Loading...

Ye Olde Editor in the midst of holy smoke and fine drink...  (portrait by John Robinson) Time for a quick shout-out for two recordings from HDTT:  one, a wonderful Quad DSD (DSD256) recording that you should be aware of, while the other is of a remarkable Double DSD (DSD128) album. Both belong in your DSD... Read More »

You don't have to be an economist to appreciate that much of Western Civilization is the result of the perennial tug-of-war between progress and profit, the towline under tension too often being…quality. The once well-beaten path to Emerson's maker-of-a-better-mousetrap has long since grown over, the production of an adequate device for the purpose of trapping... Read More »

Music@Menlo Live, 2019 (available at https://musicatmenlo.org/live/) Year in, year out the Music@Menlo music education program issues its Music@Menlo Live series of recordings with music performed by the program's instructors. The cast has changed since the series began in 2002, though a few of the originals are still in evidence: program directors pianist Wu Han and... Read More »

Simaudio recently introduced a new streaming digital to analog converter to their Moon product line. The $9000 680D streaming DAC slots in somewhere between the $15000 780D v2, and the $3000 280D. As with many, if not most of the products in the Moon series, the 680D has the same width and depth (18.75 x... Read More »

Finding True Value in the Audiophile world If you look back at my history as a reviewer for Positive Feedback, you will quickly see that I have reviewed a number of different cables. I have reviewed everything from headphone cables  to interconnects, USB cables, BNC cables, and even power cords. I have a love hate... Read More »

Formed in 2000 from the remnants of a handful of Raleigh, North Carolina bands, Between the Buried and Me was principally the brainchild of guitarist Paul Waggoner and vocalist Tommy Rogers. And while the group has gone through a number of personnel changes, the band's current incarnation features not only Waggoner and Rogers, but also... Read More »

Am Ende der Welt. Photo by Per-Einar Einarsen - Used with permission Weserbergland is a project led by Norwegian composer Ketil Vestrum Einarsen. He's deeply rooted in classical music, progressive rock, and experimental electronic composition. Their newest release, from Apollon Records, is Am Ende Der Welt. Compared to their previous release, it pushes farther, goes... Read More »

  Well, isn't that just what we need, another nice looking power strip boasting star grounding? Like, how many others are already on the market? A quick read of the QBASE Power Distributor description on the Nordost website left me unimpressed…but I kept coming back to it for two reasons. First, it was designed to... Read More »

It may surprise many that much of the high-end audio industry is, despite the pandemic, keeping its nose above water. Some dealers and manufacturers have reported that people have been making those all-important decisions, pulling the trigger on new equipment. Perhaps because quarantines and lock-downs have freed up a resource many adults lack. That resource... Read More »

BRAHMS: Hungarian Dances, WoO 1; Waltzes, Op. 39. Marco Schiavo and Sergio Marchegiani, pianists. Decca 481 7812.  TT: 71.20. Downloads: classical-music-download.com (FLAC); over-blog.com (320 kbps mp3); prestomusic.com (mp3, FLAC, hi-res FLAC); qobuz.com; wattpad.com (mp3, OGG, FLAC) The short review: gleaming, limpid performances of delightful, well-wrought music, in excellent sound. Get it. Some of you may want to know... Read More »

Worth The Wait: Meze delivers an artful and meticulously crafted masterpiece. Review By Dave Hanson With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music. Dave Hanson shares his thoughts on the Meze Rai Penta In-Ear Monitors. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief I first encountered the Meze Rai Penta ($1099) at CanJam SoCal in 2018,... Read More »

One great satisfaction as a reviewer and eternal romantic is when one discovers something new that significantly enhances the emotional connection to one's music. This can have even a greater impact when that something is simple and easy to implement. No unpacking and backbreaking transport to the listening room. No re-arrangement of racks. No additional... Read More »

Danacables is a relatively new cable company and the brainchild of long-time electrical engineer Dana Robbins. Since retirement, Robbins has used his many years of expertise to produce a selection of finely tuned high-end cables to pair with top performing transducers worldwide. Though skeptics may question the utility of cables and their "improvements," there is... Read More »

From The Beginning… If you are unfamiliar with the name John Curl, you clearly haven't been around the audio industry long. As one of the most accomplished and recognized solid-state electronics designers of all-time, his work has given us of some of the most ground-breaking and performance-setting components in our industry's history. Starting to distinguish... Read More »

To quote that famous Bronx born comedian Robert Klein, "It's hard to believe, I know it is." Yes, it's hard to believe that twelve years have passed since my last power cord review (ESP's Essence Reference power cord for Inner Ear magazine.) Don't mistake this break, however, for not appreciating the importance of or hearing... Read More »

Wireworld Platinum Eclipse 8 My first high end aftermarket cable was the Wireworld Nano Eclipse headphone cable. It was reasonably priced, had a unique cable geometry, and sounded excellent. This early success caused me to buy other Wireworld products well before I became a reviewer. All of my power cables are Wireworld, and for a... Read More »

It was Lord Acton (John Emerick Dalberg-Acton - 1834 - 1902) who famously wrote "Power Tends to Corrupt." While I am quite certain that Lord Acton was not considering high-end audio when making this assertion, it is nevertheless applicable, especially in these times. With more and more new-build houses competing for space on power grids,... Read More »

File this one under "Cables Matter." Fair warning, if you're someone who believes cable design, composition, and build quality have no impact on sonic presentation, you may want to skip this and move on to one of my other non-cable related reviews. Now that the lamp cord contingent has left the room, let's talk about... Read More »

IntegrityHiFi - The Steel Trinity! Tru-Lift, Tru-Sweep, and Tru-Kleen. They say good things and bad things come in threes. What is it about that number? Well historically the number three has come to represent the holy trinity in many religions. It is also called the number of man, because the human being is comprised of a body, a... Read More »