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Jamie Howarth of Plangent Processes: Making Recordings Sound Better, Part 3


This article is the third and final part of Copper Magazine's interview with Jamie Howarth by Copper Editor and good audiobud Frank Doris. We republish it with the kind permission and blessing of PS Audio's Paul McGowan, with whom we have a deep shared love of DSD. You'll find part one republished by PF HERE, and... Read More »


Choosing the Best Sounding File Format with Free Sample Downloads


Since downsizing 5 years ago and leaving behind my LPs and vinyl playback equipment, I have gradually built a new digital music library. At Dr. David's request, I shared this traumatic journey in several articles titled Yes, There Really is Music After Vinyl, the first of which you can find HERE. Today, most new additions... Read More »


Spending Money


Roger Skoff at the LAOC Audio Society Gala, 2024 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about the cost of building a system On one of the audiophile groups on Facebook, I just read a post where some guy wrote in and said he's got a turntable that cost whatever number... Read More »


Nagra by Roland Schellin - a Book Review


Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders manufactured since 1951 in Switzerland. Starting in 1997, it also offers high-end equipment for the audiophile community (...). The Kudelski Group's original product, Nagra recorders are now developed, manufactured and sold by an independent company, Audio Technology Switzerland S.A., based in Romanel-sur-Lausanne. en.wikipedia.org, accessed: 3.01.2024. The founder... Read More »


Dark, Darker, Great - Or About the Sound in 2025


For years, "leftovers" of what biographers have called the Loudness War has dragged on. The drive by radio stations, and by extension publishers, to make music sound as loud as possible, no matter what volume we choose, almost led to the collapse of the music market. But we seem to be entering a new era... Read More »


Sound Liaison's Remastering of Thousand Shades of Blue - Free Download Tracks to Compare


I was fascinated recently by Sound Liaison's 2024 remastering of their excellent 2012 album Thousand Shades of Blue by Carmen Gomes Inc. In this new release, Thousand Shades of Blue Revisited, recording engineer Frans de Rond and producer Peter Bjornild went back to the original 96kHz 24-bit recorded tracks and applied everything they'd learned the... Read More »


Jamie Howarth of Plangent Processes: Making Recordings Sound Better, Part 2


This is the latest installment of re-published articles from our good audiobud, Frank Doris, Editor of Copper magazine, the journal of Paul McGowan's company PS Audio. Paul has kindly given Frank Doris permission to re-publish here at Positive Feedback, and some of Frank's valued articles appear here occasionally, courtesy of them both. This is Part 2 of a three-part interview with Jamie... Read More »


The Grateful Dead, (Momentarily) Considered as a "Christian" Rock Band


An Affirmation of the Concept of Grace I can already envision the angry Comments: Herr Doktor Marks: We hereby award you the Prize for the Most Completely Outrageous Clickbait Trash-Post of the Week! I reply: Nicht so schnell! Please read my headline carefully. I am not claiming that the Grateful Dead were a "Christian" rock band,... Read More »


Call It!


Roger Skoff writes about a game that could save a valuable part of our culture... As many of you probably know by now, I like and listen to just about every kind of music: everything from opera to Tuvan Throat-singing, to Mexican Rancheras, to Russian folk songs (which are just like Mexican music in that... Read More »


Jamie Howarth of Plangent Processes: Making Recordings Sound Better, Part 1


This is the latest installment of re-published articles from our good audiobud, Frank Doris, Editor of Copper magazine, the journal of Paul McGowan's company PS Audio. Paul has kindly given Frank Doris permission to re-publish here at Positive Feedback, and some of Frank's valued articles appear here occasionally, courtesy of them both. Enjoy! Plangent Processes offers a... Read More »


Impressions: Final Postcard from Los Angeles & the LAOC Audio Society


Another year, another Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society Gala weekend. Early December once again. Been doing these for a long time, now...over the past number of revolutions around the Sun, chairing the LAOC Audiophile Recording of the Year Awards (ARYA). 2024 was another trip to LA for this event; my photographs and brief... Read More »


The Aging Audiophile


This article by Dr. Sardonicus originally ran in Issue 77, 2015, so while we call this section "New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print" you are also going to see some articles from our early days of going online.  The Aging Audiophile … a Tale of Sorrow and Redemption (sort of) I... Read More »


Imersiv D1 DAC (now in Beta) and Audeze CRBN2 Headphones


Bob Katz at work wearing the Audeze CRBN 2 Headphones, a portrait. (Photograph by Mary Kent.) Introduction Today I'm reviewing two remarkable products, both of which represent a new audio paradigm and a veritable redefinition of the state of the art! I know, this is an old audio cliché, but in this case I think... Read More »


Bah! Humbug!


Roger Skoff: a moment. Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society Gala. Buena Park, CA, 2024 (photograph and image processing by David W. Robinson) Roger Skoff writes about glad tidings from HiFi Land...  Happy Holidays! Now's the time to enjoy family, good food, good friends, and good music, played in great sound. But, even now,... Read More »


Krakow Sonic Society 145 - Polish Recordings on SACD


On September 29th Warner Music Poland released five Czeslaw Niemen albums on SACD hybrid discs. This was the first part of a Series of "Polskie Nagrania catalogue selections - Limited Edition SACD Hybrid", extending to as many as 75 discs. We took a look at the selected titles, listening to them together with Damian Lipinski,... Read More »


Audiophile Economics - Part 2


Roger Skoff writes about why things cost what they do In the first part of this article, I wrote about how pricing works, using not only our own industry but others for illustration. I explained that this article is not intended to replace an economics text, but to just touch on, and state in language... Read More »


Waters on the Hardware: The Mola Mola Makua Preamplifier


"Dean Waters: Portrait with Cigar." PAF 2023, SeaTac, WA The Mola Mola Makua Preamp, front-top oblique view In June of this year, I had a wonderful opportunity to attend High End in Munich. With an attendance of well over 20,000, it is certainly one of the largest, if not the largest, trade shows for the... Read More »


My Experience with the GTT Audio Reference Listening System


Pastor Dave Robinson and Bill Parish with the Vivid Audio Moya M1 Loudspeaker A little about myself: This is a very brief review of the experience of the reference system with Vivid Audio M1 by Pastor Dave Robinson, a musician with a degree in music, an author, performer, and music director. I recorded at Capitol... Read More »


Design in Audio. Or Once More About the Language


Design is both the idea, the pattern, the design just poured by it onto paper or on a computer screen, and the materialized effect of designer's work. In other words, design is both the design and the things that have been designed. Design is the whole process contained in a single word. Emilia Branecka-Ledwon, Co... Read More »