Where Measurements and Performance Meet featuring Andrew Jones

Electrocompaniet + Ø Audio at High End Munich 2025

High End Munich: Audio Reference "Most Exclusive System Ever" with Wilson and D'Agostino

Silbatone's Western Electric System at High End Munich 2025

CH Precision and Audiovector with TechDAS at High End Munich 2025

Innuos Unveils Stream3 & Stream1—Modular Server/Streamer Lineup Explained | AXPONA 2025

KLH Model 7 Loudspeaker Debuts at High End Munich 2025

LATEST ADDITIONS

Munich 2025

Octave Tunes Up for a Smoother Future

Jason Victor Serinus Jun 01, 2025

"Our new Octave Jubilee class-A mono amplifier has a slightly different sound than the Jubilee Mono SEs you reviewed three years ago," said Andreas Hofmann. Hoffman is the founder and chief engineer of Germany’s Octave Audio, and he was talking about his forthcoming push-pull monoblock, noting that the amp outputs 160W in class-A lower-power mode and 280W in class-AB high-power mode. The Octave Jubilee’s projected price is $85,000/pair without potential tariff hikes.

Munich 2025

dCS: Two New Reasons to Listen

Jason Victor Serinus May 31, 2025

The Munich unveiling of dCS’s Lina DAC X network music player ($15,500) drew significant attention from lovers of the Lina DAC ($14,400). The debut occurred alongside a static display of the top-of-the-line Varèse transport, due in June.

Munich 2025

Cary Audio and Fyne Audio: Where Clarity Took Center Stage

Ken Micallef May 31, 2025

Cary Audio’s Billy Wright, with his characteristic Southern charm, introduced a pair of new offerings at High End Munich: the Cary Audio SLP-300 preamplifier and the Cary Audio DMS-300A streaming integrated. Prices are yet to be announced.

Munich 2025

Accustic Arts: Powering Up the V Factor

Jason Victor Serinus May 31, 2025

Over three years ago, when I reviewed Accustic Arts’s AMP V stereo power amplifier, I called it "the most intelligently designed hunk I’ve ever put my hands on, and one of the finest and most musically satisfying amplifiers to ever enter my system." I wish it were still here so I could reevaluate it with my current system, which has become exponentially more revealing.

Munich 2025

A Major Stand from Norway: Electrocompaniet Electronics and Ø Audio Speakers

Jason Victor Serinus May 31, 2025

You gotta love press releases. “This May in Munich, history won’t just be written—it will be heard.” Thus opened the invitation to a joint press conference of “two Norwegian powerhouses” whose system “doesn’t whisper innovation—it roars it.”

Munich 2025

Constellation's Big Switch: Smaller, Smarter Power

Jason Victor Serinus May 30, 2025

The big news in the Constellation room was not the Revelation 2 Series, complete with its special Constellation Switch-Mode Power Supply (C-SMPS)—we’ve reported on it previously, including at AXPONA 2025. Rather, it was the chance to glimpse prototypes of the higher-level Performance 2 stereo amplifier and preamplifier, both due later this year.

Digital Processor Reviews

Fezz Equinox D/A processor

Herb Reichert May 30, 2025

It wasn't long ago that bottom-shelf DACs had this dry, gray, punchy, grainy sound, emerging from a weird mechanical clarity. Their sound reminded me of cheap whisky. The ones that didn't sound like $1 shots replaced the dry grain with some blurry gel. No vitality. No subtle contrasts. No nuance. No air. No atmospherics, no reverberance, and nothing I would call transparency.

Digital's rapidly evolving technology made the next wave of DACs sound strikingly clear and quiet, with some touchy-feely hints of wetness to suggest a more natural transparency. Unfortunately, most of these newfangled wet DACs sounded like distilled water tastes.

For me, digital transparency didn't become truly wet, colorful, or naturalistic until I discovered NOS R-2R converters, which made midlevel four-figure DACs, like my Denafrips and HoloAudio, sound like bits bathed in luminosity. Very relaxed. Grainless. Ektachrome.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews

Lyngdorf Audio MXA-8400 8-channel power amplifier

Kalman Rubinson May 29, 2025

Woot, woot! I was thrilled when I saw the announcement for this amplifier. I was tempted to order one sight unseen and sound unheard. Why? First off, it employs the newest (as of March 2025) class-D amplification technology. Second, it can accommodate all sorts of audio systems, from an eight-channel surround setup to a megalomaniacal two-channel stereo system. Third, the specs, even in the context of its technology, are impressive. And fourth, I can lift it by myselfeasily! How can I pass this amplifier up?

Munich 2025

Class-A Act: Gryphon’s Antileon Revelation Arrives

Jason Victor Serinus May 29, 2025

Gryphon's long-awaited pure class-A Antileon Revelation amplifier, the successor to the Antileon EVO, will hit dealer shelves late August in both stereo ($39,800) and mono ($45,500/each) versions. We used to say, “It will arrive late August if the creek don’t rise;” these days, we replace creek with tariffs.

Munich 2025

MBL's Marvels Make Munich Magic

Jason Victor Serinus May 29, 2025

A year without an MBL fix is a year incomplete. Hence, off to the spacious MBL suite I went, to experience a complete MBL Reference Line system ($750,000; price approximate, converted from Euros).