I first met Merrill Wettasinghe at AXPONA 2014 where he was showing his Veritas monoblock amplifiers with Sadurni horn speakers. It was quite an incredible system, and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. After enjoying the Merrill Audio room once again at the 2015 show, Mr. Wettasinghe offered to send me his... Read More »
Never in my wildest imagination did I ever foresee myself facing a mountain of reel-to-reel tapes to review in 2015. Sure, some of the backlog is directly traceable to summer AC problems that halted my reviewing for over two months. At the same time, however, it's also an indication of just how many new companies... Read More »
In this brief jotting, Dan Zimmerman, Contributing Artist to Positive Feedback, continues his meditations upon art, music, and creativity. Some of these will be longer…others, shorter. But all of these reflect the understanding of creativity, the arts (including the audio arts), and spirituality in our ongoing search for the transcendent in our lives. Selah. To... Read More »
Yarlung Records announced the release of a new addition to its critically acclaimed series of 45 RPM LPs on 180–gram vinyl, mastered by Steve Hoffman andBob Attiyeh with vinyl mastering by Bernie Grundman. The Janaki String Trio is featured in performances of Krzysztof Penderecki’s String Trio and Jason Barabba’s String Trio in four movements. Alan Rich writes: The short, two-movement String Trio of Krzysztof Penderecki... Read More »
At CES 2016, Audio-Technica will be debuting some of its most significant new products ever, all embodying our CES 2016 theme: "A Higher Level of Listening." New product highlights include the following: An exciting new turntable and Hi-Res Audio compliant SonicPro® headphones will make their debut. Be sure to come see these products including a... Read More »
Seeking to fill a void between exorbitantly priced "snake oil" solutions and bare bones, point A to point B audio accessories, Ohio-based SVS proudly launches the SVS SoundPath audio accessories line. Whether it’s an interconnect cable to hook up a subwoofer or other component, a bass management fix to eliminate room artifacts, or speaker cables... Read More »
So yeah… been a crazy year. Not as much reviewed as we had hoped for, but yes… a few items did pass through our doorway and into our system getting us all warm and fuzzy. For Carol and I, well, we like things we review to be not too pricey… more about reasonable and not... Read More »
[Here's the final installment of my Brutus Awards for 2015. It covers software, music, and our special PF Lifetime Achievement Award (posthumous) for my dear friend, Bobby Palkovic. This has been a ton of writing to complete the Brutus Awards this year; I hope that you find them to be helpful as you continue in your own... Read More »
Schubert Quintet LIve! A Live Recording of the Schubert's cello quintet by the Brentano Quartet with Michael Kammen. Azica Records. ACD 17304. Whenever I forget what suavity is, I listen to the Brentano Quartet to remind myself. The Brentanos employ suavity to evoke the 'classic' quality of Mozart, Beethoven, and here, Schubert. They are not... Read More »
[Here's the second part of my Brutus Awards for 2015. Part three will appear within the next day or so.] Cables TARA Labs Zero Evolution interconnects and Omega Evolution speaker cables and AC power cables The TARA Labs Omega Evolution speaker cable, in tandem with the Audionet MAX monoblock amplifier. (Photograph by David W. Robinson)... Read More »
The saga, or journey, continues with my Auralic Aries adventures. In my last Ramblings (HERE) I shared my experiences with upping the Aires' performance quite a bit via the Certon C4 Integrita NAS, the HDPLEX linear power supply for the Neatgear switch and WiFi units, various tweeks and gadgets (for example the RLI-1 LAN Isolator... Read More »
Gather around, audiosports fans! It's that time of year again…Positive Feedback's Brutus Awards season. At the end of each year, my unindicted co-conspirator Dave Clark and I give our Positive Feedback awards. These are our annual "best stuff we heard this year" plaudits. No padding, crap, junk food, or meaningless drivel here: Just the righteous... Read More »
Spatial sound has developed mainly thanks to the cinema. The first stereophonic system was Fantasound, created by Walt Disney's engineers to be used in Fantasia—an animated film from the year 1940. At that time, the term "stereophonic" was not synonymous with "two-channel"—sound was recorded on three tracks, based on research carried out by Graham Bell... Read More »
Best Sound in Show The 78 project brought in a live acoustic band, Sean Walsh and Ray Williams, sat them down in the conference room, stuck a microphone in front of them and recorded them with a portable Presto lathe. The recording, well, it sounded like something out of an old Presto, but the band... Read More »
As always, I enjoy writing about a professional audio conference for the high end community. The AES show is really two things, it's a bunch of people upstairs selling hardware mostly to professional production people, and it's a different bunch of people downstairs talking about science and technology. What makes the AES different from other... Read More »
If you've been following my OccupyHifi On-The-Road series, you know it's been a crazy, shit, I'm sorry, it's been a crazy muthafuckin' year! OK, so I got it outta my system straight out the gate. If you can't move past that bullshit I still can't help you. Stop hatin' and move on to the polite section of the interwebs. I tried to hide how heavily this twenty-year divorce journey affected me earlier on Occupy.
I didn't expect Geoff Merrigan, Tellurium Q's CEO, to offer a new flagship model so quickly after the release of the Ultra Silver. It was/is an excellent cable and it came from a company that has quite a stable portfolio, that does not have to use any and every novelty that comes to the market.... Read More »
People. What makes shows such fun. Couldn't, didn't get enough, but here are few of our many friends that make attending shows such a great time...
Astell & Kern. GamuT, Audio Skies, Pear Audio Blue, Lucky Dog Audio. GTT Audio, Audionet, Kronos, Kubala Sosna, YG Acoustics. Kii Audio, Audionet, GTT Audio. PranaFidelity, Kuzma, Luxman, Kubala Sosna, Kouldb Tape. Kuzma Stabi-Reference 2 turntable, Technics RS 1500 reel to reel, Luxman D-06u SACD/CD player, PranaFidelity purna/ma amplifier $8950, PranaFidelity purna/ca preamplifier, PranaFidelity Vayu/fs... Read More »
Dear Analog Tape Enthusiast: Coming December 1st from Opus 3 Records is the "One" Sampler Vol. V Analog Tape. The 5th Analog Sampler Tape in this series from Opus 3 Records features 8 tracks from the coveted Tape Vault of Opus 3 Records. Besides being a Showcase for what Opus 3 Records recorded strictly analogue,... Read More »
Miles Stratton is a dedicated PC Gamer. He's also the son of Russ Stratton, (VP of Audio/Video Systems at the Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society) and a dear friend of mine. Russ is also a diehard audiophile and fellow music addict.
Phase Three: The Search is Over! This is final installment of my three-part series on upgrading my turntable. I've made low budget isolation tweaks, added fabulous accessories, and modified the tonearm wiring and the counterweight. The last piece of the musical puzzle was adding a new phono cartridge. While I let the cartridge choice out of the bag... Read More »
Cynics and Saints was recorded at Immersive Studios direct to DSD via Meitner converters to Sonoma. The entire album is DSDPure Available for download in DSD, 176/24, 96/24, and 88/24 at: http://store.acousticsounds.com Denver, CO After three and a half years of sweat, pain, tears and love - and even a little bit of blood -... Read More »
I like surprises. I especially like them when they bushwhack me. You know…when I'm not looking and all. This doesn't happen in audioville very often. Usually there's a reasonable expectation of the quality of what I'm going to hear when products come in for review. Most of my review projects are by invitation; I generally... Read More »
Audience Debuts Its Improved ClairAudient 1+1-V2 Loudspeaker And Introduces 1+1-V2 “+ Kit” Option San Marcos, CA, November 9, 2015 – Audience today announced the introduction of its ClairAudient 1+1-V2 loudspeaker, incorporating upgraded drivers to deliver even greater sonic realism than the original version of the 1+1. In addition, an available “+ kit” takes the 1+1-V2’s... Read More »
Westchester, New York, November 6, 7 & 8 Roaming the sparsely populated halls of the Rye Brook Westchester Hilton during opening day of "New York Audio Show 15," the event looked to be a bust. Instead of the usual throng of audiophile fiends blocking access to popular rooms, one could stroll the show's two floors,... Read More »
Now, more than ever, the audiophile world is awash with digital to analogue converters. Not a day seems to pass by without entry to the market of yet another shiny box sporting the latest chipset and the ability to decipher the Enigma code. Sarcasm notwithstanding, the audiophile kingdom has a plethora of choice at its... Read More »
Audiophiles are often use to trying many different methods and ways of thinking to improve the sound of their playback systems. One can find countless varieties of tweaks, accessories, and approaches to produce even small changes in the audibility of our favorite music and sound recordings. But one of the least understood of these is... Read More »
The TAVES Consumer Electronics Show is one event that I always look forward to. It is, by far, the show with the friendliest crowd that I have ever encountered any high-end audio show that I have attended over the past 35 years. It is also very well organized and always features a good number of... Read More »
"How can I even try I can never win Hearing them, seeing them in the state I'm in" —"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by Lennon–McCartney I haven't written a column on digital music servers in a very long time, and I think that's because I haven't really had anything new to say. Everything... Read More »
New Seasons. Gidon Kremer. Glass, Pärt, Kanchelli, Unabeyashi. Kremerata Baltica. Deutsche Gramophone. DG 4794817. Violinist Gidon Kremer is a musical phenomenon most of us have come to admire and even love. His energetic and (at least to my ears) near vibrato-less sound brings a vigorous directness to everything he plays from Bach to Glass. In... Read More »
I have to confess. Since moving away from CDs and other physical digital media (at least from a playback standpoint) I actually listen to music digitally more than I ever imagined I would. Looking back over the last year or so, I probably have more actual listening time using my budget digital server system than... Read More »
Irvine, California November 4th, 2015 – Synergistic Research introduces the World's Highest Resolution cables for Audeze and Sennheiser headphones - Atmosphere Series Headphone Cables. MSRP $ 695.00 / 2.5 Meter Atmosphere Headphone Cables for Sennheiser and Audeze feature: The world's first use of Graphene in a headphone cable. Graphene is a room temperature super conductor... Read More »
STOW, OH, November 3, 2015 — This holiday season, Audio-Technica offers gift ideas that make music more enjoyable and fun. Bringing unmatched convenience to listeners anywhere and everywhere, the all-new ATH-ANC40BT QuietPoint® wireless Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones are here just in time for the holiday season. Audio-Technica’s ATH-ANC70 and ATH-ANC33iS noise-cancelling headphones combine standard-setting noise-cancellation with... Read More »
So there is a lot to see and hear at RMAF. So much, that just getting to the majority of rooms, saying hello, taking a few shots, and giving a quick listen becomes not only mind boggling, but physically boggling. So here is Part 2. Will have a lot more to say in the conclusion.... Read More »
Always a great time, but man are we getting old. Hard to do the shows like we used to in the past... just not able to make all the rooms nor sit and spend any amount of time. When we did, we found ourselves too beat to get up and continue. Even so, we did hear... Read More »
Some of the DSD Stereo Downloads at HDtracks Two years ago at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver, Acoustic Sounds and Native DSD announced their new music download sites that would feature Direct Stream Digital (DSD) downloads. At the same show, Sony Electronics introduced a family of Digital Music Servers and Converters that would... Read More »
