As personal audio enthusiasts, most of us have a decent portable rig to get us through the day. Occasionally, it becomes our only rig for days (or weeks) at a time during business trips or vacations. However, we always sleep soundly knowing that we'll come home to our reference rigs - eventually - where bliss awaits. But what if there was no home rig to come back to?
Matrix Audio is a Chinese manufacturer of amps and DACs that have garnered global praise in the last few years. The original M-Stage was their breakout hit in the West. It caused some waves on Head-Fi (lots of heavy discussions) with its stellar performance and optional DAC addition
A new life awaited me. From everything that I've read, this would be an entirely new lifestyle, one that that wasn't about working the extra hours towards more money, one that focused on enjoying life to the fullest extent possible. And, for me, one filled with excitement
The moment the Matrix Audio Mini-i Pro landed on our doorsteps and we took a listen, we knew that you guys (our readers) had to hear about it
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
I might as well come out and admit it. I've been a big fan of Oppo Digital and their product lines since I first tried them out, years ago now. I think that I've been through almost every one of their players from way back when. That would include the DV-983 DVD/audio player…don't think that... Read More »
"I don't know where I'm gonna live I don't know if I'll find a place I'd have to think about it some And that I do not wish to face I guess I'm counting on His Divine intervention" —"Divine Intervention" by Matthew Sweet I was looking at the Berkeley Audio Design's new reference DAC via... Read More »
I've really had a lot of fun listening to vintage McIntosh vacuum tube audio electronics in my hi-fi system over the last year. The McIntosh MX110Z tuner/preamplifier, the MC30 monaural amplifiers, and the MC225 & MC240 stereo amplifiers were available as new products during the time period between 1954 and 1969, depending on the model,... Read More »
Julian Hirsch was co-founder of Hirsch-Houck Labs, which for many years was the leading test organization in the HiFi industry, and provided the technical analysis for quite literally thousands of reviews in the mainstream audio and electronics publications of the time. In all of his writings for everything he wrote for, even his monthly "Technical Talk"... Read More »
With my forays of the last few years into computer-based audio, I've really come to appreciate the lowly compact disc. Even though the prevailing logic would tell me that they're on the way out—very much like LPs were on the way out when the CD appeared in 1981, right? I think just about everyone has... Read More »
Cookie Marenco of Blue Coast Records and Dominique Brulhart of Merging Technologies at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, 2014 (Photograph and processing by David W. Robinson) [By way of introduction, Cookie Marenco just recently took David Pogue, a long-time mainstream audio/technology writer, and now at Yahoo, to task for his evident cluelessness about high-resolution audio.... Read More »
Yes, I've used the same Linn LP12 turntable since 1984. It was a big deal for me, buying it back then, for a few reasons: At $1370, including the Ittok arm and Valhalla power supply, it was fairly expensive at the time. It certainly was a lot of money for me, being just four years... Read More »
Been awhile since I have had either the time or the desire to sit down and write about audio—let alone even spend much if any time listening to music. Too many personal and other things have happened this past year or so that have consumed all my time and energy. So most days my music... Read More »
"A smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth you said that irony was the shackles of youth you wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh I never understood the frequency, uh-huh" —"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" by REM As Slim Pickens' character says in the film Dr. Strangelove, "Well, I've been to one world fair, a... Read More »
Everyone takes the limits of their own vision for the limits of the world. – Arthur Schopenhauer DEDICATION To J. Gordon Holt and Harry Pearson, who regrettably missed out on beholding their own antecedents, which both would have so enjoyed reading. Our modern times have been blessed with a copious amount of writing about music reproduction.... Read More »
Petra and Dan D'Agostino are two of the rare ones. Yes, Dan's legacy is firmly locked in place after Krell Industries and now his Dan D'Agostino Master Audio product lines. To say the least, Dan is an industry Icon, but he is much more than this and has much more to do. I think he... Read More »
ALO's Studio Six has been an integral part of the heart-and-soul of my beloved Sonic Satori Personal Audio Lab since its inception. What the hell is the SSPAL? For the un-initiated: I've been working on a range of headphone systems that, IMHO, reproduce some of the most musically-engaging, excitable, and sonically addictive music playback experiences I could find.... Read More »
Most regular readers of Positive Feedback know of my long-time passion for vacuum tube electronics. I've enjoyed the musical prowess and sonic chops of contemporary artisan-designed single-ended amplifiers with various output tubes, like the EL84, 45, 2A3, 300B, F2a, and 845 output valves; as well as inspired push-pull amplifiers using KT88, EL84, KT66, EL34, KT90 outputs, and... Read More »
This article was published recently by our good friends at NativeDSD.com (see HERE). In it, Ted Brady makes some useful distinctions and clarifies some definitions about DSD. Given the growing interest in DSD, and the excellence of Ted's commentary, it is our belief that this article will benefit the readers of Positive Feedback. His remarks are presented... Read More »
Clothes may make the man, but what do loudspeakers make you? Sure, we all wish the fashion police would drape a hazmat pancho over that ratty Dynaco Dynamite! T-shirt stretched tight as tube top on your audio buddy. But who is in charge of equally egregious audio disasters like the ear-shredding "faithful to the source" experiment? What... Read More »
We can't hear the absolute absolutely. Our ears are organic matter evolved over generations of overlapping genes. No two are exactly alike, including our own, just as no two ears located at the slightly lopsided extremities of a bumpy skull are diametrically synchronized. Add to that that both can't be equally sensitive to sound or deteriorate at... Read More »
The Walker Audio Proscenium Black Diamond Level V Reference Turntable Slow train comin'… First things first. Those of you who haven't already read my extensive review of the Audionet reference system elsewhere in this issue (HERE) need to stop right here, go to that essay, and complete it before going on with this one. It... Read More »
A couple of years ago, I promised Positive Feedback readers that I'd tackle a few topics on which I was less than proficient. As an audiophile and audio writer, I've learned an amazing amount in the past 15 years, yet I am inexperienced in a few subsets of high-end audio. And even though I've been listening to... Read More »
Forget the obvious "fairies" wisecrack for a moment, and think about this: Although the internet is thick with guys out there playing the "Troll", there are no "Anti-trolls" at all―not even one "Blue Fairy." If, like me, you enjoy sharing your thoughts with other people on the internet, whether on Facebook, on Twitter, in some... Read More »
The Pass Labs XA30.5 vs. XA30.8: A Classic Matchup! [In my best Michael Buffer ring announcer voice] Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Pass Labs Class A Lightweight Ch(amp)ionship of the World! In one corner, weighing in at a svelte 62 pounds without cardboard, the reigning champion, XA30.5! In the opposite corner, weighing in at 106 pounds boxed... Read More »
It's hard to take eyes off new iFi products. This British company using logos, letters and design that all look like taken from Luxman, Leak, or Richard Allan products from 60ties or 70 ties, or from present production of Leben, entered a new (for them) niche part of a market usually called "vintage" (if you... Read More »
It must be a real shock for a company that uses some particular material as a key element for its products when it learns that it won't be manufactured anymore by a single provider. If the whole philosophy of a company, which means its all activity, is based on this single element/material the end of... Read More »
The world today relies on charts and measurements and results. And while audiophilia tries hard not to follow the mainstream, pointing out its weaknesses and failures, we should still use this popular "method" of evaluating things, simply because in this particular case it will allow us to save some time. S1 is the latest product of Hong... Read More »
To be honest I can't remember how it started. In my own review of Dionysos preamplifier for January 2011 I wrote that I'd firstly learned about existence of Thrax Audio one year earlier during High End 2010 Show in Munich. But now I really can't remember any details. It seems though that I somehow knew already then... Read More »
One can wonder why so many people at certain age start using expression "I remember that..." more and more often. I can not not remember that several years ago whenever I came across such expression in a text it usually ignited at least some level of aversion towards obviously "advanced" age of its author. Why... Read More »
As I already mentioned once (in the review of Wow Audio Lab L1/M1 amplifier), Audio Show in Warsaw is a place for me to collect information. Not necessarily about the sound but rather about brands, products and people. But I always welcome a nice surprise, I mean a really good sounding system. Such a system, such a... Read More »
Q. What is your background in electronics and how long have you been designing audio circuits? A. I have been designing electronics for a solid 33 years, ever since getting my Electrical Engineering degree. I'm not a lawyer or hobbyist turned designer; I've been designing from day one. My focus has not just been with... Read More »
If you have been following my reviews over the last few years, I have taken a considerable interest in integrated amplifiers. This includes those from Pass Labs, Vitus, D'Agostino, Simaudio, BMC and more. It was not my intent when arriving at CES this year to focus on this subject, but I noticed that there seems... Read More »
Quad DSD (DSD256) is arriving! And I am delighted to say that it is doing so with some albums that makes us sit up and take notice of the powerful virtues of this supreme format. If you don't get what the buzz about DSD is all about…if you think that CDs are "good enough," or... Read More »
Dieterich Buxtehude. Complete Vocal Works, 10 volumes (17 CD's). Ton Koopman. Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Chorus. Challenge Classics. In my long, lost youth, while dating one of three lovely young roommates in the magical Sixties of Cambridge, Massachusetts (all of us in our early twenties), one of the other two announced to us that her... Read More »
Elgar, Symphony No. 1. Cockaigne Overture. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko. Onyx. ONYX4145. Why listen to Elgar? Unless you're British and feel the need for some nostalgic cultural reinforcement? Elgar? Pomp and Circumstance? Though I'll confess to some pleasant moments with the composer'sCello Concerto, I didn't come to this recording for Elgar. I came for Petrenko—the young... Read More »
BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Richard Hickox. Chandos CHAN 9959. TT: 75.48. Enter Spring. Isabella. Two Poems for Orchestra. Mid of the Night. Downloads: amazon.com (mp3); prestoclassical.co.uk (mp3, 320 kbps; FLAC, lossless) Although the present program was originally released in 2001—"old news" at the current rate of digital obsolescence—it's worth fresh attention. We still don't get to hear... Read More »
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