Editors' Choice Awards
Magico S5 2024 loudspeaker
Introduced in 2024 to celebrate the California company's 20th anniversary, Magico's S5 2024 may be large and heavy (and expensive), but this three-way, sealed-box floorstanding loudspeaker stepped out of the way of the music with every recording I played. I was particularly impressed by the Magico's uncolored midrange, the control and evenness of its low frequencies, and how the two loudspeakers presented an appropriately large but well-defined soundstage with orchestral recordings. I concluded my review by writing that the S5 2024 is one of the finest-sounding loudspeakers that I have experienced in my listening room.—John Atkinson
dCS Varèse D/A processor
At $267,000—plus more for the brand-new CD/SACD transport if you want to spin silver discs—the dCS Varèse is close to the top of the digital heap pricewise. Truly, that's a staggering amount to pay for a medium that was supposed to sound perfect circa 1983 with a player that cost a few hundred bucks. Yet based on my brief experience with it (I've heard it only at dealers, in systems I'm somewhat familiar with but not nearly as familiar as I am with my own system) I'd say the Varèse is qualitatively different—better—than other D/A converters I've heard. It reproduces digital music in a way that to me seems fundamentally new—not analog, not digital, just liquid and pure—corroborating decades-long speculation that there's been far more music in those pits than had been liberated previously. At that price it ain't for us regular folks—but what's that dripping I hear? Is it the sound of technology trickling down?—Jim Austin Magico S5 2024 loudspeaker
Airframe build underpins this slim, acoustically inert, alloy pillar containing an exceptional concentration of some of the most advanced loudspeaker technologies available, if not so visually telegraphed. With a neat but weighty footprint, this multi-braced "sealed box loaded" enclosure employs drivers and crossovers with minimal acoustic signatures leading to exceptionally low coloration, class-leading transparency, crisp image focus, and surprisingly capable bass extension and precision. In action, the delivery appears effortless, not just technically, but also musically. The essentially full bandwidth and highly spatial performances conjured up by the S5 just flow over and around you. Once experienced, you don't want them to end.—Martin Colloms
Falcon 2024 Limited Edition LS3/5a loudspeaker
A friend once described my audiophile ethos as "Records, tubes, huge amplifiers, and really huge speakers." Glib? Sure. Accurate? Well, pretty much, so Falcon's latest LS3/5a might seem like an odd choice for my Editor's Choice. But back in 1978, a pair of LS3/5a's showed me what High-end Audio was about: not playing a record but putting you at the performance being recorded. The Falcons took me back to that day and were a profound reminder of what makes this all so special. I've been looking for one simple, accessible component to get the message to intrigued Gen Zs. The Limited Edition Falcons showed me that an LS3/5a might still be the perfect messenger.—Brian Damkroger The Vessel moving-magnet cartridge system
The Vessel, a reasonably priced phono cartridge system sold exclusively by LP Gear, offers what's likely the widest range of stylus and cantilever options in current production. The interchangeable stylus assemblies fit a precision-made moving magnet engine from Japan's Excel Sound (which also makes Hana cartridges). From the base-level bonded elliptical diamond stylus/aluminum cantilever to the top-line nude Shibata diamond stylus/boron cantilever, The Vessel proved a solid tracker. As I discuss elsewhere in this issue, each stylus shape and cantilever material put a different twist on tonality and details. I especially enjoyed my time using it for reviews of the Belleson Brilliance phono preamp and the Amphion Krypton 3x loudspeaker in the qualifying period.—Tom Fine
Ortofon SPU Royal N phono cartridge
Though it's hardly new, Ortofon's SPU Royal N may be the most musically communicative cartridge I've encountered costing anywhere near its current, post-tariff price of $2788. It offers a highly refined version of the gloriously colorful, dynamic, downright meaty SPU sound in a universal cartridge body suitable to a wide range of tonearms, and it imbues music with a harmonic rightness and richness without skimping on the gee-whiz hi-fi effects. Matched with a top step-up transformer, like one of the models from Berlin's Consolidated Audio, it will reveal more of your music than all but the most exotic record tracers.—Alex Halberstadt
Bricasti Design M21 D/A processor.
The Bricasti Design M21, which I reviewed for the October 2025 issue, has already become an indispensible member of my reference system Gang of Components. As I have come to expect over time from designer Brian Zolner and his talented team in Shirley, Massachusetts, Bricasti's combination of outstanding build quality, creative design features, and superb sound continues to entice. This DAC features three digital audio conversion paths: two for PCM, which utilize sigma-delta or ladder DAC types, and a true one-bit modulator for DSD. A great, boundary-erasing digital/analog musicmaker.—Sasha Matson
Unison Research S6 Black Edition integrated amplifier
This fully tubed integrated amplifier uses three KT77 tubes per channel connected in parallel, operating in a class-A, Ultralinear configuration to output 40Wpc of texturally rich, sweetly saturated, cosmically tonal music messages delivered with natural-sounding dynamics. It's a tube amp that perhaps only an Italian manufacturer could create, a sound so full of presence, color, and life-affirming grandeur that every act of musical replication was a feast for the ears. Other integrateds may offer larger soundstages or greater detail near the S6's $6999 price, but none will produce more happiness or soul-serving satisfaction.—Ken Micallef
Wattson Audio Madison LE D/A processor
This year's PotY choice was easy. Wattson Audio's Madison DAC-streamer reconstitutes CDs and streamed USB files with a level of transparency and vibrancy I had not previously experienced at anywhere near its $4995 asking price. It is designed and manufactured in Switzerland by CH Precision's new subsidiary, Wattson Audio, and it looks and feels and sounds Swiss. I would wager the Madison's uniquely solid, super-transparent sound is the result of its extraordinary time-domain performance, which is probably the reason I found it so compelling. I consider it the most important new product of 2025.—Herb Reichert
PSI Audio AVAA C214 electronic bass trap
This slim, graceful cylinder is only 2' high and 8" in diameter and is an amazingly effective bass trap that can be accommodated, aesthetically and physically, in virtually any listening room. I have been challenged (online) for not comparing it to "a $400 bass trap from GIK," but that misses the point. I have two such GIK traps in the room, but there is simply no room for more. Adding the broadband AVAA C214s made substantial audible and measurable improvements. Recommending a $4000 trap may seem outrageous, but it's a lot cheaper than demolition or relocation.—Kalman Rubinson
Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor loudspeaker
The Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor loudspeaker is my Editor's Choice because it surprised me. I don't often come across an audio product that presents music in as unique—and musically compelling—a way as this three-way does. At the $2000/pair asking price, you get two elegantly shaped speakers in a piano-lacquer finish with a visually striking (and wonderfully coherent-sounding) driver array that includes a RAAL ribbon tweeter, a BMR midrange, and a ceramic-cone woofer. The result is a sound that excels in making instruments sound materially textural, palpably present, and almost corporeally three-dimensional. Detail is abundant without being fatiguing, and notes are bulging and colorful. As long as you have enough juice to power them—say, 75Wpc, minimum—I think you'll be as enchanted by their presentation as I was. Had I owned a more powerful amplifier than my 37Wpc Grandinote Shinai, I would have kept them.—Rob Schryer dCS Varèse D/A processor
It's hard to think of the dCS Varèse as simply a D/A processor. Beyond its ability to stream music and play back files from a USB stick, it's the single (five-box) component in my system that has most brought everything together into a unified whole. Because Varèse's resolving power is so high and its transparency is so great, I am able to hear deeper into a recording than ever before. Texture, eg, the complex sound of the bow on a cello's strings (especially when close-miked), timbre, expressive nuance, venue size, and the position of instruments within the soundstage—everything I might wish to hear in a recording—is delivered with a veracity, coherence, and musical flow that in my experience is unmatched. The dCS Varèse has served as more than an ultimate reviewer's tool; it has brought me closer to the musical truth that artists and engineers devote their lives to sharing with those of us who are eager to receive it.—Jason Victor Serinus
Kuzma Safir 9 tonearm
With its ultrahigh effective mass—a whopping 60gm—Franc Kuzma's Safir 9 tonearm shatters a lot of decades-old conventional thinking on matching arms with cartridges. It takes many of the design features of Kuzma's popular 4Point arm and applies a cost-be-damned approach to improving everything, highlighted by the chunky lab-grown sapphire armtube. The results are sublime, controlling the cartridge in a way few arms can. It's also user friendly, pretty easy to set up, and it's proving to be stable over the long haul. I love setting up this arm, and of course listening to music through it!—Michael Trei
Grimm LS1c all-in-one stereo loudspeaker system
The Grimm LS1c stereo system, about $44,000, includes built-in Hypex nCore amplifiers, DACs, and two upfiring subwoofers integrated in the stands. All you need is a source. It's not without complexity, but once everything is hooked up and dialed in, this Dutch delight offers a triple advantage: exemplary coherence, superior tonality, and a wonderful ability to get out of the way of the music. A full LS1c setup is modestly sized and doesn't invite endless tweaks—in fact, it's the easiest-to-live-with high-end rig I know. While it was in my home, I stopped trying to identify a weak link and reconnected with music in ways that felt fun and profound at the same time.—Rogier van Bakel
Magico S5 2024 loudspeakerIntroduced in 2024 to celebrate the California company's 20th anniversary, Magico's S5 2024 may be large and heavy (and expensive), but this three-way, sealed-box floorstanding loudspeaker stepped out of the way of the music with every recording I played. I was particularly impressed by the Magico's uncolored midrange, the control and evenness of its low frequencies, and how the two loudspeakers presented an appropriately large but well-defined soundstage with orchestral recordings. I concluded my review by writing that the S5 2024 is one of the finest-sounding loudspeakers that I have experienced in my listening room.—John Atkinson
dCS Varèse D/A processorAt $267,000—plus more for the brand-new CD/SACD transport if you want to spin silver discs—the dCS Varèse is close to the top of the digital heap pricewise. Truly, that's a staggering amount to pay for a medium that was supposed to sound perfect circa 1983 with a player that cost a few hundred bucks. Yet based on my brief experience with it (I've heard it only at dealers, in systems I'm somewhat familiar with but not nearly as familiar as I am with my own system) I'd say the Varèse is qualitatively different—better—than other D/A converters I've heard. It reproduces digital music in a way that to me seems fundamentally new—not analog, not digital, just liquid and pure—corroborating decades-long speculation that there's been far more music in those pits than had been liberated previously. At that price it ain't for us regular folks—but what's that dripping I hear? Is it the sound of technology trickling down?—Jim Austin Magico S5 2024 loudspeaker
Airframe build underpins this slim, acoustically inert, alloy pillar containing an exceptional concentration of some of the most advanced loudspeaker technologies available, if not so visually telegraphed. With a neat but weighty footprint, this multi-braced "sealed box loaded" enclosure employs drivers and crossovers with minimal acoustic signatures leading to exceptionally low coloration, class-leading transparency, crisp image focus, and surprisingly capable bass extension and precision. In action, the delivery appears effortless, not just technically, but also musically. The essentially full bandwidth and highly spatial performances conjured up by the S5 just flow over and around you. Once experienced, you don't want them to end.—Martin Colloms
Falcon 2024 Limited Edition LS3/5a loudspeakerA friend once described my audiophile ethos as "Records, tubes, huge amplifiers, and really huge speakers." Glib? Sure. Accurate? Well, pretty much, so Falcon's latest LS3/5a might seem like an odd choice for my Editor's Choice. But back in 1978, a pair of LS3/5a's showed me what High-end Audio was about: not playing a record but putting you at the performance being recorded. The Falcons took me back to that day and were a profound reminder of what makes this all so special. I've been looking for one simple, accessible component to get the message to intrigued Gen Zs. The Limited Edition Falcons showed me that an LS3/5a might still be the perfect messenger.—Brian Damkroger The Vessel moving-magnet cartridge system
The Vessel, a reasonably priced phono cartridge system sold exclusively by LP Gear, offers what's likely the widest range of stylus and cantilever options in current production. The interchangeable stylus assemblies fit a precision-made moving magnet engine from Japan's Excel Sound (which also makes Hana cartridges). From the base-level bonded elliptical diamond stylus/aluminum cantilever to the top-line nude Shibata diamond stylus/boron cantilever, The Vessel proved a solid tracker. As I discuss elsewhere in this issue, each stylus shape and cantilever material put a different twist on tonality and details. I especially enjoyed my time using it for reviews of the Belleson Brilliance phono preamp and the Amphion Krypton 3x loudspeaker in the qualifying period.—Tom Fine
Ortofon SPU Royal N phono cartridgeThough it's hardly new, Ortofon's SPU Royal N may be the most musically communicative cartridge I've encountered costing anywhere near its current, post-tariff price of $2788. It offers a highly refined version of the gloriously colorful, dynamic, downright meaty SPU sound in a universal cartridge body suitable to a wide range of tonearms, and it imbues music with a harmonic rightness and richness without skimping on the gee-whiz hi-fi effects. Matched with a top step-up transformer, like one of the models from Berlin's Consolidated Audio, it will reveal more of your music than all but the most exotic record tracers.—Alex Halberstadt
Bricasti Design M21 D/A processor.
The Bricasti Design M21, which I reviewed for the October 2025 issue, has already become an indispensible member of my reference system Gang of Components. As I have come to expect over time from designer Brian Zolner and his talented team in Shirley, Massachusetts, Bricasti's combination of outstanding build quality, creative design features, and superb sound continues to entice. This DAC features three digital audio conversion paths: two for PCM, which utilize sigma-delta or ladder DAC types, and a true one-bit modulator for DSD. A great, boundary-erasing digital/analog musicmaker.—Sasha Matson
Unison Research S6 Black Edition integrated amplifierThis fully tubed integrated amplifier uses three KT77 tubes per channel connected in parallel, operating in a class-A, Ultralinear configuration to output 40Wpc of texturally rich, sweetly saturated, cosmically tonal music messages delivered with natural-sounding dynamics. It's a tube amp that perhaps only an Italian manufacturer could create, a sound so full of presence, color, and life-affirming grandeur that every act of musical replication was a feast for the ears. Other integrateds may offer larger soundstages or greater detail near the S6's $6999 price, but none will produce more happiness or soul-serving satisfaction.—Ken Micallef
Wattson Audio Madison LE D/A processorThis year's PotY choice was easy. Wattson Audio's Madison DAC-streamer reconstitutes CDs and streamed USB files with a level of transparency and vibrancy I had not previously experienced at anywhere near its $4995 asking price. It is designed and manufactured in Switzerland by CH Precision's new subsidiary, Wattson Audio, and it looks and feels and sounds Swiss. I would wager the Madison's uniquely solid, super-transparent sound is the result of its extraordinary time-domain performance, which is probably the reason I found it so compelling. I consider it the most important new product of 2025.—Herb Reichert
PSI Audio AVAA C214 electronic bass trapThis slim, graceful cylinder is only 2' high and 8" in diameter and is an amazingly effective bass trap that can be accommodated, aesthetically and physically, in virtually any listening room. I have been challenged (online) for not comparing it to "a $400 bass trap from GIK," but that misses the point. I have two such GIK traps in the room, but there is simply no room for more. Adding the broadband AVAA C214s made substantial audible and measurable improvements. Recommending a $4000 trap may seem outrageous, but it's a lot cheaper than demolition or relocation.—Kalman Rubinson
Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor loudspeakerThe Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor loudspeaker is my Editor's Choice because it surprised me. I don't often come across an audio product that presents music in as unique—and musically compelling—a way as this three-way does. At the $2000/pair asking price, you get two elegantly shaped speakers in a piano-lacquer finish with a visually striking (and wonderfully coherent-sounding) driver array that includes a RAAL ribbon tweeter, a BMR midrange, and a ceramic-cone woofer. The result is a sound that excels in making instruments sound materially textural, palpably present, and almost corporeally three-dimensional. Detail is abundant without being fatiguing, and notes are bulging and colorful. As long as you have enough juice to power them—say, 75Wpc, minimum—I think you'll be as enchanted by their presentation as I was. Had I owned a more powerful amplifier than my 37Wpc Grandinote Shinai, I would have kept them.—Rob Schryer dCS Varèse D/A processor
It's hard to think of the dCS Varèse as simply a D/A processor. Beyond its ability to stream music and play back files from a USB stick, it's the single (five-box) component in my system that has most brought everything together into a unified whole. Because Varèse's resolving power is so high and its transparency is so great, I am able to hear deeper into a recording than ever before. Texture, eg, the complex sound of the bow on a cello's strings (especially when close-miked), timbre, expressive nuance, venue size, and the position of instruments within the soundstage—everything I might wish to hear in a recording—is delivered with a veracity, coherence, and musical flow that in my experience is unmatched. The dCS Varèse has served as more than an ultimate reviewer's tool; it has brought me closer to the musical truth that artists and engineers devote their lives to sharing with those of us who are eager to receive it.—Jason Victor Serinus
Kuzma Safir 9 tonearmWith its ultrahigh effective mass—a whopping 60gm—Franc Kuzma's Safir 9 tonearm shatters a lot of decades-old conventional thinking on matching arms with cartridges. It takes many of the design features of Kuzma's popular 4Point arm and applies a cost-be-damned approach to improving everything, highlighted by the chunky lab-grown sapphire armtube. The results are sublime, controlling the cartridge in a way few arms can. It's also user friendly, pretty easy to set up, and it's proving to be stable over the long haul. I love setting up this arm, and of course listening to music through it!—Michael Trei
Grimm LS1c all-in-one stereo loudspeaker systemThe Grimm LS1c stereo system, about $44,000, includes built-in Hypex nCore amplifiers, DACs, and two upfiring subwoofers integrated in the stands. All you need is a source. It's not without complexity, but once everything is hooked up and dialed in, this Dutch delight offers a triple advantage: exemplary coherence, superior tonality, and a wonderful ability to get out of the way of the music. A full LS1c setup is modestly sized and doesn't invite endless tweaks—in fact, it's the easiest-to-live-with high-end rig I know. While it was in my home, I stopped trying to identify a weak link and reconnected with music in ways that felt fun and profound at the same time.—Rogier van Bakel
