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MUNICH → TOKYO → KRAKOW This is the story of how wireless, in-ear headphones belonging to the top-of-the-line "8000" series, model ZE8000, turned into my personal headphones, not only in the sense that I became their owner, but that they were personalized specifically for me. And it's not at all about cosmetics, appearance or equipment.... Read More »

Acoustic Revive is a Japanese company founded in 1997 and led by Mr. Ken Ishiguro. It specializes in audio signal cables, anti-vibration products, but also has a range of innovative products, the ideas behind which usually come from the University of Tokyo. We are testing a system for data transmission and LAN conditioning. When, at... Read More »

Varèse Sarabande is a specialty imprint of Craft Recordings, and is one of the world's most prolific producers of motion picture and television soundtrack recordings. While originally established in 1972 as an avant garde classical music label, it has since found a successful niche specializing in the release of film scores, original soundtrack recordings, and... Read More »

If you follow the channel, you will likely be familiar with my take on the superb Ideon Absolute digital suite of gear from Greece which dropped here with Episode 163, February 2024. But in January of 2024, Ideon announced that the remarkable Epsilon DAC had seen an upgrade and is now in production as the... Read More »

During the third week in June, 2024, I was invited to attend a limited press event in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The event was sponsored by Monarch Systems, based in Englewood, CO, Siltech’s US Distributor, to introduce and promote the launch of Siltech’s new flagship line of cables, Master Crown. I reported on that event... Read More »

With Episode 181, “Siltech's Master Crown Cable,” from June 30th of 2024, I shared my experiences from the Master Crown cable introductory press event held in Santa Fe by Siltech’s US Distributor, Monarch Systems, just ten days earlier.   Today I want to share some of the most significant portions of a conversation I had... Read More »

It’s amazing how much things can change in just one short year…especially if you are driven. In Episode 138: A New Listening Room - From Scratch, which dropped just over a year ago on September 3rd, 2023, we focused on a brand new listening room, designed and constructed by my audio buddy of some two... Read More »

I am absolutely thrilled to bring you this conversation I had in Long Valley, NJ, on September 12, with loudspeaker design legend, Laurence Dickie. “Dic,” as he is known to his friends and colleagues, and I had a nice conversation about why he implemented his Reaction Cancelling Compliant Mounting of woofers, and how that allows... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor the seeker:  A moment in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel, 2022 (photograph by John Robinson). Well, actually from Long Valley, NJ, the home base of Bill Parish and GTT Audio.  Because there's significant news from that site. Those of you who have been following my reviews, photo essays, and commentary over the years, you... Read More »

Dean Waters with Cigar:  a study. 2023 Pacific Audio Fest, Seatac, WA (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Throughout our lives we encounter special moments that are so transformative that we know that we will always remember exactly where we were and what we were doing the moment they occur. If you're old enough,... Read More »

Perhaps the principal joy in attending audio shows is sitting and auditioning insanely expensive speakers, many with six-figure price tags. As long as I live, I will never tire of it. If nothing else, it puts everything in the audio world into some sort of perspective. At the most recent AXPONA, I heard plenty of... Read More »

I live on the fourteenth floor of an apartment building on a busy avenue in NYC. Even this high up with the windows closed, the sounds of the city—automobile horns, pulsating boom boxes, people arguing—filter in. It's annoying, especially when I'm having a session. Unexpectedly, though, I found it sets up a good test. If... Read More »

I admit to being skeptical. In 2023 when Gary Gill and Lou Hinkley announced their plan to hold a new HiFi show called Southwest Audio Fest in Dallas Texas March 15-17, 2024 my first reaction was "does North America need another high-end audio show?" Apparently, it is not about needs, rather wants. And the Dallas... Read More »

When singer, songwriter, disco diva, and queer icon Sylvester walked onto the stage of San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House on March 11, 1979, it would prove to be not only an important pinnacle in his all too brief career, but also a historic moment for the city's LGBTQ+ community. The evening would become a... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment's High Fidelity Premium Vinyl Series continues with a pair of classic LP reissues from influential country rock performers Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, both of whose lives and music were inseparably entwined. Included are Gram Parsons' second and final studio album (and his undeniable masterpiece), Grievous Angel (Reprise Records, 1974), along with Emmylou... Read More »

Harold Tichenor continues his series of articles on reel-to-reel tape in this article on restoration copies. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief Harold Tichenor at work on a RTR setup... Restoration copies are made from tapes that are deteriorating through wear, age, or inherent flaws. They are the means of assuring that the content is not... Read More »

Craft Recordings' revival of the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series continues with another pair of exciting new 180 gram LP reissues. Including The New Miles Davis Quintet's classic 1956 session Miles (Prestige Records), along with a noteworthy collaboration between trumpeter Clark Terry and Thelonious Monk, 1958's In Orbit (Riverside Records). Both are landmark recordings of... Read More »

Roger Skoff doesn't write about sour grapes In a previous article, I wrote about how one manufacturer of exceptionally fine High-End audio electronics had had to raise the price of his products in order to be able to sell them. It was all a vicious cycle that worked like this: In order to get the... Read More »

There are few if any male rock voices that I find more interesting and pleasing than the one possessed by Alex Chilton (1950-2010) during the sixties. The gritty, soulful, and expressive voice that Chilton used during his tenure with The Box Tops never, to my knowledge, reemerged on recordings after 1970. Rock historians are quick... Read More »