Joint Budget Components of the Year
AudioQuest DragonFly Red & Black D/A headphone amplifiers
Elac Debut B6 loudspeaker
Perhaps the nicest thing about this tie for 2016 Budget Product of the Year is that one can easily imagine the Elac Debut B6 speakers and either of AudioQuest's new DragonFly DACs in the same system. No less nice is the fact that you could buy both—assuming even the costlier DragonFly Red—and still get change from a $500 bill, if such things still existed.
While we're handing out laurel wreaths, let's not forget that AudioQuest has, in the new and old DragonFlys alike, created a line of notably high-value audio products that are made in the US. With their Chinese-built Debut B6, Elac doesn't manage quite the same trick, but they more than make up for it by offering a sub-$300/pair speaker capable of "pumping tangible musical energy into the room," as Herb Reichert put it. The two-way, 14"-tall Debut B6 may not be perfect, but this Andrew Jones design deserves to be thought of as more than "just" a budget speaker. As HR put it: "'Dorm-room speakers'? Not hardly!"
Notes on the vote: Density is back, with a vengeance: Of the two first-place winners, the Elac Debut B6 had fewer votes overall, yet won twice as many first-place votes as the AudioQuest DragonFlys. Also interesting is the fact that these two top winners beat the second-place winner—a DAC-headphone amp from Chord, the Mojo, which is indeed workin'—by the largest margin of votes in this year's POTY voting.
Finalists (in alphabetical order)
Apogee Groove USB D/A headphone amplifier ($295; reviewed by Jon Iverson, John Atkinson & Jim Austin, January, February & June 2016, Vol.39 Nos. 1, 2 & 6 Review)
Chord Mojo D/A headphone amplifier
Dynavector DV-20X2L phono cartridge
Rogue Audio RP-1 preamplifier ($1699; reviewed by Herb Reichert, August 2016, Vol.39 No.8 Review)
Meridian Explorer2 USB D/A headphone amplifier
Music Hall MMF-7.3 turntable & tonearm
PS Audio NuWave DSD D/A processor
VPI Scout Jr. turntable & tonearm
Elac Debut B6 loudspeaker
Perhaps the nicest thing about this tie for 2016 Budget Product of the Year is that one can easily imagine the Elac Debut B6 speakers and either of AudioQuest's new DragonFly DACs in the same system. No less nice is the fact that you could buy both—assuming even the costlier DragonFly Red—and still get change from a $500 bill, if such things still existed.
While we're handing out laurel wreaths, let's not forget that AudioQuest has, in the new and old DragonFlys alike, created a line of notably high-value audio products that are made in the US. With their Chinese-built Debut B6, Elac doesn't manage quite the same trick, but they more than make up for it by offering a sub-$300/pair speaker capable of "pumping tangible musical energy into the room," as Herb Reichert put it. The two-way, 14"-tall Debut B6 may not be perfect, but this Andrew Jones design deserves to be thought of as more than "just" a budget speaker. As HR put it: "'Dorm-room speakers'? Not hardly!"
Notes on the vote: Density is back, with a vengeance: Of the two first-place winners, the Elac Debut B6 had fewer votes overall, yet won twice as many first-place votes as the AudioQuest DragonFlys. Also interesting is the fact that these two top winners beat the second-place winner—a DAC-headphone amp from Chord, the Mojo, which is indeed workin'—by the largest margin of votes in this year's POTY voting.
Apogee Groove USB D/A headphone amplifier ($295; reviewed by Jon Iverson, John Atkinson & Jim Austin, January, February & June 2016, Vol.39 Nos. 1, 2 & 6 Review)
Chord Mojo D/A headphone amplifier
Dynavector DV-20X2L phono cartridge
Rogue Audio RP-1 preamplifier ($1699; reviewed by Herb Reichert, August 2016, Vol.39 No.8 Review)
Meridian Explorer2 USB D/A headphone amplifier
Music Hall MMF-7.3 turntable & tonearm
PS Audio NuWave DSD D/A processor
VPI Scout Jr. turntable & tonearm
