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That's the line long uttered by the most dreaded members of my family, and their friends, whenever they tried to pry into my personal affairs. Often the last word, "happy," was uttered with a downward cadence and accompanied by a shrug.

Then came the kicker. "You are happy, aren't you?" said with eyes boring into my soul. "Well, as long as you're happy."

Cue the telltale shrug. With disapproval voiced and points scored, it was time for the obligatory peck on the cheek, handshake, or—worse—mutual male hug disguised as burp assistance.

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Description: Remote-controlled, fully balanced, tubed line-stage preamplifier with 20A power receptacle. Tube complement: seven 6H30P dual-triodes, one 6550WE. Frequency response: 0.4Hz–200kHz, +0/–3dB at rated output. Voltage gain: 12dB balanced, 6dB single-ended. Noise: 1.7µV RMS residual IHF-weighted balanced equivalent input noise output with gain control set to "1" (109dB below 2V RMS balanced output). Distortion: <0.01% at 2V RMS balanced output. Output impedance: 600 ohms balanced, 300 ohms single-ended Main. Recommended load: 10k ohms minimum…

Digital sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport & Rossini DAC & Rossini Clock & Network Bridge; EMM Labs DV2 Integrated DAC; Synology 5-bay NAS 1019+; Roon Nucleus+ music server with HDPlex 200 linear power supply; Uptone Audio etherRegen, Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule, TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters plus multimode duplex fiber-optic cable (2), Linksys routers (2); Small Green Computer linear power supply & Small Green Computer/HDPlex four-component 200W linear power supply (3); external hard drives, SSD USB sticks,…

From the outside, the Audio Research Reference 6SE looks identical to the Reference 6 preamplifier that Michael Fremer reviewed in December 2016. I measured the REF 6SE's performance with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Like the earlier preamplifier, the REF 6SE's volume control operates in approximately 0.3dB steps. The gain with the volume control set to its maximum—"103" on the front-panel display—was 12.2dB, balanced or unbalanced input to balanced output, and 6.1dB, unbalanced input to unbalanced output. The unity-gain…

Isoacoustics Gaia-Titan Cronos
I can write about the IsoAcoustics Gaia-Titan Cronos loudspeaker footers (footnote 1) because I did the evaluation before…

The Gaia-Titan Cronos includes thread adaptors for sizes ½"-13, M10-1.5, and M14-2.0. If that's not what your speakers use, the company can supply what's needed.

Total coincidence: When I went to the Marten Audio website to get some information for…

"What a preamp ought to do, apart from changing volume and switching sources, is as little as possible," wrote Stereophile Editor Jim Austin in his 2017 review of the PS Audio BHK Signature preamplifier.

And yet "the preamplifier is the heart of a system," noted Technical Editor John Atkinson in his 2013 review…

Break-in was required before I could judge the P5's sonic merits, but there was a small glitch in the process. Typically, I set Tidal to shuffle and go away, but when I did this with the P5, I returned home to a silent hi-fi. Orth directed me to the "power-off time" in the "system" menu, accessible via the "setup" function on the remote control. I disabled it.

The P5 ran just slightly warm to the touch.

Listening…

Description: Solid-state stereo preamplifier with Bluetooth, MC/MM phono stage, dual-mono AKM DAC chips, MQA. Inputs: 2 pairs balanced (XLR), 5 pairs unbalanced (RCA), 7 digital (see main text). Outputs: 2 pairs balanced (XLR), 4 pairs unbalanced (RCA) (two pre out, line out, mono sub out), headphone (¼"), 2 digital outputs (S/PDIF TosLink, coaxial). THD (20Hz–20kHz): <0.002%. Output impedance: unbalanced (RCA), 470 ohms; balanced (XLR), 100 ohms. Intermodulation distortion (60Hz: 7 kHz, 4:1): <0.002%. Input sensitivity/Impedance: Phono input (MM), 2.5mV/…