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It's been a little over eight years since I last reviewed an amplifier by Southern California's ampsandsound (HERE). In the intervening years, Justin Weber has taken his little, almost hobbyist endeavor into the world of being a serious full-fledged business manufacturing extremely high quality boutique products. His lineup currently includes six amplifiers designed for driving... Read More »

Over the last two years, I have been on a determined mission to find a standalone phono stage for my system. I have been experimenting with both solid state and tube phono stages at several different price points. I have posted a few reviews, but not for everything that has entered my listening room. The... Read More »

Fifteen or more years ago I purchased a John Curl/Jack Bybee Signature Pro power conditioner, and still use it to this day. The Signature Pro used two power cords, each one connected to a bank of four outlets, one bank labeled Digital and the other Analog. Each bank utilized three Bybee Quantum Purifiers. You may... Read More »

Of all the elements that make up a high-end audio system, few are embroiled in the kind of controversy that surrounds cables. By and large, audiophiles seem to align with one of three primary belief systems when it comes to the impact of cabling on a system's sonic signature: those who profess that wire, generally... Read More »

Bicycle photo courtesy of Bossibicycles.com and SR-71 Blackbird photo by USAF Judson Brohmer and Wikimedia Commons Replacing my turntable's stock tonearm with the Titanium-tubed Audio Creative GrooveMaster 3 conjures a 50-mile bicycle touring experience in the 90s. I wasn't a regular cyclist, and pedaling my heavy fat-tired steel Trek mountain bike on surface streets for... Read More »

As I stated in my original review, the primary function of Vera-Fi Audio's Swiss Digital Fuse Box (SDFB) is to remove and replace the weakest link that existed in the device it's connected to. Which in my case was the main AC line fuse in my PrimaLuna EVO 300 tube integrated amplifier's power supply. Other... Read More »

Dean Waters: portrait with a cigar. SeaTac, WA, Pacific Audio Fest, 2023 For the last few months, I've been listening to and delighting in a pair of AGD Duet monoblock amplifiers. These are the newest addition to the AGD product line, and are rated for a very solid 150W @ 8 Ohms (300W @ 4... Read More »

Over my life as an audiophile, I've had three individual instances where I was absolutely certain beyond doubt that the consequences of my actions would in no time send me rocketing down the highway to high-end audio hell. The first came over a decade ago when I followed the advice I'd gotten from another audio... Read More »

Like a god of destruction and rebirth, the internet streamer obliterates the accumulated dross of the audiophile world with one hand, while bestowing untold musical riches with the other. All at no charge. Dump your tables, tubes, and tuners into the ocean. Gift your album caravan to a grateful acolyte who can be dazzled by... Read More »

Audiophile tweaks; you can either love them or hate them, but if you are a passionate audiophile, they are difficult to ignore. Sure, they can be controversial, and in a few cases, they can even be outright frauds with claims that border on the ludicrous. However, in my experience, if you look long and hard... Read More »

This review has had probably the longest gestation period of any review I've ever done. I've had the Tekton Perfect SET 15 loudspeakers in my possession for three years already. In fact, I already gave them a Writer's Choice award in 2021. Why the long wait? As explained in previous articles, much of the first... Read More »

The PS Audio Aspen FR10 Loudspeakers (photo courtesy of PS Audio) The "P" in PS Audio, a leading manufacturer of high-end stereo equipment, Paul McGowan is renowned for his informative and easy-going newsletters and YouTube videos with over 185,000 subscribers. As a self-taught analog electronics engineer, he co-founded the company with Stan Warren in 1973,... Read More »

A while back I found myself the new custodian of some excellent prototype speakers. I'd heard the Communique floorstander at several Colorado Audio Society listening sessions and really enjoyed this speaker. Built by MG Audio Design, which was mainly a cable company at the time, (Positive Feedback's own Pete Davey reviewed their Planus speaker and... Read More »

Dean Waters at the Pacific Audio Fest, 2023: a portrait with cigar (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) The Tambaqui from Mola Mola represents the finest in high end DACs available for the serious audiophile who's looking for a no-compromise solution for digital-to-analog bliss. I've been listening to the Tambaqui for the last... Read More »

Fifty years ago SAE hit the market with its first amplifier, the venerable MK 1. A 60-watt per channel affair that stunned the audio world and received rave reviews by none other than J. Gordon Holt when he stated that under most conditions it was the best sounding solid-state gear he had ever heard. Big... Read More »

As widely noted, for the second year in a row in 2023, vinyl record sales topped compact disc sales in the U.S.—this time by a whopping $43 million, or about six million more than total CD sales last year (popsci.com). This point recently hit home personally when my wife, Belle, said that her hipster boss... Read More »

I'm constantly on social media, quite often for audio-related purposes. And I'd seen teasers for months highlighting the ongoing development of Vera-Fi Audio's SnubWay Noise Defender, or more simply, SnubWay. The posts seemed to mostly focus on different variations of the case design, with only snippets of information regarding the actual function of SnubWay. With... Read More »

As many years as I have been in this hobby, within the last few I have become more and more intolerant of the exaggerated claims of expensive tweaks by some manufacturers. You can throw wire and cable into this debate, but that is a subject for another day. If one is trying to eke out... Read More »

Dean Waters at Pacific Audio Fest 2023: a portrait (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) The Qln Signature Series, Fifth Generation, front view with magnetically attached grill cover For the last several weeks I've been gleefully enjoying listening to and marveling at the 5th generation Signature series speakers from Qln. These are 2-way... Read More »