Budget Component Reviews

Sort By:  Post Date TitlePublish Date
Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Fourier 6 loudspeaker
Larry Greenhill, Dick Olsher  |  Jun 17, 2008  |  First Published: Mar 18, 1984  |  0 comments
The Fourier 6 has the special ability to generate large coherent sonic fields, from a box small enough to slip into an ordinary shopping bag. At $499/pair, the 6 competes directly with another remarkable-imaging, compact American speaker, the Spica TC-50 ($420/pair).
Continue Reading »
Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport ReviewsBudget Component ReviewsMusic in the Round
Music in the Round #30
Kalman Rubinson  |  May 29, 2008  |  0 comments
In January, I reported on my experiences with the Integra DTC-9.8 preamplifier-processor, which I found to be outstanding with digital sources. That assessment was due, in no small part, to the performance of the Audyssey MultEQ XT room-correction system, which is included in the DTC-9.8. With only a little serious effort, MultEQ opened up the entire soundstage, making possible a better appreciation of the hi-rez sources now available on all sorts of discs. I have no doubt that any careful user can achieve similar satisfaction.
Continue Reading »
Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Paradigm Reference Studio/20 loudspeaker
Robert J. Reina  |  May 21, 2008  |  0 comments
One of the first affordable loudspeakers I reviewed for Stereophile was the original Paradigm Reference Studio/20 bookshelf model, in the February 1998 issue (Vol.21 No.2). At the time, I felt that the $650/pair speaker was a breakthrough—although not completely devoid of colorations, its ratio of price to performance set a benchmark a decade ago. I kept the Studio/20s around for several years to compare with other bookshelf speakers I reviewed, and they remained listed in Stereophile's "Recommended Components" for several years after that. The Studio/20 is now in its fourth (v.4) iteration, so I thought I'd grab a pair to hear how they compared with current affordable bookshelf designs.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsPhono Cartridge Reviews
Ortofon Rondo Bronze MC phono cartridge
Art Dudley  |  May 12, 2008  |  0 comments
An enduringly healthy phono-cartridge industry? After a quarter of a century of rushing right out to buy the latest digital music appliances? You bet.
Continue Reading »
The Fifth ElementMusic and Recording FeaturesCD Player/Transport ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
The Fifth Element #47
John Marks  |  May 01, 2008  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2008  |  0 comments
US composer Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna is one of the indisputable masterpieces of the 20th century. John Atkinson has recorded the male vocal group Cantus's performances of Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium (on Comfort and Joy: Volume One, Cantus CTS-1204) and Ave Maria Dulcissima (on Cantus, Cantus CTS-1207). (And great recordings they are—one engineer chum thinks JA's Cantus recording of OMM is the single best-engineered choral recording he's ever heard.)
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsPhono Cartridge Reviews
Soundsmith SMMC1 moving-iron phono cartridge
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 25, 2008  |  0 comments
The audio industry may have lost a legend and a prolific innovator in Henry Kloss a few years back, but it still has another affable, creative eccentric in Peter Ledermann. In the mid-1970s, Ledermann was director of engineering at Bozak, where, with Rudy Bozak, he helped develop a miniature bookshelf speaker and a miniature powered subwoofer. Before that, Ledermann was a design engineer at RAM Audio Systems, working with Richard Majestic on the designs of everything from high-power, minimal-feedback power amplifiers and preamplifiers to phono cartridge systems. He was also an award-winning senior research engineer at IBM, and the primary inventor of 11 IBM patents.
Continue Reading »
Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Triangle Esprit Comete Ex loudspeaker
Art Dudley  |  Apr 24, 2008  |  0 comments
The first reference I saw to the Count of Saint Germain was in Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco's dense novel about a man whose paranoid delusions become so overpoweringly real that, by the end of the book, the reader is left wondering whether the protagonist's enemies actually exist. That their number should include Saint Germain was a nice touch: Part cabalist, part confidence man, the real-life Count was thought by some to be immortal (in Pendulum he's pushing 300), and while Casanova wrote vividly of meeting Saint Germain at a dinner party in 1757, so did the English writer and pederast C.W. Leadbetter—in 1926. Like Aleister Crowley, the Count of Saint Germain can be seen peering over the shoulders of countless parlor (but not parleur, or even haut-parleur) occultists: He keeps popping up all over the place.
Continue Reading »
Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Silverline Audio Minuet loudspeaker
Robert J. Reina  |  Apr 23, 2008  |  0 comments
I always look forward to Stereophile's Home Entertainment Shows, where I scout out interesting new models of affordable loudspeakers. At HE2007 in New York City, I was struck by the Silverline Audio room—not only by the sound I heard there, but by the way Showgoers reacted to that sound.
Continue Reading »
Floor Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Snell Type E/III loudspeaker
Larry Greenhill  |  Apr 05, 2008  |  First Published: Oct 05, 1991  |  0 comments
One question posed by John Atkinson at the July 1991 Stereophile Writers Conference had to do with the ease of reviewing: Is it harder to write a bad review of an expensive product than a good review? I find it hardest to write a good review of an inexpensive product. If I admire a less expensive loudspeaker, for example, it may become a recommended component, and can displace a more expensive speaker (that received mixed comments) from our twice-yearly rankings. This can be a big responsibility; even a conditional rave of a low-cost product means that JA may assign another Stereophile reviewer to do an immediate follow-up report. The Snell Type E/III loudspeaker may be a good case in point.
Continue Reading »
Floor Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Eminent Technology LFT-VIII loudspeaker
Corey Greenberg  |  Mar 30, 2008  |  First Published: Feb 02, 1993  |  0 comments
"And I say panel speakers can't rock'n'roll—"
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsIntegrated Amp Reviews
Cayin A-50T integrated amplifier
Robert J. Reina  |  Mar 19, 2008  |  0 comments
Late in 2006, I was watching John Atkinson set up a pair of DPA cardioid microphones in front of the stage of New York City's Otto's Shrunken Head to record a performance of my jazz quartet, Attention Screen (footnote 1). Before the first set, Wes Phillips approached me. "Bob, I found a piece of equipment you must review—the Cayin A-50T integrated amp. It's only 1300 bucks and you'll love it!"
Continue Reading »
CD Player/Transport ReviewsBudget Component ReviewsIntegrated Amp Reviews
Shanling MC-30 Music Center CD receiver
Art Dudley  |  Mar 18, 2008  |  0 comments
My first one-piece stereo—I think I paid $60 for it, including a pair of speakers with pegboard backs—gave me a lot of pleasure when I was young, and I loved it. Everything that came after has been better in every way but one: None has inspired that kind of love. And most have left me wondering if there might be something just a little bit better.
Continue Reading »
Budget Component ReviewsIntegrated Amp Reviews
AMC CVT-3030 integrated amplifier
Jack English  |  Mar 07, 2008  |  First Published: Jun 07, 1993  |  0 comments
All right, class. Your assignment is to write a paper persuading people to do something good for themselves that they really don't want to do.
Continue Reading »
Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Fried Q/4 loudspeaker
Robert Harley  |  Mar 06, 2008  |  First Published: Oct 06, 1990  |  0 comments
During the late 1970s and early '80s, I worked my way through college by selling hi-fi, or more precisely, mid-fi. During those years, I heard and sold several hundred different loudspeakers costing under $1000/pair. Despite the fact that I experienced them under less than ideal conditions, I was nevertheless able to get a feel for their relative performance. When switching between speakers, the differences between them were drastically juxtaposed. No two loudspeakers sounded even remotely similar tonally, indicating that they all had severe colorations.
Continue Reading »
Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Cambridge SoundWorks Ambiance loudspeaker
John Atkinson  |  Feb 29, 2008  |  First Published: Mar 29, 1990  |  0 comments
According to the conventional wisdom, companies selling consumer products fall into two categories: those whose sales are "marketing-led" and those whose sales are "product-led." Marketing-led companies tend to sell mature products into a mature market where there are no real differences between competing products—soap powder, mass-market beer, or cigarettes, for example—whereas product-led companies tend to sell new technologies, such as personal computers and high-end hi-fi components. In the audio separates market, conventional wisdom would have a hard time categorizing any individual company: no matter which you choose, it would be simplistic to say that it is either product- or marketing-led. No matter how good the product, without good marketing the manufacturer stands little chance of success; a poor product superbly marketed may make a company successful overnight, but that success will have hit the end stops by the following night.
Continue Reading »

Pages

X