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We are now four months into New York State's pandemic lock-down. The days pass, every one feels like a Saturday. There's nothing on my calendar except a couple of repeating Zoom sessions—all our entertainments have been zapped. (I know: if that's the worst of it, I shouldn't complain.) The free time hangs heavy; you adjust... Read More »

Bach vs Beck…is it all just Nature's Noise? I am listening to both Bach then Beck on Spotify and noticed they had a similar 5 million listening audience for the month. What else do these guys have in common? To start they both wrote music for infinite audiences. This is something Beck no doubt always... Read More »

It has been quite some time since my last article for Positive Feedback about the Sophia Electric vacuum tubes developed and offered by Sue and Richard in McLean, Virginia. It was all the way back in August of 2017 that I wrote about the Sophia Electric EL34-ST (photo below) and Aqua 274B vacuum tubes (HERE),... Read More »

Do You Believe In Ghosts? A boy hears a sound. He hears sound before he has a name. He hears gurgling, pounding underwater. He hears an ocean of blood swimming around him. Through his veins. Through his mother. He breaks into the light of day. He's shocked that he has a voice. He finds his... Read More »

A few things on my mind here. Make that two things; digital and analog. Digital as in getting the bits from A to B (in this respect the Diamond Revision 30th Anniversary USB cable from Purist Audio Design - $2100 for the 1.5 meter I have here) and analog in getting the signal from A... Read More »

Herein the latest from our goodly colleague, John Marks, editor of The Tannhauser Gate, his worthy and informative blog site. He points us to a male soprano whose voice would delight the angels. O! Can he sing! Dr. David W. Robinson, Ye Olde Editor "Well, the Welsh do sing, do they not?" I murmured to myself, upon... Read More »

While he was in quarantine from the terrible plague that was raging in London, Shakespeare wrote King Lear. That is a hard act to follow. I don't think I am going to manage writing anything nearly so significant while stuck here in quarantine. I have spent a lot of time talking to friends in the... Read More »

Albert Von Schweikert, March 13, 1945 – May 29, 2020. Founder and Chief Designer: Von Schweikert Research/Von Schweikert Audio Though born in South America in 1945 to a US military officer and the daughter of one of the principal engineers of the Panama Canal, the Von Schweikert family moved to Heidelberg, Germany while he was still... Read More »

So how many of you reading this are getting so tired of the same old "staying at home, and man do I need to mix things up?" state of mind? Well, count us in. As I write this Carol and I have been staying home and not going out, other than around the neighborhood for... Read More »

Nelson Pass:  a portrait. Sea Ranch, CA, 2018. (Photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) This piece was originally presented at the 2019 Burning Amp Festival but was hampered by problems with the projection system. It has been rewritten for Positive Feedback.... Introduction I don't need to tell you that audiophiles tend to be... Read More »

The very first time as a teenager I laid eyes on my brother's new DynaKit amp, I knew inside that I'd found one of my life's true callings. I've always loved everything about audio gear; the look, the feel, the smell—but ultimately, the sound it's capable of producing. And I can honestly say, for the... Read More »

Yet more sad news: I've received the belated word today that Marty DeWulf, editor and publisher of Bound for Sound, another well-known high-end audio journal from the late 1980s until the early 2000s, passed away at the relatively young age of 65 on March 22, 2020. Marty's health had apparently not been good for a... Read More »

Personally, I consider this to be one of the more memorable musico-poetic explorations that John Marks has done. He of  The Tannhauser Gate ambushes us with not one, but two allusions, both of which left me bemused. May they do you as well as they did me! Dr. David W. Robinson, Ye Olde Editor An... Read More »

Roger Skoff writes about cost and value in high-end audio Roger Skoff, a portrait. LAOC Audio Society Gala, 2018 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Note to our readers:  Roger Skoff has been writing essays about high-end audio for years at Positive Feedback. Roger was formerly the founder and CEO of XLO Cables,... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor:  a portrait (Photograph by John Robinson) Last week PF published an "Open Letter to Joel Davis of JD Events/AXPONA 2020" in our Industry News section. It included some 20 supporting signatures from those protesting JD Events' unwillingness to give exhibitors either the option of cancelling their reservation and receiving a full refund,... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor, a moment. (Portrait by John Robinson) Bill Parish of GTT Audio is a great longtime audiobud of mine. We go back nearly 20 years now. During that time, I've come to develop a real respect for his line card, which is always excellent, and pay a lot of attention to his recommendations... Read More »

We are living in strange and terrible times. It is the Golden Age of Audio right now, but that Golden Age has been swallowed up by the COVID-19 pandemic so suddenly that it is hard to remember just a few months ago, when 2020 looked like it would be a very good year for fine... Read More »

Clark Johnsen, Private Ear (series drawing no. 1, by Bruce Walker, 1993) I got the news first thing in the morning last week. Clark Johnsen has passed away of cancer, at the ripe age of 78. I wasn't surprised; a mutual friend had warned me four or five months ago that Clark was in a... Read More »

O Brother, Where Art Thou. A twenty-year old movie soundtrack, with music written a century ago, is once again relevant today. What a World It is gray out, but the birds are singing and my children are sleeping soundly during these early hours of a Sunday morning. I am watching steam lazily rope out of my... Read More »