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I was surprised when Bryston, manufacturers of the BDP-1 digital player ($2195), released a new version, the BDP-2 ($2995), a scant 21 months after I'd reviewed the BDP-1 in the June 2011 Stereophile. This jolted me—I'd purchased the review sample of the BDP-1 to use as my reference source for playing high-resolution digital files. Having my new reference player superseded less than two years after its purchase reminded me how fast computers become obsolete, compared to audiophile amplifiers and preamplifiers.

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Known simply as "the CAT," Convergent Audio Technology's SL1 tubed preamplifier first appeared in 1985, and ever since has been the subject of almost continuous improvement (footnote 1). According to Ken Stevens, founder and chief designer of Convergent Audio Technology, some of those improvements—use of a specific wire, tweaking the value of a certain resistor, a minor change in wiring layout, etc.—used to be incorporated into production with no change in model name, and with…

A capacitor shoot-out is a method for selecting capacitors that have the potential to produce the best sound. It does not involve measurements—Convergent Audio Technology's Ken Stevens has found that measurements of capacitors taken with even the most advanced laboratory instruments reveal very low correlation with sound quality. On the other hand, such factors as termination technique, film tension, core construction, and wrap style—all of which have virtually no effect on traditional capacitor measurements—may profoundly affect the sound. The only way…

I've been a bit (or two) hard on the DragonFly compared to the Groove, but this JitterBug thing is something else entirely. It noticeably tightened up the details and the top end, and pushed the Apogee Groove into the Aurender Flow's orbit. A couple times at the beginning of Shawn Colvin's version of Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street," from her new album, Uncovered (CD, Fantasy 7237415), the acoustic guitarist snaps the strings à la Michael Hedges; with the JitterBug, the effect was more focused, and jumped dynamically out…

In his "Music in the Round" column in this issue, Kal Rubinson nails it: "An accessory is something without which your system would still work just fine." Thus, unless you're one of those Neanderthals who assign to audio cables (footnote 1) that rather dubious distinction, there isn't a single audio accessory on the planet that anyone actually needs (footnote 2).

But because most of my listening is to LPs, I find that a reliably good record-cleaning machine comes closer than any other accessory to being essential to my full enjoyment of…

The 1960s were my formative years—an accident of birth, I assure you—and to this day I spend a lot of my time listening to records made during that decade. I do so by playing them on a turntable made in the '60s. Through electronics containing vacuum tubes made in the '60s. Driving a pair of speakers made in the '60s.

Yet although I began buying records in the '60s, the vast majority of my favorites from that era weren't even on my radar at the time of their release—and wouldn't be for decades to come. And because no one in my extended…

In that time I've reviewed over 100 digital-to-analog converters, ranging in price from $60 to over $12,000. This adds up to roughly 150,000 words spilled on DACs. You'd think my pen would be running dry—especially if you feel, as some do, that all DACs sound pretty much the same. If that were the case, I could have written just one review, for that very first DAC, then…

The received wisdom of 20 or 25 years ago has been turned on its head: There are now many CDs whose contents will never be released on vinyl. Some are historical recordings,…

Listening to music through the Totaldac d1-tube-mk2, there was no glass. I could listen into my music as deeply as I cared to go. Performer, time, space, silence—all were there for the taking. The biggest barrier to entry was the need to quiet my mind.

The systems I used were…