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The Thiele TA01 Tonearm If you are a regular reader of Hifistatement, you probably will have come across the name Thiele. But even if you don't, it's most likely that you know or own a product that Helmut Thiele had a hand in creating. But it's only with this very special tonearm that he steps... Read More »

A piano trio is perhaps my favorite performing ensemble. And when the performances are as finely crafted as these from the Delta Piano Trio, bliss is near at hand. Add music by Swiss composer Frank Martin, and a recording engineered by Bert van der Wolf, and my expectations are very high. And those expectations are... Read More »

So, you want to build a dedicated audio-visual room, but don't know where to start? We faced that same quandary this past summer after we downsized to a smaller, new construction house with an unfinished basement, where the A/V room would be located. Having profited well from this frenzied real estate market fueled by historically... Read More »

When I pulled up to the new D'Agostino Master Audio Systems Headquarters and Factory, I clearly felt something different from my last visit to the prior factory location a few years back. Unlike most industrial parks these days, this was a very warm and inviting front entrance and building. If the intent was something from... Read More »

Each album Angelo Verploegen makes with Just Listen Records and Jared Sacks is an eagerly awaited pleasure in our household. Beautifully played jazz in some of the best small ensemble recorded sound we get to hear. Verploegen and his partners take us to a soft, warm musical place, and Jared Sacks brings the performances right... Read More »

Kraftwerk's influence on today's pop music is so pervasive, the band is so historically important, and so much has been written about them already that doing an introduction here almost seems clichéd. But for those who haven't been plugged in: they more or less invented electronic pop music. As such, they've had an incalculable influence... Read More »

Such a pleasure! A recording label for country, bluegrass, pop, world and other acoustic musicians that truly brings the listener into the presence of the live performance. Soundkeeper Recordings is making direct-to-two-track recordings that I'd love to hear from more labels. This is the way acoustic music should be heard. Barry Diament, founder, chief recording... Read More »

A while back Triode Lab's Frank Ng asked me if I would like to listen to a pair of his very exclusive—only four pairs are scheduled to be made—cost-no-object, limited edition Triode Lab 2A3 parallel single-ended-triode (P-SET) RSR monaural amplifiers, that incorporated all of Frank's design insights for state-of-art high-performance SET amplifiers (HERE, scroll down... Read More »

Cutting right to the chase! I hypothesize that the excellent performance of the LCD-4 was criticized by many for its excess weight, and that the design required a makeover. At the same time, the CRBN Electrostat was bubbling up in R&D and would set a new musical standard for any headphones at half the weight. Most... Read More »

Lloyd Walker, a portrait. Happy Valley, Oregon, 2014 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Late last week I was contacted by my good friend Felicia Walker. She told me that her husband Lloyd, who had been battling Leukemia and a major blockage in his carotid artery simultaneously, had suffered a massive stroke. She... Read More »

The Simaudio Moon 740P preamplifier has been reviewed many times since its introduction circa 2012, most recently for Positive Feedback by Sam Rosen (HERE). I read many of these reviews, but not until after I had done my own evaluation. I am evaluating the 740P in conjunction with its companion piece the 820S External Power... Read More »

Two very versatile, and impressive, performers. Review By Bob Grossman With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music where Bob Grossman shares his thoughts on the Ayon Audio CD-35 II CD Player and USA Labs RS9 Music Server. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief The Ayon Audio CD-35 II, as reviewed here, is the... Read More »

Magnificently performed by the string quartet Matangi, this is music written in the second half of the twentieth century by Russian and Ukrainian composers that is ideally suited to the bizarre world in which we find ourselves today in March of 2022. It is intense music of challenge, protest, and criticism. It was intended to... Read More »

Shostakovich: String Quartets: No 3 in F, Op. 71; No 8 in C minor, Op. 110. Novus Quartet. Aparte AP 271.  TT: 54.19 It's one up, one down—and not as you might have expected, or hoped. The five-movement F Major Quartet hovers uneasily, or schizophrenically, between Shostakovich's "traditional" style and his more angular, "modern" one. The... Read More »

In the early spring of 2020, I had a call with Andrew Jones in which he excitedly shared with me that he was going to be leaving ELAC and that he would have some very big news to announce by summer. Just weeks later, the COVID-19 lockdowns came and put everything, not just his plans,... Read More »

I recently installed the new KRONOS Discovery RS (Resonance Suppression) tonearm on my KRONOS Pro LE turntable in my reference system. Simply put, his new KRONOS Discovery RS tonearm presents the least colored, most articulate, concise, and authentic view into my recordings than any other tonearm in my experience, at any price!

Last week, and on into the weekend, I had the opportunity to have hour upon hour in front of the new Von Schweikert Audio ULTRA 7 loudspeaker, in residence at The Audio Company in Marietta, GA. This episode is devoted to this new, world-class, loudspeaker from one of the industry's leading loudspeaker manufacturers, Von Schweikert... Read More »

Today, I want to introduce you to the KRONOS Discovery and Kronoscope RS (Resonance Suppression) Tonearms. Using a profusion of both proven strategies and implementing fresh, innovative approaches and stratagems, applied globally to this new arm wand, they are simply exceptional.

Today, I want to introduce you to the latest iteration of a product that has graced my reference system since its original release. From January of 2005, when I installed the original Audience adeptResponse aR12 Passive Power Conditioner, its remarkable contributions have played an indispensable and crucial role in my listening.