July - August 2025
Audio Discourse
Hardware - meh! Software is the Game
Hardware, more and better, constant angst—bleh. I suppose I'm the outlier among most audiophile circles because I rarely change equipment. And, I'm...
If it Makes Me Dance, It's a Keeper - by Frans de Rond of Sound...
Sound Liaison founder and recording engineer Frans de Rond makes some wonderful recordings. He and his business partner Peter Bjørnild have been doing...
An Informative Encounter with DALI Speakers
Re-published from Copper magazine; used with permission of the owner Paul McGowan, and the Editor, Frank Doris. Images used by permission. DALI...
The Myth of the Black Background
"Black" Background – Roger Skoff writes about what it's really like. Have you ever been to the beach? No, I'm not kidding. There really are millions...
Impressions: The Analog Audio Design TP-1000 Reel-to-Reel...
Ye Olde Editor on his deck with the sun, a son, a cigar, Port, and some fine outdoor music, contemplating.... Happy Valley, OR, 2023 (Photograph by...
Buster Williams, The Bassist: Poesis
Buster Williams (photograph by Michael Oletta) Sound, despite its constant incursion on each day's human complexity, defines an essential emotional...
Creating a Dedicated Recording and Performance Space at High...
I've been following Bert van der Wolf-Oude Avenhuis' hints about seeking a new dedicated recording space for well over a year. And now it is coming...
The New Ortofon SPU GTX S Moving-Coil Phonograph Cartridge - A...
Ortofon's been in the audio business for 107 years now, and they have been producing the ever-popular SPU product line of moving-coil phonograph...
It’s a Gas: Restoring the Legendary Hill Plasmatronics...
This is a republication of our good friend Frank Doris's article in Copper magazine, Issue 218, back in May of this year. Frank's writing is...
Impressions: AXPONA 2025, Part the Last...Select Portraits
And now, a few portraits that I made while at AXPONA 2025. It's the people that are most important things in all of life...including high-end audio. A...
Impressions: AXPONA 2025, Part The First...My Audio Oasis!...
Ye Olde Editor: a Fantasy. (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by yours truly.) AXPONA time again... Another year, another AXPONA. The...
Hardware Reviews
PS Audio Stellar DAC
Kapow! Right in the noggin! Wobbling like a UFO saucer in the finest Ray Harryhausen tradition, the record sailed crazily in the air, then jetted...
RAY Tubes Shootout: Reserve KT88's vs Reserve EL34's in the...
When Nelson Wu, CEO of RAY Tubes offered earlier this year to send a full complement of RAY Select and Reserve tubes for evaluation in my PrimaLuna EVO...
The Power and Precision of ATC SCM40 Active Loudspeakers - Are...
Backdrop loudspeaker drivers image courtesy of ATC Like a surgeon's scalpel, the ATC SCM40A loudspeaker is a serious instrument, deftly cutting through...
Zu Audio Method Bookshelf Loudspeaker
A colleague once postulated that audio gear invariably sounds like the people who make it. The line of thinking goes that, if the person is big and...
Node Audio SS-1 Component Support
While browsing the photo gallery on the Node Audio website, I came across a group shot of five finely crafted, elegantly designed objects. They...
A Clean Sweep? A Look at the iSonic P4875 II MVR5 and MVR 10...
It seems a lifetime ago. For my side hustle as a mobile DJ, I honed my beat-matching and mixing skills with a pair of Technics 1200 turntables at home...
Waters on the Hardware: The Gingko Audio Cloud System and Arch...
The Maestro himself! (Portrait and image processing by David W. Robinson) My LP life When writing audio reviews, reviewers are often called on to...
Aurender's A1000 Network Music Server/Streamer/DAC: Redefining...
Over the course of the last twenty-five-years, I've carved out a fairly satisfying niche in audio journalism. One that finds me most often focused on...
Follow-up: Vera-Fi Audio's Line Noise Black Hole and Snub...
When Mark Schifter hooked me up with the first two devices from Vera-Fi Audio's new trio of power conditioning equipment, I simply wasn't prepared for...
Waters on the Hardware: The Dejitter It WiFi X
Dean Waters: a portrait at home (Photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Not long ago, I penned an article reviewing the Dejitter It...
ONO Tone Labs a3 Standmount Loudspeakers: Stunning Performance,...
ONO Tone Labs is a new loudspeaker manufacturer based in Kahului, Maui, in Hawaii, and is the brainchild of Dustin (or if you prefer, "Dusty") Vawter....
Interviews
Norman Varney Interviews Roger Skoff, a YouTube video
Roger Skoff at the 2024 LAOC Gala (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) For this month's column, Roger has departed from his usual...
Talking With Triad Magnetics: Demystifying the Science Behind...
Bill Dull and Randy Eller at the 2025 NAMM show. Triad Magnetics is one of the world's foremost manufacturers of transformers for audio, musical...
Music Reviews
Craft Recordings' New Original Jazz Classics LPs, along with a...
Craft Recordings has just released the latest installment in the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) reboot series, featuring four new titles that are...
Recent Finds No. 50 from HDTT
This issue brings discussion of two new releases, and four that are included on my Pure DSD256 from Analog Tape: My Top of the Pile list but not...
Recent Finds No. 49 NativeDSD's Catalog Continues to Expand...
NativeDSD's catalog continues to expand, with new artists and new labels. As I've written before, I enjoy recommending new albums from NativeDSD...
Cobra Records Mastering Comparison Pure DSD256 and DXD, with...
Tom Peeters is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Cobra Records, which he founded in the fall of 2000. As founder, recording engineer, mastering...
Santana's "Moonflower" on 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl from Mobile...
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab continues their brilliant restoration of Santana's catalog of albums with a new reissue of the band's 1977's classic,...
Sammi Smith, Help Me Make It Through the Night
Jewel Faye Smith (1943-2005), who went by the name Sammi Smith, was born in Orange, California. Due to her father's military career, she lived in...
Rhino High Fidelity Continues Its Journey Down The Yellow Brick...
This has been a very interesting if not challenging review, especially when considering the sound quality of this reissue compared to the original...
Joni Mitchell's Transitional Masterwork "Hejira" on Mobile...
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's ongoing release of Joni Mitchell's most iconic albums continues with her 1976 transitional masterpiece, Hejira, where her...
World Premier LP Recording: CLARICE from Yarlung Records
Michael Fremer and Bob Levi CLARICE from Bob Attiyeh and Yarlung Records Extraordinarily well recorded with every tube and analog bell and whistle,...
Joni Mitchell's Confessional Classic "Blue" on Mobile Fidelity...
I recently had the opportunity to review Joni Mitchell's classic album Court and Spark, which is part of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's ongoing release of...
Jethro Tull's "Still Living In The Past," Updated and Expanded...
Rhino Entertainment has just released Jethro Tull's Still Living In The Past, which updates the band's original 1972 album issue in every possible way....
Craft Latino Continues to Celebrate Latin and Salsa Music with...
Craft Latino celebrates Latin and Salsa music across a host of subgenres, with eight new LP reissues, many of which have been long out of print....
Rhino Celebrates New Wave and Post-punk Icons The B-52's with a...
Rhino Entertainment is celebrating the musical legacy of the B-52's with multi-LP and CD catalog box sets, The B-52's The Warner/Reprise Years, which...
And Now, For the Gentlemen, Part 2
Bach hanging out with John Marks... John Marks continues with the Gentlemen; see HERE for Part 1. QOBUZ Playlist Link...
A New Record Review: House of the Singing Blossoms, Featuring...
Bob Levi: a portrait by David W. Robinson (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) House of the Singing Blossoms (click for complete...
Recent Finds No. 48 A Potpourri from NativeDSD
This Recent Finds includes an eclectic selection of music from the NativeDSD catalog. What's the common thread? In each case, I found the music...
Recent Finds No. 47 Seven Pure DSD256 from HDTT, Plus 1 More
This Recent Finds edition is back to HDTT releases. Some new and some from a few years past that are past due for a review. All are very nice. In fact,...
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers were formed in 1968 by former members of The Byrds Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons (1946-1973), who both had similar...
Bryston BDP-3 Digital Player
The audiophile digital music software scene has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade. Streaming services have increased their...
Recent Finds No. 46 Six Excellent New Releases from HDTT
Bob Witrak continues to mine pure gold from the vast past catalogs of great music, great performances, and outstanding recordings. In this edition of...
And Now, for the Gentlemen! Part 1
John Marks is a multidisciplinary generalist and a lifelong audio hobbyist. He was educated at Brown University and at Vanderbilt Law School. He has...
Bert van der Wolf Recordings of Stavanger Symphony Orchestra for...
As you know by now, I enjoy the recordings produced by Bert van der Wolf-Oude Avenhuis. So, when I saw that he'd released a series of live performance...
Recent Finds No. 45 More Wonderful Albums from NativeDSD
Today we have a wonderful organ recording from Base2 Music, one that was included in my earlier article, Outstanding Organ Recordings in DSD256 and DXD...
Norman Greenbaum's Breakthrough Album, Spirit in the Sky,...
Craft Recordings has just reissued Sixties psychedelic icon Norman Greenbaum's 1969 debut album, Spirit in the Sky. While its eponymous title track...
Craft Recordings' Original Jazz Classics Reissue Campaign...
Craft Recordings' mid-year selection of releases in the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) reboot series features six new titles, including a pair on the Vee...
Recent Finds No. 44 New Releases from NativeDSD
This article of Recent Finds contains a truly disparate array of albums, but all of which I've enjoyed immensely. They are all beautifully recorded,...
Pure DSD256 from Analog Tape: My Top of the Pile
In an earlier article, I posted my list of Pure DSD256: My Top of the Pile albums for sound quality. In this article, I'd like to expand on this and...
Odds and Ends from Trieste
Schumann, Symphonies 1-4. "Giuseppe Verdi" Theatre Orchestra, Trieste/Julian Kovatchev. Erresse RS 6367-72/73 (2 CDs). Timings: 75.54, 69.45 Dvorak,...
Recent Finds No. 43 HDTT Releases New and Long Past Due
Today's Recent Finds include several "not so recent" but long cherished releases from HDTT that I'd just not yet included in an article. Why, I don't...
Get the Master Tape Listening Experience with Pure DSD256, Free...
The other day, I posted a list of Pure DSD256 albums that I consider my "top of the pile" for sound quality. HERE This article will be a further...
Pure DSD256: My Top of the Pile
I listen to a lot of high resolution DXD and DSD256 file downloads. And, as you can imagine, I have my favorites—my "top of the pile" recordings for...
Dan Fogelberg's Breakthrough Album Souvenirs, in a 50th...
Impex Records, in a joint effort with Iconic Artist Group and Epic Records, has just released Souvenirs, 50th Anniversary Edition, a limited LP reissue...
New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print
Air Tight ATM-211 Amplifiers
This article by Marshall Nack originally ran in 2006, so while we call this section "New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print" you are also...
Our Friend the Audio Analyst
E240: Announcing the audio analyst© Merchandise
I have finally settled on and set up a print-on-demand store to offer branded merchandise for those subscribers and followers who want to show their.... . . Read More »
E239: New Arrivals from Fosi AND Von Schweikert
Lots of news today…including some exciting very affordable electronics from Fosi Audio, and a new loudspeaker from Von Schweikert Audio, the.... . . Read More »
E238: The Audionet Mach and Schrödinger Experience
The latest additions to the Audionet Scientist Series, the new Mach linestage and the Schrödinger mono amplifiers are under examination in my.... . . Read More »
E236-10 “Alternate” Favorite Jazz Recordings-featuring...
Today’s episode had its genesis some while ago, over a listening session with one of my closest friends and industry colleagues, Maurice Jeffries..... . . Read More »
E235: Parasound's JCA100 Tribute Amplifier
Today, I explore both the genesis, and the experience, of the new Parasound JCA100 Tribute amplifier, both in stand-alone and vertical biamplification.... . . Read More »
E234: The Superb Dejitter It Switch X & WiFi X
Today I want to relate the exceptional experiences I’ve enjoyed with the Dejitter It Systems Switch X and WiFi X, an advanced set of Networking.... . . Read More »
E233: The Atma Sphere Class D Amplifier
Today I share my look at the remarkable $6,320 a pair Atma-Sphere Class D monoblock amplifiers. Measuring a diminutive eleven inches wide, thirteen.... . . Read More »
E232: High End Munich 2025: Four Extraordinary Rooms
Today, I’ll share my experiences with some of the most accomplished presentations I discovered over the four days of the final Munich-based High End.... . . Read More »
Show Reports
AXPONA at Fifteen: Reflections on the America's Largest High-End...
AXPONA, aka Audio Expo North America, was the vision of Steve Davis (his then store HiFi Farm was one of the first advertisers in my fledgling, late...
T.H.E. Lone Star Audiofest 2025 Show Report
T.H.E. Lone Star Audiofest 2025 ran the first weekend of May in Round Rock just outside Austin Texas. This eighteenth Lone Star Audiofest marked an...
