Pure Sound Warps Time | Revel Performa4 Bookshelf Loudspeaker
Vinyl Bliss: Discover Your Music Universe at Absoulute! #shorts
Klipsch Trumpets 80th Anniversary Klipschorn Loudspeaker at Audio Advice Live 2026
Chad Kassem Tells Us What to Expect at The Vinyl Summit
See How the New HumminGuru NOVA RCM Cleans an LP!
Canvas HiFi Unveils Powered 2-Channel Speaker System at Audio Advice Live 2026
KLH Previews the New Model 4 Loudspeaker at Audio Advice Live 2026
KEF Showcases the New LS Luxe Loudspeaker at Audio Advice Live 2026
Paradigm Premieres a Trio of Premier Series Speakers at Audio Advice Live 2026
Bowers & Wilkins Stands Tall at Audio Advice Live 2026
Vibrant HiFi at SouthWest Audio Fest 2026
Pure Audio Project at SouthWest Audio Fest 2026
Dreamscapes A/V at SouthWest Audio Fest 2026

LATEST ADDITIONS

Audio Research Reference 5 SE line preamplifier

I've heard a lot of great audio components over the years, but even in that steady stream of excellence, a few have stood out as something special. These are the products that, in their day, set a new standard for performance, and many of them are ones I wish I'd hung on to. Among these products are three preamps from Audio Research: the SP3A, the SP6B, and the SP10 (footnote 1). I know I'm not alone in viewing these models as classics.
Continue Reading »

Rogers High Fidelity EHF-100 integrated amplifier

I can imagine the gaiety and mirth that filled the halls of the electronics industry in the 1950s, as engineer after bespectacled engineer realized that the transistor would soon consign to the outposts of oblivion those ancient technologies that had preceded it. Before long—surely no more than a decade—the hated vacuum tube would vanish from the Earth, along with the tube socket, the tube tester, the tag board, the high-voltage rail, and that lowest rascal of them all, the output transformer. What a jubilant time!

I can't imagine what went wrong.

Continue Reading »

The Great Les

Going to see Les Paul during his final years, playing every Monday night at the Iridium club just north of Times Square in NYC was always a good time, not only for the music—and to be truthful, by then Les’ arthritis had robbed him of his best chops—but also for his playful, well–meaning, semi–lecherous sense of humor.
Continue Reading »

Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 55 loudspeaker

Recently, I thought about all the audio shows I've attended over the last 27 years, looking for any pattern that all of them might have shared. I came up with a handful of audio manufacturers that have earned at shows a reputation for getting, year after year, consistently good sound—rooms in which I could reliably depend on being able to chill out and enjoy music in good, involving sound. Those companies include Audio Research, Music Hall (distributor of Creek and Epos), Vandersteen Audio—and Definitive Technology. Since their founding, in 1990, Maryland-based DefTech has been a major presence at shows, displaying an increasingly wide range of high-value speakers for two-channel and surround-sound systems. But I'd never reviewed one of their models. I thought it was about time.
Continue Reading »

The Entry Level #23

It was around 7pm on Tuesday evening when I bumped into Nicole and Ms. Little on Newark Avenue, in downtown Jersey City. The girls were on their way to Kristen's shop, Kanibal Home, for their weekly book-club meeting. (Or was it Writing Club? Knitting? Screen printing? Butterfly pinning? I can never keep track.) I was on my way home, not to read, write, or listen to music, but . . .

"Hi, honey," Ms. Little said. "Going home to play with your cartridge?"

I made a face, nodded, sighed. Sensing some sharp-witted remark forming in Nicole's filthy mind, I beat her to the punch: "Yup, that's what I call it."

Continue Reading »

Jazz Composers Collective at 20

Photo: Lourdes Delgado

All this week, the Jazz Standard in New York will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Jazz Composers Collective, the brainchild of five musicians who formed five distinct bands: the personnel would remain the same, but each player would lead his own band and compose all of its music. Both concepts were unusual at the time: the continuity of players and the insistence on original compositions. Back then, jazz musicians rotated in and out of bands, not the other way around; and the emphasis was on covering standards or blowing improvisations.

Continue Reading »

On Sale Now: The Recommended Component’s Collector’s Edition

After two full weeks away from the office&#151Hurricane Sandy followed us from Puerto Rico to New Jersey&#151it was especially nice to get back in here and be greeted by the Stereophile Recommended Components Collector’s Edition.

Isn’t it beautiful?

For me, every one of its 180 pages represents blinding pain and seemingly endless suffering. But, for you, dear reader, we hope the Recommended Components Collector’s Edition will represent nothing but pure pleasure and joy.

Continue Reading »
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement