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Ye Olde Editor, before the tsunami... Personal tsunami, 2023. Such a strange year for me, one that threw me for a loop right in the midst of the two main audio show that I attended:  AXPONA 2023 and Pacific Audio Fest 2023. Normally, I'm able to issue my considered judgements and Audio Oasis! Awards within... Read More »

Intro - Some New Toys at Stu's It's been a while. Over two years by my reckoning. There's been a lot going on in my world, but hidden away, deep in my audio bunker, I've been doing a lot of modifying, tweaking, and after doing much careful listening, I've even picked up a few new... Read More »

About the fact that what is simple is better than what is complex. But also about the fact that thoughtless simplifying is a mistake. Listening to music should be a simple matter. It is, after all, about one of the basic ways of spending free time that humans have indulged in for a very long... Read More »

My fascination with and appreciation of Beethoven's work began even before my relatively formal introduction to his vast body of work and influence on Western music which came in junior high school, where I not only had Miss Bloom's music class once a week throughout the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades, but also sat in... Read More »

As I explained many months ago last May in Issue 127, my 2023 show impressions for both AXPONA and Pacific Audio Fest were derailed and terribly delayed by death...family and close friends...disease, and depressive moments. Top it off with too much work and some travel, and, well here I am. But I'm working on finishing... Read More »

Roger Skoff, President of RSX Technologies, at the LAOC Audio Society Gala, December 2023 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about the weirdest thing about our hobby On one of the larger Facebook audio groups, a question currently being asked is "Who is the biggest proliferator of audio BS?", and... Read More »

Dean Waters with cigar: a portrait at Pacific Audio Fest 2023 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) The Vivid Audio Kaya 90 loudspeaker in one of its many custom colors (image courtesy of Vivid Audio) The smaller Kaya 45, again in a custom color (image courtesy of Vivid Audio) The Kaya product line... Read More »

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 »

When we left off (HERE), I had just contacted Rob Fritz at Audio Art Cable about possibly getting set up with a loom of cables for both my digital and analog room systems. While I didn't press Rob to go the "full loom" route, he did agree to send me a full suite of interconnect... Read More »

I've always believed in the importance of well-constructed audio cables, and my systems of the last five or so years have been built around expensive (if not completely esoteric) cables from highly regarded manufacturers. I simply believed that logically, having well-made cables of a higher pedigree would give my systems a more legitimate claim to... Read More »

Roger Skoff at the 2023 Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society Gala (portrait and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about how to save money on great sound Of all the components of your system, the likely most expensive are the speakers and, almost certainly, the most expensive part of building... Read More »

Here we are at the end of 2023 and again, not a lot has passed through our doors for review. Why? Neither of us are just not interested in reviewing whatever. We were years ago, but now after reviewing some 35+ years... yeah, no thanks. Been there, done that, and just don't have the interest... Read More »

Network Acoustics is probably best known for their ENO Ethernet Filter (HERE), but they also offer a line of Ethernet and digital cables as well as an assortment of other products to make your network streaming all that much better. And as you will see, a whole lot better. Case in point, their statement muon... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE! FREE HI-RES DOWNLOAD! 24-bit/88.2kHz Christmas Jazz Vespers jazz-quintet track "What Child Is This?" recorded location-live by John Marks. From the Editor: Our good friend John Marks got in touch about a "Christmas Jazz Vespers" concert he had recently recorded location-live in the spacious Third Meeting House (1775) of the First Baptist Church in America (gathered... Read More »

David W. Robinson in Jerusalem, 2022 (portrait by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde Editor himself) The Furutech Lineflux XLR NCF The Furutech Lineflux NCF XLR interconnect (image courtesy of Furutech) Furutech. A front-rank, top o' the heap high-end audio headquartered in Japan. I've followed their products for many years now, and for very... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor presenting the first LAOC AS MUSE Award to Abey Fonn…in ink outline, no less! (Photograph by unknown; image processing by yours truly) The weekend of December 2-3, 2023, saw the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (LAOC AS) hold its 30th Anniversary Gala celebration. Following is a collection of photographs that... Read More »

Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave and Carol Clark had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award. The Gizmo Award,... Read More »

Roger Skoff tells it like it is, and why When I recently Googled the question, "What is the best HiFi system in the world," I found that American Songwriter magazine had published the following (HERE). Quick Summary of the Best Home Stereo Systems Denon D-M41 (Best Overall) Bose Wave SoundTouch Music System IV (Best Compact Home Stereo... Read More »

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing well! In August of 2019 the Shuguang Electron Tube Factory was shut down in preparation for a move to a new location. By March 2020 the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a worldwide pandemic, which would result in the shut down of most vacuum tube production still operating... Read More »