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We started our downsizing journey four years ago. I've written about that journey in four parts beginning HERE. I thought that after four years of experience with our all-digital, headphones-only listening system, an update might be worth sharing. As we headed into the realm of digital-files-only listening, my heels were dug firmly into the dirt trying... Read More »

Would it be damning this cartridge with faint praise to simply call it nice? I hope not, because that's precisely what the entry-level model from Mobile Fidelity Electronics is. That's not to say inoffensive, as in competent but not particularly inspiring. The StudioTracker is, in fact, fairly sophisticated and affable for such an inexpensive example... Read More »

Six years have passed since Stage III Concepts introduced their Medusa Speaker Cable, which the brand distributor claimed to be the world's first with a vacuum dielectric. This was no ordinary wire product. I gave it a Writers Choice Award in 2016. The Cerberus Speaker Cable, a new top model in the vacuum line, followed... Read More »

Gonzalo Noque's recordings continue to mesmerize and delight me. I'm sitting at the moment just stunned having listened to a preview copy in DSD128 of the coming release of J.S. Bach's Complete Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV1014-1019, with Andoni Mercero (violin) and Alfonso Sebastian (harpsichord). My need to share something about this recording compels... Read More »

Concerned about vibrations in your home negatively impacting your vinyl listening experience? If you're like me, you want to extract every bit of performance out of your high fidelity music system, and eliminating unnecessary noise and vibrations is one way to do that.  In a previous system in a former home, I used A/V RoomService... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor contemplating... Tiberias, Sea of Galilee, Israel, 2022. (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde himself.) We're in the final stretch! Some of the best rooms I've saved for last...and here they are. Daedalus Audio/VAC/Lampizator/WyWires In the Daedalus/VAC/LampizatOr/WyWires room…delicious! Going into this space was a reminder of why I always enjoy... Read More »

Sonic dynamite in a small package. Review By Maurice Jeffries With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music where Maurice Jefferies shares his thoughts on the SVS 3000 Micro Subwoofer. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief I have a confession to make! Steven R. Rochlin, the Creative Director and guiding light at Enjoy the Music.com, had... Read More »

Analog is resurgent, what with newbies discovering turntables and seasoned audiophiles revisiting reissued vinyl from their ill-spent youth. Digital music is a much more convenient background for other activities, but playing records better rewards attention with involvement; bitsy will just never replace groovy in the listener's lexicon. Blame the pandemic: one can read similar stories... Read More »

Whenever I see a Pure DSD transfer from HDTT, I know they've found an excellent source tape that is in great condition. And these are always wonderful to hear. Recently I started looking around for Ella Fitzgerald recordings at HDTT and I've found four in Pure DSD256 transfers that are well worth bringing to your... Read More »

Black on Black Red October with Western Electric 300Bs and U52s ampsandsound continues to surprise and delight me. Last year it was with the Rockwell, which showed me what a DHT amplifier built around a less well known tube could do. ampsandsound also rolled out the new Agartha and converted their entire lineup (with the... Read More »

Thus far in 2022, HDTT has given us three new and outstanding transfers of well known, and well loved, performances from the RCA Living Stereo catalog. To these, I've added several more of their excellent DXD/DSD256 Living Stereo reissues, plus a final reissue that RCA never released as a Living Stereo, but should have. They... Read More »

Onwards to Part the Third of my Pacific Audio Fest 2022 Photo Essay and Audio Oasis! Awards report... Genesis/Merrill Audio In the Genesis/Merrill Audio space It's hard to know what to say about Gary Koh's good-sized Genesis room, featuring Merrill Wettasinghe's very special next-generation (MX) amplification from Merrill Audio. There was so much really unique... Read More »

Now that Covid has settled down and the supply/demand challenges for components and parts have been shown some relief, it seems that I will have several opportunities to continue my review series for the latest and greatest in high end integrated amplifiers. Past reviews have included products from Pass Labs, D'Agostino, Devialet, T&A, Esoteric, Simaudio,... Read More »

The ocean swells of the recent controversy about Mobile Fidelity and its unannounced (until now) use of DSD256 continue to roil, whether useful or not. Greg Weaver and I had a long conversation about this, provenance, processing, and the (to my mind) vital role that DSD256 has to play in the future of analog LP... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor with some very fine coffee. Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2015. (Photograph by Lila Ritsema.) Time to continue my Pacific Audio Fest 2022 Audio Oasis! Awards. Part the Second, then...onwards! Parasound/Innuos/Marantz/Dr. Feickert/Norstone/Straight Wire/KEF Here's an eyeful of an earful of a fine-sounding room… The Parasound/Innuos/KEF/etc. room featured some designs from companies that I knew…JC... Read More »

Did you happen to know that one of Planet Earth's great writers, Garrett Hongo is also a music lover and audiophile?  That's right, Garrett Hongo is one of us. Garrett has written over thirty works in over seventy publications, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1988 for The River of Heaven,... Read More »

This will be the best sounding digital reissue of Kind of Blue in your collection. There. I said it. No waffling around. This reissue is stunningly good. If you don't run and get it NOW, you will kick yourself for not having done so sooner once you finally hear it. Miles Davis - Kind of... Read More »

This issue of Notes on Recent Finds includes a mix of recordings found at NativeDSD. Several albums are from the quite remarkable Sono Luminus label, whose recordings (by engineer Daniel Shores) are supremely good. I've written about their albums in other articles. I'm including three more here. Also included is a delightful new recording from... Read More »

RAVEL: Orchestral Works, volume 2. The Philharmonia/Geoffrey Simon. Cala CACD 1005.  TT: 75.42 Rapsodie espagnole. Le gibet (orch. Goossens). Five O'Clock Foxtrot (orch. Palmer). Piano Concerto in G (Gwendolyn Mok, piano). Pavane pour une infante défunte. Pièce en forme de habañera (orch. Hoérée; Han de Vries, oboe). Daphnis et Chloé: Suite 2. I picked up... Read More »