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Antique Sound Lab Explorer 805 DT monoblock power amplifier

Anyone over 40 who's worked in a hi-fi or record store will remember the Pfanstiehl catalog, a pulpy thing that most shopkeepers chained to their counters, like a phone book. Pfanstiehl made replacement styli for virtually every record-playing device of the day, and their catalog contained page after page of tiny line drawings of nothing but phonograph needles, all lovingly rendered in three-quarter view. You couldn't browse it without being brought up short: My God, how many different needles <I>are</I> there? And how is it possible that a single company could tool up for so many products and still make a profit?

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Theta Digital Enterprise monoblock power amplifier

Monoblock power amplifiers seem to be moving in and out of my listening room faster than green-onion salsa from Chi-Chi's. Over the past six months I've had the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/774">Parasound Halo JC-1</A>, the Halcro dm68, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/1103pass">Pass XA-160</A>, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/104mf">Musical Fidelity kW</A>, and now these 300W (into 8 ohms), $4500-each beauties from Theta Digital. All of these amps sounded as different as they looked, which was no surprise; too bad the "measures the same, sounds the same" dogmatists remain open for business.

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