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AL: Freshly graduated from Syracuse University and done with my last school year, it was time to go home to California. With a daunting eight-day and 4,000-mile drive ahead, traversing the U.S. both east to west, and north to south, we had to make plans since our car had no working stereo. Our rite of... Read More »

David W. Robinson and Stan Ricker, VSAC 2003 (photograph by Dave Glackin) I got the word last week from an audiobud online. Stan Ricker, recently stricken with a stroke, was dead. Oh no. Not again. Another good man down…this one truly irreplaceable. Another great audio friend gone; more tons of audio lore and wisdom subtracted... Read More »

My Hot Tub Epiphany, or: "Where the heck did my ice cubes go?" A funny thing happened to me a couple of weeks into writing this article. While relaxing one cool evening in my hot tub thinking-spot, I had an epiphany. About audio. Specifically, about how we internalize the sound of recorded music. And I... Read More »

I was a bit breathless. My friend and spiritual colleague David Robinson had invited me to sketch and cover a uniquely intriguing event at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Sunday, July 12, 2015. To kick off the Golandsky Institute’s summer series, noted pianist Ilya Itin was slated to perform the music of Scriabin and Rachmaninov.... Read More »

For more than two decades I've been a fan of vibraphonist/pianist/band leader Ruben Estrada, whose lyrical delicacy and musical intensity define, and extend,the profound artistic heritage he absorbed on his way to Number One world class Latin jazz vibe and timbales guru. Estrada is an enormously modest man. His pride in his playing and his... Read More »

In Search of a Perfect Song… I recently republished that old article because I've had further opportunity to explore the concept. I began that article with a lesson about the difference between opinion and fact. Again I will remind you that this is my opinion of what makes a song perfect. Naturally, if you have... Read More »

"You paid too much for that junk! Take off those fake Vanilla Ice headphones and put on a pair of the real deal!" That's what I'd like to shout when I see somebody sporting one of those garish, neon metallic McHeadphones. Granted, that's hardly polite or inclusive, and who am I to go Grandpa Simpson on... Read More »

Audio consumers only want to know one thing: "Is it worth it?" You can write, speak, sing, or finger paint about audio products all you want, but nobody stops reading and starts buying until cash equals contentment. What's more, determining value is a tricky thing. The glamor goods have it easy. Speakers the size of... Read More »

As we move along the time continuum, expectations are that activities or whatever will become easier and easier. That is, what was time consuming and laborious, is now, and should become, faster and less difficult. These are the goals of a modern society. Which does not mean to make tasks or activities less fun or... Read More »

One of the interesting exhibits at the recent High End Audio show in Munich earlier this year featured Horch House. For those of you who aren't familiar with the company, Horch House is the analog audio division of Lutz Precision, a worldwide leader in auto making equipment based in Austria. While it probably seems a... Read More »

This article was originally published in Issue 26 of Positive Feedback. I decided to republish it because I've gotten the bug to write another article with some more perfect songs. Back when I wrote this article it seemed like I was a topic for discussion on message boards. I was everyone's favorite target because I... Read More »

The Always Unimaginable Future The First World War pre-dated the arrival of vivid sonic capture. It's not difficult to imagine that—despite the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, which let loose animosities ready for release after Europe's and Asia's 1870 conflicts—almost anything might have helped stave off the disaster of that delusional... Read More »

On Friday, after T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach—actually in Irvine—California, I went to dinner with PS Audio's Paul McGowan and company: Arnie Nudell, Bill Leebens, Scott Schroeder and Paul's son, Scott. Ostensibly, I was there to talk about something Paul wants to do that will probably involve me. But the talk took an interesting direction.... Read More »

What kind of a watch does James Bond wear? That's easy; everybody knows that, at least as written by Ian Fleming, it's a Rolex Oyster Perpetual. Now, what kind of a car does he drive? Odds are that, whether in a book or a movie, it's an Aston-Martin, a Lotus, a BMW, or a Bentley... Read More »

At last! And welcome! The NEW-LOOK Positive Feedback Web site will be going live on July 1, 2015, with the launch of Issue 80. You'll see that we've spent an enormous lot of time, effort, and money to take PF to a state-of-the-art new publication system. The results speak for themselves, as you'll see:  A... Read More »

Last late Winter… or early, early pre-Spring, depending on how you prefer your "pretty much the same with some slight differences, though not really all that much" seasons here is SoCal, I found myself staring at John Young's Acoustic Imagery Atsah (Htpex NCore 1200 Class D power amplifiers, $9995/ pair based on the Hypex NC1200... Read More »

Verastarr Grand Illusion AC power cords ($2500 in 6 foot length) use high purity copper metal foils and produce a musical presentation that is big, bold, and robust. Not to be clichéd here, but being a copper-based cable, and using lots of copper to address skin effect with its four 2-inch wide foils, music with... Read More »

If you're an audiophile, you realize at some point that digital spinning discs won't be around forever. Although that realization hit me several years ago, it took quite a while before I really decided to get serious about a digital source based on a computer. I'd heard several computer-based rigs at shows, and what I... Read More »

Avec l'assistance de M. Bastille "We sang songs of childhood Hymns of faith that made us strong Ones that mother Maybelle taught us Hear the angels sing along" —"Will the Circle be Unbroken" by Johnny Cash OK, first I have to admit something. I'm about to receive an Ayre QB-9 DSD as my new reference... Read More »