Audio Discourse Archives - Positive Feedback

The 2025 Audiophile Editors and Writers Records of the Year and MUSE Awards

David W. Robinson — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:34:23 +0000

The Genesis of a Group This one is brief and to the point. Fine audio at its best is a passion for fine recordings of music by great artists. If that's not true of your relationship to audio, then you'll have to examine yourself to see if your love is for gear first, with no particular... Read More »

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2025 Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards

Editors at Positive Feedback — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 03:29:13 +0000

Beginning at the end of 2003, Positive Feedback established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave and Carol Clark had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award. The... Read More »

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One-Mic Recording: Rediscovering the Art of Natural Sound

Rushton Paul — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 22:53:03 +0000

I have long valued recordings that use a single stereo microphone (or microphones whose capsules have been closely spaced) because of their authenticity, immensely precise and stable imaging, and overall greater "true-to-life" representation of the musicians when performing within a natural acoustic environment. Getting it all right is not easy, it does not just happen... Read More »

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Does Flatter Matter?

Roger Skoff — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:52:16 +0000

Roger Skoff says yes, but not as much as you think... Back in the old days of HiFi, if you were to ask audiophiles to name the single greatest requirement for perfect sound reproduction, my guess is that at least 9 out of 10 would have said "flat frequency response." That was in the mid-1950s,... Read More »

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…and Steve says...Listening to All My Records, Part 1

Steve Lefkowicz — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 16:25:49 +0000

Let me explain what this new series will be about. Since September 2014, shortly after I installed a new Mose/Hercules II power supply in my Linn LP12 turntable, I decided I needed to listen to each and every record in my collection at least one more time and to document them on my Facebook page.... Read More »

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A Free Solo-Piano Track Download from John Marks

John Marks — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 01:31:54 +0000

Martorella Mechanics' Hall photo, "Birdseye of Steve copy. Photo courtesy of John Quick Dear Friends, I was an amateur reel-to-reel tape recordist from junior high-school on. I was fascinated by everything about record production. Undeterred by my relative ignorance (and total lack of practical experience), circa 1981, I set about trying to arrange a recording... Read More »

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Cables Always Sound

Roger Skoff — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 15:40:37 +0000

Roger Skoff: a moment, Dry Brush Fantasy Variation. LAOC Gala 2024. (Photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes the most radical article about High-End HiFi you'll ever read... When I was a twelve year-old HiFi Crazy kid, back in the 1950s, HiFi was simple: There was only one (monophonic) channel. Stereophonic... Read More »

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Measurement vs. Listening Revisited

Bob Katz — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:06:38 +0000

I'd like to think I have an audio worldview that makes consistent sense, both in the scientific world and the audiophile world. For example, I know that no amount of equipment mania will replace fixing a room with bad acoustics. I know this makes sense: paying attention to acoustic science will get you, say, 90%... Read More »

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The Duelund-Corona 832A Project - Serendipity to Ecstasy!

Jeff Day — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 15:23:14 +0000

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing well. Today's feature article is about "The Duelund-Corona 832A Project" that Frederik Carøe (Duelund Coherent Audio) and I have collaborated on, but before I delve into the details of our project, let me give you a little background about Duelund Coherent Audio. Duelund Coherent Audio is located in Fredensborg,... Read More »

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We're Audiophiles, and Deserve Some Respect!

Frank Doris — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:39:59 +0000

Frank Doris at AXPONA 2017 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) This essay was originally published in Copper magazine, and is republished courtesy of Frank Doris and Paul McGowan of PS Audio. Thanks, gents! October 2, 2025 is the 10th annual World Audiophile Day, and it makes me think about the whole audiophile "thing."... Read More »

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Gordon Lightfoot's "Franz Schubert Homage" Song: A Positive Feedback Exclusive

John Marks — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:47:24 +0000

Gordon Lightfoot, as a young Church Singer. Courtesy The United Church Observer/Broadview magazine. Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. (1938-2023) was a Canadian-born singer-songwriter. By 1965, Lightfoot's songs had been recorded by, among others, Peter, Paul & Mary; Ian & Silvia; the Kingston Trio; Elvis Presley; Bob Dylan; Chad & Jeremy; George Hamilton; the Clancy Brothers; Marty... Read More »

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Audio Good Guy Shayne Tenace's New High-End Showplace: Absoulute Premium Audio+Video, in Aiken, South Carolina

Tom Gibbs — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 16:25:18 +0000

When I moved to the Charleston, South Carolina area three years ago, I figured out something very quickly: the Low Country is a veritable wasteland when it comes to high-end audio—there's nothing here. And I mean nothing, other than a few pieces of mostly mid-fi gear at an occasional Best Buy location. I only thought... Read More »

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The Audio Note (UK) M8 RIAA Phono Preamplifier and AN-S8/L Step-Up Transformer: Walking through Heaven's door!

Jeff Day — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 23:37:03 +0000

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 »

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Impressions: The Dejitter It Switch-X and WiFi-X

David W. Robinson — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 18:35:11 +0000

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 »

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An Absolutely Amazing "Classical-Music Movie" is Coming to Theaters…Whenever It Gets There. December, Maybe.

John Marks — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 02:11:07 +0000

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 »

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Pre-Owned Pleasure

Roger Skoff — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 01:56:05 +0000

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 »

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Musings on Music and Media and Life's Transitions

Rushton Paul — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 02:33:51 +0000

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 »

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Hardware - meh! Software is the Game

Rushton Paul — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 18:13:08 +0000

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 »

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If it Makes Me Dance, It's a Keeper - by Frans de Rond of Sound Liaison

Editors at Positive Feedback — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 16:06:54 +0000

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 »

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An Informative Encounter with DALI Speakers

Frank Doris — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:05:42 +0000

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 »

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The Myth of the Black Background

Roger Skoff — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 22:49:24 +0000

"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 »

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Impressions: The Analog Audio Design TP-1000 Reel-to-Reel Playback Deck

David W. Robinson — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 23:40:28 +0000

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 »

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Buster Williams, The Bassist: Poesis

Jim Merod — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 00:28:55 +0000

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 »

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Creating a Dedicated Recording and Performance Space at High Street Studio, Heerewaarden, Holland

Rushton Paul — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:44:30 +0000

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 »

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The New Ortofon SPU GTX S Moving-Coil Phonograph Cartridge - A Nuevo Classic!

Jeff Day — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:10:47 +0000

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 »

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