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Design is both the idea, the pattern, the design just poured by it onto paper or on a computer screen, and the materialized effect of designer's work. In other words, design is both the design and the things that have been designed. Design is the whole process contained in a single word. Emilia Branecka-Ledwon, Co... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment, in cooperation with Sunset Boulevard Records is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Bob Neuwirth's self-titled debut album, Bob Neuwirth. Many of you are probably asking yourselves the same question I asked upon receiving the initial press release for this LP from Shore Fire Entertainment: "Bob Neuwirth? Who is Bob Neuwirth?"... Read More »

Roger Eno, the skies:rarities. 2024. Desutche Grammaphon. Available HERE As I am shifting away from 24 years of equipment reviews and focusing more and more on sharing music I find, I was recently afforded the opportunity to listen to a wonderful new album by Roger Eno. The album is titled the skies:rarities available on Deutsche Grammaphon. Yes... Read More »

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 dynamic Mr. Laine, who was born Francesco Paulo LoVecchio, was as popular as Frank Sinatra. In his day he was affectionately called Mr. Rhythm, and for good reason. Great... Read More »

Roger Skoff, a portrait, Orange County, CA, 2023 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about why things cost what they do Like everything else, the cost of HiFi gear has escalated over the last few years. Some might say that that's just because the whole world is caught in an... Read More »

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 into my personal headphones, not only in the sense that I became their owner, but that they were personalized specifically for me. And it's not at all about cosmetics, appearance or equipment.... Read More »

Our tribe of dedicated audiophiles and music lovers met up in Dallas Texas the weekend of June 7-9 for the seventeenth Lone Star Audio Fest. LSAF is designed and executed to be different from typical HiFi shows. The emphasis is placed on hosting a low-cost experience encouraging individual audiophiles, DIYers/Makers, startups and smaller companies to... Read More »

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 also has a range of innovative products, the ideas behind which usually come from the University of Tokyo. We are testing a system for data transmission and LAN conditioning. When, at... Read More »

Varèse Sarabande is a specialty imprint of Craft Recordings, and is one of the world's most prolific producers of motion picture and television soundtrack recordings. While originally established in 1972 as an avant garde classical music label, it has since found a successful niche specializing in the release of film scores, original soundtrack recordings, and... Read More »

This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations 241. Shelly Manne & His Men – At the Blackhawk Vol.1. Contemporary Records – S 7577 (1960), Craft Recordings – CR00601 (2024), Acoustic Sounds Series, 33 1/3 rpm. Genre: hard bop, cool jazz. As the title suggest, this is the first of four volumes of drummer Shelly... Read More » . . . Read More »

Ye Olde Editor the seeker:  A moment in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel, 2022 (photograph by John Robinson). Well, actually from Long Valley, NJ, the home base of Bill Parish and GTT Audio.  Because there's significant news from that site. Those of you who have been following my reviews, photo essays, and commentary over the years, you... Read More »

Dean Waters with Cigar:  a study. 2023 Pacific Audio Fest, Seatac, WA (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Throughout our lives we encounter special moments that are so transformative that we know that we will always remember exactly where we were and what we were doing the moment they occur. If you're old enough,... Read More »

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 Texas March 15-17, 2024 my first reaction was "does North America need another high-end audio show?" Apparently, it is not about needs, rather wants. And the Dallas... Read More »

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 would prove to be not only an important pinnacle in his all too brief career, but also a historic moment for the city's LGBTQ+ community. The evening would become a... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment's High Fidelity Premium Vinyl Series continues with a pair of classic LP reissues from influential country rock performers Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, both of whose lives and music were inseparably entwined. Included are Gram Parsons' second and final studio album (and his undeniable masterpiece), Grievous Angel (Reprise Records, 1974), along with Emmylou... Read More »

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 Harold Tichenor at work on a RTR setup... Restoration copies are made from tapes that are deteriorating through wear, age, or inherent flaws. They are the means of assuring that the content is not... Read More »

Craft Recordings' revival of the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series continues with another pair of exciting new 180 gram LP reissues. Including The New Miles Davis Quintet's classic 1956 session Miles (Prestige Records), along with a noteworthy collaboration between trumpeter Clark Terry and Thelonious Monk, 1958's In Orbit (Riverside Records). Both are landmark recordings of... Read More »

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 had had to raise the price of his products in order to be able to sell them. It was all a vicious cycle that worked like this: In order to get the... Read More »

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 gritty, soulful, and expressive voice that Chilton used during his tenure with The Box Tops never, to my knowledge, reemerged on recordings after 1970. Rock historians are quick... Read More »

Mahler: Symphony 4. Netania Davrath, soprano; Utah Symphony/Maurice Abravanel. Vanguard Classics SVC-24 (CD, 1995, orig. rec. 1968). TT: 52.14 Downloads: archive.org (processed from LP); ca.7digital.com (Canada only); us.7digital.com (U.S. only) The charismatic Leonard Bernstein, with his equally prodigious gifts for music and self-promotion, has been accepted unquestioningly in many quarters as the great Mahler pioneer, but... Read More »

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 recording the excellent pianist Susana Gomez Vazquez, I'm doubly on alert. Her playing is just scintillating and her choice of programming is always intriguing. And so, when... Read More »

The labels represented in NativeDSD's catalog continue to deliver outstanding performances in great sounding recordings. NativeDSD is just a stunning resource for those who love immaculate high resolution recordings made by some of the best recording engineers working today (Jared Sacks of Channel Classics, Brendon Heinst of TRPTK, Gonzalo Noqué of Eudora, Jake Purches of... Read More »

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 from Our Days in Print" you are also going to see some articles from our early days of going online.  It's common knowledge that cleaning vinyl records makes a big... Read More »

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 alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. Ornithology: The Best of Bird features a selection of classic studio tracks from Parker's mid-1940's sessions for Savoy Records; the studio sessions are supplemented with a group... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment is heralding jazz guitarist and vocalist George Benson’s return to the Warner Music Group with the release of his long lost orchestral album, 1989’s Dreams Do Come True: When George Benson Meets Robert Farnon. The orchestral tracks for the album were recorded in London during a fertile and prolific period while Benson was... Read More »

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 the Dallas, TX area of the USA. In this essay he shares his thoughts about high-end audio and audio shows. "It was the best of times... Read More »

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 remarkable rooms. Can you say World Premieres? In this episode, I explore the world premiere of the Kronos Discover Phono stage, the Göble Divin Comtesse loudspeakers, and Alon Wolf's Magico S5... Read More »

Reprinted with permission from Copper magazine. Michael Fremer needs little introduction to Copperreaders. He's been a stalwart of the high-end audio industry for decades, and is currently the editor of The Tracking Angleand editor at large at The Absolute Sound. He has been a champion of vinyl since long before the days in the early 1980s when the "Perfect... Read More »

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 bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, in the English Channel. The company specializes in digital-to-analog converters and audio file players. It also offers a range of amplifiers, speakers and accessories to improve digital signal... Read More »