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Perhaps the Astell & Kern AK70 is better suited for young people who know what the acronym ftw means. It's small, affordable, and holds a lot of music. It has all kinds of features that make it easy to use. But, the AK70 is just right for me, and I'm old. Oh, and don't worry,... Read More »

[By way of introduction, Greg Beron has become well known in the world of high-end tape recorders for his outstanding Phasexx series. I was extremely impressed by his Phase11S when it was here back in 2013, and used it to do some seminal test transfers of several of our reference library tapes (e.g., Opus3 Records... Read More »

Roger Skoff writes about HiFi and the Music Business Many a long year ago, when I was still in school (Frankly, I don't remember whether it was high school or college) somebody (again, I don't remember who) told me that if I wanted to get rich, I should go into business and sell either water... Read More »

Frederik Carøe in Denmark knocked me out with his amazing Duelund Coherent Audio CAST capacitors, inductors, resistors, and autoformers that I wrote about in Issue 70 and Issue 74 of Positive Feedback as part of the Duelund-Westminster Royal SE loudspeaker project, and now Frederik has done it once again with his superb Duelund Coherent Audio... Read More »

Try it now! I found a new grounding point!

An issue or two back, I wrote enthusiastically about the grounding units from Entreq (HERE), and how these passive grounding boxes allowed me to hear way more into the music. Yeah, they work as advertised and for sure, they should be seen as a requisite addition to anyone who is serious about audio and their... Read More »

The 12.5-Inch Woody SPU Tonearm™ from Pete Riggle Audio Engineering. If Gustav Stickley (1853 – 1942), the renowned figure of the Arts & Crafts movement in America, were to have made a tonearm to complement his American Craftsman style of furniture, what would it have looked like? I like to imagine that if Stickley had... Read More »

Rush Paul is an audio friend of mine, who happens to share my passionate love for LPs and Lloyd Walker's wonderful Walker Audio Proscenium Turntable, arguably one of the very best reference turntables on this humble rock. He's deeply into getting the best out of his albums. Rush recently sent me his notes summarizing his... Read More »

Every October for the past 13 years I have looked forward to RMAF (Rocky Mountain Audio Fest). It is my favorite audio show because I can just walk around, see the sights, and reconnect with old friends I only get to see a few times a year. For a while I was glad, because I'd... Read More »

John Marks' Stereo System (as of fall 2016) The essential sound of this system is determined first by the loudspeakers, prototypes called Esperanto Parolantos. That's something of a pun, in that it means "Esperanto Speakers." (Esperanto, from the audio company I started after leaving Stereophile magazine.) Mike Zisserson designed the Esperanto Parolanto loudspeaker while taking... Read More »

So here I am again, returning to one of the touchstone companies for DSD and digital audio:  Playback Designs. Am I surprised? Should anyone be surprised? Heck no. In fact, according to Andreas Koch, he and I first saw each other at the original DSD demonstration at Mobile Fidelity in Sebastopol, CA, back in September... Read More »

There's glory for you! In which our hero meditates… This isn't going to be anything like a standard review, which is something that I don't do anyway. No short-term romance…no quickie relationship…no three-months-and-done. No "Wow, what the hell was that?!" No "of all the turntables I've ever heard, this is another one." No, this is... Read More »

In which our hero meditates… What a year it's been. As I observed in the first of these "Brief Impressions" articles, on the Oppo Sonica (HERE), there have been so bloody many products and projects here at PF Central in 2016 that I'll be writing from here until the end of the year to cover... Read More »

Incredibili Sine Compromissum   This is it. Think of Trader Joe's. The Hyundai Genesis. A Hamilton watch, Uniqlo clothing, a CAO cigar, the...well, you may begin to get the idea. Bear witness: this is the Alpha Design Labs STRATOS and it is the hidden value champion of USB DAC's. Long may it reign. God Knows... Read More »

[I'm pleased that our longtime cartoonist, Bruce Walker, is becoming active with us again. His unique style of edgy, crazy, Feifferesque drawings are unlike anyone else that I know of. He's been drawing for us on and off again from the very early days of Positive Feedback...we hope to have new work from him periodically. Enjoy!... Read More »

Funny thing. You'd think that there wouldn't be any enormous mountaintops in Newark, New Jersey. And you'd be wrong…. Let me explain. Bill Parish of GTT Audio A couple of months ago I got an invitation from Dick Diamond of YG Acoustics, Bill Parish of GTT Audio, and Joe Kubala of Kubala-Sosna to attend a... Read More »

Select members of the audio press were invited to GTT Audio for the YG Acoustics Sonja XV speaker press event. Over the course of a week, each of us got to experience a personal listening session. Lynn and I were scheduled for the afternoon of the first day; Dr. David Robinson, ye olde editor at... Read More »

Dirk Sommer, with photographs by Helmut Baumgartner For everyone who takes a real interest in High End it's a truism that even the best equipment can't recreate a live impression. This alleged fact, however, while perhaps not refuted, would be at least seriously shaken by visiting the Audio Forum in Duisburg, Germany, the Acapella Audio... Read More »

It was a glorious day for a Hudson River crossing, with clear skies and endless visibility, the kind of day that photographers love. Lynn and I were off to visit Distinctive Stereo in northern New Jersey. We boarded the New York Waterway ferry at West 39th Street. Eight minutes later we docked at Port Imperial/Weehawken,... Read More »