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It's been a little over a year since PS Audio's DirectStream Junior DAC landed in the Tune Saloon. I gave it a well-deserved two-thumbs up in my PF review, HERE. Since that time, DS Junior been the primary source for my digital audio system. The beating heart of the DSJ (and big bro DirectStream), is its custom Field... Read More »

Sometimes you write reviews. Sometimes you write raves. And sometimes you write love songs… Introduction "Sherman, set the Way-Back Machine to THE Show Newport Beach Michael Vamos. I met him a few years ago at a THE Show at Newport Beach. He had just started his high-end audio distribution biz, Audio Skies (http://www.audioskies.com), at around... Read More »

From the LA Audio Show:  PF's DSD Seminar PowerPoints Those of you who were at the recent LA Audio Show had an opportunity to attend the Positive Feedback DSD Update Seminar. In it, PF Associate Editor Brian Moura and I presented a one-hour discussion of some recent developments in DSD hardware, recordings available in DSD, and download sites... Read More »

So, two things on my mind here… the Aurender A10 and how wonderfully musical it is, and the WireWorld Starlight Cat8 Ethernet cables… and how they work so well together. I mean they work great by themselves with the Aurender A10 going a long way in terms of musicality, delicacies, nuances, bass, slam, and depth…... Read More »

Acoustic Revive was founded in Japan in 1997 by Mr. Ken Ishiguro, who is the design genius behind the innovative and ultra-quality Acoustic Revive products. Like many hi-fi enthusiasts, Ken-san's interest in audio arose through his love for music as a youngster. Ken-san told me, "I was listening to the Beatles when I was fourteen... Read More »

Jeremy R. Kipnis & Bob Carver at New York Audio Show - Nov. 2016 As a teenager of 17, I was introduced to CES: The Winter Consumer Electronics Show by a close engineering and audiophile friend, Richard Mintel. Back then, this monumental event, taking place in Las Vegas from January 6-9, 1983 sprawled countless hotels... Read More »

Sony RSX-GS9 Playing Dirty Work by Jenna Mammina in DSD 11.2 MHz (Photo: Blue Coast Music) Sony Electronics has announced that their RSX-GS9 Car Digital Media Player is now available with Quad Rate DSD (11.2MHz) playback. Current owners of the RSX-GS9 can upgrade their players by downloading and installing a free software upgrade from the... Read More »

Chicago 2017 is now firmly in the rear-view mirror, O'Hare Airport and all. The show itself was a well attended event, with a just announced attendance of nearly seven thousand paid. According to show organizers, this was a 13% increase over 2016. From my standpoint, AXPONA 2017 was a busy show, with good to great traffic... Read More »

The Higher End: HiFi Pig, Part-Time Audiophile, and Positive Feedback link-up In which our hero meditates… Those of you who have been reading Positive Feedback over the years are aware of the fact that from our beginning, 28 years ago, we have maintained friendly and open relationships with other publications. In fact, for quite a long... Read More »

The two newest entries in AudioQuest's DragonFly family of DACs are the Black ($99 USD) and the Red ($199 USD), with the core design approach appearing to me to be one of simplicity of use in accessing the majority of files one listens to on a daily basis, along with easy connectivity to a broad... Read More »

So, we come to you with another cable review. Sorry, I know many of you believe that cables cannot have a sound or character—that is either they work or don't and any audible impact on the sound would suggest that something is broken… like my ears or inability to be swayed by hype or whatever…... Read More »

Nothing beats the convenience of digital music. For many years, I have stored and played back digital music (before the MP3) because of how easy it was. I loved having a huge collection of music just to play at the tip of my fingertips. Not only that, but it caused a surge of new music... Read More »

Sonneteer may not be a familiar company to many of my American compatriots, but they've been in business since 1994 and have a line of audio products receiving favorable reviews worldwide. There's something quintessentially British about the Sonneteer name, so when Arcadia Audio Marketing, Sonneteer's U.S. distributor, asked if I would like to review Sonneteer's... Read More »

Roger Skoff writes about how our eyes, ears, and wallets may all be tied together The traffic on Pacific Coast Highway ("PCH") in Newport Beach, California is slow and awful, jammed most of the time with tourists, beach bums and bunnies, locals doing whatever they do, and others, from Orange County and elsewhere, on their... Read More »

As anyone who has followed my work for the past twenty years or so know, I am all about lower cost, high value audio. I love finding equipment that punches above is price class and attempts to give real, solid, quality sound with the potential for long term satisfaction. I feel I have been pretty... Read More »

"The speaker that changed my life?" said Jones. "Easy. The Quad ESL57. It's the first true Hi-Fi speaker I heard once I got to university. I have almost always owned a pair." No surprise, then, that the ESL57's creator, Peter Walker, continues to inspire Jones's own work. "I had many conversations with Peter," said Jones.... Read More »

I have been enjoying quite a lot of audio adventures over the last year or so while doing audio projects where I experimented with various wire types, capacitors, inductors, and resistors in audio circuits. As a result, my knowledge, skills, and confidence related to developing, modifying, and optimizing audio circuits have been progressing to where... Read More »

The Critical Mass Systems QXK Mk. III Rack in Four-Shelf Configuration, photograph courtesy of Critical Mass Systems. The latest chapter in a story… Some designs and products that I review are from new companies. This is a very good thing; it shows that the world of fine audio remains vibrant, creative, and open to innovation.... Read More »

In this column, republished from his blog site, John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com) shares his six pack of choices for a seven-league-boots traversal of 1000 years of Western Music. The full selections would take about an hour. List-making is inherent to all passionate pursuits of excellence. Music, films, cars, cigars, wine, books, sporting events...just about... Read More »