November - December 2015
Audio Discourse
Our Brutus Awards for 2015 - New Additions
So yeah… been a crazy year. Not as much reviewed as we had hoped for, but yes… a few items did pass through our doorway and into our system getting...
Impressions: Robinson's Brutus Awards for 2015, Part 3
[Here's the final installment of my Brutus Awards for 2015. It covers software, music, and our special PF Lifetime Achievement Award...
Impressions: Robinson’s Brutus Awards for 2015, Part 2
[Here's the second part of my Brutus Awards for 2015. Part three will appear within the next day or so.] Cables TARA Labs Zero Evolution interconnects...
Audio Ramblings - The Auralic Aries and SBooster Linear Power...
The saga, or journey, continues with my Auralic Aries adventures. In my last Ramblings (HERE) I shared my experiences with upping the Aires'...
Impressions: Robinson’s Brutus Awards for 2015, Part 1
Gather around, audiosports fans! It's that time of year again…Positive Feedback's Brutus Awards season. At the end of each year, my...
The Audio Circular No. 17: Learning (the) Vinyl Rules, Phase...
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...
Impressions: In which Dr. David invites Synergistic Research to...
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...
Lampizator Golden Gate DAC
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...
At the Kipnis Studios (KSS)™: A Funny Thing Happened on...
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...
Musings on Building a Digital Music Server: The Next Generation
"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...
Computer Audio on the Cheap! (Part 3) – Another New Computer...
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...
HDtracks Starts Offering DSD Stereo Downloads
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...
Audio Ramblings – The PranaFidelity Vayu/fs Loudspeakers
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...
Korg Continues to Expand into the High-Res Audio Frontier with...
USB DAC recording system offers professional-grade A/D conversion and the ultimate in vinyl archival To satisfy audiophiles everywhere, KORG...
Audio Ramblings - Elevating the Auralic Aries with the Integrita...
Okay so in my last two Ramblings I shared my experiences, and expectations, of music servers or streamers; specifically the Antipodes DX and the Aries...
Hardware Reviews
Fidelizer Pro 6.12: Optimizing Your PC's Core Audio Processes...
Back in the early days of digital-to-analog conversion, I bought one of the first commercially available (for consumers) DACs, a Threshold. I felt the...
JansZen zA1.1 Loudspeaker
Few audio companies can lay claim to as rich and storied a legacy as that possessed by JansZen Loudspeaker Ltd. Arthur A. Janszen is credited with the...
Analysis Plus Silver Oval 2 Speaker Cable
Analysis Plus was established in 1993 with a unique perspective in the cable market. Proprietary computer modeling had shown that hollow oval shaped...
Sablon Audio Cable Loom
Audio cables seem to induce more fractious behaviour among audiophiles than virtually any other component of the hifi chain. The two camps comprise the...
Mojo Audio – A Glimpse of the PCM Promised Land
So there I was checking my email, and I saw that I had a message from Dave Clark asking if I was interested in reviewing some Mojo Audio gear. As I...
The SST Thoebe II and Son of Ampzilla
These are interesting pieces to have to write about in my first for Positive Feedback. When I picked them up, Dave, who hadn't heard them, said...
Pass Laboratories XP-25 Phono Preamplifier
Pass Labs is on a roll. The new Xs lineup that includes the Xs Preamplifier ($38,000) and Xs-300 Monoblock Amplifiers ($85,000) has been receiving rave...
Angel City Audio Seraphim Loudspeaker
A few times a year there comes a revolutionary product from a vendor. Sometimes it's a well known vendor with the usual high-dollar offerings. With...
Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB Turntable
The only thing "entry level" about Audio-Technica's new AT-LP1240-USB is the price. MSRP is $530, and the street price is...
Classe's Sum of Preamps - the Classe Sigma SSP
This is my second installment investigating surround preamplifiers that might function as a reference two channel preamplifier. Leaving my Onkyo 885(b)...
Getting Active with ATC SCM 40A Speakers
ATC are makers of studio monitors. I expect every reader of this review has at least one recording in which an ATC speaker was used in producing it....
CH Precision L1 Preamplifier
The Truth Serum We just arrived at Alice Tully Hall here in New York City on Saturday night, but I wasn't looking forward to the program. Yet...
Sunshine Company, Ltd. S50 Underboard Speaker Isolation...
The Sunshine Company, Ltd. S50 Underboard Isolation Platform Early this year, David Robinson asked if I would be interested in reviewing a line of...
Cary Audio DMC-600 Special Edition Digital Music Center
This is a review of the Cary Audio DMC-600 Special Edition ("SE") digital music center which was added to the Cary Audio line up of products...
PS Audio NuWave DSD DAC: How Close Does $1300 Get You to Sonic...
When you're basically just maintaining the middle-of-the-road audio status quo, it's really very easy to get caught up in allowing yourself to...
A Mini-Impression: The Epson LW-600p Label Printer
This review is short, and to the point. And yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. This is something really different, and what does a label printer have to do with...
Grado Labs Statement Reference Series 2 Mono Cartridge: A World...
Winner! Winner! Winner! Finally, Grado Labs has stepped up with a mono phono cartridge you can take home to mother. After much research, John Grado has...
Interviews
Interview with Michael Lang, Editor of Stereo Magazine
The Editors Series Numbers show how much the world of hobbyist magazines has changed. In a book entitled EISA. Looking Back, Moving Forward published...
Music Reviews
Notes of an Amateur: Brentanos Play Schubert ‘Live.’ Peter...
Schubert Quintet LIve! A Live Recording of the Schubert's cello quintet by the Brentano Quartet with Michael Kammen. Azica Records. ACD...
Notes of an Amateur: Violinist Gidon Kremer, Cellist Emmanuelle...
New Seasons. Gidon Kremer. Glass, Pärt, Kanchelli, Unabeyashi. Kremerata Baltica. Deutsche Gramophone. DG 4794817. Violinist Gidon Kremer is a...
Notes of an Amateur: Podger’s Biber, Gli Incogniti’s...
Rosary Sonatas. Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. Rachel Podger, violin. David Miller, theorbo and arch lute; Marcin Swiatkiewicz, harpsichord, organ;...
New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print
The Goldman Record Cleaning System
This article, by Bruce Kinch, originally ran when Positive Feedback was in print - Vol. 6, No. 5, 1997. An Introduction The name at the head of this...
Our Friends at HIFI Statement
Caas Audio Elysian Preamp and Monos
Die Caas-Vorstufe bezaubert mit einen aus dem Vollen gearbeiteten Gehäuse, bietet drei symmetrische Eingänge, wird nicht in China gefertigt und ihr.... . . Read More »
Audioquest Jitterbug USB Data and Powernoise Filter
Momentan beschäftige ich mich recht intensiv mit Streaming und Kopfhörern. Und deswegen folgen hier ausnahmsweise zwei Produkte eines Herstellers.... . . Read More »
Audioquest Nighthawk Headphone
In letzter Zeit wurden an dieser Stelle häufig Kopfhörer kleiner Manufakturen vorgestellt. Der Nighthawk hingegen dokumentiert, was dabei.... . . Read More »
oBravo Headphone
Den Ergo AMT, einen Kopfhörer mit Vollbereichs-Air-Motion-Transformer, gibt es schon geraume Zeit, und vor Jahrzehten wurde der schwere, riesige.... . . Read More »
Dynaudio Contour 1.4 Speaker
Dynaudio offeriert zwei Modelle ihrer traditionsreichen Contour Linie in der Sonderversion LE. Im Vergleich zum Serien Pendant sind die Standbox und.... . . Read More »
Auralic Aries Mini Streamer
Dies dürfte wohl der erste Test eines AURALiC Mini überhaupt sein, aber der Artikel könnte genauso gut statt mit „Test“ mit „Grundlagen“.... . . Read More »
Melco HA-N1A, Teil 2
Wer sich mit Streaming im Allgemeinen und mit Musik in hochauflösenden Formaten im Besonderen beschäftigt, kommt um die Frage, wo die Dateien.... . . Read More »
Our Friends at High Fidelity
Krakow Sonic Society Meeting 98 - Roger Waters Amused to Death
Spatial sound has developed mainly thanks to the cinema. The first stereophonic system was Fantasound, created by Walt Disney's engineers to be...
Tellurium Q Silver Diamond Speaker Cable
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...
Rogoz Audio 3T1/BBS - Anti-Vibration Cable Stabilizers
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...
Amare Musica ASPIRIAA Phonostage
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....
Einstein - The Preamp and Silver Bullet OTL Amplifiers
While getting ready to conduct another interview for "The Editors" series, I sent an appropriate enquiry to the largest printed German audio...
Show Reports
RMAF 2015 - Part 4
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...
RMAF 2015 - Part 3
Astell & Kern. GamuT, Audio Skies, Pear Audio Blue, Lucky Dog Audio. GTT Audio, Audionet, Kronos, Kubala Sosna, YG Acoustics. Kii...
New York Audio Show 2015
Westchester, New York, November 6, 7 & 8 Roaming the sparsely populated halls of the Rye Brook Westchester Hilton during opening day of "New...
TAVES 2015 – Show Report
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...
RMAF 2015 - Part 2
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...
RMAF 2015 - Part 1
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...
Impressions: My RMAF 2015 Show Report, Conclusion...the Audio...
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...
RMAF 2015 Part 2
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...
Impressions: Robinson on RMAF 2015, Part 1
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...
