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[Note that this guest review is by Wolfgang Kemper of HiFi Statement, our affiliated journal in Germany, edited by good friend Dirk Sommer.] The famous New York Mercy Sound Studios has been working with Legacy Audio speakers for years. Now, thanks to the distributor Notabene-audio, Legacy Audio is also represented in Germany. The Signature SE Premium... Read More »

Sometimes we come to the reality that a certain product in our system is not the be all and end all we thought it was. Take for instance the "built-in DAC". It is a great idea till that fast paced technology renders that chip obsolete. I have often thought that what I have my system plugged into was... Read More »

Navigating the New Digital Highway with the Lumin D1 Audiophile Network Music Player For the past year or so, I have grown increasingly frustrated with the theoretical promise but pragmatic limitations of computer-based audio playback. When all the stars align, meaning a musical alignment of one's chosen computer and operating software, one's chosen hard drive(s), and... Read More »

One evening in the vacant space of my commute home, I contemplated phono cables. (Yes, too much free time on my hands.) Specifically, wouldn't the magnitude of difference in the output of a phono cartridge vs. that of an analog interconnect dictate a specialized design for the phono cable? (A medium output MC typically generates... Read More »

Nessun Dorma: The Puccini Album It's happened again. I'd read several years' worth of pro-and-con about Ian Bostridge before hearing the fellow, on a recital disc that I reviewed for this site a few years back. Now, after hearing numerous encomia for tenor Jonas Kaufmann, I've finally heard him sing. Given the novel repertoire for... Read More »

Who can gainsay Bach? Like Mozart or Beethoven, he is a towering figure. I don't know exactly how many recordings that I have of The Art of the Fugue over the decades now, but I do know that I have a lot of them, but not this one by The Emerson Quartet! And so, one more?... Read More »

So I have already touched on the AC cords from Triode Wire Labs in my review of the PS Audio BHK preamplifier and DirectStream DAC (as did Steve Kozle way back in Issue 61 HERE in his review of the TWL cords), and yeah, these are the real deal. What they do is pretty much take... Read More »

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

After the madness (and I mean, literally BTW) ensued following my separation, I found myself driving back to Los Angeles. I didn't have a plan, no place to sleep arranged yet, nothin'. So, naturally, this was a bit of a nightmare for my OCD brain,

I have always been a fan of Ayon products. While many of their offerings are not for the faint of heart from a cost perspective you can generally count on the company to produce some of the finest gear around and you could spend a lifetime listening to an Ayon based system without complaint for... Read More »

Miles Davis - Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, and Filles de Kilimanjaro How time flies! Twenty five years almost to the day after Miles Davis passed away and close on the heels of Mobile Fidelity's 40th anniversary, the confluence of one of the most influential and iconic jazz figures with the world's preeminent record reissue label obviously brings... Read More »

CIKADA & Oslo Sinfonietta: Maja S. K. Ratkje's And sing… (2L Recordings 2L-124-SABD, available in various formats at https://shop.klicktrack.com/2l/475351) Are you musically adventurous? That question might seem dated in a spacy, Jimi Hendrix' first album sort of way, but it's an honest question for most music lovers. We all have strange and unique recordings in... Read More »

Johnny Hartman - Once In Every Life Reissued by Analogue Productions APJ 105 originally released in 1981 by Bee Hive Records BH 7012 A very difficult record to review! So much to say and so little room to say it. In 1995 Clint Eastwood directed and starred in The Bridges Of Madison County. In September... Read More »

As an engineer, I find it very gratifying when I review products that apply science to great success in delivering outstanding sound—a difference you can readily hear, provided the overall system can resolve high quality audio. Furutech has been in pursuit of such scientific application to sound reproduction. Their NanoFlux Speaker Cables, NanoFlux Power Cables,... Read More »

Ever been burned by an audio purchase? Yep, me too. Although a lifetime of short-term gratification ensures that I'll never have to worry about blowing big money on audio, I have learned on thing: While flash-in-the-pan audio baubles hog all the press, the wise money goes to companies that deliver high quality over time. For... Read More »

The Israel-based company Teddy Pardo, which shares its founder's name, has accomplished quite a feat. It has birthed the Teddy Pardo MB100, a 100-watt monoblock amplifier amid a sea of competition in the $2500USD price bracket, with very compelling reasons to be considered. The foremost being a proprietary power supply that helps the MB100 deliver... Read More »

TAVES has been growing exponentially over the past couple of years. In fact last year, it had a growth spurt that would send any teenagers with NBA stars in his eyes, into rapture. In 2014 the show attracted around 5200 people. Last year that jumped to 6500 and this year the growth continued with the... Read More »

I've been on the road for nearly three weeks now, and that's meant an interruption to the republication of John Marks' fine contributions to the musical and audio arts. Apologies all around. In this article from The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com), John shares an elegant and polished jazz album from the '70s, Michael Franks' Sleeping Gypsy. He's right... Read More »

No. Not the streaming media service. Turns out, there's a major high-end audio company in Germany, TIDAL Audio, which is joining the ranks of world-class audio design. In fact, TIDAL Audio, founded in 1999 by Jorn Janczk with the stated intent of building the finest audio systems on the planet, has been around years longer... Read More »