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HeadRoom Max headphone amplifier ($1335; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.20 No.2, February 1997 Review)

Finalists (in alphabetical order):
AudioPrism CD Blacklight ($39.95; reviewed by Sam Tellig, Vol.19 No.11, November 1996)
AudioQuest Binding-Post Wrench ($7.95; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.20 No.9, September 1997)
Bright Star Air Mass 3 ($99; reviewed as the Air Mass 1 by Michael Fremer, Vol.20 No.2, February 1997)
Bright Star Ultimate TNT Suspension System ($893; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.20 No.7, July 1997)
Grado Reference Series RS1…

Epos ES12 loudspeaker ($1095/pair; reviewed by John Atkinson, Vol.20 No.4, April 1997 Review)

Finalists (in alphabetical order):
Acarian Alón Petite loudspeaker ($995/pair; reviewed by Wes Phillips & Robert J. Reina, Vol.19 No.1, January 1996; & Vol.20 No.2, February 1997 Review)
B&W DM302 loudspeaker ($250/pair; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.20 No.10, October 1997 Review)
Mission 731i loudspeaker ($249/pair; reviewed by Robert J. Reina, Vol.19 No.11, November 1997)
NAD 515 CD changer ($499; reviewed by Robert Harley, Vol.20 No.…

dCS Elgar D/A processor

Finalists (in alphabetical order):
Audio Physic Caldera loudspeaker
Audio Research VT100 power amplifier
California Audio Labs CL-10 multidisc CD changer
Conrad-Johnson Premier Fourteen preamplifier
EgglestonWorks Andra loudspeaker
Immedia RPM2 tonearm/turntable system
Krell Full Power Balanced 600 power amplifier
Pass Labs Aleph 3 power amplifier
VPI TNT Mk.3 turntable

What a choice to have to make! Still, the dCS won, running away from the tightly grouped pack. The Elgar is an…

B&W DM302 loudspeaker ($250/pair; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.20 No.10, October 1997 Review)

When we speak of all that technology can accomplish, we frequently find ourselves talking about chasing the ever-disappearing cutting edge. What a pleasure, instead, to simply redefine what is possible at an affordable price—and when the price is as low as $250 for a pair of B&W DM302 loudspeakers, then we're no longer speaking of pleasure, we're talking sheerest ecstasy.

The DM302 is what the High End is all about: It sounds superb, measures almost…

I watched the TV with horror. George Floyd, an African-American man in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was being killed in front of the camera. I retreated to the listening room. In what couldn't have been a coincidence, the Roon app's "Discover" function had recommended I play What's Going On, Marvin Gaye's groundbreaking album, released in 1971 by Motown subsidiary Tamla.

I first heard this album when, at the start of my professional career as a bass guitarist, I was…

The 5T's horizontally positioned pivot points, which control vertical movement, can each be adjusted to set azimuth to ±8°. And the entire arm mechanism rides up and down on a threaded post, allowing precise ±0.2mm vertical tracking angle and stylus rake angle adjustment. In addition, the wooden arm tube is user-replaceable, which allows you to change the tonearm's effective mass or swap out cartridges premounted on…

Not that there's such a thing as a perfect listening room. Every domestic listening room shares the same basic problem: Its most fundamental nature—its size and shape, the amount of space it carves out—results in resonances that can profoundly alter the sound of reproduced music, especially in the bass (footnote 2). Favorable dimensions, sound-absorbing furnishings, room treatments, signal processing—many things can mitigate the problem, but it can never be…

It has been almost two decades since Norah Jones emerged shyly from obscurity into astonishing pop/jazz stardom, first with 2001's First Sessions EP, her Blue Note launchpad, then with 2002's Come Away With Me, which wowed the world. It has been…

Nothing about this turntable's mechanical design—or the tonearm's—can be described as "off the shelf" or "standard fare." That's been true since 2009, when the company, which was founded by the late Werner…