January - February 2015
Audio Discourse
Impressions: The Oppo Digital HA-1 Headphone Amplifier/DSD DAC...
I might as well come out and admit it. I've been a big fan of Oppo Digital and their product lines since I first tried them out, years ago now. I...
Musings on DSD: Using Offline Conversion from DSD to...
"I don't know where I'm gonna live I don't know if I'll find a place I'd have to think about it some And that I do not wish to...
The Vintage McIntosh Experience: A Musical Ride With The MX110Z...
I've really had a lot of fun listening to vintage McIntosh vacuum tube audio electronics in my hi-fi system over the last year. The McIntosh MX110Z...
Case Closed: Roger Skoff Puts an End to the "Voodoo" Wars
Julian Hirsch was co-founder of Hirsch-Houck Labs, which for many years was the leading test organization in the HiFi industry, and provided the...
The Voice of the Heretic – Is Red Book CD Hi-Resolution Audio?
With my forays of the last few years into computer-based audio, I've really come to appreciate the lowly compact disc. Even though the prevailing...
My Challenge to David Pogue, Technology Reporter at Yahoo
Cookie Marenco of Blue Coast Records and Dominique Brulhart of Merging Technologies at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, 2014 (Photograph and processing...
…and Steve says… Breathing Life into an Old Linn LP12 –...
Yes, I've used the same Linn LP12 turntable since 1984. It was a big deal for me, buying it back then, for a few reasons: At $1370, including the...
Audio Ramblings - The Audioengine D3 and the LH Audio Geek Out...
Been awhile since I have had either the time or the desire to sit down and write about audio—let alone even spend much if any time listening to...
CEntrance Wraps iPhone in Hi-fi Player & Headphone Amp!
CEntrance has established itself as a leader in the personal audio community/industry over the last decade. They've managed to position themselves...
The Aging Audiophile … a Tale of Sorrow and Redemption (sort...
I stopped writing about equipment quite some time ago. I blamed it on a number of things that were absolutely true … old man, heavy...
The Audio Circular: No.12 in a Series of Parallel Narratives:...
If you frequently read high-end publications or Internet audio chat boards, then Audioengine is not new to you. Their finely engineered audio...
Impressions: Robinson's Brutus Awards for 2014
Damn. How does this happen? Every year, I work hard to compile my list of Brutus Award winners for the end of the year; every year I promise myself...
When New is Really Great: The Stunning AudioQuest Diamond...
"By the time I got your letter I had lost my mind I was trippin' ‘When you gettin' better?' It's a jagged line Nothin'...
Harry Pearson: Audiophiles' Tutto de Tutti Capi
Walter Benjamin pointed out, during the tragic era when Adolph Garbage-bag stormed Europe with unquenched anti-Semitic malice, that each memorable...
The Neoteric Listener… The Peachtree Audio nova220SE...
Four years ago, when some folks were worrying about WikiLeaks and toot-tooting their vuvuzelas, I spent two thoroughly enjoyable months listening to...
Magnepan 3.7i Upgrade and System Woes and Woo-hoos!
(Including… deep breath here!... notes on the ModWright KWA 150 Signature Amplifier and LS 100 Preamplifier; the eXemplar T105 two-box tubed...
Impressions: Audionet's Brilliant Reference-Class System
Introduction Funny how you can get bushwhacked by excellence in the audio arts. In the early spring of 2014, Bill Parish, a long-time audio friend, got...
Pear Audio Blue Reference Preamplifier
Audio Skies, importer of the wonderful sounding Larsen Model 8 speakers, seems to have found another winner in Pear Audio Blue, a Slovenian firm which...
The Audio Circular - No. 13 in a Series of Parallel Narratives:...
Eight years ago or so, I purchased a pair of David Slagle's Intact Audio "Basic" $200 autoformers. They lay unloved in a drawer for five...
Hardware Reviews
Viero Equilibrio Level 3 Speaker Cables - Old World Magic
In some ways, Mark Pearson and I are birds of a feather. Among other things, we're both extremely picky and demanding about the performance of...
INEX Innovation Generation III Photonic Interconnects and 3D...
The era of photonic interconnect cables has arrived and we should all be singing praises! What do I mean? I've written before about the photonic...
KLaudio CD-CLN-LP 200 Vinyl Record Ultrasonic Cleaner V.4 and...
KLaudio has introduced several significant functional and cosmetic improvements to their highly acclaimed ultrasonic record cleaning machine since my...
Belles 150A Reference V2 Amplifier
Since the early 1980's David Belles has been plying his craft with soldering iron, resistor, and capacitor to bring us some of the finest...
Symposium Acoustics Segue ISO Platform
As an occasional contributor to this site, may I also mention that I "read" every issue of Positive-Feedback.com in more or less the...
INEX Innovation 3D Creator AC Cord
Most power line conditioners are passive, meaning the components that are doing the conditioning are in parallel to the power cord. This is done so...
Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated
The Krell legacy via designer Dan D'Agostino is well known and respected if not revered. Thirty plus years ago I remember my first experience with...
Tara Labs Air Evolution Interconnects
The Jazz Mecca At one time, you could club hop along 52nd street in New York City and hear the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles...
Vermouth Audio Black Pearl Speaker Cables - Making a Case for...
Globalization has definitely made it easier for people to have a chance to show what they can do. When my "o fearless editor" suggested that...
K&K Audio Premium Maxxed-Out Phono Preamplifier
Some products are disarmingly ingratiating. It's possible that attraction can be subversive, so pleasing that you let your guard drop, and thus...
Koetsu Azule Platinum Moving Coil Cartridge - A True Gem
So much for the Japanese tradition of honoring your ancestors! The simply stunning looking and even better sounding blue stone body Azule Platinum...
YG Acoustics Hailey 1.2 Loudspeakers
Certainly 2014 stood out at chez K, for it was the year that I reviewed not one, not two, but three full range, quasi statement speakers...
Interviews
David Robinson and David Elias on DSD... Interviewed by Steve...
Enjoy the Music.TV's interview with David W. Robinson of Positive Feedback magazine and singer/musician/songwriter David Elias. Hosted by...
Music Reviews
Impressions: The First Batch of Yarlung Records Quad DSD...
Quad DSD (DSD256) is arriving! And I am delighted to say that it is doing so with some albums that makes us sit up and take notice of the powerful...
Notes of an Amateur: Buxtehude, CPE Bach, pianist Wu Han
Dieterich Buxtehude. Complete Vocal Works, 10 volumes (17 CD's). Ton Koopman. Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Chorus. Challenge Classics. In my...
Notes of an Amateur: Petrenko plays Elgar 1; Ibragimova's...
Elgar, Symphony No. 1. Cockaigne Overture. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko. Onyx. ONYX4145. Why listen to Elgar? Unless...
Joseph Rouleau: Operas Russes
CD: Orchestra of Radio Canada/Jean Deslauriers; *unidentified pianist DVD: Nancy De Long (s), Feodor; Misha Raitzen (t), Shuisky; Yoland Guérard...
The Jayhawks
Springing out of Minneapolis in the early '90's, the Jayhawks' music offered a healthy musical antidote to the rainy weather nihilism...
Impressions: 2L's Magnificent Magnificat (SACD stereo; Double...
Shall I confess something? I've fallen in love. This time with an exceptional chorale and orchestral recording from Morten Lindberg and the good...
Yarlung Records: DSD Albums from Native DSD A New Adventure in...
I am new to the digital download game, but better late than never! With my excellent Astell&Kern 240 portable digital audio player (DAP) as a music...
Dance With The Dead, Near Dark
Imagine this, it is 1986, your girlfriend/boyfriend has been kidnapped, people out there are trying to kill you, and you can only rely on yourself for...
Our Friends at HIFI Statement
Nordeutsche Hifi-Tage, second largest Hifi Show in Germany part...
Zum zehnjährigen Jubiläum konnten die Norddeutschen Hifi-Tage mit mehr Ausstellern aufwarten als je zuvor. Kein Wunder also, dass wir auch noch für.... . . Read More »
Nordeutsche Hifi-Tage, second largest Hifi Show in Germany part...
Wie Matthias Jung bereits schrieb, es wird von Jahr zu Jahr stetig besser. Dieses war die zehnte, also Jubiläumsveranstaltung dieser bedeutendsten.... . . Read More »
Nordeutsche Hifi-Tage, second largest Hifi Show in Germany part...
Fieses, nasskaltes Wetter konnte auch dieses Jahr den Ansturm auf die Norddeutschen HiFi-Tage des Hifistudios Bramfeld nicht bremsen. Noch einmal um.... . . Read More »
Leadingedge Racksystem (in German)
Seien wir doch einmal ehrlich, der allerbeste Weg, unser Hifi-System zu verbessern ist der Austausch einer Komponente gegen ein neues Modell. Und wenn.... . . Read More »
Revel Performa 3 Speaker (in German)
Man sieht sich immer zweimal im Leben – diese Erfahrung haben ja schon viele erleben dürfen oder müssen. Bevor ich mit dem Test beginne, muss ich.... . . Read More »
Our Friends at High Fidelity
MUSIC ON VINYL - How the black disc conquered the world
BACK IN BLACK The vinyl is back for good. If there are people who haven't noticed this yet, they are clearly the sort that have no interest...
Vermöuth Audio Black Pearl Speaker Cables
Most of Poles realize that there are two countries in Europe who's flags are a combination of horizontal white and red strips. One of them is...
PTP Audio SOLID9 Audiomods SERIES FIVE Turntable + Tonearm
There are certain inventions, technologies and design ideas that should have disappeared long ago, and yet stubbornly cling to existence. They are only...
Mark Levinson №52 40th Anniversary Line/Phono Preamplifier
Each business enterprise has its own so-called "founding myth" (in Western classical scholarship often referred to as etiological myth from...
Acoustic Revive RCA-1.5 TRIPLE C-FM Interconnect and SPC-2.5...
In 1986, Professor Atsumi Ohno of the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan, a respected inventor and scientist, after years of research proposed an...
Linear Audio Research IA-120H Integrated Amplifier
I've been trying to remember how long have we known each other with Mr Eugeniusz Czyżewski and I've realized it's been 12 years already....
G•LAB Design Fidelity BLOCK Integrated Amplifier
New audio brands emerging on the market have become an everyday experience. Each year I come across new brands, names and designs, the same with new...
Show Reports
2015 CES - A Yellow Brick Road Of Integrated Amplifiers
If you have been following my reviews over the last few years, I have taken a considerable interest in integrated amplifiers. This includes those from...
Sidebar: AES 2014 Awards
Best Sound in Show Pro Audio LA took some folks offsite to a studio called The Realm to audition some gear, most notably the new Guzauski-Swist...
AES 2014 Show Report
The AES show has long been two shows in one: a scientific conference in one set of rooms and a trade show in another set of rooms. What is great about...
