September - October 2024
Audio Discourse
The Audio Note (UK) M6 RIAA Phono Preamplifier - Next Level...
Greetings, friends, I hope you are doing well. The M6 RIAA phono preamplifier is the latest in the Audio Note (UK) series of articles here at...
Audiophile Economics (Part 1)
Roger Skoff, a portrait, Orange County, CA, 2023 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about why things cost what...
Impressions: A Postcard From New Jersey about GTT Audio
Ye Olde Editor the seeker: A moment in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel, 2022 (photograph by John Robinson). Well, actually from Long Valley, NJ, the...
Waters on the Hardware: A Life-Changing Visit to GTT Audio
Dean Waters with Cigar: a study. 2023 Pacific Audio Fest, Seatac, WA (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Throughout our lives we...
Tichenor on Tape: Restoration Copies
Harold Tichenor continues his series of articles on reel-to-reel tape in this article on restoration copies. Dr. David W. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief...
Art and Audio
Roger Skoff doesn't write about sour grapes In a previous article, I wrote about how one manufacturer of exceptionally fine High-End audio electronics...
The Golden Age of Audio(philes)
Lou Hinkley of Pacific Audio Fest Lou Hinkley is the owner of Daedalus Audio and a partner with Gary Gill in PAF and the new Southwest Audio Fest in...
Hardware Reviews
World Premier Review: Audeze CRBN2 Electrostatic Headphones
Audeze strikes again with its new CRBN 2 reference electrostatic headphones! Weighing in at 480 grams versus 300 grams for the original CRBN, with...
Waters on the Hardware: The Mola Mola Makua Preamplifier
"Dean Waters: Portrait with Cigar." PAF 2023, SeaTac, WA The Mola Mola Makua Preamp, front-top oblique view In June of this year, I had a wonderful...
The Gem Dandy PolyTable Signature Showcases Vinyl with Vim and...
My eyes welled with tears staring at a glorious reproduction of Edgar Degas' painting, The Orchestra at the Opera, in a massive book in the reference...
Ultrasonic Record Cleaners from HumminGuru
HumminGuru? Just another Tik-Tok #influencer, you'd think? No, it turns out HumminGuru is a Hong Kong-based firm focused on accessories for vinyl...
The New Apartment Lounge - There and Back Again: Wrapping My...
New Kids on the Block Back in late fall 2021, as most of the nation impatiently wiped layer upon accumulated layer of sleep from COVID-19 weary eyes,...
GoldenEar T66 Loudspeaker
This is not 1999 anymore. Flash forward 25 years and most loudspeakers from any reputable manufacturer are far more than a few speaker drivers in a...
Crystal Cable Infinity Power Cable
Mention Crystal Cable in an audiophile conversation, the adjectives that likely come to mind are thin, elegant, top-drawer fabrication, and expensive....
The Quadratic Audio MC-1: Max Vinyl Mojo with a Modern...
Photo by Bryant Larsen The Quadratic Audio MC-1 was influenced by a triumphant tradition that rose from the Great War's ashes to avant-garde and...
Waters on the Hardware: The Merrill Audio ELEMENT 110 Monoblock...
Dean Waters with Cigar: a Portrait. (Photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson.) The Merrill Audio ELEMENT 110 Monoblock Amplifier (image...
McIntosh MC830 Solid-State Monoblock Amplifiers
McIntosh MC830 Solid-State Amplifier (courtesy of McIntosh) McIntosh amplifiers are the type of ultra high-end audio components that cause fist fights...
Play All the Records! - The Criton 3TD-X Loudspeakers
Perhaps the principal joy in attending audio shows is sitting and auditioning insanely expensive speakers, many with six-figure price tags. As long as...
XACT USB and Ethernet Cables
I live on the fourteenth floor of an apartment building on a busy avenue in NYC. Even this high up with the windows closed, the sounds of the...
Unique Innovation Technology (UIT) Presents the Perfect Music...
Bob Levi: a moment at the LAOC AS Board Banquet. Los Angeles, CA, 2023. (Photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) I have been listening...
RAY Select Premium 12AU7 Vacuum Tubes
I've been working with John Soriano of Apos Audio on a number of recent equipment reviews, and through our regular contacts, I discovered a few months...
Lightning In a Bottle - Cambridge Audio MXN10 Digital Audio...
Quite possibly, if you were to ask my non-audiophile friends, their perception of me would be one of a guy who is on the cutting edge of technology....
Interviews
High-End Audio Luminary Michael Fremer Produces His First Record...
Reprinted with permission from Copper magazine. Michael Fremer needs little introduction to Copperreaders. He's been a stalwart of the high-end audio...
Music Reviews
Rhino Announces Cool Limited Edition LP Releases in the...
Rhino Entertainment has launched their Roctober and Now Playing Fall 2024 LP series, which combined feature 48 limited edition LP releases, with many...
Five New Release and Reissue LPs from Craft Recordings
Craft Recordings has a diverse slate of new release and reissue albums that they're offering heading into the last part of 2024, and I have a generous...
Counterparts' The Difference Between Hell and Home
A little over 10 years ago, Canadian melodic hardcore band, Counterparts, released their groundbreaking album The Difference Between Hell and Home. An...
Afterimage Faces to Hide
I am not a music reviewer. Never done that before as I never saw that as something I could do with respect to being faithful to the artist and their...
Sunset Boulevard Records and Rhino Reissue Folk/Rock Influencer...
Rhino Entertainment, in cooperation with Sunset Boulevard Records is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Bob Neuwirth's self-titled...
Roger Eno, the skies:rarities
Roger Eno, the skies:rarities. 2024. Desutche Grammaphon. Available HERE As I am shifting away from 24 years of equipment reviews and focusing more...
The Frankie Laine Collection
If you're an audiophile who's under the age of eighty, you probably haven't paid much attention to Frankie Laine (1913-2007). There was a time when the...
Cool New Original Motion Picture Soundtracks on Gorgeous Colored...
Varèse Sarabande is a specialty imprint of Craft Recordings, and is one of the world's most prolific producers of motion picture and television...
Sylvester's Live at the Opera House on Translucent Purple Vinyl...
When singer, songwriter, disco diva, and queer icon Sylvester walked onto the stage of San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House on March 11, 1979, it...
Rhino's High Fidelity Premium Vinyl Series Rolls Out Classic LP...
Rhino Entertainment's High Fidelity Premium Vinyl Series continues with a pair of classic LP reissues from influential country rock performers Gram...
Craft Recordings' OJC Reboot Continues With Classic Albums from...
Craft Recordings' revival of the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series continues with another pair of exciting new 180 gram LP reissues. Including The...
The Box Tops Cry Like A Baby
There are few if any male rock voices that I find more interesting and pleasing than the one possessed by Alex Chilton (1950-2010) during the sixties....
The Original Mahler Pioneer?
Mahler: Symphony 4. Netania Davrath, soprano; Utah Symphony/Maurice Abravanel. Vanguard Classics SVC-24 (CD, 1995, orig. rec. 1968). TT: 52.14...
Sisters of the Moon by Susana Gomez Vazquez in Pure DSD256
When I hear that Gonzalo Noqué is releasing a new Pure DSD256 recording on his Eudora Records label, my ears prick up. When I find that he is...
Notes on Recent Finds, No. 25 - New Recordings at NativeDSD
The labels represented in NativeDSD's catalog continue to deliver outstanding performances in great sounding recordings. NativeDSD is just a stunning...
Ornithology: The Best of Bird - A New Charlie Parker Compilation...
Craft Recordings' latest noteworthy release of classic jazz has just arrived, and it's a compilation of some of the finest recorded works by legendary...
George Benson's Lost Orchestral Album - Dreams Do Come True:...
Rhino Entertainment is heralding jazz guitarist and vocalist George Benson’s return to the Warner Music Group with the release of his long lost...
New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print
Getting Top Performance From Your Digital Media: Shine Ola...
This article by Jeff Day originally ran in Positive Feedback ISSUE 45 September/October 2009, so while we call this section "New Old Stock - Articles...
Our Friends at HIFI Statement
Copland CTA407
Copland presents the new CTA407 tube integrated amplifier, the successor to its puritan classic CTA405. It marks the upper end of the company's own.... . . Read More »
Our Friends at High Fidelity
Final ZE8000 In-Ear Headphones
MUNICH → TOKYO → KRAKOW This is the story of how wireless, in-ear headphones belonging to the top-of-the-line "8000" series, model ZE8000, turned...
Acoustic Revive Ethernet Cable and LAN Filter
Acoustic Revive is a Japanese company founded in 1997 and led by Mr. Ken Ishiguro. It specializes in audio signal cables, anti-vibration products, but...
Totaldac D1-Unity DAC
Totaldac is a French audio manufacturer, founded in 2010 by Vincent Brient. Its headquarters are located near Mont Saint-Michel, a rocky island in the...
Show Reports
Southwest Audio Fest 2024
I admit to being skeptical. In 2023 when Gary Gill and Lou Hinkley announced their plan to hold a new HiFi show called Southwest Audio Fest in Dallas...
New from the audio analyst© - Virtual High End Munich - It's a...
Following my first three episodes from this year's event, these wrap-up event episodes bring you my final three sets of coverage, each addressing three...
