Loading...

Positive Feedback Logo

The Secret Life of Audio Systems


There are issues that drive me crazy, truly. I try not to give in to them, I look away and look for more interesting activities, but eventually, sooner or later, they come back to me. I am thinking mainly about how pavements are treated. Once the NOT office building, commonly known as the Szkieletor, today... Read More »


Grant Green Part II:  The Holy Barbarians


Wayne Goins, doing his thing... This next chapter starts with Grant making major moves after his successful adventure with Jimmy Forrest. In our last issue, Grant and the Forrest-led band had completed their first album recorded on December 10 and 19 in 1959 at Delmark Records in Chicago, entitled All The Gin Is Gone (with... Read More »


Pure DSD256 - What We Hear


Some of you may recall that Ann and I have been on a journey of discovery these past three years. After 45 and more years as died-in-the-wool analog listeners, we moved from an all-vinyl listening system to an all-digital listening system. And as we've explored digital recordings, we've kept our "audiophile-off-the-deep-end" hats firmly in place,... Read More »


Is Testing the Real Snake Oil? Roger Skoff Debunks the Debunkers


When I was a Kid Hi-Fi Crazy many years ago, "specs" were really important to me and to all of my Kid Hi-Fi Crazy friends. Being kids, we naturally had no money, and couldn't afford to buy anything—or at least not anything that wasn't either a kit or second-hand. Even so, we were all very... Read More »


The Art of Vacuum Tubes: Sophia Electric 45 Mesh Plate Triodes and Aqua 274B Rectifier


A friend of mine was looking at these Sophia Electric vacuum tubes, and she told me "They're so pretty, they look like works of art."  These Sophia Electric vacuum tubes really are works of vacuum tube art. The Sophia Electric 45 mesh plate triode (above) and Aqua 274B rectifier (below) vacuum tubes are not only... Read More »


About UltraAnalogue Recordings


Edward Pong Edward Pong is the owner of UltraAnalogue Recordings. Those in the high-end reel-to-reel community will need no introduction to Ed; his stellar RTR recordings are magnificent, and really embody the sorts of audio virtues that audiophiles can appreciate all day long. As a very long-time RTR lover myself, I asked Ed to write... Read More »


The Great Guitar of Grant Green - Part 1


A portrait of Wayne Goins Every Sunday between 10 a.m. and noon, I show up to the Bluestem Bistro in Aggieville to play with my jazz guitar duo partner, "Slick" Rick Smith. Rick is a very cool guy. A former student of mine back in the early 2000s, he's all grown up now and is... Read More »


Audio Existentialism - Questions; Music… It's Slipping


The lapping of the bay, the wind through fallen tree. Birds of the sea and the land. It is all music gifted to us by nature. We use our nature to make music, and we cannot forget that nature exists within us all. I recognize the face in the mirror despite the grey flecks in... Read More »


Alesis ADAT - 30 Years of Digital Recorder that Revolutionized the Music Industry


Part 1: TECHNOLOGY In the 1990s, the music industry moved from reel-to-reel recorders, both analog and digital, to DAW recording systems, i.e. computer workstations. The Alesis ELECTRONICS ADAT digital multi-track tape recorders represent a turning point in this history. Digital Sound Recording—an audio preservation method in which the audio signals are converted into a series... Read More »


Acoustics and Critical Listening


Norman Varney of AV RoomService Ltd. has joined Positive Feedback as a Senior Technical Editor as of Issue 113. His expertise in his field of audio acoustics and experience in the field makes him a helpful voice in our creative community for the audio arts. As has been our wont from the beginning of PF,... Read More »


(Good) Vibrations: Roger Skoff Writes About What it's Really All About


If you stop to think about it, you'll see that all of everything about our hobby—the music we love, the gear we give so much of our wealth and interest to, and the rooms we listen in—is about vibration. The recorded music we listen to is a vibration in the air caused by the vibration... Read More »


Roy Hamilton and His Influence on Elvis


Part 1: The Awaking Late October of last year, a friend of mine who lives in Wichita Kansas, came to visit me for a jam session and a guitar lesson. We had a great time, and when he made it back home, he sent me a text photo of a vinyl haul he'd snagged at... Read More »


A Fair Audio Playing Field


Norman Varney of AV RoomService Ltd. has joined Positive Feedback as a Senior Technical Editor as of Issue 113. His expertise in his field of audio acoustics and experience in the field makes him a helpful voice in our creative community for the audio arts. As has been our wont from the beginning of PF,... Read More »


Graham Audio Chartwell LS6 Loudspeaker


We are blessed once again by some fine reflections from our good friend and brother, John Marks, he of The Tannhauser Gate fame. This time around we read his thoughts on the Graham Audio Chartwell LS6 Monitor Loudspeaker. I always fine John's commentary to be excellent reading, a blend of audio experience, music, deep insight, and... Read More »


How to Solve "The Audiophile Problem": Roger Skoff Writes What You Need to Know


If you're a serious audiophile, one of the things you can be certain of is that you're eventually going to have a problem. If you're lucky, it might just be that something in your system breaks or, like tubes and some other kinds of electrical or mechanical parts, eventually wears out. If you're less lucky,... Read More »


Impressions: Robinson's Brutus Awards for 2020, Part the Fifth and Final...Including the Music!


No, not quite done yet. RSX Technologies MAX Power Cable and the RSX Technologies Power8 Multi-Outlet Power Box The RSX Technologies MAX Power Cable. All images courtesy of RSX Technologies.  Disclaimer first:  Roger Skoff, formerly of XLO Cables, has been writing essays for Positive Feedback for a few years now. Back in 2019 he started... Read More »


Noam Sivan: Improvisations upon the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988


I am indebted to David P. Goldman‘s wonderful Tablet magazine article on the place of classical music in Israeli society for introducing me to the young pianist Noam Sivan, who is recovering the lost art of classical-piano improvisation. Born in 1978, Sivan has taught at the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School. Currently he is Professor of Piano Improvisation at the... Read More »


Network Acoustics' ENO


Okay so I have always been about removing or filtering out "noise" or whatever crap is in the signal or wherever… stuff that can cloud or obscure the music. Been after this ever since I realized it was there. Crap that gets in the way of the music. AC conditioners, AC regenerators, signal filters, grounding... Read More »


Impressions: Robinson's Brutus Awards for 2020, Part the Fourth


Yon Editor, contemplating... Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by David W. Robinson. Here's the fourth installment of my Brutus Awards for 2020. Time flows...I goes. Onwards.... The Mytek Brooklyn Bridge Streamer/DAC & the Mytek Brooklyn Amp+ Straight to this particular chase. I have been listening to designs from Mytek Digital for many years now…all... Read More »


Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad