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"Hey, Bob Reina! I enjoyed your review of the Cary SLM-100 amplifier in the May 1996 Stereophile. So you're still looking for your dream amplifier under $5000? Well, here it is! The Sonic Frontiers Power 2. A review sample will be ready for you in two weeks. What's your shipping address?"

"Uh, well, actually, I have quite a full plate of review samples in-house, so I really wouldn't be able to get to your amp for quite some time. It looks like a very interesting design, but maybe you'd be better off having…

Description: Push-pull, tube stereo power amplifier. Tube complement: eight 6550/KT88s (output), six 6922s (input/voltage amp), and two 5687WBs (driver cathode followers). Power output: 110W continuous into 8, 4, and 2 ohms (20.4dBW), terminated with rated load, 20Hz–20kHz, with <1% THD, both channels driven. SMPTE intermodulation distortion: <1%, 20Hz–20kHz, at 110W output. Power bandwidth (110W output): 15Hz–90kHz (–0.5dB points). Frequency response: 5Hz–40kHz at 1W (–0.5dB points). Input sensitivity: 1.25V RMS balanced for 110W output. Input impedance:…

The measurements of the Sonic Frontiers Power 2 were made in the unbalanced configuration, with selected readings taken in the balanced mode. All measurements were taken with the amplifier configured for an 8 ohm output tap (see more on this at the end of this Sidebar).

Following its preconditioning test, the Sonic Frontiers Power 2 was typically hot for a tube amplifier. Its voltage gain into 8 ohms measured 28.5dB, balanced or unbalanced. The input impedance measured 101k ohms (190k ohms balanced). DC offset was negligible at 0.4mV in the left channel, 0…

In comparison with the Simaudio Moon W-5, the Sonic Frontiers Power 2 seemed relatively mellow in the bass and softer in the treble, but with a glowing presence in the midrange that the Moon W-5 lacked. Those features were advantageously mated to the Genesis 500 speakers. The Power 2, however, lacked the sheer, gutsy power of the W-5 on the Apogee Duettas, and was somewhat generous in the midbass with the Coincident Troubadors.—Kalman Rubinson

Few high-end CD players were available. Few digital-to-analog processors were on the market, and almost all were pricey. Audiophiles desperate for better sound sometimes purchased modified players—kludges, I called them. But this wasn't an attractive choice, either—$200 machines turned into $1000 wonders with maybe $60 worth of parts and an hour's worth of labor.

Enter Antony Michaelson, of Musical Fidelity. He (along with Arcam and PS Audio) introduced one of the first affordable DACs—a digital-to-analog converter called the…

After the Digilog, Antony concentrated on CD players, and over the years his company has produced some of the best—culminating last year in the limited-edition Nu-Vista 3D, which our analog-retentive Mikey reviewed—and flipped over last October…

Here's how the argument in favor of buying a CD player goes: There may not be much software yet, but more is coming soon. So why not buy an SACD player mainly for playing CDs and have the SACD capability?

Seems like a good argument. Is it?

No one disputes that SACD players do a more than adequate job…

"You also end up with a better signal-to-noise ratio," Antony stated. "The A324 has an A-weighted S/N ratio somewhere in the range of 112-116dB, whereas our older A3 CD player, still a fine machine, had an A-weighted S/N ratio of 105dB. We're talking about an additional 10dB." (footnote 1)

"And that could help explain why…

Or consider Naxos 8.553330, Tchaikovsky's Piano Music, Vol.2, performed by Oxana Yablonskaya. Again, with the A324, the sense of space around the…

Musical Fidelity Ltd., 15-17 Fulton Road, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 OTF, England, UK. Tel: (44) (0)181-900-2866. Web: www.musical-fidelity.co.uk. US distributor: Kevro International, Inc., 902 McKay Road, Pickering, Ontario, Canada L1W 3X8. Tel: (905) 428-2800. Fax: (905) 428-0004. Web: www.kevro.com.