I've been detailing my experiences with my new home and new listening room over the last couple of years here at PF; a recent article in the last issue (HERE) chronicled my ongoing battles with a seemingly never-ending variety of sources of noise in the listening room. A room that, from the beginning, was designed... Read More »
It seems like every conversation I've had with audiophiles about subwoofers the last few years included 3 letters: SVS. No doubt subs from this company were gaining some real respect among the high end community. When I met Nick Brown (VP Marketing) and Dan Marks and (VP Operations) from SVS at AXPONA 2019, they were... Read More »
The story begins with my review of the House of Cardas Clear Beyond Phono Cables back in PF Issue 102, clearly then the best ever from the genius we fondly refer to as George Cardas. They equaled or exceeded the overall performance of anything I have tried at any price, ever. I was content. Next,... Read More »
The Swedish Analog Technology LM-12 Tonearm Two of the finest tonearms that I've encountered in my search for the Holy Grail hail from of all places Sweden. The first is the '90s vintage Air Tangent linear tracking, air bearing tonearm that sold for at the time an unheard of $15K (around $30K in today's dollars)... Read More »
The New Etsuro Gold Moving Coil cartridge, riding on the Kronos Helena tonearm over the Kronos Sparta Turntable I will admit to more than just a fleeting piquing of curiosity when Believe High Fidelity Owner Joshua Masongsong published a Facebook post just after the first of this year that the first Etsuro Gold MC cartridge,... Read More »
With a legion of followers, Schiit have been in the audio game for a while and have organically grown from simple and humble beginnings. Headed by Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffatt, the company have held a strong value for money philosophy and have constantly released affordable yet high quality gear earning them many accolades amongst... Read More »
Meze Audio first received its true breakthrough in 2015 with the release of the well-received 99 Classics, which had earned the company many awards and recognition. Part of their appeal stemmed from budget-friendly creations that married comfort, aesthetics, and sound—something which helped to propel HiFiMAN during their early years. However, unlike the latter company, Meze... Read More »
LEBEN is a small, Japanese company that is treated with great attention in its country of origin. It owes this to its founder and chief designer, Mr. Taku Hyodo. It is mentioned by Japanese magazines among the most important designers of tube amplifiers in this country. The CS600 integrated amplifier was introduced to the market... Read More »
Austin, Texas based Audioengine recently introduced the 512 Portable Wireless Speaker. My thanks to them for sending a sample to review. The 512 is a handsome product, with a high quality feel. And it is small; a mere 3" deep x 3" high x 7.75" wide, two and a half pound oval of transportable audio goodness. ... Read More »
Born out of curiosity and experimentation, the Campfire Audio brand have come a long way since the initial release of the well-received Jupiter, Orion, and Lyra earphones. With a keen passion for all things audio, Ken Ball has spent hours of time perfecting releases from rigorous performance testing to tuning iterations. It is thus not... Read More »
Don't Mess with Success Armed with a seemingly boundless reservoir of engineering creativity, a healthy dose of professional humility, and keen market instincts, the stealth-like stalwarts at San Francisco-based Parasound continue to re-calibrate accepted price-vs-performance expectations in the high end. The firm has survived (and thrived) not by touting revolutionary design advances to its... Read More »
Speakers for those who love music. Review By Matthew Clott With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music. Mathew Clott shares his thoughts about the Vanatoo Loudspeakers. Read, and learn.... Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief I have become increasingly impressed with the quality of truly affordable audio gear. The newly released Vanatoo... Read More »
If you're all in when playing the game of high stakes audio, the Tweek Geek Dark Matter Stealth AC Power Conditioner is for you. Will you hear a noticeable difference? Yep. Is it worth the cost? That depends on your stash of ready cash and your obsessiveness with elevating your system's impact. Face it, ours... Read More »
When James Brown urged everyone to "get on the good foot!" he could have just as easily been singing about Pneuance Audio's new Pneupod Pneumatic Isolation Feet, they've sure got me singing their praises! Isolating components from unwanted vibrations and the resonance they cause with high quality isolation footers can, and does result in very... Read More »
Can You Build a Better Mousetrap? This is not so much a review of a new cartridge as it is about what happens when you take a tried and true cartridge and make significant modifications to the body, cantilever, and stylus of the cartridge. To down play the impact of cartridge body design and material... Read More »
Audio is all about good times. At least, it should be. Yes, I'm like everyone else in this silly hobby, poring over the mysteries of phono cable capacitance or trying to squeeze gear the size of a Mennonite hope chest into a room too small for much hope to fit. Still, at the risk of... Read More »
Honey, I Shrunk the Phono stage I've had the privilege of knowing Dan Wright for the past twenty years. Over that time, I've seen ModWright burgeon from its humble beginnings as an upgrade or modification-only service provider, to becoming a respected manufacturer of a full line of products. Over the past two decades, ModWright has... Read More »
New York based audio company Master & Dynamic are a vision of class, delivering beautiful and well-thought out products in their impressive line-up of headphones and IEMs. Although a newcomer to the world of audio, they have quickly learned the ropes through releasing precision-designed boutique headphones with a sound to match. Their website itself shows... Read More »
Headed by two industry veterans, Schiit Audio is a company that has taken the world of high-end personal audio by storm with their focus on value and commitment to developing game-stopping products. The original Yggdrasil represented Schiit's flagship DAC product, and garnered the company a loyal following. Now, the company have further modified the internals... Read More »