May - June 2022
Audio Discourse
From an Editor's Notebook: My YouTube comments on the Kronos...
Dr. David enjoying a fine cigar on the deck of Louis Desjardins' home in Montreal, Canada, 2022. (Photograph by Bill Parish; image processing by...
Brief Notes from an Editor's Notebook: More on Gold Note…the...
Ye Olde Editor, a moment. Happy Valley, OR, 2018 (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by YOE) Continuing my brief notes on Gold Note from...
An Industry of Improvers: Roger Skoff Takes a Different Look at...
It used to be that great things were invented by one great man. Edison, Morse, Tesla, Bell, McCormick, Whitney, Fulton, and countless others all—at...
From an Editor's Notebook: The launch of the Association of...
Ye Olde Editor, contemplating on a high deck in Tiberias, Sea of Galilee, Israel, 2022. (Portrait by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde Etc.)...
Hand Book of a Hidden Man, Part 6: I Learn to Fight
I was on the sidewalk in front of our house in San Luis Obispo. In 1952 it must've been a very quiet place, otherwise it's hard for me now, looking...
Seeking Clarity About Transparency
Back in the 1980s or maybe earlier, "transparency" became the buzzword in high-end audio. Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound was a big proponent...
A New Realization of Stockhausen's Tierkreis
Tierkreis by Bruce Friedman, Jeff Schwartz, and Jim McAuley Tierkreis is a collection of 12 short compositions written by Karlheinz Stockhausen, each...
The Audio Note (UK) CD 4.1x 'Level Three' Red Book CD Player:...
Greetings friends, I hope life is treating you well in 2022. Today I have an impressive Red Book CD player to tell you about, the Audio Note (UK) CD...
How Does Analog Become Digital - 2.0
How does the analog become digital? In 2019, Roland Dietl reported about the current version of the Audiophile Optimizer and shortly after about the...
Notes from an Editor's Notebook: Very briefly, on Gold Note
A very brief note, just before departing on a two-week photographic/church trip to Israel and Jordan: Every now and then I encounter a high-end company...
Beware the Wily Image
Roger Skoff writes about how illusions can sometimes be illusory If I were ever asked what one thing about High-End audio was my greatest turn-on, my...
KRONOS Discovery Resonance Suppression Tonearm
Three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of introducing you to the two new KRONOS Resonance Suppression tonearms, the Kronoscope RS and the Discovery RS. In...
Hardware Reviews
Soundastic Reference Stereo Integrated Amplifier
From Poland, a passive pre with solid-state output. Review By Ric Mancuso With this article, Positive Feedback continues its content-sharing...
Zu Audio Soul VI Loudspeakers
There are few times in my life where I have been truly speechless when it came to audio equipment. I still remember the first time it happened. I...
ampsandsound Zion Amplifiers
Each Zion weighs nearly 75 pounds As I sat in my listening room with the lights dimmed, I began to take a journey. My journey started with the Red Hot...
Gingko Audio Vibration Control Solution (VCS) Toolkit - Part 2
In Part 1 of this review, I had a great time listening to the awesome but temporarily incomplete Gingko VCS Toolkit, and I was looking forward to...
Zesto Audio Bia 200 Select Stereo Amplifier: World Premier...
The brilliant late audiophile, J. Gordon Holt, once wrote that if the purchaser of a fine system was torn between buying a great pair of speakers or a...
Monet Power Cable from Crystal Cable - a Very Pleasant Surprise
When the Monet power cables from Crystal Cable were offered for review, first thing I went online for a look-see. The photos suggested a slimmed down...
PureAudioProject Quintet15 Speaker System
Wow! It's been a while. If you are interested in Pure Audio Project or never heard of it, I suggest you read my older review of the Trio 15 speaker...
Charisma Audio Musiko Turntable
World Premiere Review! I strongly suspected when listening to the first song with the Musiko that I would buy it. Review By Rick Becker With this...
Audience Studio ONE Interconnect and Speaker Cables
An audio reviewer's mandate is to seek out the new, the innovative, the cutting-edge, and to write about it, preferably while it's still new and...
Paradox Pulse Signature 70 Phonostage and Pulse Guard R RSG...
In 2019 I reviewed the Paradox Pulse Signature 70 MC Phono Preamp. I was so engrossed with it that I actually bought one along with the Paradox Pulse...
Charisma Audio's Eco Cartridge
Charisma Audio is a Canadian importer and distributor of a number of high performance audio lines, and over time have crafted a remarkable series of...
Audio Note Cobra Integrated Tube Amplifier
Audio Note is a company founded in 1976 (company site says October 1979) in Japan by Hiroyasu Kondo. The first products hit the world markets in 1989....
Rotel Michi X3 Integrated Amplifier
This has been one of the hardest reviews I have ever done because the Michi X3 integrated amplifier really surprised me. Out of the box and into my...
Virtuoso Interconnect from Fono Acustica
Last year I spent quality time with the Armónico cable from Fono Acustica. The wires left a lingering impression of intense musicality, along with a...
Audience frontRow Cables
Whenever I write about cables I always feel the need to include a disclaimer as they're such a hot button topic. Especially when it comes to high...
Interviews
The Editors Series № 34 - Roy Gregory
The Editors is a series of interviews with audio magazine editors from all over the world—both printed and online magazines, and portals. It started...
Hifistatement interviews Michael Børresen of Borresen Acoustics
The state-of-the-art Børresen Acoustics 05 speakers and their cables have become perfectly acclimatized in my listening room since my review of their...
Music - SuperSonic Recordings
Top 500 SuperSonic List - Part 31
This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations 191. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Unlimited Love. Warner Records – 093624874720 –...
Music Reviews
Notes of an Amateur - Second Quarter 2022
Bach. St. John Passion. Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists. John Eliot Gardiner, Deutsche Gramophone 486 1822. 2 CDs, 1 Blue Ray DVD. Is John...
Reid by Maya Fridman on TRPTK
Maya Fridman's album, Reið (translated as "Journey"), is an album of such emotional complexity and depth of meaning that it requires multiple...
Notes on Recent Finds, No. 1 (From HDTT in DXD, DSD256)
As I've commented before, Bob Witrak's High Definition Tape Transfers catalog is like walking into a treasure house of wonderful recordings, some...
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus from HDTT...
A superb reissue of Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady from HDTT in DSD256 that retains all the natural rawness and energy that makes this...
The Prokofiev Symphonies with James Gaffigan - An Exceptional...
James Gaffigan and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra deliver a very fine Prokofiev symphonies cycle. Collectively, these performances...
Guitarist Enno Voorhorst in Pure DSD256 - Superb!
A thoroughly engaging and well-spent hour with this delightfully articulate guitarist. Enno Voorhorst is a master of subtle grace, dynamic drive, and...
Rachel Podger's Magical Mozart Cycle on Channel Classics
Few musical cycles are as compelling as is Rachel Podger's and Gary Cooper's cycle of the complete sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart on Channel...
Nuït by Maya Fridman and Maarten van Veen from TRPTK
Can you like a work of music without understanding it? Indeed, yes. I don't claim to yet understand what Maya Fridman and Maarten van Veen have created...
Two New Audiophile LP Benchmarks: Eric Clapton Unplugged and...
Eric Clapton, Unplugged (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab) This latest limited edition Mofi UltraDisc One-Step box set was cut by Krieg Wunderlich and pressed...
A Classical Ensemble with a Pop Mentality - Calefax Meets Eric...
Classical ensemble Calefax Reed Quintet yields once again to the temptation for extemporaneous performance in this collaboration with improvising...
The Unknown Pauline Viardot
Chamber songs and duets. Corina Feldkamp, soprano; Anna Tonna, mezzo-soprano; Isabel Dobarro, pianist. Cezanne CZ 090. TT: 52.21 Caña española. El...
Ad Illam - Jewels in Pure DSD256 from Susan Gómez Vázquez and...
With delicate precision, Susana Gómez Vázquez illuminates these piano pieces with a scintillating beauty, each carefully shaped and presented like...
Colores del sur - Feasting Through Southern Europe with a...
Here is an excursion through the Spanish inflected music of southern Europe with a few side ventures to Brazil. It’s a feast for the ears and the...
Boyd Meets Girl - Songs of Love & Despair, from Sono Luminus
Boyd Meets Girl is comprised of Australian classical guitarist Rupert Boyd and American cellist Laura Metcalf, a couple living in Brooklyn, NYC. This...
New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print
From the PF archives: The Wild, Wacky World of Walker!
"See Joe...no problem! Sell the kid...get the upgrade!"
Cardas Neutral Reference Speaker Cables, Transparency vs....
This article by Bob Neill originally ran in Issue 3, October/November 2002, so while we call this section "New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in...
Our Friends at HIFI Statement
Paltauf Phono-200 Phono Stage
Bisher hatte ich persönlich die feine High-End-Schmiede Paltauf aus Österreich noch nicht auf meinem HiFi-Radar gehabt. Umso begeisterter war ich.... . . Read More »
Our Friends at High Fidelity
Octave Jubilee PRE Preamplifier and MONO SE Amplifiers
Octave Audio is a German company founded in 1968 by Karl Heinz Hofmann; initially it produced transformers. In 2000, his son, Andreas Hofmann took over...
Show Reports
Images from the High-End Munich Show 2022
The Munich Show is ongoing at the time of this writing. While many of us in the USA are still maintaining our distance during this ongoing pandemic...
AXPONA 2022 - My Six Favorite Rooms
AXPONA 2022 was a welcoming next step as we move forward as a high end audio community. Attendance was good, and it will only get better as things...
