To high-end audiophiles, the Boulder 500 amplifier and its less expensive derivative, the 500AE (Audiophile Edition), would not seem to be "high-end" designs. They are designed around op-amps (felt by many to be generally poor-sounding), they have scads of negative feedback (which is perhaps why op-amps sound bad), and they have only a moderately hefty power supply. Why, then, is <I>Stereophile</I> publishing a review of an op-amp&ndash;based power amplifier? Read on...

At a "Meet the Designers" panel discussion at the 1992 Los Angeles <I>Stereophile</I> High-End Hi-Fi Show, I asked a group of successful digital designers (footnote 1) each to state how much of a digital front end's sound quality they believed was due to the transport, digital processor, and interface between the two. There was virtual unanimity: Nearly everyone agreed that a digital processor accounts for about 50% of a digital source's sound quality, the transport 30%, and interface 20%.

At a "Meet the Designers" panel discussion at the 1992 Los Angeles <I>Stereophile</I> High-End Hi-Fi Show, I asked a group of successful digital designers (footnote 1) each to state how much of a digital front end's sound quality they believed was due to the transport, digital processor, and interface between the two. There was virtual unanimity: Nearly everyone agreed that a digital processor accounts for about 50% of a digital source's sound quality, the transport 30%, and interface 20%.

At a "Meet the Designers" panel discussion at the 1992 Los Angeles <I>Stereophile</I> High-End Hi-Fi Show, I asked a group of successful digital designers (footnote 1) each to state how much of a digital front end's sound quality they believed was due to the transport, digital processor, and interface between the two. There was virtual unanimity: Nearly everyone agreed that a digital processor accounts for about 50% of a digital source's sound quality, the transport 30%, and interface 20%.

At a "Meet the Designers" panel discussion at the 1992 Los Angeles <I>Stereophile</I> High-End Hi-Fi Show, I asked a group of successful digital designers (footnote 1) each to state how much of a digital front end's sound quality they believed was due to the transport, digital processor, and interface between the two. There was virtual unanimity: Nearly everyone agreed that a digital processor accounts for about 50% of a digital source's sound quality, the transport 30%, and interface 20%.

At a "Meet the Designers" panel discussion at the 1992 Los Angeles <I>Stereophile</I> High-End Hi-Fi Show, I asked a group of successful digital designers (footnote 1) each to state how much of a digital front end's sound quality they believed was due to the transport, digital processor, and interface between the two. There was virtual unanimity: Nearly everyone agreed that a digital processor accounts for about 50% of a digital source's sound quality, the transport 30%, and interface 20%.

Remember <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=35628&an=0… forum thread</a> <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/040108id/">I mentioned</a>? It's still going on. It reminds me of one of the black and white films I watched in my avant-garde cinema class. Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean-Paul Sartre is staring into a mirror is staring into a mirror, with a with a with a knife in his hand knife in his hand, demanding demanding that the image that the image in the mirror mirror answer his questions his questions. He is outraged because the image in the mirror refuses to answer his questions. Answer his questions. Answer my questions! Demanding. Outrage!