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First a foreword: When Ken Micallef and I walked into the Phonographe room at Montreal Audiofest 2026, DeVore Fidelity's John DeVore was helming the room—Phonographe is a DeVore dealer—accompanied by Box Furniture's Anthony Abbate, a furniture maker who began as one of John's customers and now builds his company's speaker cabinets in the same building. I thought it was a beautiful story of destiny fulfilled, worth (…

Well-designed box speakers don't strike me as sounding "boxy"—until I hear something like the Maco Macaria open-baffle speakers demoed here in Madly Audio's room at Montreal Audiofest 2026. The Maco Macaria distinguished itself from conventional enclosures by a complete absence of enclosure-related colorations—no muffled character, however slight.

Paired with a Burmester 232 integrated amplifier in a gleaming red…

A (FULL RANGE):

Audiovector R8 Arreté: $86,600/pair includes Freedom Grounding Cables ★
Optional grounding cable adds $3850. (Vol.44 No.9 WWW)

Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90: $211,800/pair ★
(Vol.40 No.1 WWW)

Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature: $60,000/pair
(Vol.47 No.3 WWW)

Dutch & Dutch 8c: $16,500/pair (stands necessary) ★
(Vol.42 No.8, Vol.43 No.4 WWW)

Dynaudio Confidence 30: $24,000/pair $$$ ★
(Vol.44 No.8 WWW)

EgglestonWorks Viginti: $46,998/pair ★
(Vol.41 No.6 WWW)

…

A (SOLID STATE):

Accuphase A-300 monoblock: $49,950/pair
“The more I listened to the A-300 monoblocks, the more I wanted to listen,” wrote JVS about his time with a pair of these powerful amplifiers. (It is specified as delivering 125W into 8 ohms, 250W into 4 ohms, 500W into 2 ohms, and 1000W into 1 ohm.) The MOSFET output operates in class-A up to 125W into 8 ohms, 62.5W into 4 ohms, and 31.25W into 2 ohms. The A-300 has both balanced and unbalanced inputs; the gain and XLR polarity can be adjusted; and an operation-mode switch facilitates bridging and…

A+:

Bel Canto E1X-DC1: $6800 ★
The Roon Ready e1X DAC/Control Preamplifier offers AES3, coaxial and optical S/PDIF, digital inputs, and USB and UPnP/DLNA-compatible Ethernet ports. (The USB and Ethernet ports support MQA-encoded data and DSD data in the DoP format.) There are also line-level and MC/MM phono analog inputs, these converted to digital so that they can be adjusted with the DSP-domain Tilt, Bass EQ, and volume controls. The e1X features line outputs, a headphone output—the Tilt and BassEQ controls are not operative with this output—and a…

A:

Audio-GD Vacuum HE1 XLR balanced: $3999
This large, heavy, Chinese-made, tubed, all-balanced preamplifier doesn’t have a phono input, but it offers three balanced (XLR) and two single-ended (RCA) line inputs, balanced and single-ended outputs, and comes with a remote control. Tube complement is six 6H2N-EB twin triodes and four 6U4N-EB rectifiers, all Russian-made. Compared with the Lab 12 HR, the Vacuum HE1 played slightly richer and thicker with more obvious three-dimensionality. Compared with the PrimaLuna EVO 400, the Vacuum HE1 XLR distinguished itself…

A+:

ampsandsound Bigger Ben: $5600
See “Integrated Amplifiers.” (Vol.47 No.11 WWW)

Ampsandsound Mogwai SE: $3900
Class A+ is as a headphone amp. Rating is Class A as a power amplifier. See Power Amplifiers. (Vol.48 No.12 WWW)

ampsandsound Red October SE: $14,000
ampsandsound Red October XL SE: $18,000
The low-gain, zero-feedback, dual-mono, single-ended triode Red October headphone amplifier uses a 300B tube for each channel’s transformer-couple output, driven by a single 12AX7 double triode. The front…

Analysis Plus Silver Apex Interconnects: $1219.99 (1m pair) ★
The Analysis Plus Silver Apex uses as its conductor an oxygen-free copper "stabilizing strand" covered with pure silver, in an arrangement the manufacturer describes, somewhat elliptically (haw) as "a hollow oval cable inside a hollow oval cable inside a hollow oval cable," said to be double shielded and thus quiet. And MF found it to be so: In his words, the Silver Apex is "highly recommended!" (Vol.42 No.5)

Audio Art Cable IC-3 Classic: $140/1m pair (RCAs), $160/1m pair (XLRs) ★
The IC-3—…

A:

JL Audio Active Home Audio Subwoofer Crossover: $3500
The CR-1 crossover has continuously variable high- and low-pass filters built around two banks of precision Linkwitz-Riley filters that can be set for 12 or 24dB/octave via. Front panel switch. Upon encountering the CR-1, LG "wondered where it had been all [his] life;" he's been using it ever since. "It's beautifully made, sonically transparent, performs a critical role in the optimal setup of subwoofrs, and has ergonomic bypass and mute functions that let you immediately hear the sonic…

A:

Dynaudio Focus 10: $5500/pair (stands necessary)
Class A rating is as a Complete Audio System only; class B (Restricted LF) as a regular loudspeaker. See Loudspeaker Systems. (Vol.46 Nos.2 & 11 WWW)

FiiO M15S portable music player: $1352.39
The M15S is about the size of two iPhone 15s laid on top of one another. It uses the ESS 9038PRO DAC chip and can convert all files to DSD before they reach the DAC. Another feature, Second-Order Regulation, adds even-order harmonics to the output. Using Campfire in-ear headphones AH preferred…