Classé Audio's DR-3 once again brings to the fore the issues of class-A vs class-AB, weighty vs small and efficient, and brute-force expensive vs clever and inexpensive.

A well-worn, if unproven, audiophile rule of thumb says that a small, quick amplifier will sound better than a very powerful one. Among low-powered amps, those that operate in "pure" class-A are thought to be sonically superior. Pure class-A means the amplifier must run a constant high bias (more than one ampere), so the output devices never turn off.

Specific Live Streams (Scroll down for ongoing series):

• Thursday, May 7 10pm EDT: The Noe Music Listening Club features composer Jake Heggie discussing and performing his music and that of his music heroes. Sign up here.

• The Metropolitan Opera streams live performances for 25 hours. This week’s schedule is:

  May 6 Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin
  May 7 Strauss’s Capriccio
  May 8 Puccini’s La Bohème
  May 9 The Opera House
  May 10 Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana / Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.

More...

Editor's note: On May 5 around 2:40pm, JD Events sent a letter to 2020 AXPONA exhibitors and sponsors outlining a plan to apply 100% of 2020 exhibitor payments to future shows, with 50% credited to the 2021 show and 25% to each of the two subsequent shows.

See below for the original story published 30 April.

I was all set to give up on moving magnets until the new Shure VI5-VMR (MR stands for Micro-Ridge stylus) arrived. In a word, it's terrific. I was slightly disappointed with the original V15-V: I just didn't think it was a significant improvement over the Type IV. What I missed was fine detail—especially in the high frequencies and during heavily modulated passages. The original V was not quite up to the sound of certain moving coils. Which is not to say the original V was a bad buy: moving coils cost twice the price and you need a stepup. I could recommend the original V without hesitation.