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You may have seen that NativeDSD recently decided to expand its catalog offerings to now offer albums originally recorded in PCM 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, and 192kHz rates in addition to the DSD/DXD recordings they have always featured. See the announcement HERE. So, after a month under the new policy, I've been watching to see what... Read More »

Bob Witrak's High Definition Tape Transfer (HDTT) has long been known for its excellent transfers from analog reel-to-reel tape. Both Dr. David and I have written many articles about Bob's very fine digital releases of vintage classical and jazz recordings, many of which sound better than the digital reissues from the major labels.  And now... Read More »

Recording label 2L and its well-respected producer and recording engineer Morten Lindberg are known for their surround-sound recordings, with multiple GRAMMY Awards and Nominations. If you have multichannel playback capability, and if music in the round is your thing, 2L's recordings are some of the best recordings in that style. I listen only to stereo... Read More »

The Norwegian classical music label, Lawo Classics, makes recordings I've come to quite enjoy. They find outstanding musicians and make recordings of exquisite sound quality. As I've been exploring their catalog (over 240 titles since 2008), I'm finding a deep treasure of wonderful performances in excellent DXD recorded sound quality. I'm always delighted to see... Read More »

Sasha Matson is an interesting contemporary American composer. Some may recall my earlier review of his jazz opera, Cooperstown (HERE). Jazz opera? Well, indeed yes. And I'd really enjoyed this funky take on opera with a contemporary jazz setting, and featuring baseball no less! Recently, our Positive Feedback world headquarters got a call: "Would we... Read More »

Saint-Saëns, Symphony No. 3 "Organ Symphony," Paul Paray, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, with Marcel Dupre organ. 1957, 2023 (DXD DSD256) HERE Paul Paray's 1957 performance of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony is another of the great recordings in the Mercury Living Presence catalog. Its release by HDTT in gorgeous high resolution sonics is cause for celebration! The Mercury... Read More »

There are some artists whose music I find so compelling they force me, compel me, to stop and listen and absorb. Such is the impact of Maya Fridman—cellist, composer, singer. Born in Russia, making her home in the Netherlands, fierce advocate of support for Ukraine in this current war of Russian aggression, Maya is a... Read More »

High Definition Tape Transfers (HDTT) has released the great Erich Leinsdorf recording of Die Walküre—let there be celebrations in the streets! With the greatest cast ever assembled, and led by a great Wagner conductor, this recording should have been the start of a full Ring Cycle for RCA. Unfortunately, it was not. By the time... Read More »

This episode provides a potpourri of musical gems that I thought worth bringing to your attention. All are available from HDTT or NativeDSD or Octave Records in either DXD or DSD256. I apologize for the length of this article with well over 20 albums discussed, but publishing opportunities kept pushing this article further and further... Read More »

Over the past 40 years, Jonathan Horwich has been making very high resolution reel-to-reel tape recordings of live jazz concerts. He works out of the Chicago area, but travels quite broadly to capture these performances.  Wherever he can get permission to set up his microphones and reel-to-reel tape deck (15 or 30ips, 2-track), he's likely... Read More »

Base2 Music, located in West Sussex, UK, is a fairly new label, founded in 2017 by owner, producer and recording engineer, Jake Purches. Jake captured my attention because he's been focusing on a love of mine: well recorded organ music on some of the great organs around the world with internationally respected musicians. A fellow... Read More »

This is a brilliant new release by pianist Katelyn Bouska, recorded and mastered in Pure DSD256 by Bob Attiyeh of Yarlung Records. But what makes this recording truly special are the musical works selected and the stories of the composers, all women who were at the cutting edge of the contemporary music scenes in their... Read More »

For years I've been told that it is not possible to mix in DSD—that this is one of the major limitations of recording in DSD. Well, I'm now learning from Tom Caulfield, mastering engineer for NativeDSD, and Gonzalo Noqué, owner and recording engineer at Eudora Records and Noqué Studio, that this is no longer true.... Read More »

When HDTT issues a Redux edition of an album I’ve liked, I always pay attention. I’ve yet to be disappointed with the improvements Bob Witrak has been able to wring from the source tapes. I thought this release was excellent before. In this updated version the sound quality clearly goes up a notch, if not... Read More »

In the past several years, I've been simply stunned by the sound quality of vintage recordings released by HDTT that credit the audio restoration work by John Haley, founder of Harmony Restorations, LLC. In many cases, such as the recent release by HDTT of the Judy Garland The Greatest Night In Show Business History (see... Read More »

Bob Witrak continues his quest for access to some great sounding tapes. Here are a few more jazz finds that knock my socks off. In addition to some great stereo releases, I'm including several mono releases from HDTT's Archival Series that are simply superb. We're all well past that notion from a few decades ago... Read More »

I wrote about my enthusiasm for what Hunnia Records has been doing in this earlier article covering a dozen or so of their releases over the past few years. But Hunnia does not stand still! Not by any means. And I continue to enjoy their new releases. Here are a few you should know about...... Read More »

Over the past four years, I've found myself regularly returning to recordings by the Spanish string quartet, Cuarteto Quiroga. Their performances are refined, beautifully played, nuanced in interpretation, and played with total conviction. They recently released their sixth album for Cobra Records, Und es Ward Licht! (below), and it's a stunner. It's well past time... Read More »

Beware! Wildly broad generalizations coming below...  Interesting conversations get started over morning cappuccinos in our household. Today, the discussion was about files from the HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfer) catalog versus modern recordings from the NativeDSD catalog. Ann opined that, overall, she found the NativeDSD files in our library were the files to which she... Read More »