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Yon Editor, contemplating... Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by David W. Robinson. Here's the fourth installment of my Brutus Awards for 2020. Time flows...I goes. Onwards.... The Mytek Brooklyn Bridge Streamer/DAC & the Mytek Brooklyn Amp+ Straight to this particular chase. I have been listening to designs from Mytek Digital for many years now…all... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor contemplating in the fall of 2019. Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by David W. Robinson Time for Part the Third of my Brutus Awards for 2020... Merrill Audio Christine Reference Preamp Image courtesy of Merrill Audio Anyone who follows my "Impressions" series over the many years now knows that I have... Read More »

Ye Olde Etc. enjoying the moment in the Pacific NW (portrait by John Robinson) Time for Part the Second of my Brutus Awards. iFi Audio Pro iDSD DAC/Headphone Amp/Streamer The iFi Audio Pro iDSD DAC/Headphone Amp/Preamp/Streamer (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Earlier this year, iFi Audio sent along their new pro-grade many-in-one... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor in days collegiate, presenting the goods. Corvallis, OR, 1972 (photograph by Dr. John Hull) Thoughts at this end of the first year of the pandemic… Once again, yes, once again it's time for my Brutus Awards. This time, the 2020 edition…a year that will live in infamy. Our first major pandemic in... Read More »

Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave and Carol Clark had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award. The Gizmo... Read More »

Port and a Cigar at Night on a Deck. Happy Valley, OR, 2019 And now, on to the final chapter of my Positive Feedback Brutus Awards for 2019. Clarus Concerto AC Power Conditioner and Clarus Aqua High Current Power Cable A relative latecomer for 2019 Brutus Award consideration was the combination of the Clarus Concerto and... Read More »

E-in-C Robinson going deep with the Sonoma Acoustics reference headphone system at AXPONA 2018 (photograph by Martin Roberts; image processing by David W. Robinson) Recordings, Labels, Sites, & Streaming Services This installment of my 2019 Brutus Award announcements will be relatively short and to the point. I've talked about many of this year's winners in... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor at the wheel of my BMW M3 hardtop convertible, 2014 (photograph by John Robinson) LampizatOr Pacific DAC upon arrival (DHT SET Triode, unbalanced version without volume control, for Windows 10) If you've been following my writing over time, you may be familiar with the fact that LampizatOr has been showing up in... Read More »

David W. Robinson photographing at Icicle Creek during the fire season of 2012:  a portrait. Leavenworth, WA. (image by Lila Ritsema) My Brutus Awards, once again. Lordy, tempus fugit! What are they? Quoting myself in 2018, quoting myself recursively… "The Brutus Awards are given at the end of each year, in recognition of the best high-end... Read More »

Here we are with our Brutus Awards for 2019, but before we go into who and what, let me digress a bit. This past year has been rather interestingly different for both Carol and me. Entering our third year of retirement we find ourselves spending less time with audio related stuff (specifically reviewing, as it... Read More »

Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave Clark (and Carol Clark) had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award. The Gizmo... Read More »

David W. Robinson:  Self-Portrait, Variation 3, Happy Valley, OR, 2019 Wilson Audio & VTL As usual of late, the Wilson Audio/VTL room did not disappoint…quite the contrary. The Wilson Audio Sasha DAW loudspeakers and their accompanying Wilson Watchdog Subwoofers, with an external crossover, were sounding quite full-range and authoritative, driven by the VTL S-400 Monoblocks.... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor at RMAF back in 2015 (photograph by Jeff Day) Introduction:  RMAF at a major new site After a hiatus of three years (2016-2018), during which my colleagues Dave and Carol Clark headed up show coverage for Positive Feedback at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, it was time for Lila Ritsema (PF's Business... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor (photograph by John Robinson) By way of explanation… The final batch of my Brutus Award announcements for 2018 was significantly delayed by a major project that had to be attended to by the entire PF Web team:  the transfer of the entire PF site and content to an entirely different Web host,... Read More »

David W. Robinson:  a portrait by John Robinson Onwards into Part the Fourth of my Brutus Awards. PASS Labs HPA-1 Headphone Amplifier Wait! I'm not done yet with reference headphone amps. Early in the year, the good folks at PASS Labs sent along their HPA-1 Headphone Amplifier for my evaluation. I was pleased to get... Read More »

Continuing... ZYX UNIverse Optimum X MC What a year for phono cartridges 2018 has been. I've already extolled the seductive charms of the Air Tight PC-1 coda and the return of the van den Hul Colibri Signature Stradivarius in this year's Brutus Awards. Magnificent achievements, both of these, whose awards were richly deserved. But there... Read More »

van den Hul Colibri Signature Stradivarius (the second coming!) Late in 2017, Randy Forman…he of Finest Fidelity distribution fame, and a jolly good gent…got me a van den Hul Colibri Signature Stradivarius (CSS). It got its break-in and fun run-out in the later days of the class vintage professional turntable, the direct-drive EMT 948's visit... Read More »

In 2018, I made the jump from a passable desktop audio system into the big leagues. Because of that, I'm ready to hand out some Brutus awards, I think for the first time ever! It's not often that I need to listen to things as I work at my desk, but I find myself listening... Read More »

Unbelievably enough, it's the end of the year 2018…already! I know that I say this every year, but every year it's worse and worse; time whizzes by faster and faster, and the final quarter always arrives long before I'm ready for it. The Earth rotates, and faithfully follows its annual orbit around yon Sun, so... Read More »