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Sound Liaison founder and recording engineer Frans de Rond makes some wonderful recordings. He and his business partner Peter Bjørnild have been doing so for quite a long time, and my music library is delightfully filled with their superb small ensemble and duo recordings. The other day, their newsletter flowed into my email box and... Read More »

Re-published from Copper magazine; used with permission of the owner Paul McGowan, and the Editor, Frank Doris. Images used by permission. DALI EPIKORE 9 loudspeakers I'd known of DALI Loudspeakers for a while. The Danish company (DALI stands for Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) has been exhibiting at AXPONA right by the Renaissance Schaumburg hotel's check-in area, a prime... Read More »

"Black" Background – Roger Skoff writes about what it's really like. Have you ever been to the beach? No, I'm not kidding. There really are millions of people—unlike us here in California or on either coast—who live nowhere a major body of water, and whose only idea of the beach comes from movies. So, for... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor on his deck with the sun, a son, a cigar, Port, and some fine outdoor music, contemplating....  Happy Valley, OR, 2023  (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by YOE himself.) Passion is a long, deep road...often life-long. You have your list; I have mine. Among other fine audio passions—and they are many—is... Read More »

Buster Williams  (photograph by Michael Oletta) Sound, despite its constant incursion on each day's human complexity, defines an essential emotional framework of our too distracted lives. Music is the ultimate agency and augmentation of the brute episteme sound confers on thought and feeling. That sonic world precedes us. It survives our brief time on earth, irreducible to memes, generalities and intellectual explication.... Read More »

I've been following Bert van der Wolf-Oude Avenhuis' hints about seeking a new dedicated recording space for well over a year. And now it is coming into focus with a lovely old church building he and his wife have purchased. Soon High Street Studio in Heerewaarden, Holland, will be a reality and music will start... Read More »

Ortofon's been in the audio business for 107 years now, and they have been producing the ever-popular SPU product line of moving-coil phonograph cartridges since 1959.  Ever since the Ortofon SPU product line of phonograph cartridges made its debut, music and audio enthusiasts have been enamored with their big, bold, exciting, liquid, naturally warm, and... Read More »

This is a republication of our good friend Frank Doris's article in Copper magazine, Issue 218, back in May of this year. Frank's writing is first-rate, as are his sensibilities...I love this man's stuff!...republishing his work with the blessing and permission of Paul McGowan of PS Audio. Dr. David The Hill Plasmatronics speakers in Brian... Read More »

And now, a few portraits that I made while at AXPONA 2025. It's the people that are most important things in all of life...including high-end audio. A shared passion for music, the audio arts, and the close friends that we make ought to be the highest pleasure in our world. Welcome to the gallery; let... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor:  a Fantasy. (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by yours truly.) AXPONA time again... Another year, another AXPONA. The biggest high-end audio show in the USA had its latest iteration on April 11-13 at the Renaissance Schamburg Hotel in Schamburg, IL. According to the AXPONA management team, "10,000+ attendees and 700+ brands... Read More »

In which Roger Skoff tells why he didn't buy a Ferrari… In 1969, when a brand-new Ferrari sports car cost, depending on which model it was and how it was equipped, less than US$20,000, I almost bought a used one. It was an absolutely gorgeous 1967 bright yellow, aluminum bodied 275 GTB/4, offered by Otto... Read More »

During well more than half a century of being a HiFi Crazy, I've learned a lot about not only our hobby and its toys and goodies, but also about my fellow audiophiles. (I and my friends have always referred to ourselves as "HiFi Crazies," so know that I use that other term lovingly). One of... Read More »

John Marks is a multidisciplinary generalist and a lifelong audio hobbyist. He was educated at Brown University and Vanderbilt Law School. He has worked as a music educator, recording engineer, classical-music record producer and label executive, and as a music and audio-equipment journalist. He was a columnist for The Absolute Sound, and also for Stereophile magazine. His consulting... Read More »

Automotive journalist, amateur endurance-car racer, musician and music lover Jack Baruth challenged our mutual friend John Marks to come up with a list of the most frequently over-programmed pieces for symphony orchestra. And then, for each "War Horse" composition, come up with a "Delightful Discovery, Dark Horse" piece. John's answers ran in two articles published... Read More »

Roger Skoff writes about your system and the state of our hobby I was talking recently with a friend of mine (also a HiFi Crazy, also in the Industry) about the future of our hobby, and we came to one of those "forehead-slapper" moments—you know, when something finally occurs to you that should have been... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor enjoying a cigar and Single Malt at Tiberias, Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret), Israel, 2022. (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde Editor himself.) A keyboard can be a piano. "It is the artist who, more than other men, is able to create something out of nothing. A whole artistic work... Read More »

Watch out. This is going to be a bit of a rant. I begin to cringe every time I read/hear from audiophiles: Was it made from the master tape? Or..., It can't possibly sound very good—it wasn't from the master tape. Yes, I'm talking about reissues. And, yes, I'm talking about audiophiles being brain-washed into... Read More »

Roger Skoff at the LAOC Audio Society Gala, 2024 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about the cost of building a system On one of the audiophile groups on Facebook, I just read a post where some guy wrote in and said he's got a turntable that cost whatever number... Read More »

An Affirmation of the Concept of Grace I can already envision the angry Comments: Herr Doktor Marks: We hereby award you the Prize for the Most Completely Outrageous Clickbait Trash-Post of the Week! I reply: Nicht so schnell! Please read my headline carefully. I am not claiming that the Grateful Dead were a "Christian" rock band,... Read More »