November - December 2014 Archives - Positive Feedback

Acoustic Masterpiece M-101 Amplifier

Editors at Positive Feedback — Mon, 08 May 2017 17:44:03 +0000

This article, by Dave Clark, Victor Chavira, Larry Cox, and Francisco Duran, originally ran when audioMUSINGS was in print - Issue 6, 1998. Some things in life are inevitable. Death and taxes are the obvious ones, but I would add one more—the perfection of low-powered amplifiers, in this case an eleven-watt tube amp that uses two KT-88s... Read More »

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Recondite, Iffy

Michael Mercer — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 22:10:32 +0000

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 »

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Releases by Tacet Audio, Navona Records, Art Haus Musik and Naxos

Karl Lozier — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 22:08:37 +0000

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 »

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Notes of an Amateur: Schubert, Gubaidulina, Shostakovich.

Bob Neill — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 22:06:24 +0000

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 »

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Viero Equilibrio Level 3 Speaker Cables

Mark Pearson — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 04:58:26 +0000

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 »

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The 11th Annual Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2014 - The Best of the Best!

David W. Robinson — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 18:34:20 +0000

Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that Dave Clark and I had heard in our own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award. The Gizmo Award, on... Read More »

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Caribou, Our Love

Michael Mercer — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 22:04:36 +0000

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 »

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VPI Classic Direct Turntable - Turning Back Time

Myles B. Astor — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 04:54:59 +0000

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 »

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New Music - David Roth, Guru Guru, and More

Wojciech Pacuła — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 22:01:24 +0000

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 »

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Zu Audio Druid V Loudspeakers

Danny Kaey — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 20:51:50 +0000

'twas the year of our Lord twothousandandfive, when I had the very first opportunity to audition and opine about Zu's Druid loudspeakers following a local tube show in the valley of the angels. Many a historic composite has been penned about Zu; suffice is to say that back then—if you could make such bold historic... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Rachel Podger, Margaret Brouwer, Galina Ustvolskaya, Carter Pann.

Bob Neill — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 21:59:09 +0000

Perla Barocca. Early Italian Masterpieces. Rachel Podger, violin. Harpsichord, organ, and therobo accompaniment. Channel Classics. CCSA 36014. CD/SACD. After the rich, close harmonies of the renaissance and before the fastidious counterpoint of the baroque, there was...early baroque? I write often in this column about the fascinations of transitions in the arts. We glibly describe them... Read More »

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LKV Veros One Phonostage

Pete Davey — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 04:47:02 +0000

Quietude… That isn't a word you hear too often when describing high-end audio! But, what is most important with high fidelity LP playback? I believe that the first priority should be a system that just gets out of the way, that extracts pure music out of the grooves. That isn't an easy thing to do;... Read More »

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2014 TAVES Show Report Part Two

Malcolm J. Gomes — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 21:38:30 +0000

One of the fastest growing distributors in Canada is Charisma Audio. Owner Bernard Li always puts on a good show and this time was no exception. This time he collaborated with Trevor Wong of Update TV and Stereo for his TAVES Exhibit. The new products on display in this room included two turntables, the Well... Read More »

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Kronos Audio Products Sparta Turntable

Marshall Nack — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 04:41:10 +0000

Watching the Kronos Audio Products Sparta Turntable being assembled on my rack, it's clear that this is not your father's turntable. Visually, the Sparta is unlike any vinyl spinner I've encountered—the same goes for the accompanying Helena tonearm. Without a doubt, it's that second, counter-rotating platter that catches your eye and wants explaining. Why... Read More »

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The Beatles In Mono LP Box Set

Tom Gibbs — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 21:57:06 +0000

When the Beatles' digital remasters came out a few years ago on CD (and the higher-resolution 24-bit FLACs loaded onto the USB Apple version), a whole lot of people hoped for a full-blown analogue remastering for release on LP, but alas, it was not to be. When the stereo LPs finally arrived about a year... Read More »

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2014 TAVES Show Report Part One

Malcolm J. Gomes — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 21:35:06 +0000

Tis the season for TAVES and yet again, it provided a reason for celebrating sonic excellence. This is the one high-end audio show that I truly enjoy covering for many reasons. It is consistently well organized, personifies Canadian friendliness and in terms of size, number of exhibitors and visitors, it is a veritable Goldilocks. Some... Read More »

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David Robinson and David Elias on DSD Interviewed by Steve Rochlin

David W. Robinson — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 21:03:37 +0000

Enjoy the Music.TV's interview with David W. Robinson of Positive Feedback magazine and singer/musician/songwriter David Elias. Hosted by Steven R. Rochlin, we discuss creating and recording music, early Internet mp3.com and other services plus the places to buy modern DSD files today. As always, in the end what really matters is that you.... enjoy the music !

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Inex Innovation Photon USB2 Audio Cable and USB to S/PDIF Converter

Roger S. Gordon — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 04:38:18 +0000

INEX Innovation, Inc. is a small audio company that was founded in 2004 by a group of audiophiles with strong engineering backgrounds in fiber optics and telecommunications. Over the last decade they have developed a digital amplifier that has been well received as have been their pre amplifier and CD Player.(1) Fiber optics has a... Read More »

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The Acoustic Revive Chronicles: The Eleventh House!

Jeff Day — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 02:28:12 +0000

As many of you know—and as the title reference to "The Acoustic Revive Chronicles" suggests—over the years I've written quite a lot about the innovative Acoustic Revive audio accessories designed by the brilliant Mr. Ken Ishiguro in Isesaki, Japan. In fact, I've spent more time writing about Mr. Ken's Acoustic Revive accessories than I have... Read More »

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When Old Is New and Streaming Media: The iBasso D12 Anaconda (Among Other Things) and the AudioQuest Forest Ethernet Cables

Andy Schaub — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 03:19:46 +0000

"Oh help me, please doctor, I'm damaged There's a pain where there once was a heart It's sleepin, it's a beatin' Can't ya please tear it out, and preserve it Right there in that jar?" —"Dear Doctor" by The Rolling Stones So, first, I wanted apologize for jamming two sets of commentaries, the latter of... Read More »

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My Favorite Tubes and Their Substitutes

Robert H. Levi — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 02:25:53 +0000

I love and appreciate tube based audio gear and own sixteen pieces of tube gear between my two reference systems. Without a thorough knowledge of tube types and their substitution possibilities, you may be over-paying for your new or NOS tubes you employ, or just pick the wrong ones. This data is based on my... Read More »

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How Wall Street Destroyed the Record Business

Dan Schwartz — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 02:10:54 +0000

"The digital music business has been a war of attrition that nobody seems to be winning," said David Goldberg, the former head of Yahoo music. "The CD is still disappearing, and nothing is replacing it in entirety as a revenue generator." Its no mystery that the wiring of our world has brought enormous changes in... Read More »

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Stockfisch Records Finds Analog Pearls

Brian Moura — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 21:54:20 +0000

Analog Pearls, Volume 1 Cover Stockfisch Enters the Remastered SACD/DSD Market Some of our readers are familiar with Stockfisch Records. It's a small independent record label based in Germany that was initially known for their recordings of folk music starting in the mid 1970's. More recently, they have gained attention for their Super Audio CD... Read More »

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Music Enhanced To an Astonishing Level: The Transcendent Kubala-Sosna XPander A/C Unit

Jim Merod — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 02:23:09 +0000

The First Blueport "Audio Transcendence" Award (With a response by Marshall Nack) What does it mean that the onset of Global Warming coincides with the arrival of a theoretical Golden Age of audiophile possibilities? I'll think about that awhile as the emergence of DSD (direct stream digital), after a quarter-century languishing in audio twilight with... Read More »

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Kubala-Sosna XPander Power Distributor - Neutrality and Coherency taken to the Next Level

Marshall Nack — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 02:19:27 +0000

Talking About Power Distributors (With a response by Jim Merod) Every time I'd get in a new power product, Joe Kubala would come over to check it out. And always, after assessing it, the same question lingered in the air: when—not if—would we see a Kubala-Sosna Power Distributor? During the five years it took to... Read More »

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