Budget Component Reviews

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Budget Component ReviewsStand Loudspeaker Reviews
Phase Technology PC-60 loudspeaker
Dick Olsher  |  May 09, 2014  |  First Published: Aug 01, 1984  |  0 comments
It has been my experience that $400 or thereabouts is about the least one can pay for a pair of speakers with the expectation of audiophile-calibre sound.
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CD Player/Transport ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Rotel RCD-955AX and RCD-965BX CD players
Corey Greenberg  |  Apr 17, 2014  |  First Published: Mar 01, 1992  |  1 comments
On the mantel sat a stuffed Culo snake from Nuevo Laredo, with a red rubber tongue in freeze-frame flick. Above the bookcase hung the mounted head of a wild poi dog, killed in self-defense in Sri Lanka with only a Phillips-head screwdriver. A table-lamp made from a shellac'd, puffed-up frog wearing a sombrero and playing the contrabassoon bathed the room in a soft cream glow.
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Solid State Preamp ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Parasound Halo P 5 2.1-channel D/A preamplifier
Art Dudley  |  Apr 07, 2014  |  11 comments
Asked how to make a guitar, the celebrated luthier Wayne Henderson offered a straight-up answer: "Just get a pile of really nice wood and a whittling knife. Then you just carve away everything that isn't a guitar." (footnote 1)

The making of a preamplifier seems more or less the opposite. You start with a simple volume control and a couple of jacks, then add whatever you think constitutes a preamplifier. Choices might include electronic source switching, line-level gain, phono-level gain and equalization, tone controls, tone-defeat switches, a balance control, a headphone jack, an iPod input, and maybe even a digital-to-analog converter with a USB receiver. The sky is pretty much the limit.

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Budget Component ReviewsHeadphone ReviewsThe Entry Level
The Entry Level #39
Stephen Mejias  |  Mar 12, 2014  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2014  |  12 comments
In his article on the future of audio engineering in this issue, John La Grou tells us—succinctly and correctly, I think—that we are rapidly moving from a culture of handheld devices to one of headworn devices. He postulates that by perhaps as early as 2025, rather than being actively sought out, most audio/video media will be delivered, like milk or the newspaper—but delivered not to our front doors, but more or less straight to our brains. Fascinating? Sure. Frightening? Kinda, yeah.
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Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
ASUS Xonar Essence One Muses Edition D/A processor–headphone amplifier
John Atkinson  |  Mar 07, 2014  |  1 comments
Back in the summer of 2009, USB-connected D/A processors that could operate at sample rates greater than 48kHz were rare. Ayre Acoustics had just released its groundbreaking QB-9, one of the first DACs to use Gordon Rankin's Streamlength code for Texas Instruments' TAS1020 USB 1.1 receiver chip. Streamlength allowed the chip to operate in the sonically beneficial asynchronous mode, where the PC sourcing the audio data is slaved to the DAC. But high-performance, USB-connected DACs like the Ayre were also relatively expensive back then, so in the January 2010 issue of Stereophile I reviewed a pair of soundcards from major computer manufacturer ASUS , the Xonar Essence ST and STX, which, at $200, offered a much more cost-effective means of playing hi-rez files on a PC.
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Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Channel Islands Audio Transient Mk.II & VDC•5 Mk.II USB D/A processor & power supply
Jon Iverson  |  Mar 07, 2014  |  0 comments
Most folks don't even know they exist, but the Channel Islands are a chain of eight moderately sized mountains poking through the Pacific Ocean along the coast of southern California, between Santa Barbara and San Diego. The most famous of these is Catalina Island and its city, Avalon, which sit opposite San Clemente. The other Channel Islands are relatively wild and have been preserved mostly uninhabited.
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Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsComputer Audio Reviews
Arcam rBlink Bluetooth D/A processor
Sam Tellig, John Atkinson  |  Feb 14, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 01, 2013  |  6 comments
Am I the only one who values content and convenience over sound quality?

There. I've said it. I am not an audiophile; ie, someone who's in love with recorded sound for its own sake. The search for ideal sound can leave a person burned out and broke.

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Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Epos Elan 10 loudspeaker
Robert J. Reina  |  Jan 30, 2014  |  First Published: Feb 01, 2014  |  2 comments
I've long kept an eye on Michael Creek's loudspeakers (Epos) and electronics (Creek). He's always moving forward, with either updates of current designs or a revamp of an entire product line. And though I've found that many of his new-product ideas tend to feature evolutionary rather than revolutionary sonic improvements, I've found that they always represent excellent sound quality for the dollar in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
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Budget Component ReviewsIntegrated Amp Reviews
Arcam FMJ A19 integrated amplifier
Stephen Mejias  |  Jan 02, 2014  |  2 comments
"J-10? What's an integrated amplifier?"

It was fall 2000. I'd just begun working at Stereophile, and I clearly remember sheepishly, innocently putting this question to former senior editor Jonathan Scull.

I think the question confused him—not because he didn't know the answer, but because the answer seemed so obvious, the question itself should have been unnecessary. How could anyone not know what an integrated amplifier is? I might as well have asked, "What's a song?"

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Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
GoldenEar Technology Aon 2 loudspeaker
Robert J. Reina  |  Oct 31, 2013  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2013  |  6 comments
I was introduced to audiophilia by my friend Gary Gustavsen. Although I'd known Gary since I was 13, I didn't discover his passion for music until that day in high school physics lab when I blurted out an obscure line from the Doors' "The Soft Parade," and Gary bounced back immediately with the next line. It turns out I shared my friend's passions for the Doors and Frank Zappa, but not for Mahler. Before long, Gary was dragging me to every audio store in our area to listen to potential speakers for his first high-end audio system. At the beginning of each trip he'd say, "Right now I'm partial to the Rectilinear 3s." Although I heard him say that many times, I never actually got to hear a pair of Rectilinear 3s.
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Budget Component ReviewsThe Entry Level
The Entry Level #33
Stephen Mejias  |  Sep 13, 2013  |  7 comments
Two of the five loudspeakers reviewed in our July issue were designed by Andrew Jones: the $29,800/pair TAD Evolution One and the $129.99/pair Pioneer SP-BS22-LR (footnote 1). I did the math. You can buy 229 pairs of the Pioneer for the price of a single pair of the TAD. Which is the better deal? Which would result in more happiness? Imagine keeping one pair of the Pioneers, and delivering the other 228 pairs to friends and family. Or donating them to schools. The possibilities are great. How much fun can you have with just a single pair of speakers, anyway?
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Stand Loudspeaker ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Audience ClairAudient The One loudspeaker
Robert J. Reina  |  Sep 06, 2013  |  4 comments
As the years pass and I turn into a crotchety old man, I'm reminded of those old TV ads for the Honda Accord: "Simplify." Even though I now have more things going on than at any other point in my life, I try to eliminate complications everywhere I can. I now can't believe that, for over 15 years, I used the Infinity RS-1B as my reference loudspeaker. Sure, I loved it—the RS-1B was the first speaker I'd owned that produced a wide, deep soundstage, the full dynamic range of an orchestra, and bass extension down to 25Hz. But it was ridiculously complex: a five-way design with three different driver types and a servomechanism for the woofers. It also required biamplification—I got the best sound with a combination of high-powered tube amp and high-current, solid-state amp.
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Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor ReviewsHeadphone Reviews
Meridian Explorer USB D/A processor/headphone amplifier
Art Dudley  |  Aug 30, 2013  |  First Published: Sep 01, 2013  |  6 comments
Those of us who groan at the appearance of every new five-figure digital source component in a massively oversized chassis—and who groan in greater torment when the offending manufacturer says his customer base insists on products that are styled and built and priced that way—can take heart: The appearance of such sanely sized and affordable products as the Halide Design DAC HD ($495) and the AudioQuest DragonFly ($249) would suggest that the market has a mind of its own.
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Budget Component ReviewsIntegrated Amp Reviews
Creek 4240 Special Edition integrated amplifier
Robert J. Reina  |  Aug 26, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 01, 1995  |  3 comments
In this, my first equipment review for Stereophile, I'll begin by explaining my philosophy regarding reviewing inexpensive components. In my quest for products by designers who strive to establish new benchmarks for reproducing sonic realism at lower prices, I'll be looking for "value" components (a more appropriate term than "budget") whose designers logically fall into two camp. . .
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Budget Component ReviewsDigital Processor Reviews
Schiit Audio Bifrost D/A processor
Jon Iverson  |  Aug 01, 2013  |  4 comments
Late last year came an epic audiophile moment: I slapped a final length of tape on the box of the awesome-sounding MSB Diamond DAC (Stereophile, October 2012), in final preparation for its trek to John Atkinson's testing lab, in Brooklyn. Next up was the Bifrost DAC from Schiit Audio. I popped it into my system, where, moments before, the MSB had held court.

From $43,325 to $449. Yowseh!!—the MSB costs almost 100 times as much as the Schiit! Was this even fair?

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