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One benefit of distributing a range of high-end products is that you can build complete systems using only brands from your own portfolio. AXISS Audio did just that, presenting full-stack systems across multiple rooms and floors.

From the first solid, properly pitched bass impact, the AXISS Audio system in room 1628 won me over. Vocal colors were beautiful. A 16-bit/44.1kHz track of Victory Boyd’s “Against the Wind” sounded so soulful, with ideal image size and air, that I resolved to listen to it on my reference system once I got home.

In a stroke of good fortune, my next…

Special guests include, Amadeus Meitner (EMM Labs and Meitner), Elliot Goldman (Bending Wave/Göbel), OJ Whatley (Second Time Fine Watches) and Trevor Doyle (Massif Audio Design). We offer a special opportunity for attendees—in-person only!—to receive an EMM Labs PRE preamplifier (MSRP $25,000 USD) at no charge when purchasing an EMM Labs…

When singer/fiddler Alison Krauss was a teenager with a solo album under her belt, she teamed up with some fellow musicians to form Union Station. Starting in 1989, Rounder Records released the band's albums regularly—seven of them including the soundtrack to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?—ending with 2011's Paper Airplane. Although they continued to play together, most notably in a 2014 tour with Willie Nelson,…

Following Kalman Rubinson's review and John Atkinson's testing, which were published in the April 2025 issue, the Charcoal Black Technics SC-CX700 streaming amplified speaker system was shipped to me (footnote 1). I checked out some of the features Kal described, dug into the underlying tech with Technics's Bill Voss, and spent a few dozen hours listening, especially to the system's phono circuit.

In the room where I did most of my listening, I set the speakers up on generic 24"-high metal stands. The centers of their coaxial drivers were a bit below my ears; they might…

I almost missed Audio Research and Acora’s pairing in the “Living Room” area of the mezzanine, adjacent to where people dined and lounged. I waited to stop by until first thing on Sunday morning, when music wasn’t blasting and people were in a far mellower mood than on eager-beaver Friday or crowded Saturday.

I was delighted to meet three of the central members of Audio Research’s refreshed team: Craig Myers, the electrical engineer who served as head designer on the LS2 preamplifier described below; Les Robinson, co-general manager at Audio Research and the mechanical…

In my partner's tiny wood-framed garage, revving an engine with racing headers and no mufflers was a Level-6 noise event that made…

ZMF
At the end of the day Saturday, I met up with my peeps in ZMF's large double room, where a young woman in stylish black-and-white checkered pants was gathering up 121 tagged-and-numbered ZMF headphones that had been set out for attendee listening. Each of the large room's tables featured at least one DAC and two headphone amplifiers. That's a lot of wires and metal boxes and people shuffling about playing musical chairs, listening to their own choices of music. ZMF was giving head-fi aficionados access to their complete…

Steve Jain, cofounder and managing director of Fidelity Imports, has been busy since launching the company six years ago in the Philadelphia area. In recent months, Fidelity has added two brands to their roster; they now represent 16 high-performance audio companies. Maintaining his early passions helped fuel his drive to start a business and continue its expansion and innovation—aspects Jain believes differentiate Fidelity Imports from the competition. "I constantly want to keep trying to innovate and keep us ahead," Jain told me in a recent conversation over Zoom…

But if you wish to finesse the quality endeavor of classic separates-based hi-fi systems, you cannot do without them. Fundamentally, it is not…