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Springing out of Minneapolis in the early '90's, the Jayhawks' music offered a healthy musical antidote to the rainy weather nihilism emanating out of the Pacific Northwest. With their gorgeous country harmonies, jangly Byrdsian–like guitar, combined with their knack for capturing pop hooks, the Jayhawks were conveniently pigeonholed by DJ's & music critics into the... Read More »

  As an occasional contributor to this site, may I also mention that I "read" every issue of Positive-Feedback.com in more or less the same way I read the TAS and S'phile pulps. That is, not every word, but for the musings of certain personalities, and for others' commentary on topics, recordings, and equipment of... Read More »

Most power line conditioners are passive, meaning the components that are doing the conditioning are in parallel to the power cord. This is done so that the conditioning components do not interfere with the instantaneous demand for power that happens with amplifiers when the music goes from very soft to very loud in a few... Read More »

The Krell legacy via designer Dan D'Agostino is well known and respected if not revered. Thirty plus years ago I remember my first experience with the legendary KSA-50 amplifier. Along with the Mark Levinson ML-2, the KSA-50 was one of the first in the industry to lay the ground work for today's strong and continuing... Read More »

The Jazz Mecca At one time, you could club hop along 52nd street in New York City and hear the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, et al., jamming until the wee hours of the morning. More than thirty clubs ranged along the street known as Jazz Alley, at a time when NYC... Read More »

Shall I confess something? I've fallen in love. This time with an exceptional chorale and orchestral recording from Morten Lindberg and the good folks at 2L: Magnificat. Recorded by 2L at the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway, in 2013 and 2014, with Morten Lindberg at the controls, this album shows that rare bird: Brilliancies in... Read More »

Globalization has definitely made it easier for people to have a chance to show what they can do. When my "o fearless editor" suggested that I review a new cable coming from Indonesia I was honestly surprised by the country of origin. I could not pass up the opportunity to give it a shot and... Read More »

Some products are disarmingly ingratiating. It's possible that attraction can be subversive, so pleasing that you let your guard drop, and thus allow potential issues to slip by undetected. That's certainly an apt description of the product at hand, for the K&K Audio Premium Maxxed-Out Phono Preamp is nothing if not a sweet talker.  ... Read More »

So much for the Japanese tradition of honoring your ancestors! The simply stunning looking and even better sounding blue stone body Azule Platinum moving coil cartridge bears little or no resemblance to the Koetsu cartridge your father owned. Moreso, any sonic similarity—or even familial resemblance—between the current Azule Platinum and the Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge... Read More »

Certainly 2014 stood out at chez K, for it was the year that I reviewed not one, not two, but three full range, quasi statement speakers (systems) and to be honest, I don't think that will happen again anytime soon. First, it's a pain in the you-know-what to deal with all the logistics relevant to such an... Read More »

I am new to the digital download game, but better late than never! With my excellent Astell&Kern 240 portable digital audio player (DAP) as a music system server, I loaded four DSD albums downloaded from NativeDSD.com. All were from the excellent label, Yarlung Records, in that section of the NativeDSD site. Originally recorded on analog tape in... Read More »

Imagine this, it is 1986, your girlfriend/boyfriend has been kidnapped, people out there are trying to kill you, and you can only rely on yourself for protection. So you jump into your red and black Trans AM, with your black leather jacket and gloves, with nothing but vengeful intent to rescue and redeem your name.... Read More »

Recondite is a master of smooth grooves. 2013's Hinterland was/is a superb compilation of intelligent electronic music that's ideal for just chillin' and listening, or thumpin' the bass in your whip on the way to the city lookin' for some debauchery. Recondites' sound is now. And believe me, I know that sentence sucks. It's pretentious,... Read More »

Phoenix in Flight. Orchestra: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Kirk Trevor. Clarinetist: Richard Stoltzman. Navona Records CD NV801 This month seemed as though many of the releases I received were featuring very pleasant beautiful music and a great deal of it is on the first listed recording by Navona records. These are not the most... Read More »

Schubert, Winterreise. Matthias Goerne, baritone. Christoph Eschenbach, piano. Schubert Edition, No. 9. Harmonia Mundi. HMC 902107. Schubert's Winterreise can bring to mind Haydn's Seven Last Words (for string quarter or chamber orchestra), another hour plus long work focussing essentially on one mood, desolation. The challenge is how to sustain musical interest for that long without... Read More »

So the call came out from PF: Who wants to review a pair of expensive speaker cables made in Italy? I raised my hand, er, I mean I responded to the email and said "I do." The most expensive speaker cables I have ever personally owned was a 10' bi-wire pair of MIT cables that... Read More »

Some records, I find, are best described as a sonic journey, a whole, rather than dissecting each track (though, admittedly, I'll be doing some of that), as Caribous' Our Love rarely got stopped while playing on any system I cranked it on! Now, the challenge here, is going to be describing the wonderful variety in... Read More »

Dogma is defined in the dictionary as, "A belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted." For some audiophiles—and everyone has an audiobuddy or two or three that fits this description—that dogma could be solid-state vs. tube electronics, planar vs. dynamic speaker, analog vs.... Read More »

David Roth - Will You Come Home Stockfisch SFR 357.8079.1, 2 x 180 g 45 rpm LP The tradition of Stockfisch LP releases goes back to the 1990s. On a 2006 compilation album, the record label claims that vinyl has been its passion for 14 years. Sara K.'s 2003 album Water Falls and a compilation... Read More »