October, 20, 2017 - Since we hired Electrical Engineer Mike Bettinger we have been asked about VPI's future in electronics. Mike is known for his award winning "Arion" phono, which is how we met him. Harry Weisfeld liked his phono so much he bought one for his personal use. Mike has taken what he learned... Read More »
18th October 2017 - dCS announces the release of a software update that provides MQA compatibility to all current product ranges - bringing the MQA experience into what many regard as the best digital music source in the world. MQA, Master Quality Authenticated, provides a means to efficiently encode and transmit high resolution audio. MQA... Read More »
FRANKLIN, TN, October 19, 2017—Emotiva Audio Corporation, the company that continually proves high-performance audio doesn't have be high-priced, now offers two new variations on its configurable XPA Gen 3 modular amplifier. The new XPA-9 and XPA-11 Gen3 amplifiers (both priced at $1,999) are, respectively, nine- and 11-channel versions of the latest generation of Emotiva power... Read More »
For the past fourteen years Rocky Mountain Audio Fest happens each October. Usually Dave and I battle airports and uncomfortable flights, but this year we decided to drive. Two days driving, gorgeous scenery, and we arrived midday on Wednesday. Plenty of time for rest and relaxation before the show began on Friday. In this report,... Read More »
Burning Amp Festival 2017, DIY Audio's Premiere International Festival Held Annually in San Francisco, set for November 12th Burning Amp Festival 2017 is coming to the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco on Sunday, November 12th from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 PM. New This Year: BAF's hours have been extended due to the increased interest and... Read More »
Mike Bovaird, the owner of Suncoast Audio in Sarasota Florida, held an event at his store on October 14, 2017 to provide a premier demo of the new Pacific flagship DAC from LampizatOr for his Sarasota customers. I flew in on 'lucky' Friday the 13th to Sarasota in order to cover the event. Suncoast Audio... Read More »
It isn't just every day that a hardcore audiophile disguised as an audio reviewer meets living high-end audio legend. In fact, there's no doubt that some present day Positive Feedback readers were just a glean in their parents' eye when Aalt Jouk (A.J.) van den Hul built his first cartridge some 50 years ago. No... Read More »
This year, for the first time in its history, the TAVES Consumer Electronics Show was moved to a non-hotel setting. The 2017 TAVES venue was the Toronto Congress Center in Etobicoke. This suited the organizers goal of transforming TAVES from a predominantly high-end audio show, to a true, all encompassing Consumer Electronics Show. This transition... Read More »
On Sunday October 15, 2017, the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society held its monthly meeting at the beautiful Weinhart Design audio emporium in Bel Air, CA. The main draw for this meeting was an opportunity to audition the Carver Amazing Line Source (ALS) Speakers from the Bob Carver Corporation. But, not only would... Read More »
Chopin's Last Waltz, Robert Silverman pianist, Kimber Kable ISOMIKE 5606, LP. Producer: Ellen Silverman Editing: Aaron Hubbard Mastering: Chad Kassem, Aaron Hubbard Recording Engineers: Aaron Hubbard, Ray Kimber Mastering Engineer: Kevin Gray, Cohearent Audio, LLC Recorded using the ISOMIKE RECORDING TECHNIQUE recorded at DSD256 and edited in that format without any compression or equalization other than... Read More »
John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate favors us with some reflections upon Bernadettes, Leonard Cohen of remarkable memory, the exceptional Jennifer Warnes, and a certain haunting song. This is a bracing little essay, taking across time and space to one of the great tandems of recent decades: Cohen and Warnes. He's gone now, to my heart's... Read More »
This is the sixth and final installment of John Marks series on putting together a system to digitize your LPs. Republished from his blog site, The Tannhauser Gate, John's comments are a useful introduction to the process of going digital with your analog records. The links to the entire set of articles is referenced below, should... Read More »
Audio Note Music – ANM 1601 (UK) (2017, March) Format: Vinyl (2x180 gram LPs at 45 rpm) Named official 'musical ambassador' for Audio Note Music, Canadian cellist Vincent Bélanger is part of an all too rare breed: an authentic audiophile/musician. Dedicated to raising awareness around his beautiful bicentennial or so instrument, the busy 38-year-old is on... Read More »
Yuko Mabuchi Trio; Yuko Mabuchi piano, Bobby Breton drums, and Del Atkins bass; Yarlung Records 80161 CD, pressed in Germany on high definition special composite materials. Available in PCM and DSD on HDTracks, and NativeDSD.com up to DSD256 (Quad DSD). 2017. Recorded before a live audience at the Brain and Creativity Institute’s Cammilleri Hall. Yuko Mabuchi plays a Steinway Piano. Recording... Read More »
Sizing Things Up Straight out of the box, the new Von Schweikert Audio Unifield 2 Mk III Loudspeakers (a replacement for the highly regarded Mk II version that came out several years ago) remind you that they are no ordinary compacts. For starters, these hefty beasts tip the scales at just over 50 pounds—each. Speakers in... Read More »
Technics is on a roll. Leave it up to the brand which helped define consumer HiFi in the 70s, to continue delivering the goods in 2017. That's quite the stretch, in a competitive industry like the entry level consumer HiFi market. Looking though their luxe, visually bold website, nay, experience portal, one can't help reminisce... Read More »
AVM30 – the new entry-level line which AVM Audio introduced 2016 in Germany with three models as a limited edition to mark its 30th anniversary. This Autumn of 2017 we will be bringing this exciting range, with some very new models, to the rest of the world, as AVM30 goes global this year. All AVM30... Read More »
October 6-8, Denver, CO Furutech Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, manufacturer of ultra-refined analog, digital, video cable and accessories, invites you to the Elite AV Distribution Room 566. Furutech debuts new phono cables, a new power distributor and the ultimate Cable and Connector damping solution featuring Furutech's revolutionary NCF sound enhancing material. NEW Furutech's NCF Booster – Cable... Read More »
Experience, Direct Witness, Astonishment What It Is Across more than forty years I've recorded live jazz in many locations. The list of venues and places has grown long. The number of musicians—great, very good, extraordinary, iconoclastic and, on occasion, startling—has grown even longer. Jim Merod with Ornette Coleman (photograph courtesy of BluePort Records) Early on,... Read More »
Boulder, CO 10/1/2017: PS Audio, originators of power regeneration systems for home audio, is proud to announce the debut of the new P20 Power Plant at this year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. PS created the category of home power regenerators with the release of the P300 in 1997. Since that time, the company has continued to pioneer... Read More »
MERGING+ Range in Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2017, Room # 7025 The MERGING+PLAYER, MERGING+NADAC and MERGING+POWER will be featured in a dedicated room at The Rocky Mountain Audio Festival in Denver. This late decision to take a room at the show was predicated by a change in US distribution and the desire to show the... Read More »
MoFi Distribution proudly announces the addition of the Primare brand to their product lineup. Known as "the sound and vision of Scandinavia", for over three decades Primare has been renowned for products with award-winning sound quality combined with advanced technologies that together offer a unique and appealing level of simplicity – and a high level of customer satisfaction.... Read More »
Below you'll find part five of John Marks' six-part series describing one method for digitizing LPs. John, he of the blog site The Tannhauser Gate, gives our readers a cost-effective and reasonably simple method for transferring your albums to PCM files for archiving and playback functions. As he points out in his footnote, this method does... Read More »
The Bybee iQSE (photograph courtesy of Bybee Technologies) iQSE Disks or Quantum Signal Enhancers by the legendary Jack Bybee is quite a tweak at an affordable $150 per 4 inch x 2 inch disk. You can read a full report on these from Larry Cox in Positive Feedback. I found all new uses for these that I feel... Read More »
Passion, that one word sums it all up and answers many questions. Why collectively spend decades evolving a simple table radio into a complex collection of boxes and wires? Passion, to advance the state-of-the-art in home music reproduction chasing an absolute ideal of fidelity. Why spend hundreds of hours designing a product line of HiFi... Read More »
Hello audio friends! Fall is here, and Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is right around the corner. Brian and Shellissa are joining George Cardas himself in Denver this year. We'll have a booth at CanJam, showing our A8 Ear Speakers & headphone upgrade cables. In addition, Steven Ambrose will be in our booth, doing demos of... Read More »
Los Angeles, CA - 20 September 2017. In 2017, CanJam Global hosted thousands of enthusiasts, music-lovers, and mobile technology consumers at its headphone audio shows in North America, Asia, and Europe. The 2018 schedule expands on its annual events in New York City, Singapore, Los Angeles, London, and Denver with the addition of a new and exclusive event, the Shanghai Headphone... Read More »
(Allasso in Greek means to change or transform one thing to another) Thousand Oaks, CA, September 21, 2017 - Zesto Audio is pleased to announce their first audio accessory, the Andros Allasso Step Up Transformer. The international debut will take place at the X-FI Audio Show in Holland on September 30th and the US launch will be at... Read More »
Starting from 299USD inc. shipping. Shipping from the 15th of October, 2017 Pre-order now open: Type foreplay at the checkout to receive 15% off (ending 30th, September, 2017) Please visit us for more information. https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/play/ Play Music: It's a high power headphone amplifier with over 2W per channel into 16ohm It's a reference class DAC feature the ESS9018 DAC chip... Read More »
This is Part 4 of John Marks six-part series on digitizing LPs. This series is re-published from John's blog site, The Tannhauser Gate. In this set, he is providing his readers and ours with a solid and reasonably-priced way to archive their precious vinyl to digital format. I commend John's care and attention to detail. Read... Read More »
Gold Note—the Italian High-End manufacturer based in Firenze, Italy—is introducing the IS-1000, an innovative all-in-one source designed to deliver high quality audio combining analogue and digital technology, available at a MSRP of 4200,00€ (USD $5000) worldwide through Gold Note retailers in October 2017. IS-1000 is an advanced fully integrated amplifier that redefines the way music... Read More »
Back in Issue 92 of Positive Feedback, Bob Levi did a review of the Unique Innovations Technology (UIT) Perfect Music Purifier Series of audiophile cables that he had recently discovered. According to Bob, the UIT cables provided quite a substantial percentage of top-notch performance at sub-$1000 pricing. In his summary, he stated, "The Unique Innovation Technology... Read More »
Introducing POLARIS by Campfire Audio An Exciting NEW Hybrid Design! Polaris is Emotionally Engaging and Highly Resolving. Designed and Hand Built in Portland, Oregon USA. Powerful Pairings: Campfire Audio is proud to introduce a new innovation to our dynamic driver design; Polarity Tuned Chamber™. Our 3D printed tuned chambers in front and behind the driver allow us to optimize the... Read More »
The GamuT Lobster Chair in the sweet spot at the PF listening room in River City. "And now," said Monty Python, "for something completely different!" When planning, setting up, or upgrading their listening rooms, audio folks don't usually spend too much time considering furniture. After all, loudspeakers. Electronics. Turntables. DSD. RTR tape. Racks. Cables. For... Read More »
Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantatas for Bass. Matthias Goerne, baritone. Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Gottfried von de Goltz. Harmonia Mundi HMM 902323. If dark power is what you want in Bach's cantatas for bass—and you surely should—then Matthias Goerne is the answer to your prayers. Eloquent darkness is not always what we get from true basses, but... Read More »
The coincidences were uncanny. Exactly a year ago to the date we first visited Distinctive Stereo. Plus two weekends before that we had gone to Mezzrow, a small jazz club in the West Village, to hear clarinetist Ken Peplowski. Guess where we were and who we saw two weekends before this year? The outing was... Read More »
PrimeSeat Presents the NHK Orchestra in DSD 11.2 MHz (Photo: PrimeSeat Software) While many were celebrating Independence Day this 4th of July, a different celebration was happening in Japan and on the Internet. July 4, 2017 was the launch date of 11.2MHz DSD (also known as Quad DSD or DSD 256) Streaming Audio from PrimeSeat. ... Read More »
