search

Editor: While many readers will likely consider this month's review of the dCS Bartók DAC to be a favourable one, dCS is concerned that it is not a very effective one.

Reviews in audio publications have been a useful way for a consumer to gain a better understanding of a product, its designers, and the company that manufactured it. Sadly, we feel that this review has failed to deliver on most of the above and does little to make the reader more informed about the Bartók.

This deficiency is especially illustrated in the listening notes. For instance,…

The modern PS Audio—the company that began life in 1997 when Paul McGowan and his wife Terri bought back the company Paul had cofounded—has always sold its products online, and the earlier, pre-Internet version of the company always sold direct. But until now, PS Audio also sold their…

To many audiophiles, high-end audio manufacturers must seem like monolithic entities, enduring for what seems like forever, like cliffs beside a familiar path. But as Paul McGowan explains in this unputdownable autobiography (footnote 1), behind the facade of stability things can be in financial turmoil, with success equally as risky as failure.

Paul writes on his website that he's "the CEO of PS Audio, a multimillion-dollar…

The now-78-year-old Corea's attainments are many: composer of the standards "la fiesta," "Spain," "500 Miles High," "Matrix," and "Windows"; winner of 22 Grammy Awards (and 64 nods); founder of at least six colossal improvising units (Return to Forever I and II, Circle, the Three Quartets quartet, the Chick Corea Elektric Band, the Vigil…

Corea: Well, Bernie understands the part of sound that's got to do with what microphone and what processor and what gizmo is used, things I don't know much about. I want to hear certain things in the mix. When we mix, especially small groups—duet, trio, quintet, even the Spanish Heart Band—we listen for size. We use the term "size." Have you listened to trio records where the drums are in the kitchen? You can't hear the damn drums! And the piano is in your face. And the bass is so loud. You've heard those kinds of records.

So…

Power amplifiers fascinate me. In the past 15 years I've helped design and build over a dozen advanced models, with output powers ranging from 50 to 2500W, for a number of the UK's professional equipment manufacturers. To learn from others' ideas and mistakes, I've also repaired, measured, used, and reviewed hundreds of makes of amplifier. My experiences have led me to regard the power amplifier as one of the messiest, most imperfect pieces of electronic equipment in the record/replay path.

The Setting Apart
Why…

Within each category, products are listed by class; within each class, they're in alphabetical order, followed by their price, a short synopsis, and a note indicating the issues in which the review and any subsequent follow-up reports appeared. "Vol.44 No.2" indicates our February 2021 issue, for example.

Stereophile's Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products available in the US through the usual hi-fi retail outlets,…

Class A
Best attainable…

A+

SAT XD-1: €150,000 without tonearm
This extraordinary and extraordinarily expensive Swedish turntable begins life as a Technics SP-10R direct-drive motor system, which is stripped down to a handful of essential components, reimagined, reengineered, and rebuilt to much higher mechanical standards. Marc Gomez focused on isolation from external disturbances, speed stability, rigidity, and vacuum hold-down. There are "pods" for two armboards. The platter's top layer is made from a "proprietary advanced technical polymer infused with carbon-fiber micro powder and…