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The Ayon Audio Scorpio is a heavy, Class A integrated amplifier made of high grade aluminum and powered by gleaming KT88 and 12AU7 tubes. One look and listen, and you know it's textbook audio, the perfect answer to your friends when they say, "So how's a high end amplifier any different from my Yamaha?" Like... Read More »

(Not) Another $18,000 Challenge, or:  "Whoa! This system costs how much?!" "I like Downbeat, you know?" This was the first sentence Graeme Humfrey said to me, after I'd introduced myself as a PF writer. Graeme is the proprietor of the latest audio shop to be handed my unsolicited musical challenge. "I mean, it's still great what you're doing," he... Read More »

"Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll touse you Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose." William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure The Stillpoints ESS Reference Rack with Grid Shelves (image courtesy of Stillpoints) Fine audio reviewing can be great, with passion driving you through the work and all the costs that... Read More »

In part two, I cover the balance of my Audio Oasis! Awards for AXPONA 2016. As I said in part one, these notes are presented in no particular order, and so there is no greater or lesser in the sequence. Read on… ModWright/Ryan Loudspeakers/Aurender/PS Audio/Cardas/Shunyata/Massif Audio/GIK Acoustics/Audioquest room A portrait of Dan Wright of ModWright,... Read More »

Jenna Mammina and Alex de Grassi (Photo: David Pappas) On April 21st, a bit of music history was made as singer Jenna Mammina and guitarist Alex de Grassi performed an hour long concert that was broadcast live over the Internet in Direct Stream Digital (DSD) 5.6 MHz Stereo. The concert was the first of its... Read More »

Sony STR-DN1070 AV Receiver with 5.1 Multichannel DSD 5.6 MHz Playback Sony Electronics has expanded their DSD series of High Resolution Audio products with the release of the new STR-DN1070 Audio Visual receiver. Sony describes the STR-DN1070 as a 7.2 Channel Home Theater AV Receiver with High-Resolution Audio and Video plus Native Multichannel Native DSD... Read More »

In which our hero meditates… [Sketch by Robinson, c. 1989, during a particularly boring faculty meeting…] So…another audio show in the books, and it's time to share the highlights as I heard them. I would normally have had these out to you all a couple of weeks ago, but lost that time to a necessary... Read More »

So back on track here… got the Aurender review (a truly wonderful product—read that HERE) done and so on to another product that I loved so much, I ended up buying the review sample… the PS Audio BHK Signature 250 Stereo Power Amplifier. Bought it? What about the legendary Clayton M200 amplifiers? Are you selling... Read More »

I have become quite lazy and it is all to blame on the technology that we use today to get our music out into the room. It all started with CDs allowing me to sit and listen to something like 60 mins of music while never stirring. Of course a lot of time I never... Read More »

Plus a Few Album Recommendations Component Droughts, the Grumblings of Privileged Men, and Happy Endings For longer than I care to remember, I don't have any components to review, a situation I find both annoying and liberating. Liberating in the sense that I needed a respite - as well as the kind of perspective that... Read More »

Nativ Sound, an audio start-up based in Hong Kong working on a family of elegant touchscreen music components, has announced that they have passed their $100,000 fund raising goal on Indegogo in one week. This exceeds the company's original goal of reaching that milestone in 2 months. Nativ's family of music system components includes Nativ... Read More »

"Shine on you crazy diamond"  - by Pink Floyd First of all, I should say that I like the Simaudio MOON Neo 280D ($2200) very much and that, with the optional MiND module, it provides for a one-box media server solution, WiFi support, DSD256-capable DAC, and all. Having said that, I did run into a... Read More »

Things can pile up. From time to time, especially when I get too busy, miscellaneous projects and notes accumulate. They don't warrant a major article, but they are items that I should mention to you. And this is a brief and very different sort of flash for you. Ergo 21 As a writer and editor,... Read More »

So in my last Audio Ramblings, I wrote… "Not sure how this came about, but man do I have a lot of stuff here to review… the PS Audio BHK250 amplifier and their AC12 and AC5 power cables, the Aurender N100H streamer, the Entreq Poseidon Grounding box and cables, several items from Synergistic Research (Black... Read More »

[Joe Cohen is a long-time friend of Positive Feedback, and owner of The Lotus Group, a high-end audio company in California. Joe is married to the Jazz vocalist Daria, and has a deep love of music going well back into the early days of his life. I read an earlier, shorter version of his musical... Read More »

Music & Film, Audio & Video, Learning & Understanding, Art & Life: "The Soundtrack" – A musical accompaniment created by the Gods! Often when I watch a film, the music portion of the soundtrack can take a back seat to the dialog and sound effects, which make up the better portion of what we experience sonically... Read More »

Want to start an argument with your audiophile friends? Tell them cables don't make a difference in sound. Or conversely, tell them cables do make a very clear and easily discernable difference. One side or the other, you are bound to get all kinds of personal experience stories and possible pseudo-science claims as to why... Read More »

Zu Audio: divine, evil, beautiful, disgusting; Or, "Careful with that tone, mister." So what kind of sound are you after? Accurate? Musical? Okay. But according to whom? Because, the fact is, each of us has a brain that's unique, including in what it perceives as being accurate and musical. Does this make us all somehow... Read More »

Star Wars Original Soundtracks in Stereo DSD and Analog Tape Horch House has released the first three original soundtracks from the Star Wars Series: Episode 4: Star Wars – A New Hope, Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode 6: Return of the Jedi in Stereo DSD, analog tape, and WAV formats. The albums... Read More »