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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 »

Music/Labels, and Other Special Awards This year's list of Brutus Awards for labels/sites/enterprises is going to look a lot like past years. Why? Easy. "The best indicator of future performance is usually past performance," as a friend of mine once said. And these recipients all have histories of getting it done. On to it, then.... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor, contemplating life... Nagra HD DAC with MPS External Power Supply One of the legendary companies in fine audio is Nagra. As a lifelong lover of reel-to-reel recorders, I've known the name for decades…it's highly respected. In conjunction with the extraordinary Sound Galleries SGM2015, we brought in two different DSD DACs to receive... Read More »

Alright, so as 2017 winds down I am left with a feeling of, "Where did it all go?" Not just as in all things audio, but also as in well… yeah, that went quicker than I thought—but then most years do as one gets older; time is fleeting. What the heck happened? Along with that,... Read More »

So soon! Another year, another time to announce my Brutus Awards for 2017. Every year seems to go by faster, and this year was no exception. As longtime readers know, I instituted the Positive Feedback Brutus Awards way back in the mists of time…yonder in 2003. And every year, for the new readers who have... 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 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 Award, on the... Read More »

Intro The Audio Engineering Society convention is two different things happening at the same time. First of all there's a scientific conference downstairs with papers on the latest in audio technology. Secondly it's also a trade show selling pro audio gear. Both of these have many items that are of interest to the high end... Read More »

Chicago 2017 is now firmly in the rear-view mirror, O'Hare Airport and all. The show itself was a well attended event, with a just announced attendance of nearly seven thousand paid. According to show organizers, this was a 13% increase over 2016. From my standpoint, AXPONA 2017 was a busy show, with good to great traffic... Read More »

Herewith is Impressions:  Robinson's Brutus Awards for 2016, Part The Last. Part The First can be found HERE, Part The Second HERE, Part The Third HERE, and Part The Fourth HERE. Music Software/Record Companies/Download Sites Year in and year out, we audiophiles and music lovers rely on our trusted labels, recording companies, re-issuers, and download sites to provide us with... Read More »

Herewith is Impressions:  Robinson's Brutus Awards for 2016, Part The Fourth. Part The First can be found HERE, Part The Second HERE, and Part The Third HERE. This final installment of my Brutus Awards for hardware in 2016 (there will be a very last installment dealing with labels and music companies) concludes with cables, accessories, and system enhancements. In the... Read More »

Herewith is Impressions:  Robinson's Brutus Awards for 2016, Part The Third. Part The First can be found HERE and Part The Second HERE. There will be a fourth installment to cover this busiest of years...stay tuned! All photographs are courtesy of their respective companies, unless otherwise noted. Aurender W-20 Music Server The Aurender W-20 Reference Music Server, a technological... Read More »

So here it is the end of 2016 and us with our Brutus Awards. This has been a year with major changes for both Carol and I (we retired from many years as public school educators) and a year where we saw many people being taken from us earlier than anyone expected, needless wars and bloodshed,... Read More »

Gather around, audiosports fans! It's that time of year again…Positive Feedback's Brutus Awards season. Here is 'Part The Second' of Robinson's Brutus Awards 2016. Part The First can be found HERE and Part The Third HERE. Electronics, Part 1 Gryphon Audio Kalliope Quad and Qcto (256fs and 512fs) DSD DAC The Gryphon Audio Kalliope DSD DAC upon arrival…... Read More »

Gather around, audiosports fans! It's that time of year again…Positive Feedback's Brutus Awards season. You can find Part The Second HERE and Part The Third HERE. 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... 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 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 Award,... Read More »

Best Product in Show Okay, I didn't actually see it in the show, only afterward, but it was in there somewhere. Kenetek is making a direct replacement for the optical attenuator module in the LA-3A compressors. Yeah, they have been making it for a couple years now but it was new to me and it's... Read More »

Already! Already THE Show has come and gone! Where did June 9-12 go? The first post-Richard Beers event is in the books now, and the results are in. According to Maurice Jung, the new president of THE Show, and his staff, total attendance was nearly 10,400 over the four days. The “Industry Day” was Thursday,... Read More »

In part two, I cover the balance of my Audio Oasis! Awards for AXPONA 2016. As I said in part one, these notes are presented in no particular order, and so there is no greater or lesser in the sequence. Read on… ModWright/Ryan Loudspeakers/Aurender/PS Audio/Cardas/Shunyata/Massif Audio/GIK Acoustics/Audioquest room A portrait of Dan Wright of ModWright,... Read More »

In which our hero meditates… [Sketch by Robinson, c. 1989, during a particularly boring faculty meeting…] So…another audio show in the books, and it's time to share the highlights as I heard them. I would normally have had these out to you all a couple of weeks ago, but lost that time to a necessary... Read More »