May - June 2024
Audio Discourse
New from the audio analyst©, Part 3 – Virtual High End Munich...
While AXPONA represents the largest hi-fi show in the US, High End Munich, held each May at Munich's monstrous Order Center, is the largest, most...
New from the audio analyst©, Part 2 - What’s Causing the Stir...
David W. Robinson and Greg Weaver: Audio buds from way-back! Long Valley, NJ, 2023. (photograph by Bill Parish) I make no excuses for being able to...
New from the audio analyst©, Part 1: Virtual AXPONA 2024
New from the audio analyst© for re-publication in Positive Feedback – Virtual AXPONA 2024 If you've never been to an audio show, especially one as...
Audio Note (UK) Tomei 211 SET Integrated Amplifier and M3 RIAA...
I've been pondering how best to write up this article about my listening experiences with the Audio Note (UK) Tomei 211 single-ended-triode (SET)...
Market Research
For a change, Roger Skoff wants to ask your opinion instead of just telling you his… I'm old, and quite possibly out of it, so what I see going on in...
Critical Thinking in Audio (or the lack thereof)
The world is full of false information. At the same time, we are frequently to be blamed for not doing our due diligence to verify information. As...
Impressions: AXPONA 2024, Part the First…Show Overview...
Ye Olde Editor, AXPONA 2024 (photograph by Bill Parish; image processing by David W. Robinson) Another year, another trip around the Sun, another...
How Can It Do That?
Roger Skoff answers a question that many audiophiles have, but never ask... On one of the audiophile groups on Facebook a few days ago, I saw a...
Impressions: The Pacific Audio Fest 2023, Part the Third &...
Ye Olde Editor with cigar and match, 2021 (photograph and image processing by John Robinson) Here's the last set of my Audio Oasis! Awards from PAF...
Hardware Reviews
Titanium? Taking Turntabling Into the Space Age with the...
Bicycle photo courtesy of Bossibicycles.com and SR-71 Blackbird photo by USAF Judson Brohmer and Wikimedia Commons Replacing my turntable's stock...
Follow-up: Vera-Fi Audio's Swiss Digital Fuse Box, Now with the...
As I stated in my original review, the primary function of Vera-Fi Audio's Swiss Digital Fuse Box (SDFB) is to remove and replace the weakest link that...
Waters on the Hardware: The Alberto Guerra Design (AGD) Duet...
Dean Waters: portrait with a cigar. SeaTac, WA, Pacific Audio Fest, 2023 For the last few months, I've been listening to and delighting in a pair of...
Vera-Fi Audio's Swiss Digital Fuse Box: Providing a Path to...
Over my life as an audiophile, I've had three individual instances where I was absolutely certain beyond doubt that the consequences of my actions...
Keces Ebravo Streamer Transport
Like a god of destruction and rebirth, the internet streamer obliterates the accumulated dross of the audiophile world with one hand, while bestowing...
Akiko Audio Speaker Improver
Audiophile tweaks; you can either love them or hate them, but if you are a passionate audiophile, they are difficult to ignore. Sure, they can be...
Tekton Design Perfect SET 15 Loudspeakers
This review has had probably the longest gestation period of any review I've ever done. I've had the Tekton Perfect SET 15 loudspeakers in my...
The Elegant HiFi-Home Lifestyle Balance PS Audio Aspen FR10...
The PS Audio Aspen FR10 Loudspeakers (photo courtesy of PS Audio) The "P" in PS Audio, a leading manufacturer of high-end stereo equipment, Paul...
IsoAcoustics GAIA III Speaker Isolators
A while back I found myself the new custodian of some excellent prototype speakers. I'd heard the Communique floorstander at several Colorado Audio...
Waters on the Hardware: The Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC
Dean Waters at the Pacific Audio Fest, 2023: a portrait with cigar (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) The Tambaqui from Mola Mola...
SAE HP2-D Amplifier and MK One Preamplifier
Fifty years ago SAE hit the market with its first amplifier, the venerable MK 1. A 60-watt per channel affair that stunned the audio world and received...
Vera-Fi Audio's SnubWay Noise Defender: Taking Your Audio and...
I'm constantly on social media, quite often for audio-related purposes. And I'd seen teasers for months highlighting the ongoing development of Vera-Fi...
Music - SuperSonic Recordings
Top 500 SuperSonic List - Part 39
This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations 231. André Hodeir, American Jazzmen Play André Hodeir's Essais. Savoy Records –...
Music Reviews
Ellington Indigos, Now on Limited Edition HQ 180, 45 rpm LPs in...
Impex Records is well known for their extraordinary reissues of albums that are perhaps underappreciated, but nonetheless quintessential. Their latest...
Elton John, "Friends" a Highly Upgraded Reissue
Elton John and Bernie Taupin, "Friends" 50th Anniversary Edition. The Original Soundtrack Recording. Paramount 3555744. Pinky Vinyl Edition. Sourced...
David Bowie: Rock 'N' Roll Star! from Rhino Entertainment
David Bowie: Rock 'N' Roll Star! is a new box set from Rhino Entertainment that chronicles the iconic star's journey from the formulative beginnings of...
John Lee Hooker's Rare LP Burning Hell Launches Craft Recordings...
Craft Recordings is partnering again with Acoustic Sounds for a reboot of the classic Bluesville Series. The LPs will be pressed by Acoustic Sounds'...
Notes on Recent Finds, No. 23 - More from HDTT
High Definition Tape Transfers continues on its roll of great releases. Just recently I wrote about HDTT's superb reissue of Art Pepper Meets the...
Rhino's New Quadio Bundle on High Resolution Blu-ray Audio
Rhino Entertainment has just released the latest four titles in their excellent Quadio Series, which features BluRay audio with a high resolution...
The London Chuck Berry Sessions
As one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, Chuck Berry (1926-2017) receives a ton of well-deserved respect as a musical innovator. Berry, along...
Classic Hard Bop from Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane Highlights...
Craft Recordings' release schedule rolls along in the second group of reissue titles for 2024 in their Original Jazz Classics (OJC) franchise reboot,...
Rhino's High Fidelity Premium Vinyl Series Continues with...
The Rhino High Fidelity Premium Vinyl Series continues with the release of two new titles for the current quarter. At the outset of the series, each...
Mogwai, Young Team (Remastered)
Mogwai, Young Team (Remastered) We knew we were in for something shiny and new back in 1997 when Mogwai dropped Young Team. It wasn't because their...
The New IMPEX Patricia Barber Companion 1Step - A Majestic...
Throughout my teenage and adult years in the Chicago area, I had the great fortune to experience some of the biggest and brightest of all the rock,...
David Bowie's Diamond Dogs: 50th Anniversary Edition on Half...
Rhino Entertainment is celebrating the 50th anniversary of David Bowie's classic album Diamond Dogs with a pair of limited edition LP reissues. Which...
The Talbot Brothers Bermuda Calypso Party Volume 3
For most audiophiles the word "calypso" conjures up one musical artist, and that person is Harry Belafonte. Belafonte was a 50's era phenomenon whose...
Murals for Immersion
Kenneth James Gibson & Paul Carman, Murals for Immersion I'm not convinced that any words of mine could so aptly describe this record as its title...
Joni Mitchell, The Asylum Albums (1972-1975) on Rhino Quadio...
Rhino Entertainment has just released the Quadio/Blu-ray box set for Joni Mitchell's The Asylum Albums (1972-1975) Quadio, which covers her first four...
Tony Rice's Classic Album Church Street Blues, Now on 180 gram...
Craft Recordings has announced their reissue of Church Street Blues, the seminal 1983 album from bluegrass icon and journeyman guitarist and vocalist...
Craft Recordings' Excellent OJC LP Reboot Continues with The Red...
Craft Recordings has announced the second group of reissue titles for 2024 in their Original Jazz Classics (OJC) franchise reboot, featuring four...
Just Listen
Just Listen (Columbia Special Products CSS 1337) is an LP that I discovered in 1986. It was released by Columbia Special Products in 1970, as a...
Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section - new Pure DSD256 Transfer...
Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, with Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, HDTT 1957 2024 (Pure DSD256) HERE This is such a great album,...
Schubert Quartets
Schubert, Quartets 15, 8. Takács Quartet. Hyperion CDA 68423 (CD). TT: 77.48 Schubert's harmonic innovations are broadly recognized. But, as these...
Deep Purple's Machine Head: Super Deluxe Edition from Rhino
Deep Purple's Machine Head: Super Deluxe Edition (SDE) has just been remixed, remastered, and re-released in a gorgeous new multi-disc edition that...
Reiner's Performance of Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome from...
Turn up the volume and prepare for sumptuous sonics from one of the great performances in the catalog. This new transfer from High Definition Tape...
New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print
Adventures at the Far End of Reality
This article by Roger S. Gordon originally ran in Issue 8, August/September 2003, so while we call this section "New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days...
Our Friends at HIFI Statement
Audio Video Show Warschau 2023 – Teil 3
Das Aufbereiten der auf der Messe gesammelten Eindrücke und Informationen ist zwar zeitintensiv, aber es macht stets Spaß, die Messe noch einmal.... . . Read More »
Our Friends at High Fidelity
Carbide Audio Carbide Base Anti-Vibration Feet
Carbide Audio is based in the city of Llano located east of Austin, in the mountainous part of Texas. Founded in 2019 by Jeffrey Jenkins, this...
Show Reports
THE Show 2024: Aperion Audio Comes in on a High Note
This would be the first time I've seen Aperion Audio at a show, and they were first on my list to visit. I wanted to meet the Millennial team behind...
THE Show Orange County 2024 : MC Audiotech and Shimmer...
I found Mark Conti of MC Audiotech and Robert Sears of Shimmer Audiophile setting up their gear in a large conference room at T.H.E. Show on a...
AXPONA 2024: ampsandsound Brought the Funk, the Bump and Stuck...
Justin Weber of ampsandsound takes a break. 300B amps aren't known for their ability to party hard. More often than not you hear about their sweetness,...
Magnificent But a TAD Expensive? Maybe, Maybe Not as AXPONA...
SCHAUMBURG, IL—Twenty-six years ago, aspiring studio tech and entrepreneur, David Malekpour, launched his Pro Audio Design, Inc. (initially under the...
Impressions: AXPONA 2024, Part the First…Show Overview...
Ye Olde Editor, AXPONA 2024 (photograph by Bill Parish; image processing by David W. Robinson) Another year, another trip around the Sun, another...
AXPONA 2024: Swan Song Audio's Technorama
Some of the most fun to be had at AXPONA was discovering fresh new ideas and technology. Never have I ever encountered a complete 3D printed horn...
AXPONA 2024: Manley Labs Preaches a Vinyl Gospel
Manley Labs has always kept its feet planted in two lands. Known for keeping the tube faith on the Pro side of audio—their mic preamps and processors...
Impressions: The Pacific Audio Fest 2023, Part the Third &...
Ye Olde Editor with cigar and match, 2021 (photograph and image processing by John Robinson) Here's the last set of my Audio Oasis! Awards from PAF...
