Vote

Bob Harley's review of the REL Stratus II subwoofer. Read the review on a Thursday, bought one on Friday, and have loved it ever since.

It is hard to remember "all time," but my favorite at the moment is Art Dudley's December review of the Reference 3A MM De Capo i. The reason: Art has been my favorite reviewer, since The Listener days, and I'm thinking of buying the De Capos.

Any of the old Corey Greenburg reviews. They were some of the funniest prose I've ever read in a magazine.

The review of the NHT 3.3s by both Tom Norton and Corey Greenberg.

Several years ago there was a review of the VTL "Wotan" amplifier. It's my favorite review because it had an example of every type of failure subjective reviewing is heir to. Everything was wrong with that review that could have been wrong.

1) The first review of the JA era—I think it was John's review of his own Krell KSA50 amp—that included instrumented testing. This ongoing pursuit of the technical reasons for good sound is what sets Stereophile apart from its competition and is the reason why I still subcribe.

Dunlavy SC-VI (Aug '96). According to that review it should have been the speaker to beat for all time.

Tube sounds more realistic and lively on mid and high tone areas. But for deep bass zone, a good solid state amps will outperforms the tubed amps. Chamber, choir and any classical based musics will be heard like "having more sweetness & finesse'. But for 70's I feel the serious solid state will sound better than tube amps.

That thing ST wrote :)

The review of a Jadis 300B amp back in 1997. At that time, I had never ever seen such a poorly designed amplifier. I laughed so hard that I had to go outside for fresh air.

Corey Greenberg's review of the NHT Super Zeros. Way fun and way funny!

Radio Shack Optimus portable CD player, circa 1994.

Omega preamplifier, cause i oen one of these beast

Reviews are opinions and you know what they say about those!

I really like the review of the CLS statement system by Jonathan Valin with the Kinergetics woofer columns. I thought it was very thorough and brutally honest about both the strengths and weakenesses of this combination. Although I never added the Kinergetics woofers to my CLS's, I really enjoyed reading about it.

Everything by Art Dudley...he's great! I loved his latest lists.

Martin Logan SL3 review. Not only did it contain the ups and downs of the speaker, it had the story behind speakers.

Rockport Technologies System III Sirius turntable and tonearm at $73k. Keeps me buying lottery tickets on a weekly basis!

A tie for two, for two reasons: one because I purchased the product reviewed pretty much because of the review (of course I listened to it) -Corey Greenberg's review of the Conrad-Johnson Sonographe CD-22 CD player. The other, because it made me laugh so hard, Wes Phillips' review of the Martin-Logan SL3 (as I already had a factory-modified pair of Aeriuses, I didn't buy that product but wish I had before it was discontinued. To this day, these two guys have been my favorite reviewers. First, because we have the same tastes and priorities in equipment and second, they are so entertaining to read with their "gonzo" style and all.

Kal Rubinson's first review of the original Bel Canto eVo2 amp. In it he described the issue of finding the right volume for any system, and how the playback system abetted in defining this volume level. More than just a review of gear, I learned something new about listening and playback.

Audio Artistry Dvorak Loudspeaker System by Shannon Dickson, 4/96. Unusually insightful and illuminating, this article managed to attain a significant fraction of the sophistication of an AES paper, but without the dry writing style typical of such technical dissertations.

One of the contenders is your review of the Sony CDP-101 Compact Disc Player (January, 1983). It certainly shows how listening skills have evolved (hopefully for the better) over the years.

There have been many fine reviews, a recent one that made an impression(and the manufacturer's response) went beyond "good" and inadvertantly hit on more universal themes of our varying levels of undertanding, open-mindedness, and justified suspicion. It was Art Dudley's review of Audioquest's battery-charged dielectric cables. I thought both sides made some excellent points, but I would have liked to have read that Art rereviewed the cables with Audioquest's response in mind. I wonder if he had experimented with the cables differently if he would have heard more things to report on.

Sony CDP101, because it was an insight into a new audio format. A step into the future! Lasers and digits with small optical disks. It doesn't get any better than that!

Just about anything in the columns of Sam or Art. They have a wonderful sense of story telling that helps bring out the good and bad of the piece of gear under review.

ARC VT-100

Corey Greenberg on the Eminent Technology LFT-VIII speakers, because I actually owned them and as a result could conclude his review was pretty accurate. I did kind of wonder why he swore a bit less in that one, though. Perhaps he was angling for a job at The New York Times or something.

Sam Telligs review of the RA Labs Mini Reference back in 1994. This was my intro to Stereophile and the high-end world. Have not looked back since.

Corey Greenberg's first review: VTL Tiny Triodes, Counterpoint, and Muse amps. Funny, irreverent, and relevant.

The review of the SME 30 turntable is thorough, useful, and lets one live this gorgeous turntable's experience vicariously.