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The Woo Audio WA7tp and the Future of Two Channel Home Audio "It's just a kiss away It's just a kiss away" —"Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones A while back, I wrote that the Woo WA7 high-resolution DAC and all-tube headphone amplifier was possibly the most linear combination I'd heard, particularly for a combined... Read More »

As I was contemplating where to start this review of the Raven Audio Shadow Reference Stereo amp, the words 'natural ease' popped into my head. Why? Because there is a natural ease about this amplifier that is simply captivating. I want to frame this review by outlining my reference system that I dropped the Shadow... 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

(Including an interview with Thomas Gessler, CEO of Audionet) What's that? Things formerly unheard are stirring down below... Some time ago I purchased the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2 (Channel Classics CCS SA 25308, SACD). Less well-known, the second concerto is not programmed or recorded as often as his first, perhaps because the opening Largo contains long sections of... Read More »

Here We Go Again Over many years I've endured hope and disappointment in the service of auditioning and evaluating loud speakers of virtually every sort. At a certain point one becomes braced for the worst or, at least, for the next version of "no cigar" in the process of countervailing but ongoing optimism once again.... Read More »

Since the early 1980's David Belles has been plying his craft with soldering iron, resistor, and capacitor to bring us some of the finest amplifiers that the common man could afford. The focus of the Belles products have always been centered on sound quality, reliability, a superior level of fit and finish that belies its... Read More »

The Krell legacy via designer Dan D'Agostino is well known and respected if not revered. Thirty plus years ago I remember my first experience with the legendary KSA-50 amplifier. Along with the Mark Levinson ML-2, the KSA-50 was one of the first in the industry to lay the ground work for today's strong and continuing... Read More »

Introduction Funny how you can get bushwhacked by excellence in the audio arts. In the early spring of 2014, Bill Parish, a long-time audio friend, got in touch with me about a line of products that he thought I would be interested in. It was from a company that I had never heard of: Audionet,... Read More »

"Oh help me, please doctor, I'm damaged There's a pain where there once was a heart It's sleepin, it's a beatin' Can't ya please tear it out, and preserve it Right there in that jar?" —"Dear Doctor" by The Rolling Stones So, first, I wanted apologize for jamming two sets of commentaries, the latter of... Read More »

A golden age only happens in retrospect: By the time you realize you're in one, you ain't. Hell, most of us have a hard enough time deciding the winners of the past (ever been stuck in a Linn Sondek LP12 vs Micro Seki DDX-1000 debate?) so speculating on Audio futures is always a dicey proposition.... Read More »

When I was in my early teens, one of my fondest memories was helping my Father while he was working on his various audio projects. This was in the early 1960s. He was a fairly successful businessman but I always thought that deep down his true passion was electrical engineering and the consumer electronics of... Read More »

The AURALiC VEGA DSD DAC (top) and TAURUS headphone amp (bottom) in tandem, on one of our reference Stillpoints ESS Grid Racks… lovely, lovely! Once, and not so long ago (A year? Two?), I maintained a list of DSD DACs. After the establishment of the DSD-over-PCM (DoP) open standard, and the polishing of ASIO drivers... Read More »

Thank goodness for Michael Mercer. While other Positive Feedback writers cover headphones, DACs, and amps (Warren Chi, Bob Levi, and our editors spring to mind), nobody proselytizes from the headphone pulpit with as much relentless enthusiasm as monsieur Mercer does for this publication and on his website, Audio360.org. And there's a need to keep the momentum going, judging... Read More »