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Prokofiev, Violin Sonatas. Five Melodies. Alina Ibragimova, violin; Steven Osborne, piano. Hyperion CDA 67514. I am reported in an ad on the Hyperion website for a new Ibragimova recording as saying that "when you're listening to Ibragimova, she is the only possible way to go." Is this true of her new Prokofiev CD? My favorite... Read More »

There are few genres more polarizing than minimal electronic music. This is totally subjective; but I believe you have to experience this music in a live setting in order to fully appreciate it outside the club: with perhaps a little chemical booster on-board in order to enhance the senses (or maybe not—Dr. David Robinson and... Read More »

Noch’ n Gedicht... oder besser gesagt, schon wieder ein DAC? Klar! Die Suche geht weiter, gibt es nicht Unmengen an D/A-Wandlern, die völlig uninspiriert, leblos und steril Musik machen? Signore Anelli hat sich fest vorgenommen, dies zu ändern!

Thank goodness for Michael Mercer. While other Positive Feedback writers cover headphones, DACs, and amps (Warren Chi, Bob Levi, and our editors spring to mind), nobody proselytizes from the headphone pulpit with as much relentless enthusiasm as monsieur Mercer does for this publication and on his website, Audio360.org. And there's a need to keep the momentum going, judging... Read More »

When I saw the promotional material announcing this book project from The Absolute Sound and learned that it was first going to be available in limited, numbered copies at CES 2014, I was distraught. For the first time in 15 years, circumstances prevented me from attending the 2014 annual industry event. That meant that not only was... Read More »

Plowing Back To Go Forward Long ago I spent considerable time with the Audience design team listening, on multiple occasions; to the development of a multi-driver speaker creation intended to take-no-prisoners and drops a proverbial wake-up bomb on the audiophile world. Those were whopping good sessions of superior fellow-feeling that allowed several chaps with disparate... Read More »

Some things take a long time to write. Some things come easy.  And not everything is War and Peace.  So this is not going to be a typical review. I'm not going to spend much time with the usual sort of hardware sling, other than a quick summary of the basics. No, this will be more... Read More »

Lukasz Fikus of Lampizator One of the newer companies making Digital to Analog Converters (DACs) in the audio world is Lampizator. The name comes from a nickname given to company founder Lukasz Fikus, who designs and manufactures his DACs in Poland. "Lampa" is the polish word for vacuum tube, and "The Terminator," well, everyone knows... Read More »

The Duelund Coherent Audio/Tannoy Westminster Royal Special Edition Project article I wrote for Issue 70 of Positive Feedback was the most fun I've had writing about audio ever!  In that amazing project we took a 'no holds barred' approach to building ultra-high performance external crossovers for my Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers using the exotic, hand-crafted-in-Denmark, Duelund CAST capacitors, inductors,... Read More »

Admittedly I wasn't interested in high resolution files until I could bring that music with me. Having amazing-sounding music stuck on my hard-drive would've been the worst possible tease! As a confessed music addict, I need the ability to grab whatever music I choose from my digital library and take it with me. If I... Read More »

The amazing Astell&Kern AK240… native DSD in the palm of my hand! The DSD revolution continues… Just about everywhere you turn in the world of fine audio, you find DSD in the news and views of a growing number of companies and audiophiles. It's no longer mainly underground, the turf of determined die-hards fighting for... Read More »

Rumen Artarski is a hunk of a man. Tall, handsome and ramrod-straight. He could serve in Special Forces or join the Honor Guard. He could be a grenadier or serve in the praetorian guard of the Caesars. There is some inner strength in Rumen—he is big, but not bulky or sluggish. When he first wrote... Read More »

Wow! I've been swimming in the new HDTT transfer to Double DSD of Duke Ellington's superb recording, Duke Ellington Indigos. The Duke has a special place in my jazzic heart, and has for a long time now. In fact, one of the early SACDs that I glommed onto was the "old" Mobile Fidelity's Blues in Orbit, now... Read More »

It started with a dare. A good friend of mine has always been very respectful and complimentary of my current system. I have to give him much of the credit for getting the sound to reach the level of excellence that now exists. All our late night listening sessions and passionate if not heated discussions... Read More »

LampizatOr audio products are handmade in Poland and are the brain child of Lukasz Fikus. The LampizatOr website is interesting to say the least and it gives you an insight into the mind, philosophy, and sense of humor of Lukasz Fikus. I highly recommend cruising over to the LampizatOr website and reading up on Lukasz's philosophy of... Read More »

Phonat has created a collection of tracks for the sonic adventurist, and it turns out to be a splendid audible journey.

From the first track to the last; the sounds ebb and flow, collide, mesh, slide and glide

In a large, superbly designed and printed book titled The Absolute Sound's Illustrated History of High-End Audio dedicated to loudspeakers, we will not find a single word on the company Albedo (Robert Harley and others, The Absolute Sound's Illustrated History of High-End Audio, Austin 2013). And it's no wonder—among the distinguished pioneers and veterans of the loudspeaker industry... Read More »

The e-Onkyo Music web site (see link below) continues its support of newly Direct Stream Digital (DSD) music in download form with today’s release of Listen by the DSD Trio. This is a Stereo, Double Rate DSD (DSD128) download on the Shiosai Zizo label. (A separate Stereo CD edition of the album will be released in Japan... Read More »

How the Kiss Gained its Polish The 93rd meeting of the Krakow Sonic Society has been arranged at the request of wykop.pl and related web portals. This report from the meeting is intended for people who like to think and act. I would like to apologize to all those who only like to think and... Read More »