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The world of digital audio progresses through a perpetual cycle of change, with a continual improvement process occurring that allows a listener to experience a degree of sonic excellence that was only hinted at when the compact disc was first introduced. In some cases these changes are driven by increasing sophistication of chip sets or... Read More »

When something is not as advertised, I have no problem calling it out. So it was when music streaming came along. I read reviews, heard the demos, and my ears told me it was a step backwards, plus it was always crashing. I stayed on the sidelines until about four years ago when my DAC... Read More »

Robinson reflecting… (portrait by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde Editor) Prologue… At long last, after 2.5 years of pandemic interruption and scheduling conflicts, I was finally able to get to an audio show…and not a moment too soon. The Pacific Audio Fest was held from July 29-31 in SeaTac, WA, at the Hilton... Read More »

A special Positive Feedback guest editorial from John Marks, J.D. and James Tuomy, AES John Marks has been a longtime audio friend of mine, and a respected member of audiophile recording and loudspeaker design community. He recently approached me to publish a technical paper that he and James Tuomy had written regarding proposed modifications to the... Read More »

In the early days of our hobby, one reviewer reigned supreme. From his first "test report," in 1957, until his retirement in 1998, Julian Hirsch is said to have written— either as himself, or as Hirsch-Houck Laboratories—some 4000 "laboratory test reports" on the hi-fi equipment of his time. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Hirsch). All of those were, reminiscent of... Read More »

James Gang, Bang, SD 7037, ATCO Records, 1973 By the end of the 1960s, following the emergence of such dynamic UK-based trios as Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, one of the brightest trios to appear on the subsequent American scene was the James Gang. Though founded by drummer Jim Fox in 1966 with fellow... Read More »

Time for another article about recent finds that I think you may enjoy. These are once again albums from HDTT and this time they're all jazz—hope you don't mind. Many are Pure DSD256 transfers, so the sound quality is pure, clean and transparent. You'll find my earlier Notes on Recent Finds article HERE. Today we're... Read More »

The following is an interview with recording engineer Bert van der Wolf, chief recording engineer, producer and founder of Northstar Recording Services, many of whose wonderful recordings have been reviewed at Positive Feedback (see list of reviews HERE). He records frequently for the Challenge Classics label whose DSD64 releases are available through NativeDSD (see HERE).... Read More »

Bert van der Wolf is one of the best recording engineers in the business today. His recordings have only gotten better and better over the years as he's been able to incorporate into his recording chain the latest developments in high end technology. I've written many times in these pages about various of his recordings... Read More »

This article by John Zurek originally ran in Issue 31, May/June 2007, so while we call this section "New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print" you are also going to see some articles from our early days of going online. It started out innocently enough. One of the spikes broke—my fault—on my... Read More »

Chantal Chamberland's Soirée. Evosound (HERE) A re-issue is always an interesting temporal situation. As listeners we are invited to experience the excitement of the new simultaneously with the comfort of the familiar. Just such an invitation appears with the Hybrid SACD release of French-Canadian jazz singer Chantal Chamberland's Soirée. With her smoky voice and whole-hearted... Read More »

Chris Sommovigo, sharing a beer with me at AXPONA 2019 (Photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Chris Sommovigo passed away at his home in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday, August 15, 2022. Another really good man gone to glory. Apparently, Chris came home an hour early on the day that he died, complaining that... Read More »

You can have your cake and eat it too. Review By Paul Schumann With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music where Paul Schumann shares his thoughts on the LUMIN U2 Mini Music Streamer. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief Shortly after I was born, my dad put together his dream audio system. It... Read More »

SoulNote is a Japanese company, founded in 2004 by the ex-director of Marantz Nippon, an engineer, Mr. Norinaga Nakazawa. It specializes in the construction of solid-state amplifiers, phono preamplifiers and digital sources from the middle and upper price range. We are testing its P-3 Special Edition linestage. Mr. Norinaga Nakazawa, co-founder of the SoulNote brand,... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage of the Pacific Audio Fest. Songer Audio, Whammerdyne. Images below. Simply stunning products. Clearly "not another black box with a knob" thing. Plus, for another single-driver room, it sounded rather good. Beautiful. Ansuz, Aavik, Børresen, a second room. Images below. Peter Hansen with Alan Kafton doing his best to not... Read More »

Die dänische Marke Raidho ist weltbekannt für ihre High-End-Lautsprecher. In der Topreihe TD ist die TD1.2 das „kleinste“ Modell. Gehen Sie mit mir der spannenden Frage nach, wie groß und gut ein Kompaktlautsprecher wirklich spielen kann, wenn der Aufwand auf die Spitze getrieben wird.