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Though I'm known among my audio friends as an analog and LP guy, I actually spend more time listening to digital music than my LP collection. Especially since I first signed up for Tidal in 2017, streaming has been my main source for listening to new music, and for hunting down all the old stuff... Read More »

As I get older, as I said a year or so ago when I started getting older, I find myself less inclined to talk, more inclined to drop a few notes and then just point. These are three recent recordings I feel compelled to point at. Jennifer Koh, Bach & Beyond, Part 3. Bach, Harbison,... Read More »

I was a total rock radio hound from the seventies through the eighties; I really stood up and noticed George Thorogood and The Destroyers when "Bad To The Bone" first hit the airwaves—especially his over-the-top guitar playing. The song (and George Thorogood) became a point of frequent discussion between my friends and me, who mostly... Read More »

The Meze Empyrean continues to be the headphone that I go to for both reviewing and for simply enjoying the music. Rare, indeed, is the product that is transparent, musical, and truly engaging. That the Empyrean is also one of the most aesthetically beautiful headphones that I have come across, easily validates a form follows... Read More »

Sasha Matson, Cooperstown (Jazz Opera in Nine Innings). Albany Records. (2015, 2020 Revised Edition (CD and 24-88 FLAC) (HERE) Baseball and jazz—two great American traditions here combined by composer Sasha Matson for an engaging musical experience. Add opera to the mix and you get some nice theater. Originally released in 2015 as a double CD... Read More »

Je donnerais mes jours. Songs by Gabriel Dupont. Rachel Joselson, soprano; Bo Ties, piano. Centaur CRC 3811.  TT: 76.58. Downloads: amazon.co.uk (mp3); amazon.de (mp3); qobuz.com (16-bit) Poèmes d'automne. Le chanson de Myrrha. Le Foyer. Mandoline. Les Effarés. Deux mélodies. La Pluie. Chanson d'automne. Annie. Journée d'hiver. Le Jardin mouillé. En aimant. Les Caresses sur des poèmes de... Read More »

Beautiful to behold and a joy to use. Review By Brett Rudolph With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music. Brett Rudolph shares his thoughts on the LampizatOr MM2 Moving-Magnet (MM) Phono Stage. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief Turntables have always been one of my favorite sources for my playback system. They are highly... Read More »

As a lifelong two-channel audio listener I had my doubts that I could appreciate listening to music through headphones. A good friend of mine extolls the benefits of the personal listening experience, but I never could come around to seeing his point of view. Sure, I have inexpensive ear buds and in ear monitors for... Read More »

Empire Ears is a family-owned In-Ear-Monitor (IEM) company based in Atlanta, Georgia, that, collectively, brings over thirty years of experience in acoustical engineering and product manufacturing. As I mentioned in a previous review, every audio equipment company's product has it unique voice—neutral, warm, reference, detailed, bright, vivid etc—and its form. The Empire Ears' voice is,... Read More »

The Torus Power AVR2 ELITE 20 Isolation Transformer is a powerful friend to discerning audiophiles, consumer and pro audio specialists alike. It serves as both a guardian and cleanser to high performance audio visual systems. Modern minimalist in design, it only flexes its muscle when needed, employing an impressive array of 21st Century features, a... Read More »

The ampsandsound Nautilus, 60+ pounds of single ended glory As both a reviewer and a consumer, I read a lot of reviews myself. I often see solid state amplifiers being commended for having tube amp like qualities in their mid-range presentation, or tube amplifiers being commended for having solid state bass or speed. I myself... Read More »

Frank Sinatra, Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra. Impex Records (33 RPM LP) You gotta love Frank Sinatra. We have been streaming Mad Men during the lock down. Taken from the late 1950s and into the 1970s, you can't help but envision Frank swaggering about during that timeframe and era in America. Think Manhattan, dirty... Read More »

Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Tea For The Tillerman 2, Island Records (33 RPM LP) At 72 years old, Yusuf Islam continues to entertain and delight his fans. Born Steven Demetra Georgio in 1948 in London, England, he took the stage name of Cat Stevens in 1966 before turning to Islam in 1977 and assuming his current name. He... Read More »

Power is king. Throughout my years in audio this one thing has become clear. Power supply quality shapes the sound of a component. In order to achieve that quality, a power supply must be fed well, hence the plethora of aftermarket power cables and conditioners. The subject of this review, the Clarus Duet purports to... Read More »

Seriously? A review of four idiosyncratic USB cables? Didn't some sage audio scribe opine back in the MP-3 days that USB meant "Usually Sounds Bad"? Well, audiophiles have since embraced first High-Res downloads, and then streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz. With the result that getting the best sound from file-based audio often depends on... Read More »

In the late 1990's, prior to Apple's creation of the iPod, the company, IRIVER, had been manufacturing consumer electronic products and some of the first portable music players in the world. Music players that were capable of both lossy and CD-quality music playback. For the next twenty plus years IRIVER would continue to produce portable... Read More »

In 2018, Volti Audio's Greg Roberts offered me the opportunity to review his wonderful Rival Loudspeakers (HERE) I'd never heard a horn speaker in my home, and the Rival was somewhat of a dynamic revelation. Like the Rival, the new Volti Audio Razz is also a hybrid horn / bass reflex loudspeaker, designed by Mr.... Read More »

Hybrid a thing made by combining two different elements; in biology: the offspring of two plants or animals of different species or varieties; a mythical creature being a combination of existing animal, such as griffin; […] If there was an audio award that would be given to products for their design, the Thöress brand would... Read More »

If you think about it, every musical instrument has its birth, grows its shape, as it chooses its skin—metal, wood, glass, reeds—and develops its own unique tone / timbre. Though there are various families—woodwinds, brass, strings, keyboard, idiophones, friction instruments, and percussion—that share, within families, similar to overlapping voices. And there are literally hundreds of... Read More »