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I know, Carol when are you going to give the perfect song idea a rest? Well, unlike a 'favorite' song, I think there can be many versions of a 'perfect' song. In fact, this edition of my perfect song series revisits a song from the first article. The difference here is the venue, and the... Read More »

"I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it, like it, yes, I do" —The Rolling Stones Not that long ago, I was working under contract at a big software company in Silicon Valley. However, I had been having tremendous pain in my right knee, largely from a sports injury, and got the... Read More »

Phonostages. Or phono preamplifers. Same things. You know, the box or input on your preamp or whatever that takes what is coming from your turntable and makes it into something you can actually appreciate—like music. Right, so let me elaborate… it amplifies the signal and applies the required RIAA curve necessary for proper vinyl playback. Sounds easy,... Read More »

Analog is the thing now. Well for many it has always been the thing, but for many others… it is the new thing. Nice. Great stuff on vinyl and for sure, if done right, it can be quite different than digital. I say different, as better, all depends on the mastering, pressing, quality, etc. I... Read More »

And now for something really different, with a set of reflections that are short, sweet, and right to the point. Last May I was approached by a company I was unfamiliar with, Blue Microphones, to evaluate their new powered headphone, the Mo-Fi. (Yes, I found that name to be interesting, as well. Wonder if the... Read More »

Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave 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 Gizmo Award,... Read More »

I first met Merrill Wettasinghe at AXPONA 2014 where he was showing his Veritas monoblock amplifiers with Sadurni horn speakers. It was quite an incredible system, and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. After enjoying the Merrill Audio room once again at the 2015 show, Mr. Wettasinghe offered to send me his... Read More »

In this brief jotting, Dan Zimmerman, Contributing Artist to Positive Feedback, continues his meditations upon art, music, and creativity. Some of these will be longer…others, shorter. But all of these reflect the understanding of creativity, the arts (including the audio arts), and spirituality in our ongoing search for the transcendent in our lives. Selah. To... Read More »

So yeah… been a crazy year. Not as much reviewed as we had hoped for, but yes… a few items did pass through our doorway and into our system getting us all warm and fuzzy. For Carol and I, well, we like things we review to be not too pricey… more about reasonable and not... Read More »

[Here's the final installment of my Brutus Awards for 2015. It covers software, music, and our special PF Lifetime Achievement Award (posthumous) for my dear friend, Bobby Palkovic. This has been a ton of writing to complete the Brutus Awards this year; I hope that you find them to be helpful as you continue in your own... Read More »

[Here's the second part of my Brutus Awards for 2015. Part three will appear within the next day or so.] Cables TARA Labs Zero Evolution interconnects and Omega Evolution speaker cables and AC power cables The TARA Labs Omega Evolution speaker cable, in tandem with the Audionet MAX monoblock amplifier. (Photograph by David W. Robinson)... Read More »

The saga, or journey, continues with my Auralic Aries adventures. In my last Ramblings (HERE) I shared my experiences with upping the Aires' performance quite a bit via the Certon C4 Integrita NAS, the HDPLEX linear power supply for the Neatgear switch and WiFi units, various tweeks and gadgets (for example the RLI-1 LAN Isolator... Read More »

Gather around, audiosports fans! It's that time of year again…Positive Feedback's Brutus Awards season. At the end of each year, my unindicted co-conspirator Dave Clark and I give our Positive Feedback awards. These are our annual "best stuff we heard this year" plaudits. No padding, crap, junk food, or meaningless drivel here: Just the righteous... Read More »

Phase Three: The Search is Over! This is final installment of my three-part series on upgrading my turntable. I've made low budget isolation tweaks, added fabulous accessories, and modified the tonearm wiring and the counterweight. The last piece of the musical puzzle was adding a new phono cartridge. While I let the cartridge choice out of the bag... Read More »

I like surprises. I especially like them when they bushwhack me. You know…when I'm not looking and all. This doesn't happen in audioville very often. Usually there's a reasonable expectation of the quality of what I'm going to hear when products come in for review. Most of my review projects are by invitation; I generally... Read More »

Now, more than ever, the audiophile world is awash with digital to analogue converters. Not a day seems to pass by without entry to the market of yet another shiny box sporting the latest chipset and the ability to decipher the Enigma code. Sarcasm notwithstanding, the audiophile kingdom has a plethora of choice at its... Read More »

Audiophiles are often use to trying many different methods and ways of thinking to improve the sound of their playback systems. One can find countless varieties of tweaks, accessories, and approaches to produce even small changes in the audibility of our favorite music and sound recordings. But one of the least understood of these is... Read More »

"How can I even try I can never win Hearing them, seeing them in the state I'm in" —"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by Lennon–McCartney I haven't written a column on digital music servers in a very long time, and I think that's because I haven't really had anything new to say. Everything... Read More »

I have to confess. Since moving away from CDs and other physical digital media (at least from a playback standpoint) I actually listen to music digitally more than I ever imagined I would. Looking back over the last year or so, I probably have more actual listening time using my budget digital server system than... Read More »