Emotiva Audio Airmotiv T2 loudspeakerStereophile - Thomas J. Norton Visit any consumer audio show these days and you'll see rooms full of systems costing from six to seven figures. Manufacturers like to put their best …
Transportation dCS Rossini Transport SACD/CD transportStereophile - John Atkinson The good-sounding products that pass through a reviewer's system fall into three categories: those he liked but felt little sense of loss about when …
Denver, CO ListenUp's Music Matters in Denver Wednesday & ThursdayStereophile - Stereophile Staff Wednesday April 24 and Thursday, April 25, starting at 5pm, Denver high-end audio retailer ListenUp (685 South Pearl Street, Denver, CO 80209, (303) …
McIntosh Laboratory MC462 power amplifierStereophile - Sasha Matson It hit me not long ago: I need more Mac in my life! I promptly purchased the current production version of McIntosh Laboratory's time-honored MC275 …
KEF LSX wireless loudspeaker systemStereophile - Herb Reichert I keep getting older. By the time you read this, I will be genuinely old. When I was genuinely young, I bellyached, "Wires are the worst part of …
Who Watches the Watchers?Stereophile - John Atkinson When we launched Stereophile's website at the end of 1997, we decided that we would not reprint the magazine's most popular features, including the …
Recording of May 2019: Never the SameStereophile - Thomas Conrad Francesco Diodati Yellow Squeeds: Never the Same Francesco Diodati, electric & acoustic guitar, gongs; Francesco Lento, trumpet; Glauco Benedetti, …
AXPONA 2019: It's a WrapStereophile - Jim Austin AXPONA 2019 was a good show—I'm tempted to say an important show. It's just an intuition, but I sense renewed vitality. I wasn't able to visit as any …
TransportationHigh-Tech for Luddites: The CAD 1543 Mk II DAC, CAD CAT Transport, Trilogy Audio Systems 925 Integrated Amplifier, and VerityStereophile - Jim Austin Both the name of the company and the look of their products belie what I found to be the company's spirit. "CAD"—short, in this case, for Computer …
Furniture Butcher Block Acoustics RigidRack Audio FurnitureStereophile - Jim Austin As much as I enjoy hi-fi, I strongly preferred non-hi-fi accoutrements, especially component racks. I'm currently using—and have been for years—a …
Airports Coleman ComfortSmart Cots, Target WaffleWeave Lightweight BlanketsStereophile - Herb Reichert By the time I knew they were handing out cots, it was too late: They had already run out. The person at the Help Desk at Chicago's O'Hare …
JA's Best Sound at AXPONA: MBL N31 DAC, N15 Monoblocks, 101E Mk.2 Speakers, WireWorld CablesStereophile - John Atkinson The last room I visited at the 2019 AXPONA was the best-sounding: MBL's big room on the Renaissance Hotel's 15th floor. The system comprised the …
Bending Wave - CH Precision - Goebel - TechDASStereophile - John Atkinson Florida-based Bending Wave USA were showing the ginormous Divin Noblesse loudspeakers ($220,000/pair) making their US debut—I wrote "ginormous" but …
DSP Gayle Sanders Eikon & DSP OptimizationStereophile - John Atkinson MartinLogan co-founder Gayle Sanders emerged from retirement at the 2018 AXPONA with a new loudspeaker brand, Eikon. But Eikon is not just a …
Lyn Stanley Comparisons in the Playback Designs RoomStereophile - John Atkinson I sat down in the Playback Designs room to listen to a system featuring Playback's MPS-8 SACD player/DAC ($25,000 plus $2400 for the Stream_X option) …
Blue Light Audio, Evolution, darTZeel, Merging Technologies, Wave Kinetics, DurandStereophile - John Atkinson "Why is there a box of parts next to each of the Evolution loudspeakers?" I jokingly asked Blue Light Audio's Jonathan Tinn. He explained that those …
Singularity Nokturne Audio, Lejonklou HiFi's SINGularity, and the Quad ElectrostaticsStereophile - John Atkinson "Good grief! They are using Quads!" I used to use Quad ESL-57s in the mid 1980s before I moved to the US and in some ways, no other speaker has come …
Transformers EveAnna Manley & the Manley Labs Absolute Tube Headphone AmplifierStereophile - John Atkinson Manley Labs' firebrand CEO EveAnna Manley always seems to enjoy audio shows and AXPONA was no exception, where she was showing off the Absolute Tube …
Monitor Audio Gold Speakers, Roksan Blak Amplifier & CD PlayerStereophile - John Atkinson I was impressed by the new Monitor Audio Gold 300 speakers when I auditioned them at the recent Montreal Audio fest. At AXPONA, Chicago retailer …
Turntables Black Ice Fusion F11 Amplifier, Living Sounds Audio FSA-20 Loudspeakers, Clearaudio Champion TurntableStereophile - Herb Reichert Jolida Audio began life a fabricator of vacuum tubes. But since the early 1990s, it has been known for its musical-sounding, modestly priced tube …
Demonstration TAD Evolution E1TX-K Loudspeakers, Wolf Audio Alpha 3 Server, Audience SX CablesStereophile My personal selection for Stereophile's 2018 Product of the Year was the super-resolving, highly-evolving TAD Micro Evolution One loudspeaker …
Audio-visual Paradigm Persona 3F loudspeakers, Anthem STR integrated amplifierStereophile - John Atkinson The impressive-sounding room from dealer Audio Video Interiors featured the Anthem STR integrated amplifier ($4499) that Tom Norton reviewed for …
Vinyl Records Falcon LS3/5A, Dr. Feickert, Koetsu, Primare, Solidsteel, Isotek, CardasStereophile - John Atkinson The final MoFi Distribution room I visited at the show featured the version of the classic BBC LS3/5A minimonitor made by Falcon Acoustics that I …
ATC SCM50 & SCM5SE LoudspeakersStereophile - John Atkinson Ken Micallef was impressed by this British company's CDA2 Mk.2 CD player/DAC ($4249) when he reviewed it in the January issue, and ATC were using it …
Gershman Grande Avant Garde Loudspeakers, VAC Master Preamp, Nordost CablesStereophile - Herb Reichert Look at that photo and notice the elegant wood grille on the Gershman Acoustics Grande Avant Garde loudspeaker ($13,000/pair). How good does that …
Vinyl Records "The Big Raidho Room in the EXPO Hall" . . .Stereophile - John Atkinson . . . proclaimed posters everywhere on the Renaissance Convention Center's ground floor. It turned out that the show had run out of exhibit rooms, so …
Esoteric & Avantgarde & AudioQuest & AuralexStereophile - John Atkinson I had forgotten how dynamic Avantgarde's Uno XD speakers ($32,000/pair) could sound, coupled with a fine delicacy that was in evidence on an SACD …
Turntables Schiit & Salk Signature SoundStereophile - John Atkinson The 3rd-floor room shared by Schiit and Salk Signature Sound was so crowded the first two times I stopped by that I couldn't listen, But the third …
Synergistic Voxativ Absolut Hagen System, Synergistic Research CablesStereophile - Jason Victor Serinus Voxativ's deceptively simple-looking Absolut Hagen System ($7900 with Voxativ speaker cables), which consists of a Voxativ Absolut Box 30Wpc class-AB …
Mozart Stenheim Alumine Three Loudspeakers, Einstein The Silver Bullet OTL Mono Amplifiers and The Pickup Phono CartridgeStereophile - Jason Victor Serinus There were two causes for excitement in Room 1534: the premiere of the Stenheim Alumine Three ($29,900/pair), the Swiss company's newest three-way …
