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As soon as I entered the room hosted by distributor / reseller Distribution Phonographe's room, I thought, "where's all the gear?" There wasn't much around, and of the few items that were around, one was so small as to be nearly imperceptible at first glance.

The first component to hit my eye was the one sitting front and center against the far wall, under a banner that contained the only word I saw at the show with an umlaut over one of its vowels. That word was brand name—Thöress—and the umlaut is a clue to the country of origin: Germany. Thöress is also the family…

Beautiful strains of music lured me into the Audiophile Experts room, where the song "Göttingen," written in 1964 by French chanteuse Barbara (real name Monique Andrée Serf) as an ode to the German city by the same name, was playing. As well as having become a hit in her native country, the song has been credited as having helped improve relations between France and Germany in the years following the Second World War. Barbara called the song "a hymn to Franco-German reconciliation".

It's a melancholy song, sung in a style reminiscent of Edith Piaf. Along with vocals, it includes…

For me, none of this is lost in translation. I'm all for folksy adjectives for high-tech equipment. After spending hygge time with the new PRE35 Prisma preamplifier, I…

Upstairs
I have three separate audio systems, at three price levels. This allows me to introduce a component under review into a matching system, where components complement each other harmoniously and musically.

What I had been calling my reference system, I am now calling the upstairs system. This system is built around the Wilson Audio Sasha DAWs, which I reviewed in December 2019, driven by the mighty McIntosh MC462 solid state stereo amplifier, which I reviewed in April 2019. Phono stage and preamplifier are tubed, from Audio Research. The upstairs system is where I…

Description: Streaming D/A processor/preamplifier. Digital inputs: four TosLink (supports up to 24/192), two RCA (supports up to 24/192), one USB-A (supports up to 24/192 and up to DSD128), one USB-B (supports up to 32/768 and up to DSD256). Analog line inputs: three pairs unbalanced (RCA), two pairs balanced (XLR). Analog outputs: one pair unbalanced (RCA), one pair unbalanced fixed-volume line-out (RCA), two pairs balanced (XLR). Digital output: one pair (RCA). Connectivity: two Ethernet LAN ports, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antennas. Streaming: AirPlay, Bluetooth,…

Analog sources: VPI HW-40 turntable, VPI 12" Fatboy tonearm, Pro-Ject Classic EVO turntable, Lyra Etna cartridge, Ortofon Bronze Cadenza cartridge, Sumiko Amethyst cartridge.
Digital sources: MacBook Air running Qobuz, Bricasti M1SE DAC, Musical Fidelity M1 CDT transport, Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T transport.
Preamplifiers: Audio Research Corporation REF3SE phono preamplifier, Audio Research Corporation REF6SE preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: McIntosh MC275 VI stereo tube amplifier, McIntosh MC462 Quad Balanced stereo amplifier.
Loudspeakers:…

I measured the Primare PRE35 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system, repeating some tests with the magazine's higher-performance APx500 system. Looking first at the analog inputs, the balanced and single-ended line input impedances are specified, respectively, at 30k ohms and 15k ohms. I measured, for the balanced inputs, 29.6k ohms from 20Hz to 20kHz, and for the unbalanced inputs, 14.8k ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz and 13k ohms at 20kHz.

The maximum gain at the balanced outputs was 16.7dB for the balanced inputs and 22.75dB for the single-ended inputs. There are…

"The SCENE Water Resistant Bluetooth speaker is portable and supports up to 12hrs of playback. IPX7 waterproof rated, giving you a high-quality music experience for any adventure. Scene features a digital amplifier, dual 48mm drivers and passive radiators bring the beats."

Click here for more info about the speaker.

To enter the sweepstakes, all you need is an account on this website. If you don't already have one, click on the link labeled "…

Within each category, products are listed by class; within each class, they're in alphabetical order, followed by their price, a review synopsis, and a note indicating the issues in which the review, and any subsequent follow-up reports, appeared. "Vol.45 No.6" indicates our June 2022 issue, for example. "WWW" means the review is also posted online.

Stereophile's Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products available in the US…

The classes each cover a wide range of performance. Carefully read our descriptions here, the original reviews, and (heaven forbid) reviews in other magazines to put together a short list of components to choose from. Evaluate your room, your source material and front-end(s), your speakers, and your tastes. With luck, you may come up with a selection to audition at your favorite dealer(s). "Recommended Components" will not tell you what to buy any more than Consumer Reports would presume to tell you whom to marry!

Class A Best attainable sound for a…