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Runners-up (in alphabetical order)
Arcam DV-79 DVD-Audio player ($1795; reviewed by Kalman Rubinson, Vol.28 No.12, December 2004 review)
Bel Canto PL-1A universal disc player ($7500; reviewed by Kalman Rubinson, Vol.28 No.9, September 2005 review)
Denon DVD-2900 universal disc player ($629; reviewed by John Marks, Vol.27 No.11, November 2004 review)
Esoteric X-01 SACD player ($13,000;…

Runners-up (in alphabetical order)
Apple Airport Express WiFi Hub-D/A processor ($130; reviewed by John Atkinson, Vol.28 No.5, May 2005 review)
Channel Islands Audio VHP-1 headphone amplifier ($349; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.28 No.10, October 2005 review)
Grace m902 D/A headphone amplifier ($1695; reviewed…

Boy, there are some grumpy people on the Internet. To read a typical posting on any of the many audio forums, you'd think that Stereophile has betrayed audiophiles with its coverage of computer audio and its advocacy of the Apple iPod. Yet since the launch of CD in late 1982, one promise of digital audio has been the freeing of audio bits from the enslavement of a physical medium. I chose this year's "Editor's Choice" because it takes that freeing to the…

Runners-up (in alphabetical order)
Almarro M0A loudspeaker ($1200/pair; reviewed by Robert J. Reina, Vol.28 No.9, September 2005 review)
Amphion Helium2 loudspeaker ($1150–$1350/pair; reviewed by Robert J. Reina, Vol.28 No.1, January 2005 review)
Apple Airport Express WiFi hub-D/A processor
Arcam Solo CD receiver ($1599; reviewed by Art Dudley, Vol.28 No.7, July 2005 review)
EAR 834P phono preamplifier ($1195, economy model; $…

Runners-up (in alphabetical order)
Brinkmann Balance turntable & 10.5 tonearm
Conrad-Johnson ACT2 preamplifier
dCS Verdi La Scala SACD transport & Delius D/A processor
Grace m902 D/A headphone amplifier
Linn Unidisk SC universal disc player
Simaudio Moon Rock monoblock power amplifier
Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage loudspeaker
Wilson Audio Specialties MAXX Series 2 loudspeaker

Within their respective…

Stereophile's Products of 2004
Joint Products of the Year:
Aerial Acoustics Model 20T loudspeaker (review)
Focal-JMlab Nova Utopia Be loudspeaker (review)
Linn Unidisk 1.1 universal disc player (review)
Joint Budget Components:
Magnepan CC3 center & MGMC1 surround loudspeaker system (review)
Spendor S5e loudspeaker (review)
Joint Loudspeakers: Aerial Acoustics Model 20T (review)
Focal-JMlab Nova Utopia Be (review)
Amplification Component: McIntosh MC501 monoblock power amplifier (review)
Digital Source: Linn…

Perhaps the simplest type of audio product is a basic, line-level preamplifier. Such devices accept line-level signals: ie, a signal with little current flow, typically in the…

For those who complain that there aren't many interesting records out there, here's a disc to savor. The world's finest living New Orleans piano professor, clean and sober and ready to focus, meets one of America's finest composers, a man and pianist whose memory was fêted throughout 1999—the centennial of his birth—with an avalanche of reissues and previously unreleased tidbits.

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