More and more interesting devices come to us from countries that, not that long ago, seemed to have nothing to offer for audiophiles, and today, to many people's of the West surprise, these countries deliver some widely appreciated products. Fortunately, as Heraklitus said, panta rhei. Many companies from behind Iron Curtain today are recognized an... Read More »
Audio consumers only want to know one thing: "Is it worth it?" You can write, speak, sing, or finger paint about audio products all you want, but nobody stops reading and starts buying until cash equals contentment. What's more, determining value is a tricky thing. The glamor goods have it easy. Speakers the size of... Read More »
As we move along the time continuum, expectations are that activities or whatever will become easier and easier. That is, what was time consuming and laborious, is now, and should become, faster and less difficult. These are the goals of a modern society. Which does not mean to make tasks or activities less fun or... Read More »
THE Show Newport Beach 2015, held on May 28-31, is in the books now…and what a show it was! Upwards of 9,000 people were in attendance…crowds everywhere…a terrific time for audiophiles from all over. Looking back on all of the audio shows that I've attended over the past 26 years, I'd say that this year's... Read More »
One of the interesting exhibits at the recent High End Audio show in Munich earlier this year featured Horch House. For those of you who aren't familiar with the company, Horch House is the analog audio division of Lutz Precision, a worldwide leader in auto making equipment based in Austria. While it probably seems a... Read More »
This article was originally published in Issue 26 of Positive Feedback. I decided to republish it because I've gotten the bug to write another article with some more perfect songs. Back when I wrote this article it seemed like I was a topic for discussion on message boards. I was everyone's favorite target because I... Read More »
If you love DSD downloads as much as I do, but haven't yet heard of High Definition Tape Transfers, then brother, let me do you a big favor. Some of the best DSD downloads now available in classical music and jazz are coming from Bob Witrak and his operation over at HDTT. Possessed of a... Read More »
The Always Unimaginable Future The First World War pre-dated the arrival of vivid sonic capture. It's not difficult to imagine that—despite the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, which let loose animosities ready for release after Europe's and Asia's 1870 conflicts—almost anything might have helped stave off the disaster of that delusional... Read More »
The first time I listened to music with the Dragonfly was with a pair of Audeze LCD-XCs and a SubPac S2 Tactile Bass Ssytem! It sounded great, and the SubPac made it so much better. I've been using the Dragonfly with a pair of Sennheiser HD7s (with cushion pads) - and I'll be talking about them more soon.
Aight... (like "alright" in Brooklyn-slang) Time for a new sorta' Top Ten List here at Positive Feedback. We gotta slap some Sonic Satori flava on this one. First off however, I've got to give shout-outs to Dr. D (a.k.a David Robinson) for coming up with a kick-ass word that spawned the title (Aural—as it was initially called the... Read More »
For whatever reason, despite my best intentions, until now I've never had a chance to listen to any product of Austrian company Trenner&Friedl in my room. Sure, I listened to a few models during shows, also in friend's system, but never at home, never in my system. Each time I listened though, I was truly... Read More »
The latest Compact Disc player manufactured by the Japanese company C.E.C. (which I am going to simplify to CEC in this article), which was launched at the end of the last year, is officially called "CEC Belt Drive CD Player CD 5" (with the note: "USB Sound System - 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD128/5.6MHz"). So, everything... Read More »
It is with heavy hearts that we must share with you the sad news of the passing of a legendary man. Last night, the evening of November 4th, Harry Hall Pearson Jr. passed away peacefully in his home in Sea Cliff, NY, at the age of 77.
On Friday, after T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach—actually in Irvine—California, I went to dinner with PS Audio's Paul McGowan and company: Arnie Nudell, Bill Leebens, Scott Schroeder and Paul's son, Scott. Ostensibly, I was there to talk about something Paul wants to do that will probably involve me. But the talk took an interesting direction.... Read More »
When I speak about meeting Dan Clark of MrSpeakers I often talk about buying his original Mad Dog headphones without even listening to em! I was at one of our Los Angeles Head-Fi Meets a couple years ago, and my friend Jude Mansilla (Founder of Head-Fi.org) went to his booth and bought a pair. All I needed to hear was that the MD were a pair of closed-back planar magnetic headphones - and since Jude bought em on the spot, I figured they were good. Well, Jude was on as usual. Not only did Dan Clark give me a wonderful gift: The planar magnetic headphones experience without bothering others around me - they're also a damn good pair a' cans!
What kind of a watch does James Bond wear? That's easy; everybody knows that, at least as written by Ian Fleming, it's a Rolex Oyster Perpetual. Now, what kind of a car does he drive? Odds are that, whether in a book or a movie, it's an Aston-Martin, a Lotus, a BMW, or a Bentley... Read More »
Lets prove em' wrong. Many people think quality appreciators are snobs. Now, if you are a dweeby-snob get the fuck off my page - or, rather, STAY ON IT - But the truth is many of us MUSIC ADDICTS are tired of the ol' school high end audio BULLSHIT. I'm not interested in debate over this either. Truth is: I worked for the man, and most importantly, I honored the man who coined the fuckin' term. GET OVER IT. I have!
Singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett cites a poster hanging in her Grandmother's bathroom when she was a child as inspiration for the title of her first full-length album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom+Pop Records MP221-2). Distilling the mundane into lyrical profundity extends beyond just the titular for Barnett, whose songs on... Read More »
To reiterate from Part 1... Before we get to our show report... here are a few general thoughts on shows and the people who attend: People count, in most cases, more than gear. You have to have an emotional connection to whatever is playing, so if your room is empty it might be because you... Read More »
At last! And welcome! The NEW-LOOK Positive Feedback Web site will be going live on July 1, 2015, with the launch of Issue 80. You'll see that we've spent an enormous lot of time, effort, and money to take PF to a state-of-the-art new publication system. The results speak for themselves, as you'll see: A... Read More »
Sagebrush Rebellion Papillon Recordings BluePort Jazz, BPJ-024 Producer: Dmitri Matheny Recording Engineer: Jim Merod Mastered by: Jim Merod and Steve McCormack Recorded Live at Dizzy's in San Diego, CA, 11/29/13 [Image courtesy of Dmitri Matheny and BluPort Jazz] Dedicated to the artistry of Art Farmer, four stellar jazz musicians (Dmitri Matheny on flugelhorn, Nick Manson playing piano,... Read More »
Bartok. Sonatas for Violin Nos. 1 and 2; Sonata for Solo Violin. Barnabás Kelemen, violin; Zoltán Kocsis, piano. Hungaroton HSACD 32515. SACD. How do you like your Bartok? Do you like Bartok? It took me several years to persuade a good fellow graduate student (who knew a lot about music) to believe me when I... Read More »
The past few years I've been pretty soured on the whole Audio Show routine. Too much excessively high priced equipment being demonstrated to appeal to a smaller and smaller market of ultra rich clients, left me feeling I'd be more welcome in a yacht club membership committee meeting than most of the rooms exhibiting at... Read More »
Before we get to our show report... here are a few general thoughts on shows and the people who attend: People count, in most cases, more than gear. You have to have an emotional connection to whatever is playing, so if your room is empty it might be because you are playing music that is... Read More »
NuWave DSD is now available! PS Audio, makers of fine audio components since 1974, is excited to announce the availability of the NuWave DSD DAC. With an MSRP of $1,299 (US), DSD capability, unrivalled connectivity and sound quality that will remind you of DirectStream, we think the NuWave DSD will be the new class leader.... Read More »
Watch David Robinson and Peter Breuninger of AV Showrooms.com, share their thoughts on the THE Show Newport 2015 on YouTube Part 2 Courtesy of AV Showrooms
Watch David Robinson and Peter Breuninger of AV Showrooms.com, share their thoughts on the THE Show Newport 2015 on YouTube Part 1 Courtesy of AV Showrooms
Watch David Robinson and Myles Astor, along with Peter Breuninger of AV Showrooms.com, share their final thoughts on the 2015 AXPONA Show on YouTube. Courtesy of AV Showrooms.
Last late Winter… or early, early pre-Spring, depending on how you prefer your "pretty much the same with some slight differences, though not really all that much" seasons here is SoCal, I found myself staring at John Young's Acoustic Imagery Atsah (Htpex NCore 1200 Class D power amplifiers, $9995/ pair based on the Hypex NC1200... Read More »
Dan Schmalle, Paul Stubblebine and Mike Romanowski, aka The Tape Project's tres amigos, are more than anyone else responsible for putting the reels back in motion. When my first Tape Project piece appeared in the virtual pages of PF some six years ago now (Issue 46), these folks were the only game in town; today... Read More »
The recent edition of THE Show Newport was held at the Hotel Irvine and featured not only a host of audio exhibits and demonstrations, but also a series of seminars titled "Audio University". One of these sessions focused on the similarities between Single, Double, and Quad bit rate DSD and Analog Recording. The panelists have... Read More »
I missed the golden age of stereo, I've said it before and that really sucks. By the time I got a job at Pearson Publishing, home of The Absolute Sound magazine in 1994 (where other mags also lived, like The Perfect Vision & Films in Review) the party was nearing its end.
Verastarr Grand Illusion AC power cords ($2500 in 6 foot length) use high purity copper metal foils and produce a musical presentation that is big, bold, and robust. Not to be clichéd here, but being a copper-based cable, and using lots of copper to address skin effect with its four 2-inch wide foils, music with... Read More »
If you're an audiophile, you realize at some point that digital spinning discs won't be around forever. Although that realization hit me several years ago, it took quite a while before I really decided to get serious about a digital source based on a computer. I'd heard several computer-based rigs at shows, and what I... Read More »
Avec l'assistance de M. Bastille "We sang songs of childhood Hymns of faith that made us strong Ones that mother Maybelle taught us Hear the angels sing along" —"Will the Circle be Unbroken" by Johnny Cash OK, first I have to admit something. I'm about to receive an Ayre QB-9 DSD as my new reference... Read More »
Best New Product in Show DPA has come out with something new, a vocal microphone using their existing 4000-series capsules. You can order it as an omni, cardioid, or hypercardioid, and you can order it as a a handheld mike or as a head that fits onto a number of standard wireless systems. These are very... Read More »
