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Few musical cycles are as compelling as is Rachel Podger's and Gary Cooper's cycle of the complete sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart on Channel Classics. With the plethora of new recordings, we sometimes lose sight of great recordings from the recent past. I thought it would be useful to revisit these and perhaps... Read More »

Back in the 1980s or maybe earlier, "transparency" became the buzzword in high-end audio. Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound was a big proponent of the term, and soon many reviewers and sycophants jumped on the idea, to the point where talking about "transparency" quickly became a tiresome cliché. But what does "transparency" really mean? I think most audiophiles... Read More »

Wow! It's been a while. If you are interested in Pure Audio Project or never heard of it, I suggest you read my older review of the Trio 15 speaker system HERE. That was written back in 2019. I loved that setup; a very open / wide soundstage with the pleasantness and tonality that open... Read More »

Can you like a work of music without understanding it? Indeed, yes. I don't claim to yet understand what Maya Fridman and Maarten van Veen have created in Nuït, their new release from TRPTK. But I do like it, and I plan to continue listening to come to grips with it. It is a wonderful... Read More »

Eric Clapton, Unplugged (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab) This latest limited edition Mofi UltraDisc One-Step box set was cut by Krieg Wunderlich and pressed at RTI. You get your two 180 gram 45 RPM LPs on Supervinyl with all the usual packaging and perks, but I had to wonder if this pressing was really going to... Read More »

Tierkreis by Bruce Friedman, Jeff Schwartz, and Jim McAuley Tierkreis is a collection of 12 short compositions written by Karlheinz Stockhausen, each originally created to be played on a music box. In 2008, Bruce Friedman, a trumpet player based in Southern California, organized a concert of Stockhausen work, part of a global celebration of his... Read More »

The Munich Show is ongoing at the time of this writing. While many of us in the USA are still maintaining our distance during this ongoing pandemic (and with those rising airline prices!), those in Europe have this splended event happening just down the road. Our good friend, Dirk Sommer, Editor of our affiliated publication,... Read More »

World Premiere Review! I strongly suspected when listening to the first song with the Musiko that I would buy it. Review By Rick Becker With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music where Rick Becker shares his thoughts on the Charisma Audio Musiko Turntable. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief The Charisma Audio Musiko... Read More »

Greetings friends, I hope life is treating you well in 2022. Today I have an impressive Red Book CD player to tell you about, the Audio Note (UK) CD 4.1x Red Book CD player (MSRP $14,331 USD). The Audio Note (UK) CD 4.1x CD player is an expensive high-fidelity Red Book CD player with a... Read More »

An audio reviewer's mandate is to seek out the new, the innovative, the cutting-edge, and to write about it, preferably while it's still new and innovative and cutting-edge. As a scribe for Positive Feedback, I've certainly done my share of chasing the newest and most revolutionary products for evaluation. But, in assembling my reference system... Read More »

Classical ensemble Calefax Reed Quintet yields once again to the temptation for extemporaneous performance in this collaboration with improvising trumpeter and composer Eric Vloeimans—to extraordinarily satisfying results. On The Spot, Eric Vloeimans, Calefax Reed Quintet. Buzz | Northstar Recording 2014 (DXD) HERE I'm not sure what I expected when I started playing this album, but... Read More »

Chamber songs and duets. Corina Feldkamp, soprano; Anna Tonna, mezzo-soprano; Isabel Dobarro, pianist. Cezanne CZ 090. TT: 52.21 Caña española. El corazón triste. Canción española. Seguidillas de los oficialitos. Fandango. Mi numen parlero. Mazourka de Blagoïska. Stanzas for music. Amor con sue promesse. Occhi miei. Come fan' le ragazze. Saluto. Dimmelo caro ben. Le moissonneur. Scène de... Read More »

In 2019 I reviewed the Paradox Pulse Signature 70 MC Phono Preamp. I was so engrossed with it that I actually bought one along with the Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR Cartridge that I also reviewed around the same time. In the subsequent two years since my purchase Terence Robinson has upgraded both pieces with... Read More »

With delicate precision, Susana Gómez Vázquez illuminates these piano pieces with a scintillating beauty, each carefully shaped and presented like jewels on velvet cushions. Both the performances and the recorded sound quality, in Pure DSD256, are a treasure. Ad Illam - Music of Chopin, Piazzolla, Ginastera for Piano, Susana Gómez Vázquez. Eudora Records 2021 (Pure... Read More »

Charisma Audio is a Canadian importer and distributor of a number of high performance audio lines, and over time have crafted a remarkable series of moving coil cartridges that have gathered praises and accolades over the last several years. The Charisma series of cartridges may not possess the instant brand recognition of Koetsu or Shelter,... Read More »

How does the analog become digital? In 2019, Roland Dietl reported about the current version of the Audiophile Optimizer and shortly after about the combination of the new optimizer with Windows Server. The playback of audio files benefited greatly from this operating system variant. Does the operating system also influence the sound of the files... Read More »

Here is an excursion through the Spanish inflected music of southern Europe with a few side ventures to Brazil. It’s a feast for the ears and the heart, with music of Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, Paule Maurice, Jean Françaix, Heitor Villa‑Lobos, Maurice Ravel, Darius Milhaud, and Kurt Weill. All musicians influenced by the rhythms... Read More »

A very brief note, just before departing on a two-week photographic/church trip to Israel and Jordan: Every now and then I encounter a high-end company that really impresses me with the quality of its work. I could make a pretty long list of such enterprises, but it would go fading off into the sunset, music intermingling... Read More »

Roger Skoff writes about how illusions can sometimes be illusory If I were ever asked what one thing about High-End audio was my greatest turn-on, my answer would have to be "imaging": the ability of a great system playing a great recording in a great room to make you feel as if you could actually... Read More »