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Complete Peter Serkin. Sony 19439713872. 30 CD's. If Serkin is one of your very favorite pianists, as he is one of  mine, then this is a treasure trove for you. Thirty CDs for under $100. Includes both solo recordings and work with TASHI. Steal of the year. \ Joseph Haydn, String Quartets, Op. 76, 4-6. Chiaroscuro... Read More »

Schubert's Winterreise, one of the greatest song cycles written, is most often heard with piano and voice. The Ragazze Quartet treats us to a performance arranged for string quartet—and it works marvelously! The Ragazze and baritone Martijn Cornet give us a performance filled with nuance, emotional impact, and synergistic musicianship. Jared Sacks has outdone himself... Read More »

With Audience's frontRow powerChord. Reacquaint yourself with the art of deep listening. Review By Dr. Michael Bump With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music Dr. Michael Bump shares his thoughts on the Audience adeptResponse aR6-T4 Passive Power Conditioner and the frontRow powerChord. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief I recently came across an article... Read More »

Might this be the easiest review I have ever written? I'll cut to the chase and claim that the Record Doctor record clamp is a "no brainer" essential accessory for vinyl enthusiasts. Numerous similar products have been available for years, but I have never felt motivated to experiment with admirable performance of my Pioneer PLX1000... Read More »

Travis, Good Feeling. 120 gram, black vinyl LP: $21.99 MSRP. Available from Craft Recordings. It's been said that everyone who listened to the Velvet Underground's first album started a band. The same can almost be said for Travis' first album, Good Feeling, which was massively influential on an entire generation of UK bands, especially the likes... Read More »

A System For All Seasons It seems like a lifetime ago I reviewed the Karan Acoustics KAS 450 stereo amplifier. My conclusion was "This is an amplifier I could live with for the long haul," and was planning on adding it to my system. If not for a train wreck of an experience with a... Read More »

James Blake, Covers Standing out from the noise in popular music is no easy feat. It takes more than a strong voice to stick out from the crowd these days, with so many choices at our fingertips. From the genre blurring and warbly bass bending "Limit to Your Love," to the hauntingly ethereal landscapes of The... Read More »

For many of us, it has been a process. Maybe a long and challenging process, but one with plenty of rewards and satisfaction. Can we call it a hobby, an infatuation, or is it something in between? Regardless, over time, we have learned that passion and new discovery can be a never ending joy. You... Read More »

It's rare that one gets to experience a true tour de force, but that is what I've enjoyed the past several months with the Van Baerle Trio's traversal of Beethoven's complete works for piano trio—a marvelous journey through some of the greatest music ever written. I've long held the Beaux Arts Trio in highest regard... Read More »

Hecho a Mano When I first visited the Fono Acustica site, my attention was drawn to the repeated use of the words artisanal and hand-crafted. These are loaded words to the contemporary ear. As we move from the first machine age into the age of intelligent machines, they stimulate nostalgia for a bygone time when... Read More »

Mogwai, As the Love Continues Like most popular art forms, music is over-classified. When an artistic medium is overly distilled through endless descriptions, categories, names, and titles, the magic is also seemingly stripped from it. The ethereal music of Mogwai, the ever-evolving Scottish band, is an unfortunate victim of these attempts to classify rather than... Read More »

The Silence Between, Pieter van Loenen, violin, and Tobias Borsboom, piano, TRPTK (2021, DSD256, DXD) HERE The Silence Between is a marvelously transparent recording of superb performances of five engagingly melodic, tonal 20th century works. (Well, almost. The Debussy piece comes from 1890 but clearly looks forward to the next century.) In this brilliant recording,... Read More »

Reboots are everywhere these days, and it's easy to understand why. Capitalizing on existing goodwill and warm nostalgia is a surefire strategy for attracting an instant audience. My generation especially is eating it up. I mean, come on, who isn't binge watching those over-the-hill karate kids Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence still trading kicks in... Read More »

Within the audio hobby, there is an imaginary divide between companies that produce high-end components and others that create products meant to fill consumer demand at a price point. This demarcation line can be difficult to cross over, as companies may not possess the skills, focus, or resources needed to develop products that appeal to... Read More »

HASSE: Il Tigrane: Overture and Arias; VIVALDI: Il Tigrane: Arias; GLUCK: Il Tigrane: Arias. Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano; Kansas City Symphony Orchestra/Constantine Orbelian. Delos DE 3591.  TT: 64.06. Downloads: Amazon.com (mp3); boxset.me (FLAC); qobuz.com (various formats) Did you know about this Cleopatra? I certainly didn't. Cleopatra of Pontus married King Tigranes the Great (Tigranes II) of Armenia, in... Read More »

Most diehard audiophiles believe the best system you can build will have the following components: a turntable, phono stage/preamp, and an amplifier. Keep it simple, keep it analog, and with the right component selection, the result is a system that sounds effortless and realistic in a way that a digital based system can never sound.... Read More »

While I was evaluating AGD Productions' "The Audion" Amplifier (HERE), there was a rumor that AGD Productions was going to release a new flagship monoblock amplifier. This new amplifier would be based off a more powerful GaN Tube, a technology unique to AGD that utilizes state of the art Gallium Nitride transistors, and offer enough... Read More »

World Premier! The new SOTA sound allows music to become tactile. Review By Ron Nagle With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music Ron Nagle shares his thoughts on the SOTA Nova VI Vinyl LP Turntable. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief There was a time when my school shoes wore out; my mom... Read More »

At the peak of his career, Chesney "Chet" Baker represented the epitome of jazz cool, and along with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, and Stan Getz was one of the principal figures of the "West Coast Jazz" movement centered between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Baker relished living the fast life,... Read More »