The following review has been submitted by guest reviewer, Miguel Barrio. Boazu vs Ongaku: David or Goliath? Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by machines. When I was 6 years old I rewired my nightstand lamp. My mother freaked out thinking I would die from an electric shock. Sure enough, by... Read More »
I can't remember the exact date, around the late eighties, nor the exact model, but I used to own a Rotel integrated amp in my fledgling days of High-End audio. It served me well. Admittedly, back then my audio concerns were mostly of function over form. Did it have enough inputs? Does it have a... Read More »
Gratitude, or the expression thereof, is a universal struggle today. There is a lot going on, and we all are a little on edge, are we not? Billy Joel described it right in 1989 when he said so eloquently: "We didn't start the fire." Music is a great way to break the firefighting that goes... Read More »
Back in October of 2020 I did a straw poll among readers of Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback to find out what audio products they would be most interested in having me write about. The most popular and intriguing request among readers was the artisanal and custom-made Triode Lab 2A3 EVO single-ended-triode integrated amplifier from... Read More »
The Devialet D-Premier is sure to go down in audio history as a game changer. When it was introduced in 2010, little did we know that the D-Premier would alter the integrated amplifier landscape forever by redefining the concept of what an integrated amplifier is. Up to that point, an integrated amplifier had consisted of... Read More »
As I've grown older, and presumably, wiser, I've come to appreciate more the significance of anniversaries. Whether they be personal, such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries, or professional (it occurs to me that I've been on the masthead at Positive Feedback for nearly 20 years), these milestone accomplishments resonate with me, due perhaps to their... Read More »
Soon after I received the Soundkaos VOX 3f speakers for review, I was given the opportunity to listen to a very interesting amplifier along with these terrific speakers. Mr. Soo In Chae of Bakoon International Corp. asked me if I would like to listen to the Bakoon AMP-13R integrated amplifier (Gary Lea also has reviewed... Read More »
Once again, our great friend and music lover, John Marks, Editor of The Tannhauser Gate, has favored us with his reflections...this time on the Moonriver Audio Model 404. As usual, John writes with great knowledge and discernment on the audio virtues of this integrated amplifier. Read, and learn! Dr. David W. Robinson, Ye Olde Editor... Read More »
This article, as reviewed by Larry Cox, Carol Clark, and Victor Chavira originally ran in Issue 3, October/November 2002, so while we call this section "New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print" you are also going to see some articles from our early days of going online. Of the three integrated amps... Read More »
The Vinnie Rossi L2i SE Integrated Preamp with DAC and Pono Section (image courtesy of Vinnie Rossi Audio) Ye Olde Editor, in situ (portrait by John Robinson; image processing by David W. Robinson) Mark Sossa is a very discerning man, and a successful US distributor offine audio with his company, Well Pleased A/V. He knows... Read More »
SPEC Corporation is a Japanese company founded by Mr. Shirokazu Yazaka, a former chief engineer at TEAC and Pioneer, to achieve one goal: to deliver tube sound using semiconductor technology. The RSA-V10 is its latest integrated amplifier in class D. This is its world premiere. It seems that Class D amplifiers are no longer a... Read More »
I've had my Leben HiFi Company CS-600 integrated amplifier for over a decade now. I purchased it after the review, and I have enjoyed every minute with it. My Leben CS-600 has been totally reliable, excels musically & sonically, and it is beautiful to look at. The CS-600 was also a very well thought out... Read More »
A true multi-bit Hi-Res Audio DAC meets Nexus-level amplification. Review By Ron Nagle With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing relationship with Enjoy the Music. Ron Nagle shares his thoughts on the Schiit Audio Bifrost 2 DAC And Ragnarok 2 Nexus Integrated Amplifier Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief Yes, it's pronounced, SHIT! There is no person with... Read More »
At the enthusiast audio shows I have visited in the USA over the years, I've always thought that year-to-year, the Audio Note (UK) rooms had some of most consistently excellent musicality & sonics of all the show rooms I visited. The fact that those Audio Note (UK) show rooms utilized relatively modestly priced equipment and... Read More »
The Road Goes On Forever... A long time ago, a wise old soul told me that if folks work hard and save their pennies, they can likely afford to pursue a single spend-iferous hobby during an otherwise humdrum human existence...And although I doubt the veracity of that anecdote, I get where he was going with... Read More »
It was I who killed punk rock in the Listening Room with the Record Player. Well, kill might be too strong a word, defanged it might be closer to the mark. But at least I learned something about audio, so it wasn't a total loss. The moment square poseurs like me played Black Flag's Damaged... Read More »
With a firm desire for innovation and iterative design, Schiit are a company which have taken the world of high-end personal audio by storm one product at a time. Their latest creation comes in the form of the Ragnarok 2—an integrated amplifier that improves upon the original with its modular design, heatsink components, and a... Read More »
It is no secret that the United States HIFI market is so densely packed it is approaching a singularity. If that gravity was not enough to pull a manufacturer into spaghettification, lets add in all the hobbyists and DIY-ers clamoring to fabricate something for pennies on the dollar, so they can revel in their David... Read More »
LEBEN is a small, Japanese company that is treated with great attention in its country of origin. It owes this to its founder and chief designer, Mr. Taku Hyodo. It is mentioned by Japanese magazines among the most important designers of tube amplifiers in this country. The CS600 integrated amplifier was introduced to the market... Read More »