Integrated Amp Reviews

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Technics SU-G700M2 integrated amplifier

Ken Micallef Jun 24, 2022 First Published: Jun 24, 2022 0 comments

When I reviewed Technics's SU-R1000 integrated amplifier for the December 2021 issue, I found its performance beyond my expectations. It practically rewrote the ritual of listening to music on my home hi-fi. With its wealth of technological advancements, significant user options, and clear, three-dimensional sound, it cast a large sonic shadow over the other integrated amplifiers in my possession.

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Bluesound PowerNode streaming integrated amplifier

Ken Micallef May 27, 2022 First Published: May 27, 2022 0 comments

Old-school audiophiles like me cling to our vinyl records and CDs. We spin them on turntables and slide them into transports, which send electric signals through wires to solid state or tubed amplifiersa string of hardware devices. But, despite our object-attached ways, we're quite aware that we are living in a software-enabled, Bluetooth-connected, Wi-Fifacilitated world. Even our Milky Way galaxy is wireless; as that pontificator of everything galactic, scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, has proclaimed, "We're all connected."

Integrated Amp Reviews

PrimaLuna EVO400 integrated amplifier

Rogier van Bakel May 18, 2022 First Published: May 18, 2022 0 comments

National pride is the damnedest thing. When I was growing up in the Netherlands, schoolchildren were taught that the inventor of the printing press was a Dutchman named Laurens Janszoon Coster. Germany's Johannes Gutenberg was waved away as an also-ran, if he was mentioned at all.

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T+A Caruso R multisource receiver

Julie Mullins Mar 04, 2022 First Published: Mar 04, 2022 0 comments

I've been on a Kim Gordon kick lately. It began a few months ago with rediscovering some Sonic Youth albums and picking up Gordon's solo record, No Home Record. I recently finished reading her memoir, Girl in a Band, about her life, art, and musical career. I tend to read books rather than listen to them, but this time I listened with the Audible app, and I found the experience compelling. Gordon's delivery is direct, her voice even-keeled, almost deadpan. She's giving us the straight dope. Subtle inflections are detectable: moments when she felt strong and proud; leftover cobwebs of postbreakup pain. Her humanity came through.

Integrated Amp Reviews

Riviera Levante integrated amplifier

Herb Reichert Jan 27, 2022 First Published: Jan 27, 2022 0 comments

I remember, around the time I started at Stereophile, telling Art Dudley that I wanted to review "a lot of power amplifiers" because amplifiers are the "blood-pumping heart machines" that "reanimate the artistry" of musicians: Horowitz, Björk, Bill Monroe. Whereupon he looked over his glasses and spied me with bare eyes like a stern parent and said, "Just be sure to not review any amplifiers that weigh more than 65 pounds."

Integrated Amp Reviews

Technics SU-R1000 integrated amplifier

Ken Micallef Dec 03, 2021 First Published: Dec 03, 2021 0 comments

Technics, an arm of the Japanese giant Panasonic Corporation, has long been a major player in the hi-fi world, even if, in some recent decades, it stayed below the radar.

In the 1970s, analog-centric audiophiles particularly praised the Technics SP-10, the world's first direct drive turntable. Created by Matsushita engineer Shuichi Obata in 1969, the SP-10 and its successors became the standard in vinyl playback for American radio stations during that heyday of broadcast radio.

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Three FollowUp Reviews

John Atkinson Nov 29, 2021 First Published: Nov 29, 2021 0 comments

Stereophile often subjects products that have been reviewed to further coverage: sometimes because there was an aspect of performance that needed further investigation; other times because there was a controversial finding. Three recent followups concerned the Ayre Acoustics EX-8 2.0 Integrated Hub amplifier that Ken Micallef reviewed in the November 2021 issue; the Accuphase DG-68 Digital Voicing Equalizer that Jason Victor Serinus reviewed in August 2021; and the Zesto Leto Ultra II line preamplifier that Ken Micallef reviewed in February 2021.

Integrated Amp Reviews

Bryston B135³ integrated amplifier

Herb Reichert Nov 22, 2021 First Published: Nov 22, 2021 0 comments

Out of the blue, a forever friend I hadn't spoken to in years called and asked me to join him at Riverside Church for a concert of William Basinski performing his renowned Disintegration Loops. Dedicated to the victims of 9/11, the work was completed as Basinski watched the airplanes crash into the World Trade Center from his Brooklyn rooftop.

Integrated Amp Reviews

Ayre Acoustics EX-8 2.0 Integrated Hub D/A integrated amplifier

Ken Micallef Nov 03, 2021 First Published: Nov 03, 2021 0 comments

In New York City, everything comes at a premium: Housing, groceries, transportation, walking space, living space, sanity spaceconsider our cubbyhole apartments and tenement buildings. Even "air rights" are for sale in NYC, including rights to the air over my beloved Katz's Delicatessen in the Lower East Side. The square footage of my downtown apartment is less than a quarter of the space of my North Carolina home. (Brownstones? Only above 72nd Street.) But, as the song says, "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." What did Frank Sinatra know, anyway? He was from Hoboken!

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Cambridge Audio EVO 150 streaming integrated amplifier

Robert Schryer Sep 21, 2021 First Published: Sep 21, 2021 0 comments

In 1968, I was a 2-year-old toddler living in Paris, Francemy birthplaceon the 14th floor of a diplomat-occupied apartment complex overlooking the Seine. My dad, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was stationed in Paris, working security at the Canadian embassy. My mom and I were there with him.