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Greetings friends, I hope you are well.  Today's feature article here at Positive Feedback is about the exotic Level Five Audio Note (UK) M8 RIAA phono preamplifier and AN-S8 step-up transformer combination. Level Five Audio Note (UK) M8 RIAA phono preamplifier. Level Five Audio Note (UK) AN-S8/L step-up transformer. Audio Note (UK) is one of... Read More »

David W. Robinson in Jerusalem, Israel, 2022:  a portrait. (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde Editor.) Incoming! Another sui generis design is here. Time to be knocked out...again. The Systematist, 2017. Drawing by Dan Zimmerman. There is no doubt, I think. Leaving aside the main body of human beings on planet earth, much... Read More »

If you had told me a few weeks ago, that a few weeks later, a Theatrical-Release Trailer running on YouTube would not only have me in tears, but that it also bids fair to be one of the greatest "Classical-Music Movies" ever, I would have scoffed. That movie is The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes. Written... Read More »

Roger Skoff writes about getting the best boom for your buck... Many a long year ago, even before HiFi prices got to the stratospheric levels they're at now, a friend of mine—a music lover, not yet, but willing to become, a HiFi Crazy—went into his local HiFi shop to see about buying a system. He... Read More »

Musing here... As I listen the the HDTT release of Sonny Rollins' Way Out West in the DXD mastering of the tape transfer HERE, I was prompted to think about what different listening experiences there are between media. Listening to vinyl (which I did for decades) is one experience, listening to reel-to-reel tape another. And now, listening to ultra-high... Read More »

Hardware, more and better, constant angst—bleh. I suppose I'm the outlier among most audiophile circles because I rarely change equipment. And, I'm not eager to go listening to gear.  For me, I want better software. That's clearly my shtick, always has been. And, here, it's not as much the music as it is the sound... Read More »

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 »