In which our hero meditates… Some plaudits where plaudits are due I have several items that have been accumulating in my notebook for a couple of months now. One was a notion for a full review that didn't need to be done, since another PF reviewer (Marshall Nack) did the main lifting; the others were candidates for... Read More »
For this week's "New Music" selection, John Marks shares with us Sergey Schepkin's Bach: The Six Partitas. I agree completely with John when he writes "Familiarity with at least some of Bach's masterworks is a matter of core Cultural Literacy..." Amen! Think of it as a matter of "cultural critical mass"...the truly worthy things that you... Read More »
"Carmine said one boy, here are two!" – Larry London, The Freshman I'm not sure why I started hearing the late Maximillian Schell's heavily accented voice in my head the first time I listened to Jane Ira Bloom's new CD, Early Americans. I suspect it had something to do with reviewing Todd Hunter's Eat, Drink,... Read More »
So if you have been following my ramblings over the years (of which I tend to ramble—hence the title of my column) it is obvious that one of my goals with our system is to minimize noise. Not my music per se, since much of it is noise, but the noise that rides in the... Read More »
For John Marks' initial cross-publication to Positive Feedback of his Tuesday offerings on great recordings from The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com), we offer the first of his columns: Clifford Brown with Strings. As usual, John enriches our lives with recorded gems that we should all be aware of...and this time is no exception. Read on! Dr. David W. Robinson... Read More »
Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. "God sees everything," repeated Wilson. "That's an advertisement," Michaelis assured him - Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby They look like eyeballs to me. At first, they... Read More »
This interview originally ran in 2916, but deserves another read. Note: Robert Schryer left PF to write for Stereophile. DeVore Fidelity: Why Getting the Best Sound is all About Balance, or: "C'mon, John. Just once for the camera—Cheeeeese!" "I began obsessing about hi-fi more than 40 years ago. I also love station-wagons with manual... Read More »
Japanese label releases select albums in MQA for easy download UNAMAS, the Japanese hi-res music label run by award-winning recording engineer, Mick Sawaguchi, has selected ten albums from their catalogue for encoding in MQA. The recordings, ranging from Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” performed by the Unamas String Quintet, to Hiroshi Fukamizu’s “Everything for Drums”,... Read More »
Portland, OR - July 11, 2016 – We’re happy to announce the launch of our Online Storehttp://www.avoptions.com/store All our AC related products are now available for purchase online by USA and Canadiancustomers. Our other sections (Phono products - Speaker and Interconnect cables and NaimAudio accessories) will be launching in the coming months. To provide support... Read More »
OccupyHifi readers know it's been a trying year for me. Ok, that's puttin' it rather mildly. Pardon my French, but it's been a clusterfuck of a year: Divorce after 20-yrs of partnership (as if that isn't difficult enough) while I was trying to walk-through many years of shared memories with my former partner, dodging the shrapnel that break-up left all over the place, surrounding its vast blast radius; I ended-up hearin' about all sorts of rumors and innuendo making their rounds through-out the high-end and personal audio communities .
Delmoni & Martorella: Chopin/Milstein One of the categories of music reviewing and commentary that John Marks brings to Positive Feedback from The Tannhauser Gate is that of music videos. With the global explosion of online videos driven by YouTube, music lovers and audiophiles have been given a great opportunity to see as well as hear great performances, and... Read More »
Many PF readers will be as surprised by finding this as I was. It's properly academic (in the more pleasant sense of the word), but also very au courant with political and cultural thinking and teaching in American universities. For whatever that's worth. Now have at it. Their opening salvo: Sounding Out!/ is a weekly... Read More »
A portrait of the artist at play: David W. Robinson with EveAnna Manley (photograph by Dave Clark) The second part of my THE Show report from Newport Beach 2016 shifts the focus (so to speak) from the event, the rooms, and the equipment, to the people in our high-end audio community. As an artist, I... Read More »
Nativ Disc™ brings convenient access to large CD collections, in lossless quality and with rich metadata experience Nativ™ today unveiled its new Nativ Disc™, a bit-perfect CD Ripper that allows users to import up to 12,000 CDs into their Nativ Vita™ high-resolution music player. Nativ Disc™ is true plug-and-play and connects to Vita™ via bus-powered... Read More »
John Marks' first cross-published music review from The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com) is of a composer near and dear to my heart for many years now: Ottorino Respighi. I have many of his recordings various formats, including LP, CD, and SACD, but am always pleased to find a new recording that renews my delight with his creative... Read More »
Already! Already THE Show has come and gone! Where did June 9-12 go? The first post-Richard Beers event is in the books now, and the results are in. According to Maurice Jung, the new president of THE Show, and his staff, total attendance was nearly 10,400 over the four days. The “Industry Day” was Thursday,... Read More »
The impact of tests in trade magazines is either described as none or of a sort that can change everything; it depends on whether or not the one who expresses such an opinion likes or does not like the press and/or reviews. But if you want to form your own opinion, it would be best... Read More »
For a number of months, I've been jamming to the sounds of the Benchmark Media Systems DAC2 HGC D/A converter and AHB2 stereo amplifier. While a bit late to the review party; I am anything but a groomsman, because listening to this gear is the ultimate reward for my time. BM builds serious professional equipment;... Read More »
I know I always start my show report with some kind of a rant about the state of the high-end audio as both an industry and a hobby. Not this time. After spending four full days at T.H.E Show Newport 2016 (if you include the "press and VIP" day on Thursday), I can say this... Read More »
A Kingdom for a Horse - Mastering According to Jacek Gawlowski We know who a sound engineer and a sound director are, as well as we are aware of the role of a producer. But how about a mastering specialist? Jacek Gawłowski, a Grammy award winner of the year 2014, will be our guide through... Read More »
Yes, what you see is what you get (if Santa Claus really likes you, that is): A Bricasti M1 Digital-to-Analog Converter with gold-plated casework. United States Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price, $15,000. (Why do I hear echoes of Auric Goldfinger gloating, "No, Mr. Bond; I expect you to die!") Bricasti is a Massachusetts, USA company that... Read More »
I'm late for the party: Many have already posted their thoughts on Irvine's, er Newport Beach's "THE Show" from early June. I intended to post earlier but my pictures turned out poorly and I have been too busy. The first thing every intelligent or at least conscious reviewer should say is... it's hard to draw conclusions.... Read More »
So the news got out early, and we goofed by not having the right day nor time to attend the Press Event at The Source AV in Torrance, but in the end everyone has either read somewhere that, yes Focal is now making headphones. Well they were already doing that, but the news is that... Read More »
Elegant music library management and TIDAL integration enhances user experience for award-winning Bryston digital music players Bryston (bryston.com) has announced new firmware version S2.28 for their digital music players that delivers Roon Ready capability. Roon Labs has created a software solution that delivers the ultimate user experience by merging Bryston’s exceptional BDP digital playback hardware... Read More »
THE EXTREME PHANTOM, EIGHT TIMES MORE POWERFUL THE BEST SOUND IN THE WORLD DEVIALET ANNOUNCES THE MOST EXTREME AND PRECISE AUDIO PRODUCT EVER: "GOLD PHANTOM" WITH 4,500 WAT TS OF A/D POWER, BETTER THAN HUMAN "PHANTOM" WAS PREVIOUSLY BEST OF CES 2015 AND BEST HARDWARE PRODUCT NOMINEE AT THE CRUNCHIES, DEVIALET NOW PUSHES THE L... Read More »
And, now, a quick audiophile word association game. What comes to mind when you read the following? Belt drive turntables Quad DSD Marantz Model 9 Electrostatic loudspeakers High End Cables If you're like me, all of those items produced definite responses, most likely shaped by plenty of articles and opinions like the one you're about... Read More »
I absolutely adore Ingvild Koksvik. A small part of that is because she's this beautiful and almost ethereal creature wandering through vast Norwegian landscapes and singing in this clear and goosebump-inducing voice that is sounds like it's from a dream, one of your favorite dreams, the kind that make you regret you eventually woke up—and... Read More »
I have had a long acquaintance and friendship-at-a-distance with John Marks of John Marks Records, and, until recently, a contributor to Stereophile. Music lover, producer, writer, reviewer, audio designer, and a very cogent, trenchant thinker, John is a person that I have a very great deal of respect for. I first encountered John around the time of... Read More »
Bridging the price gap between far more costly premium products and lesser performing budget models, the C-Major turntable from European Audio Team breaks new ground for vinyl enthusiasts VANA, Ltd. (www.vanaltd.com) has announced that the European Audio Team (E.A.T) C-Major turntable, the company’s first complete analog playback solution, is available now through a carefully... Read More »
Fiona Joy - Into The Mist I have been spending some time with several new titles from Cookie Marenco's Blue Coast Records, all in Quad DSD. One of them was by an artist that I've developed a great deal of affection for, Fiona Joy. The album is entitled Into the Mist, and for me, that... Read More »
"Hey, check this out," Dave said as he pulled a sleek silver and black gizmo from a sturdy little nylon sleeve. "It's a RIVA portable speaker," he said, tapping a glowing touch-button. A rich, whirly arpeggio emanated with a surprising bit of rumble to it. He rattled off some technical-sounding descriptions that were over my... Read More »
The Ayon Audio Scorpio is a heavy, Class A integrated amplifier made of high grade aluminum and powered by gleaming KT88 and 12AU7 tubes. One look and listen, and you know it's textbook audio, the perfect answer to your friends when they say, "So how's a high end amplifier any different from my Yamaha?" Like... Read More »
T.H.E. Show Newport, the conclusion! From Part One... Second year at the same location, the Hotel Irvine, room 441, and with us arriving late Wednesday afternoon after a full day of teaching. Tired, exhausted... and bittersweet as this was the next to last week before we retired as educators. Daunting task. Set up a room—a hospitality room... Read More »
T.H.E. Show coverage continues... with more. From Part One... Second year at the same location, the Hotel Irvine, room 441, and with us arriving late Wednesday afternoon after a full day of teaching. Tired, exhausted... and bittersweet as this was the next to last week before we retired as educators. Daunting task. Set up a room—a hospitality... Read More »
T.H.E. Show coverage continues... about half way there! From Part One... Second year at the same location, the Hotel Irvine, room 441, and with us arriving late Wednesday afternoon after a full day of teaching. Tired, exhausted... and bittersweet as this was the next to last week before we retired as educators. Daunting task. Set up a... Read More »
T.H.E. Show coverage continues... with a second page. From Part One... Second year at the same location, the Hotel Irvine, room 441, and with us arriving late Wednesday afternoon after a full day of teaching. Tired, exhausted... and bittersweet as this was the next to last week before we retired as educators. Daunting task. Set up a... Read More »
Second year at the same location, the Hotel Irvine, room 441, and with us arriving late Wednesday afternoon after a full day of teaching. Tired, exhausted... and bittersweet as this was the next to last week before we retired as educators. Daunting task. Set up a room—a hospitality room with an audio system hitting well over a... Read More »
