Recommended Components

2014 Recommended Components Fall Edition How to Use the Listings

Sidebar: How to Use the Listings

The classes each cover a wide range of performance. Carefully read our descriptions here, the original reviews, and (heaven forbid) reviews in other magazines to put together a short list of components to choose from. Evaluate your room, your source material and front-end(s), your speakers, and your tastes. With luck, you may come up with a selection to audition at your favorite dealer(s). "Recommended Components" will not tell you what to buy any more than Consumer Reports would presume to tell you whom to marry!

Class A: Best attainable sound for a component of its kind, almost without practical considerations; "the least musical compromise." A Class A system is one for which you don't have to make a leap of faith to believe that you're hearing the real thing. With Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio, and Hi-Rez PCM and DSD files now available, we have created a new Class, A+, for the best performance in those digital categories. Class A now represents the best that can be obtained from the conventional 16/44.1 CD medium. We also created Class A+ categories for turntables and phono preamps, to recognize the achievements of the Continuum Caliburn and Boulder 2008, respectively.

Class B: The next best thing to the very best sound reproduction; Class B components generally cost less than those in Class A, but most Class B components are still quite expensive.

Class C: Somewhat lower-fi sound, but far more musically natural than average home-component high fidelity; products in this class are of high quality but still affordable.

Class D: Satisfying musical sound, but these components are either of significantly lower fidelity than the best available, or exhibit major compromises in performance—limited dynamic range, for example. Bear in mind that appearance in Class D still means that we recommend this product—it's possible to put together a musically satisfying system exclusively from Class D components.

Class E: Applying to "Loudspeakers," these are entry-level products.

Class K: "Keep your eye on this product." Class K is for components that we have not reviewed (or have not finished testing), but that we have reason to believe may be excellent performers. We are not actually recommending these components, only suggesting you give them a listen. Though the report has yet to be published in certain cases, the reviewer and editor sometimes feel confident enough that the reviewer's opinion is sufficiently well formed to include what otherwise would be an entry in one of the other classes, marked (NR).

COMMENTS
j22928's picture
Submitted by j22928 on September 19, 2014 - 2:26am

Why is Stereophile afraid to test a fully tricked out current model Linn LP12? The mush in Recommended Components just doesn't cut it.

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on September 19, 2014 - 4:57am
Quote:
Why is Stereophile afraid to test a fully tricked out current model Linn LP12?

www.stereophile.com/tonearms/1007linn/index.html.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

daveyf's picture
Submitted by daveyf on August 31, 2015 - 12:15am

Actually the top end LP12 Klimax is as follows: LP12, Cirkus. Keel, Radikal D, Tramp 2, Ekos SE-1. Also a Urika phono stage and a Kandid cartridge. If you are still using a Lingo and a Ekos, you simply have no idea as to what the table can bring. A 2007 model LP12 compared to a 2015 Linn LP12 Klimax is like comparing a Prius to a Tesla, they are both electric based, but that's where the similarity ends.

winefix's picture
Submitted by winefix on September 19, 2014 - 9:48am

Where does this speaker place?

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on September 19, 2014 - 1:24pm
Quote:
Where does this speaker place?

It hasn't been reviewed yet. (Our review is provisionally scheduled to appear in the January 2015 issue of Stereophile.)

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

chrisstu's picture
Submitted by chrisstu on September 19, 2014 - 10:47am

Greetings. I could not find an indication of what the star means when it appears next to a component. Thanks

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on September 19, 2014 - 1:27pm
Quote:
I could not find an indication of what the star means when it appears next to a component.

A ★ indicates a product that has been on this list in one incarnation or another since the "Recommended Components" listing in Vol.34 No.10 (October 2011).

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

tonykaz's picture
Submitted by tonykaz on September 19, 2014 - 11:18am

It's easy to see who JA Caters to .
Gentlemen , this is the 21st Century , Edison Players are a bit long of tooth , aren't they ?
Is there enough customer base there to support a Main Industry Mag. ? , I see the snaps of the Shows where the Product Rooms have a few old geezers like me sitting around on folding chairs .
I wonder if Motor Trend will now be giving 4 Barrel Carburetors from Holly a nice A+ recommendation ? or the 1957 Chevy Convertible ?

to JA ; even Ivor at LINN has gone over to 16/44.1
Are you lads starting a new Chapter of "Flat Earth Society" ?

Tony in Michigan

Allen Fant's picture
Submitted by Allen Fant on September 19, 2014 - 12:43pm

I concur gentleman, this particular issue, appears to get weaker every year?

j22928's picture
Submitted by j22928 on September 20, 2014 - 4:37am

2007 was pre-Radikal, pre-Urika and pre-Kandid.

jimtavegia's picture
Submitted by jimtavegia on September 20, 2014 - 6:38am

Vinyl and turntable sales, USB DACs and Streamers, and download sales all increasing. I can think of no better reason than all the turntables showing up. CD sales down and will continue to do so, but I do believe that the used CD market is strong. It is for me.

handler's picture
Submitted by handler on September 20, 2014 - 5:54pm

May I suggest the placement of the KEF LS50 in "Class A" be revisited. Having owned both it and the Revel M106, and having made my own recordings, the Revel is more "true to the recording" throughout the audio band. In fairness to all manufactures, I believe either some competing designs to the LS50 deserve to be moved up a class, or the Kef be moved down.

Ajani's picture
Submitted by Ajani on September 20, 2014 - 10:15pm

Being a Revel fan, I was a bit disappointed that the M106 wasn't rated Class A like the LS50. I would love to read a comparison between the LS50 and the M106 in Stereophile. It would be interesting to see whether the respective class ratings would remain the same after a direct comparison.

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on September 22, 2014 - 7:20am
Quote:
I would love to read a comparison between the LS50 and the M106 in Stereophile.

I am planning on publishing this comparison in the January 2015 issue.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

corrective_unconscious's picture
Submitted by corrective_unco... on September 22, 2014 - 10:05am

I don't know your lead times or, obviously, who that other poster is, but did you already plan to do this comparison or did you decide to take a suggestion here? (I'll be interested in the comparison either way.)

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on September 22, 2014 - 10:09am
Quote:
I don't know your lead times or, obviously, who that other poster is, but did you already plan to do this comparison or did you decide to take a suggestion here?

I set-up the Revel M106es in my listening room last week, so I could write a follow-up. Yes, it was the suggestion in this thread that triggered the idea of my also obtaining samples of the KEF LS50.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

handler's picture
Submitted by handler on September 22, 2014 - 6:16pm

Thank you, Mr. Atkinson. It's nice to hear the readership has a voice here on Stereophile.com

It'll be interesting to read your thoughts. I ended up keeping the Revel in lieu of the Kef. I did not expect to like the Revel as much as I do.

Dr.Kamiya's picture
Submitted by Dr.Kamiya on September 22, 2014 - 12:54am

Any idea what will happen to Pioneer and TAD speakers as Pioneer merges its HiFi business with Onkyo? Some of what I've read suggests that only the AV Receiver business will be sold, and I fervently hope that is true.

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on September 22, 2014 - 7:18am
Quote:
Any idea what will happen to Pioneer and TAD speakers as Pioneer merges its HiFi business with Onkyo?

We don't know what will happen to Pioneer-branded products, but TAD's Andrew Jones tells us that the TAD brand will stay in Pioneer's portfolio of brands.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Anon2's picture
Submitted by Anon2 on September 25, 2014 - 5:08pm

Dynaudio has come out with a new active speaker, the Focus XD. The gist of the very limited initial product information is that the speaker also has some sort of DAC capability.

On the subject of Dynaudio, does anyone want to posit any observations on what the differences might be between the Excite X14 and the Focus 160, which both received accolades in this latest edition of Stereophile?

What electronics would warrant, or would require, the Focus 160 for the additional outlay? Yes, I could go to a dealer, but this entails parking, expressways, gas, and a forgone weekend. Any thoughts before one takes the plunge to take up a dealer's time and effort?

Something's good (not fishy) in Denmark!

lo fi's picture
Submitted by lo fi on September 30, 2014 - 5:36am

Hi,

Will John Atkinson be providing objective measurements to accompany John Marks's praiseful review of the ATC SCM19 speaker?

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on September 30, 2014 - 1:13pm
lo fi wrote:
Will John Atkinson be providing objective measurements to accompany John Marks's praiseful review of the ATC SCM19 speaker?

No plans to, I am afraid.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

lo fi's picture
Submitted by lo fi on October 1, 2014 - 5:16am

Damn! ;)

Lago's picture
Submitted by Lago on October 29, 2014 - 4:40pm

Why is the Sophia 3 in A Class Restricted Extreme LF, if they numbers for Frequency Response are: +/-3 dB 20 Hz - 22.5 kHz?

Thanks

MBL-Russia's picture
Submitted by MBL-Russia on November 19, 2014 - 3:34am

Es ist fantastisch!

Dushyant's picture
Submitted by Dushyant on November 8, 2014 - 5:55pm

From your introductory comments, I understand that full-range class A products have LF extension down to 20Hz. It is confirmed by reviews and specs. What about the full-range class B and class C? Just scanning through the list shows that most, if not all, products in these categories do not have LF extension to 20Hz. My question then is what are your criteria for full-range in class B and class C? The restricted LF makes sense for all classes.

Thanks
Dushyant

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