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The 20th Annual Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2023

Editors at Positive Feedback

Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave and Carol Clark had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors'...

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Notes on Recent Finds, No. 11 - Alpha Classics!

Rushton Paul

This edition of Recent Finds will be a bit different because I'm including some 44.1 kHz reviewer sample files from Alpha Classics that I've been enjoying. I've been accused of listening only to DXD and DSD256, but I plead "Not true!" Or, at least not entirely true. Sometimes one just...

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John Coltrane, Blue Train Remaster 2022 Part 2 Releases

Wojciech Pacuła

Everything you want to know about behind-the-scenes of the recording process of Blue Train album and which of the digital reissues of this jazz masterpiece are the best. On September 15th 1957, John Coltrane walked into Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack and recorded a masterpiece album: Blue Train. It...

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John Coltrane, Blue Train Remaster 2022 Part 1: Technique

Wojciech Pacuła

Everything you want to know about the recording of Blue Train's behind-the-scenes and which of the digital reissues of this jazz masterpiece are the best. On September 15th 1957, John Coltrane walked into Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack and recorded a masterpiece album: Blue Train. It was the only...

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Naiu Laboratory Ella Mark 3 Class ND Stereo Amplifier

Tom Gibbs

  Naiu Laboratory is a German-based manufacturer that's been in existence since the late 1990s. It's the brainchild of Mircea Naiu, who also designed the proprietary circuit employed by their only current model, the Ella Mark 3 stereo amplifier. Naiu refers to this technology as Class ND, which is an...

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AXPONA 2023 Bigger and Better; Scribbles from My Spiral Jotter

Juan C. Ayllon

A small crowd murmurs and looks on as two sturdy men in navy company polos and slacks gingerly lift, rock, and place a pair of nineteen thousand dollar futuristic gleaming pearl white speakers into optimal audio positioning while their CEO, Paul McGowan, is off to the side chatting with a...

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AXPONA 2023 - Several Highlights and a Few Observations

Robert S. Youman

What a wonderful weekend at AXPONA 2023! The weather was quite lovely for this time of the year in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs—sunny and in the 70s and 80s. There was a certain sense of excitement and energy in the air, even beyond last year's 2022 event as 2021...

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2L and Morten Lindberg - Recordings with Exceptional Clarity and Air

Rushton Paul

Recording label 2L and its well-respected producer and recording engineer Morten Lindberg are known for their surround-sound recordings, with multiple GRAMMY Awards and Nominations. If you have multichannel playback capability, and if music in the round is your thing, 2L's recordings are some of the best recordings in that style....

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Lawo Classics - A Label Well Worth Exploring - Plus Organ Music!

Rushton Paul

The Norwegian classical music label, Lawo Classics, makes recordings I've come to quite enjoy. They find outstanding musicians and make recordings of exquisite sound quality. As I've been exploring their catalog (over 240 titles since 2008), I'm finding a deep treasure of wonderful performances in excellent DXD recorded sound quality....

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Notes on Recent Finds, No. 5 (More Jazz from HDTT)

Rushton Paul

Bob Witrak continues his quest for access to some great sounding tapes. Here are a few more jazz finds that knock my socks off. In addition to some great stereo releases, I'm including several mono releases from HDTT's Archival Series that are simply superb. We're all well past that notion...

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Florida Audio Expo - Part 1

Tom Gibbs

This year marks my second trip to the Florida Audio Expo (FAE), and the first visit since 2020—last year's show was canceled because of the pandemic. The possibility that FAE 2022 would go on seemed tenuous at best, especially with the unexpected rise of the highly contagious Omicron Covid19 variant....

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ZELLATON Plural Evo Loudspeakers: Coming Full Circle

Myles B. Astor

Far too much time has passed since my last Positive Feedback review. This unintentional hiatus was traceable to the Covid-19 pandemic (and resulting work changes) coupled with an unexpected move to new digs early this year. For the record. Heidi and I weren't in the market for a new place...

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From an Editor’s Notebook:  A Trip to YG Acoustics, a Photo Essay

David W. Robinson

Ye Olde Editor at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, Denver, CO, 2019 (photograph by Scot Hull of Part-Time Audiophile; image processing by David W. Robinson) I haven't been doing much traveling over the past couple of years. No news here:  COVID-19/Delta, you see. And thus, no audio shows. But just recently...

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Impressions:  The Warwick Acoustics Aperio Reference Headphone Amp/Preamp and DAC

David W. Robinson

...with comments on the Synergistic Research MiG SX Isolation Feet. This is a story long in the coming. Long, long, long. Ye Olde Editor in contemplative mode, Happy Valley, OR, 2017… (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by David W. Robinson) By way of backstory… You see, I've been following...

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Top 500 SuperSonic List - Part 24

Claude Lemaire

This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations 156. Jackie McLean, It's Time!.  Blue Note – BST 84179 (1965), Tone Poet Series – B0031655-01 (2020), 33 1/3 rpm. Genre: jazz, hard bop, post bop, free jazz leanings. Previously I had suggested that Tone Poet's remastering of Wayne Shorter's excellent Etcetera (Blue...

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The 17th Annual Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2020

Editors at Positive Feedback

Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave and Carol Clark had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an...

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Top 500 SuperSonic List - Part 22

Claude Lemaire

This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations "To B, or not to B-Note, that is the question" "It's Poetry In Motion" –Thomas Dolby 146. Wayne Shorter, Etcetera. Blue Note – LT-1056 (1980), Tone Poet Series – B0029357-01 (2019), 33 1/3 rpm. Genre: jazz, post bop, modal, free jazz flirtings....

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Synergistic Research PowerCell ONE Line Conditioner

Bruce Kinch

Just a mere month ago, Audio Tourism looked like the next new thing. Given the continuing demise of brick-and-mortar retail salons, regional, national, and international audio shows were popping up all over—how brilliant was having a show in Florida in February, not in Miami, not in Orlando, and not during...

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Florida Audio Expo 2020: Better the Second Time Around, Part 2

Maurice Jeffries

Vaughn Loudspeaker's Zinfandel 9-0 Compact Line Array, with their bespoke plasma tweeters and line array mid-bass driver configuration, sounded magically present and open. Alison Krause and company illuminated the back third of the room with convincing depth layering, rich tone, and impressive image stability. My notes highlighted the system's impressive...

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