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This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations 221. Billie Holiday, Songs For Distingué Lovers. Verve Records – MG VS-6021 (1958), Classic Records MG VS-6021 (180g) (1995), Verve Records, UMe, Acoustic Sound Series B0036831-01 (2023) 33 1/3 rpm. Genre: jazz, vocal jazz, small-ensemble swing, bluesy ballads. If ever there was such a thing as a... Read More »

Lone Star Audio Fest held in Dallas, Texas, the weekend of June 2-4, 2023, was a big success. LSAF had been on hiatus since 2019, so it was with some trepidation that we awaited the reboot at a new hotel. As the exhibitor list filled and then the date arrived when we began to fill... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage. Angel City Audio, EverSolo, Melody, Motet Distribution. Good sounding room. Hugh Nguyen, ACA. A truly loving guy! Bella Sound. Sound was... pretty good with the right music. Genesis Advanced Technologies, Profundo Audio, Merrill Audio Advanced Technology. Genesis Advanced Technologies, Profundo Audio, Merrill Audio Advanced Technology. Genesis Advanced Technologies, Profundo Audio,... Read More »

Roger Skoff picks up the cry for a new HiFi Industry Association   Do you remember electric trains? Practically every family who had kids owned one. Even adults loved them, and they could be bought almost everywhere, including toy shops, hobby shops, department stores, and even some "dime" stores. At Christmas time, there was hardly... Read More »

Pacific Audio Fest, Doubletree Hilton adjacent to SeaTac Airport. Great weather, nice flight via Alaska Airlines, wonderful room. This is like our 50th show in the past 35 years. Something like that, hard to remember them all. But after all these years we have learned that for the most part, rooms will reflect the music... Read More »

When it comes to supporting their Steinway Artists (by which Steinway & Sons actually means pianists; when Steinway says "artists," they don't mean those guys and girls wearing smocks and berets who wield paint brushes while squeezing oil paint out of tubes), Steinway really puts its money where its Public Relations interests lie. Steinway is... Read More »

Power conditioning is one of those topics that is considered a little divisive within the audiophile community. There are some who say power conditioning is not needed, there are some that say it makes sense, but it ultimately provides little value, and then there are some who say that it is incredibly important. Where I... Read More »

The following show report was written by John Hughes. John is a long time friend and offered to share his perspective of the Pacific Audio Fest. A brief introduction to John Hughes I started my Audiophile journey at 16 when I begged my father to buy a vintage Magnavox Console at a garage sale. I... Read More »

Continuing the conversation about what I've found recently that you might also be interested in checking out. Starting off with two very excellent releases from Yarlung Records, both in Pure DSD256, and then moving to Karina Canellakis' excellent new Bartok Concerto for Orchestra in her premier recording release as a conductor, the marvelous 2014 release... Read More »

David W. Robinson and Leif Swanson:  a Fantasy.   Music and fine audio weren't the only things happening at PAF 2023, though. A group of us also participated in the late afternoon and nightly sessions of the ad hoc Audiophile Cigar Society. To those of us who appreciate fine cigars and excellent pours of adult beverages,... Read More »

I grew up about thirty minutes outside of Athens, Georgia, where I was a college student in the late 70s. And was very much in touch with Athens' burgeoning music scene, which included bands like the B-52's, Pylon, and Love Tractor. At the time of R.E.M.'s appearance on the scene, when "Radio Free Europe" was... Read More »

I wonder if a lot of Copper and Positive Feedback readers are record collectors. Well, I suppose that's like asking if dogs like bones. Record collecting can be fun or frustrating, cheap or expensive. Finding a mint original copy of an RCA Living Stereo Reiner Scheherazade or Meet the Beatles at a garage sale for 50 cents—an... Read More »

I am amazed how my role as an audiophile and audio reviewer informs my volunteer work running the Behringer X32 mixing console at church—and vice versa. Although one focuses on live performances in a much larger and livelier space than my more acoustically intimate home Audio/Visual room, in both cases, I listen closely for issues... Read More »

Hi Folks! Not in your typical fashion here but I have a quick review based on a module meant for the DIY folks. See, I've been on a journey to build my own amplifiers using *gasp* Class D modules readily available from a few different sources. I've built ICE-based amplifiers, some nondescript "chip amps" (which... Read More »

Craft Recordings is continuing their much anticipated Original Jazz Classics imprint reboot with the second batch of releases in the series, starting with the Bill Evans Trio's classic Waltz For Debby. This album unfortunately closed the books on Evans' first great trio; the legendary Village Vanguard live sessions that took place on June 25, 1961... Read More »

My original review for Barbra Streisand Live at the Bon Soir chronicled Impex Records' excellent SACD release and can be read HERE. As extraordinarily good as the SACD was (and is!), the long-awaited 2-LP, HQ-180 set has finally arrived, and it's definitely been worth the wait. The LP release was delayed by a meticulous approval... Read More »

Like many of you I have thoroughly immersed myself into the world of audio, and this passion has been with me since I was a young man. I remember my first humble audio system that was paid for by countless hours mowing lawns and working other various odd jobs in the neighborhood. Looking back at... Read More »

We had a pair of Row K center tickets for the Dover String Quartet at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. Everyone knows that's the eleventh row, but we found ourselves settling in four rows from the stage. What happened? An usher informed us management had enlarged the stage for this event by removing a... Read More »

From the PF paper 'n ink archives:  A cartoon by Bruce Walker, drawn in 1993 Pianist Envy:  'Oh, how I wish that I could play like that!'