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New York's Lyric Hi-Fi & Video is one of high-end audio's longest-standing and most legendary institutions. In a recent telephone conversation, Leonard Bellezza, Lyric's owner and president, confirmed what many in this industry have long heard rumored: Lyric is closing.

In 1956, Michael Kakadelis, known as Mike Kay, took a job at a hi-fi store. Kay acquired the business three years later and moved it to Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side, where it stayed until it closed. Kay was a degreed engineer. He fixed and built…

I never met Audio Research Corporation founder William Zane Johnson, who died in 2011. But when he founded his now-legendary company in 1970, I and my ragged troupe of Dynaco modifiers were in the trenches, fighting the sand-warrior hordes during the first transistor onslaught. Our battle was almost lost when that shiny new warrior appeared on the north ridge. He, too, brandished a modified Dynaco Stereo…

I was already a Roon user, but Roon and my DAC—a PS Audio DirectStream—weren't yet talking to each other. The experiences offered by the various control apps I tried were unsatisfying. I had a vision of how things ought to work, but the world didn't conform. Not yet.

I built up an Intel NUC and loaded it with ROCK—the Roon-Optimized Core Kit—and Roon. Soon, after some…

"Since I am the truth," respondeth the tube, "I have nothing to say that is not already declared by my sound."

"But I must have the truth, and without bias!" proclaimeth the audiophile.

"What good is a tube without bias?" answereth the tube.

Having uttered these words, the tube began to glow. It gloweth with a light so golden that the audiophile's eyes were forced to close and his ears to open. Images did appear before them…

Description: Class-AB monophonic tubed power amplifier. Tube complement (each amplifier): (1) 12SJ7GT (NOS Hytron); (2) 12SN7GT (NOS GE); 4 KT150 (Tung-Sol). Maximum power: 160Wpc into 4 ohms (19dBW). Frequency response: 10Hz–80kHz, –3dB. Input impedance: 20k ohms balanced, 47k ohms single-ended. Output impedance: 0.5 ohms. S/N ratio: >80dB below 1V. Power consumption: 500VA max.
Dimensions: 17" (432mm) W × 12" (305mm) H × 21" (533mm) D. Weight: 75lb (34kg).
Chassis finishes: Natural or black-anodized aluminum.
Serial numbers of units reviewed:…

Digital sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport, D/A converter, Clock, and Network Bridge; EMM Labs DV2 Integrated DAC; Synology 5-bay NAS 1019+; Roon Nucleus+ server; Uptone Audio etherRegen; Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule; TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters (2) with multimode duplex fiberoptic cables; Linksys routers (2); Arris modem, all powered by HDPlex 200W (1) and 300W (2) four-component linear power supplies; external hard drives, SSD USB sticks, iPad Pro; Apple 2017 MacBook Pro computer.
Preamplifier: Dan D'Agostino Momentum…

When I unpacked one of the Evolution Monoblock amplifiers (serial number EVO2027), I wondered if I had the correct amplifier, as it looked identical to the Doshi Monoblock V3.0 that JVS reviewed in November 2018. It even uses the same quartet of Tung-Sol KT150 output tubes. But as Jason describes in this review, there are significant differences.

As with the older amplifier, before I started examining its performance on the test bench with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), I left the amplifier powered up for 30…

John Atkinson's measurements of the Falcon loudspeaker are now posted here. JA compares the new speaker'…

That number surprised even this diehard vinyl advocate. The $279 direct-drive AT-LP120X looks somewhat like a Technics SL-1200; it could almost be a knockoff. For a few hundred dollars, it includes a tonearm that won't ruin your records, a built-in phono preamp, and an AT-VM95E cartridge—an upgrade from the AT-95SE, which is already…