio cheapskates, and those-who-just-like-to-argue abound. Roger Skoff herein provides a rational structure for those in audio sales to operate within, expressed in a way very similar to a sales memo to an audio company staff member. PF publishes it for what it's worth; if you... Read More »

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Hi-Fi Weather? Roger Skoff Writes About Something You May Not Have Thought Of…

Roger Skoff — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 00:19:18 +0000

Do you know what a "bad hair day" is? No, it's not just something for women to worry about; anybody can have one, even—at least figuratively—your system. And it's not just bad days, either; less than optimal times can happen at night, too. As with hair, one of the things that can start matters going... Read More »

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Reviewing Reviewing: Roger Skoff Writes About the Things We Read About Our Hobby and Our Gear

Roger Skoff — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 18:59:24 +0000

In the early days of our hobby, one reviewer reigned supreme. From his first "test report," in 1957, until his retirement in 1998, Julian Hirsch is said to have written— either as himself, or as Hirsch-Houck Laboratories—some 4000 "laboratory test reports" on the hi-fi equipment of his time. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Hirsch). All of those were, reminiscent of... Read More »

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Snake Oil and Voodoo: Roger Skoff Writes About the Stranger Aspects of Our Hobby

Roger Skoff — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 22:52:50 +0000

As you probably know, I'm not just a writer and a long-time audiophile (I and my friends call ourselves "HiFi Crazies"), but a manufacturer of High-End audio cables, originally XLO, now RSX. As such, to some of our HiFi brethren, that automatically makes me and anything I might say suspect. They insist—often based more on... Read More »

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