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Stereophile's Products of 2016 Overall Component of 2016

Overall Component of 2016

Wilson Audio Specialties Sabrina loudspeaker
The Wilson Audio Sabrina impressed RD with its seriously good bass, its ability to create a soundstage that's "wide and deep, with images on it precisely defined," and its ability to sound far larger than it is—and impressed the rest of us for offering Wilsonian levels of quality at a price that, while not exactly cheap, is a lot more affordable than we might have expected. That the entry-level Sabrina can travel via UPS instead of freight truck is icing on an already very nice cake.

Notes on the…

Stereophile's Products of 2016 Editors' Choices of 2016

Editors' Choices of 2016

Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 Renaissance Black Path Edition preamplifier ($9990; reviewed by Robert Deutsch, December 2015, Vol.38 No.12 Review)
The Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 Signature preamp was Stereophile's Product of the Year in 1993. Now, 23 years later, when I consider possible candidates for this honor, I can't think of a better choice than the latest version of the SL-1. How's that for longevity?—Robert Deutsch

DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 loudspeaker ($8400/pair)
For every piece of gear I review, the final proving…

Dan D'Agostino Amplifier Event in Ontario Saturday

Saturday November 26, Canadian high-end store Audio Excellence (661 Chrislea Road. Unit 1, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada L4L 8A3) is holding an all-day event featuring Bill McKiegan, president of Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems. Bill will be presenting the new Progression Mono amplifiers (above). Jason Victor Serinus is working on a review of these amplifiers, to be published in the spring of 2017.

Lamm M1.2 Reference monoblock power amplifier Jim Austin December 2016

Jim Austin wrote about the Lamm M1.2 Reference monoblocks in December 2016 (Vol.39 No.12):

Although I've never tried one, I think "lifestyle" audio systems are a bit of a joke. My in-laws' decade-old Bose Wave Radio sounds good for what it is, although its obvious flaws—boomy, undefined lower mids masquerading as bass, a frustrating lack of sonic and musical resolution, etc. —become grating fairly quickly. These days, there are far more accomplished and expensive lifestyle systems out there, but because I haven't tried them I won't comment on them, except to say that I'm not really…

GoldenEar Technology Triton Two loudspeaker The Triton Two+

The GoldenEar Triton Two+ loudspeaker, from December 2016 (Vol.39 No.12)

Six years. Has it really been that long? Yes, I was there at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, making the rounds to collect material for my show report. That's when I first heard the Triton Two loudspeaker from GoldenEar Technology. If the word gobsmacked were part of my normal vocabulary, I would have been tempted to use it. With sound quality way out of proportion to its price ($2499.98/pair at launch, later increased to a still-very-reasonable $2999.98/pair), the Triton Two went immediately to the top…

Industry Profile: Skylar GrayDirector, AudioQuest's Ear-Speaker Division

For the past eight months, my headphone of choice at Stereophile's New York office has been a pair of AudioQuest Nighthawks. That's eight hours a day, five days a week, for approximately 32 weeks. Not eternity, but we've spent a good chunk of quality time together. The overall setup comprises an Apple MacBook Pro (usually streaming Tidal, Spotify, or Amarra for Tidal), an AudioQuest Jitterbug, an AudioQuest DragonFly Red, and said NightHawks. I suppose it's safe to say that my ears tend to jibe well with AudioQuest products.

As such, my subject for this piece ("industry profile numero dos…

Gramophone Dreams #13: Audeze The King & Focal Elear

My passion for listening to music through headphones is fueled by the enhanced sense of intimacy and extra feeling of connectedness I experience in rediscovering recordings I already love. You know the old audiophile cliché: It's like hearing my record collection for the first time. High-quality headphones provide a sharper-than-box-speaker lens that lets me experience lyrics, melodies, and instrumental textures more close-up and magnified.

With headphones, I'm pretty much forced to listen—and that's a powerful thing. I never paid attention to lyrics: I thought lyrics were for girls. Now…

Gramophone Dreams #13: Audeze The King & Focal Elear Page 2

After listening to them with the Pass Laboratories HPA-1 and Ayre Acoustics Codex headphone amplifiers, John Atkinson declared, in his review, that the Audeze LCD-4s were the "best-sounding headphones I've heard." But while the LCD-4s are artfully handsome and fit nice'n'cozy on my head, I've struggled to enjoy them at any level that I could call the "best." I think this is because they're at 15dB less sensitive than the LCD-Xes, and have a high specified impedance of 200 ohms (footnote 1, the LCD-Xes are 22 ohms). To me, the LCD-4s exhibit that almost inscrutable darkness and hesitancy I…

Gramophone Dreams #13: Audeze The King & Focal Elear Contacts

Sidebar: Contacts

Audeze LLC, 1559 Sunland Lane, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Tel: (714) 581-8010. Web: www.audeze.com.

Focal North America, 9641-82 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T6C 0Z9, Canada. Tel: (844) 362-2562. Web: www.focal.com.

Do It Yourself!

Editor's Note: in the main, Stereophile has steered clear of DIY audio projects, leaving them to magazines like The Audio Amateur, which was published by the late Edward T. Dell. But one of the exceptions was this 1967 article on the "Brute," a tube amplifier design by none other than Ed Dell. Note that the DIY competition mentioned by Gordon Holt is long closed to entries.—John Atkinson

There's a platitude to the effect that the road to Hell is strewn with good intentions. Well, we don't see ourselves as headed for perdition, but we must admit that we are surveying a rather impressive-…