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The Hagerman Audio Labs Tuba Headphone Amp (image by Bob Levi) About 12 years ago I reviewed the Hagerman Trumpet, a very fine all-tube phono stage, built in Hawaii. It was impressive and musical and priced around $2000. It outperformed my Pass X Phono, a $4000 piece, and I almost bought it. When I was... Read More »

Audio cables act as passive filters, affecting the performance of a high fidelity speaker system for better or worse, depending on interactions with the room, first, the electronics, second, and personal tastes of the listener, third. As with a wine and food match at a chic bistro, the resulting interactions can be mediocre to stellar,... Read More »

This particular feature article for Positive Feedback isn't your typical audio review, but rather is intended to be a fun and inspirational "dare to dream" article that is decidedly outside of the usual audio mainstream. This is an article that tells the story of the successful marriage of the latest state-of-art Duelund Coherent Audio CAST... Read More »

I've owned a pair of Zu Audio Omens—the Dirty Weekend (DW) variety—for over five years now. Zu builds high-efficiency loudspeakers that employ 10-inch full range drivers and compression tweeters, with many of their models approaching 97dB per 1 watt input. During operation, the 10-inch drivers, which are custom-manufactured for Zu by Eminence in Kentucky, run... Read More »

THE EDITORS is a cycle of interviews with audio magazine editors from all over the world—both those in charge of printed publications, as well as online magazines and portals. It started on January 1st 2012 and 26 interviews have been published since then—the one below is No. 27. Our aim is to familiarize our readers... Read More »

The Grado Labs GH4 in place at Chez Levi (photograph by Bob Levi) The GH4 is Grado's second foray into creating headphones using Norwegian pine, upping the ante and overall headphone performance quite nicely along the way. By my count, Grado has used two types of mahogany, maple, oak wood treated by a whiskey barrel... Read More »

Let's face it, AC line power is the bedrock of every audio system. Not only is this singularly common commodity a fundamentally important component, vital for powering all gear in a system, the quality of that AC power line happens to significantly influence the performance capability of every component in each HiFi rig. The bad... Read More »

John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate shares his reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the release of The Beatles masterpiece album, Abbey Road, by reminding us of George Benson's follow-up LP, The Other Side of Abbey Road. In the midst of the celebrations that Philip O'Hanlon has organized at a high-end audio dealer level, very many... Read More »

The Unbearable Joy of Thinking Outside the Box Now that GTT Audio & Video head Bill Parish and I are finally back on friendly terms (heck, he even calls me on the phone occasionally to give me a hard time, and to ask when I plan on finishing the reviews I promised to write, if... Read More »

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO is a British company specializing in audio and audio-video electronic components, whose distinctive feature is a particularly good value for money of their products. The Edge anniversary series launched a year ago seemed to change this approach. And yet... Cambridge Audio has just launched a new, cheapest AX series. Designed in the UK... Read More »

I enjoyed hearing ATC's 40A (then $12,999) speaker four years ago; enough so I was tempted to buy them (see HERE for the review). They had a fuller range than my reference, and the sound was a bit sweeter. However, my reference ATCs employ an "SL" (super linear) driver for midrange and lower frequencies, as... Read More »

I don't suppose I'm alone in admiring those who can really work with their hands. Years ago, while serving a semester-long sentence in woodshop, I envied my pals who could cut, glue, plane, and sand mundane articles like planters and bowls into magnificent works of craftsmanship. Not being able to do any of this, I... Read More »

Monteverdi, L'incoronazione di Poppea. Les Ars Florissants, Willam Christie. Harmonia Mundi 8902622.24 3 CD's, 1 DVD. This new release of Monteverdi's last opera, considered by students of the composer's work to be his best, is an extraordinary musical enterprise, especially if you take into consideration Jan Lauwers' somewhat off the wall stage production provided on... Read More »

With a firm desire for innovation and iterative design, Schiit are a company which have taken the world of high-end personal audio by storm one product at a time. Their latest creation comes in the form of the Ragnarok 2—an integrated amplifier that improves upon the original with its modular design, heatsink components, and a... Read More »

I am sometimes ashamed of how little we know about audio, how little we understand about it. We fly to the Moon, we are getting ready to fly to Mars, we have quite good knowledge of how the universe is changing and what its structure is, we have found thousands of planets that are similar... Read More »

Gary L. Koh, Chief Designer and CEO of Genesis Advanced Technologies, was the principal speaker at an event held on Saturday, September 14, 2019, at Distinctive Stereo LLC, a specialty audio store in northern New Jersey. Also, on hand were Mat Weisfeld of VPI and Merrill Wettasinghe of Merrill Audio Technologies. Gary began his presentation... Read More »

...in which my good audio friend John Marks, Head Honcho of The Tannhauser Gate, continues his series of essays on a creative thread within rock music, wrapped about the music of Boston. This time, he introduces us to the commentary of Rick Beato, a connection for which we can all be thankful. I'm with John: ... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage of RMAF 2019. All photos by Dave Clark, text by Carol Clark. This music lover loves Qobuz! Head Space! We visited the Head Space exhibits on Saturday, we heard the busiest day was Friday. Gautam Raja of Upscale Audio striking a pose! Bevin Mehrbach of ZMF Headphones. Glad to see... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage of RMAF 2019. All photos by Dave Clark, text by Carol Clark. Lumin AMP, Vivid Audio Giya G2, Lumin T-2 network music player and X-1 network music player. Lumin AMPs. Lumin music players. Innuos ZENith. Spectacular Innuos room. YG Vantage loudspeakers in the Innuos room. From Innuous: ZENith Mk3 music... Read More »