Gather around, audiosports fans! It's that time of year again…Positive Feedback's Brutus Awards season. At the end of each year, my unindicted co-conspirator Dave Clark and I give our Positive Feedback awards. These are our annual "best stuff we heard this year" plaudits. No padding, crap, junk food, or meaningless drivel here: Just the righteous... Read More »
Spatial sound has developed mainly thanks to the cinema. The first stereophonic system was Fantasound, created by Walt Disney's engineers to be used in Fantasia—an animated film from the year 1940. At that time, the term "stereophonic" was not synonymous with "two-channel"—sound was recorded on three tracks, based on research carried out by Graham Bell... Read More »
Best Sound in Show The 78 project brought in a live acoustic band, Sean Walsh and Ray Williams, sat them down in the conference room, stuck a microphone in front of them and recorded them with a portable Presto lathe. The recording, well, it sounded like something out of an old Presto, but the band... Read More »
As always, I enjoy writing about a professional audio conference for the high end community. The AES show is really two things, it's a bunch of people upstairs selling hardware mostly to professional production people, and it's a different bunch of people downstairs talking about science and technology. What makes the AES different from other... Read More »
If you've been following my OccupyHifi On-The-Road series, you know it's been a crazy, shit, I'm sorry, it's been a crazy muthafuckin' year! OK, so I got it outta my system straight out the gate. If you can't move past that bullshit I still can't help you. Stop hatin' and move on to the polite section of the interwebs. I tried to hide how heavily this twenty-year divorce journey affected me earlier on Occupy.
I didn't expect Geoff Merrigan, Tellurium Q's CEO, to offer a new flagship model so quickly after the release of the Ultra Silver. It was/is an excellent cable and it came from a company that has quite a stable portfolio, that does not have to use any and every novelty that comes to the market.... Read More »
People. What makes shows such fun. Couldn't, didn't get enough, but here are few of our many friends that make attending shows such a great time...
Astell & Kern. GamuT, Audio Skies, Pear Audio Blue, Lucky Dog Audio. GTT Audio, Audionet, Kronos, Kubala Sosna, YG Acoustics. Kii Audio, Audionet, GTT Audio. PranaFidelity, Kuzma, Luxman, Kubala Sosna, Kouldb Tape. Kuzma Stabi-Reference 2 turntable, Technics RS 1500 reel to reel, Luxman D-06u SACD/CD player, PranaFidelity purna/ma amplifier $8950, PranaFidelity purna/ca preamplifier, PranaFidelity Vayu/fs... Read More »
Dear Analog Tape Enthusiast: Coming December 1st from Opus 3 Records is the "One" Sampler Vol. V Analog Tape. The 5th Analog Sampler Tape in this series from Opus 3 Records features 8 tracks from the coveted Tape Vault of Opus 3 Records. Besides being a Showcase for what Opus 3 Records recorded strictly analogue,... Read More »
Miles Stratton is a dedicated PC Gamer. He's also the son of Russ Stratton, (VP of Audio/Video Systems at the Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society) and a dear friend of mine. Russ is also a diehard audiophile and fellow music addict.
Phase Three: The Search is Over! This is final installment of my three-part series on upgrading my turntable. I've made low budget isolation tweaks, added fabulous accessories, and modified the tonearm wiring and the counterweight. The last piece of the musical puzzle was adding a new phono cartridge. While I let the cartridge choice out of the bag... Read More »
Cynics and Saints was recorded at Immersive Studios direct to DSD via Meitner converters to Sonoma. The entire album is DSDPure Available for download in DSD, 176/24, 96/24, and 88/24 at: http://store.acousticsounds.com Denver, CO After three and a half years of sweat, pain, tears and love - and even a little bit of blood -... Read More »
I like surprises. I especially like them when they bushwhack me. You know…when I'm not looking and all. This doesn't happen in audioville very often. Usually there's a reasonable expectation of the quality of what I'm going to hear when products come in for review. Most of my review projects are by invitation; I generally... Read More »
Audience Debuts Its Improved ClairAudient 1+1-V2 Loudspeaker And Introduces 1+1-V2 “+ Kit” Option San Marcos, CA, November 9, 2015 – Audience today announced the introduction of its ClairAudient 1+1-V2 loudspeaker, incorporating upgraded drivers to deliver even greater sonic realism than the original version of the 1+1. In addition, an available “+ kit” takes the 1+1-V2’s... Read More »
Westchester, New York, November 6, 7 & 8 Roaming the sparsely populated halls of the Rye Brook Westchester Hilton during opening day of "New York Audio Show 15," the event looked to be a bust. Instead of the usual throng of audiophile fiends blocking access to popular rooms, one could stroll the show's two floors,... Read More »
Now, more than ever, the audiophile world is awash with digital to analogue converters. Not a day seems to pass by without entry to the market of yet another shiny box sporting the latest chipset and the ability to decipher the Enigma code. Sarcasm notwithstanding, the audiophile kingdom has a plethora of choice at its... Read More »
Audiophiles are often use to trying many different methods and ways of thinking to improve the sound of their playback systems. One can find countless varieties of tweaks, accessories, and approaches to produce even small changes in the audibility of our favorite music and sound recordings. But one of the least understood of these is... Read More »
The TAVES Consumer Electronics Show is one event that I always look forward to. It is, by far, the show with the friendliest crowd that I have ever encountered any high-end audio show that I have attended over the past 35 years. It is also very well organized and always features a good number of... Read More »
"How can I even try I can never win Hearing them, seeing them in the state I'm in" —"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by Lennon–McCartney I haven't written a column on digital music servers in a very long time, and I think that's because I haven't really had anything new to say. Everything... Read More »
New Seasons. Gidon Kremer. Glass, Pärt, Kanchelli, Unabeyashi. Kremerata Baltica. Deutsche Gramophone. DG 4794817. Violinist Gidon Kremer is a musical phenomenon most of us have come to admire and even love. His energetic and (at least to my ears) near vibrato-less sound brings a vigorous directness to everything he plays from Bach to Glass. In... Read More »
I have to confess. Since moving away from CDs and other physical digital media (at least from a playback standpoint) I actually listen to music digitally more than I ever imagined I would. Looking back over the last year or so, I probably have more actual listening time using my budget digital server system than... Read More »
Irvine, California November 4th, 2015 – Synergistic Research introduces the World's Highest Resolution cables for Audeze and Sennheiser headphones - Atmosphere Series Headphone Cables. MSRP $ 695.00 / 2.5 Meter Atmosphere Headphone Cables for Sennheiser and Audeze feature: The world's first use of Graphene in a headphone cable. Graphene is a room temperature super conductor... Read More »
STOW, OH, November 3, 2015 — This holiday season, Audio-Technica offers gift ideas that make music more enjoyable and fun. Bringing unmatched convenience to listeners anywhere and everywhere, the all-new ATH-ANC40BT QuietPoint® wireless Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones are here just in time for the holiday season. Audio-Technica’s ATH-ANC70 and ATH-ANC33iS noise-cancelling headphones combine standard-setting noise-cancellation with... Read More »
So there is a lot to see and hear at RMAF. So much, that just getting to the majority of rooms, saying hello, taking a few shots, and giving a quick listen becomes not only mind boggling, but physically boggling. So here is Part 2. Will have a lot more to say in the conclusion.... Read More »
Always a great time, but man are we getting old. Hard to do the shows like we used to in the past... just not able to make all the rooms nor sit and spend any amount of time. When we did, we found ourselves too beat to get up and continue. Even so, we did hear... Read More »
Some of the DSD Stereo Downloads at HDtracks Two years ago at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver, Acoustic Sounds and Native DSD announced their new music download sites that would feature Direct Stream Digital (DSD) downloads. At the same show, Sony Electronics introduced a family of Digital Music Servers and Converters that would... Read More »
One of the most frequent reactions of people who have never visited me before and who have nothing to do with audio, is their surprise at the sight of my speaker cables trailing on the floor. In my reference system, I have been using the Tara Labs Omega Onyx cables for many years. They are... Read More »
When one of the fellow audio journalists from abroad asks me about the best Polish audio brands among few I always recommend Warsaw based Amare Musica. It is a company that from the very beginning, from 2012 when they debuted during Audio Show in Warsaw, always offered highest quality products. They debuted with the De... Read More »
In past reviews of loudspeakers I presented the notion that products, for me at least, tend to sound like the personality of the designer. How so…? Well… From Issue 64…"So how do they fit into the idea of being cut from the same (or similar cloth) as the designer? That is… do they present the... Read More »
The Audio Oasis! Awards Time is short…on to my Audio Oasis! Awards. These I give to the rooms that were of high quality, drawing me in to sit down and really get into the music. You know: An audio oasis! Rest for the weary audio traveler and all that. For me, that's a sign of... Read More »
I have some more pictures to share from RMAF and a few more thoughts about the show. Below is a picture of the Einstein/AF-2 room. I think the AF-2 is a great looking table, but nothing much was happening when I visited the room so I really don’t have much to share beyond the pictures.... Read More »
USB DAC recording system offers professional-grade A/D conversion and the ultimate in vinyl archival To satisfy audiophiles everywhere, KORG expands its Direct Stream Digital (DSD) hardware and software products with the introduction of the DS-DAC-10R, a revolutionary USB DAC recording system offering professional-grade Analog-to-Digital (ADC) conversion. Thanks to seamless integration with the improved AudioGate 4 software... Read More »
Today at NativeDSD.com we celebrate the milestone of having over 10.000 DSD Tracks available at Native DSD with a Storewide 10% discount on all albums! We also release Two brand new Channel Classics releases by Amsterdam Sinfonietta Soloists and Hamlet Piano Trio. Jazz trumpeter Eric Vloeimans is in the spotlight this week with an extra special pricing, and we have added 6 New DSD Releases from Caro Mitis to the... Read More »
Rosary Sonatas. Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. Rachel Podger, violin. David Miller, theorbo and arch lute; Marcin Swiatkiewicz, harpsichord, organ; Jonathan Manson, viola da gamba, cello. Channel Classics SACD. CCSSA 37315. Biber's (1644-1704) searching, expressly mystical meditations on the Christian story from the annunciation through the nativity to the crucifixion and resurrection and on to... Read More »
"The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, Shorter of breath and one day closer to death." —From "Time" by Pink Floyd So, first, you might ask, where have I been and why I am not talking about digital music servers, instead reviewing a vinyl reissue you can't buy anymore—at least... Read More »
Damn! Unbelievable! Yet another trip to Denver done; another annual circuit in the Earth's orbit; the 12th RMAF is in the books. The only one of these that I've missed was the 2008 show, when I had just temporarily relocated to Virginia Beach, Virginia. Otherwise, I've seen them all, from the very beginning, when Al Stiefel... Read More »
September 30, 2015—Channel D, developers of the innovative Pure Vinyl™ and Pure Music® computer audio software for Apple Macintosh computers and the creator of the Seta® Ultra Wide Bandwidth Phono Preamplifiers has released a major update to its Pure Music® software. The new Pure Music 3 software includes nearly 50 new features and performance enhancements.... Read More »
