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David W. Robinson:  Self-Portrait, Variation 3, Happy Valley, OR, 2019 Wilson Audio & VTL As usual of late, the Wilson Audio/VTL room did not disappoint…quite the contrary. The Wilson Audio Sasha DAW loudspeakers and their accompanying Wilson Watchdog Subwoofers, with an external crossover, were sounding quite full-range and authoritative, driven by the VTL S-400 Monoblocks.... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor at RMAF back in 2015 (photograph by Jeff Day) Introduction:  RMAF at a major new site After a hiatus of three years (2016-2018), during which my colleagues Dave and Carol Clark headed up show coverage for Positive Feedback at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, it was time for Lila Ritsema (PF's Business... Read More »

Our good friend John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate continues his collection of re-published essays here at Positive Feedback. In this one, he makes us aware of a wonderful musical resource in the online archive of recordings from none other than Steinway. What a fine and generous opportunity this is! Many thanks to John for bringing... Read More »

This particular feature article for Positive Feedback isn't your typical audio review, but rather is intended to be a fun and inspirational "dare to dream" article that is decidedly outside of the usual audio mainstream. This is an article that tells the story of the successful marriage of the latest state-of-art Duelund Coherent Audio CAST... Read More »

John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate shares his reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the release of The Beatles masterpiece album, Abbey Road, by reminding us of George Benson's follow-up LP, The Other Side of Abbey Road. In the midst of the celebrations that Philip O'Hanlon has organized at a high-end audio dealer level, very many... Read More »

Gary L. Koh, Chief Designer and CEO of Genesis Advanced Technologies, was the principal speaker at an event held on Saturday, September 14, 2019, at Distinctive Stereo LLC, a specialty audio store in northern New Jersey. Also, on hand were Mat Weisfeld of VPI and Merrill Wettasinghe of Merrill Audio Technologies. Gary began his presentation... Read More »

...in which my good audio friend John Marks, Head Honcho of The Tannhauser Gate, continues his series of essays on a creative thread within rock music, wrapped about the music of Boston. This time, he introduces us to the commentary of Rick Beato, a connection for which we can all be thankful. I'm with John: ... Read More »

The last event I attended at the World of McIntosh (WOM) Townhouse in SOHO NYC featured the debut of Sonus faber's Reference Aida 2. After about 10 seconds with the Aida 2 I realized I was in the presence of greatness. The Aida 2 is one of the very few experiences in recent memory that... Read More »

I seem to have gotten onto this bandwagon a bit late, but on the bandwagon I am. K2 HD remastering is a new technique (c. 2014) that the Japanese have pioneered to try and improve the quality of that stalwart of music delivery, the RedBook CD, now seemingly in it's twilight in favor of hard... Read More »

Fred Astaire & Miles Davis, a poem by Jim Merod It Could Happen To You, as Miles knew, growing up affluent near East St. Louis, his father's horse paddock down the path from my Aunt Rica's house in Millstadt.   More than most in the Depression, Miles had means and interest to see films, among... Read More »

Yon goode fellow John Marks continues his reflections on our recent musical past that he began in his just-published essay, "Walk Away Renée," to be found at his excellent Web site The Tannhauser Gate, as well as its re-publication here at Positive Feedback. Frankly, I was gratified by how quickly John continued the thread that... Read More »

Roger Skoff writes about getting the most from our audio hobby. Many years ago, Stereophile, to get a better handle on its marketing, had a study done to find out who and how many its readers were. One of the (then-surprising) things that study turned-up was the fact that almost all (well more than 90%)... Read More »

For those of us who are pushing things in terms of what can we accomplish with playing our music back via files within some networked system, well… where does one stop? Or better yet, what else can one do to improve things? Obviously, it starts with files whether ripped from a CD or sourced from... Read More »

He's back! Good friend and brother John Marks...the Big Kahuna of The Tannhauser Gate...strikes a note in my heart by plucking at a favorite song of mine from 1966, and fleshing out the flesh and souls behind it. Having just recently purchased the reissue of this album on LP, I am content to stir this... Read More »

This guest article is by Thom Mackris, head honcho at Galibier Design. PF Senior Associate Editor Lynn Olson shared it with me right after Thom published his comments on a very recent three-hour listening session that he had with Lynn. They were doing some listening comparisons with exaSound DACs; the comments below summarize Thom's take on... Read More »

David W. Robinson:  a portrait by John Robinson The Merrill Audio Element 118. Why that name? Simple, says Merrill Wettasinghe, the designer:  "Element 118 is named after the newest element in the periodic table called Oganesson, which completes the 7th row of the periodic table. The name Element 118 reflects the newest in technologies in... Read More »

From left to right, Intel Nuc Roon Core, Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra, Raspberry Pi 3 B+, Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Over the past year I have spent a significant amount of time working on solving what appeared to be a simple problem. How do I distribute my digital music throughout my home in an... Read More »

Why is that with all the music we have access to, we still play the same 50 albums? I grew up in a time of Hi-Fi that I thought was the golden age. It wasn't centered on the gear… it was all we had, but was centered on the music. I suppose we all have... Read More »

The Software The 60th anniversary of jazz king John Coltrane's banner year with Prestige Records, with all cuts produced by legendary Rudy Van Gelder and released on vinyl 4/26/19, has arrived. The eight LPs are from 24/192 tracks produced from the master tapes. The 37 cuts, presented in chronological order, were pressed at RTI in... Read More »