Herb Reichert

CES 2017

Bel Canto REF600M Monoblocks

Herb Reichert Jan 11, 2017

It looks pro-school Paul Newman racing-driver cool, especially in black. It puts out 300W into 8 ohms and 600W into 4 ohms, and can deliver a peak output current of 27A. Did I mention each amp weighs only 15.4 pounds? (I could carry both channels home on the subway.)

CES 2017

MoFi's Much-Discussed System

Herb Reichert Jan 10, 2017

Up and down the CES hallways, in line for coffee, and at every dinner, people kept asking, "Did you go to the MoFi room?"

CES 2017

Rogue Audio's New Headphone Amp

Herb Reichert Jan 10, 2017

Rogue now introduces their first headphone amp/preamplifier, the RH-5 ($2495), which not only looks sleek and timeless in that oval-windowed Rogue way, it features three line-level RCA inputs and one pair of balanced XLR inputs.

CES 2017

HRT Stage

Herb Reichert Jan 08, 2017

Last year I liked these HRT (High Resolution Technologies) Stage loudspeakers ($500/pair, plus $800 for companion Sound Anchor stands), and this year I love them

CES 2017

Auris Wows HR in LV

Herb Reichert Jan 08, 2017

Amplification is usually just a green circuit board in a metal box. (Yawn, snooze.) Even at the highest prices, you still get green boardsbut now those green boards are hiding their greenness in very expensive boxes

CES 2017

NAD's Master Series M32

Herb Reichert Jan 08, 2017

The NAD room was populated by a lot of tall men in suitsall of whom seemed dedicated to preserving and enhancing NAD's tradition of offering exceptionally high-value amplification, à la the legendary NAD 3020 integrated amp

CES 2017

Crystal Cable CCI

Herb Reichert Jan 06, 2017

Today's audio world is beginning to be populated by innovative integrated amplifiers that fit into our homes and lives in new ways: products that are not only practical and user-friendly but can make us happy when we walk in the door and see the thing sitting on a desk or shelfwaiting for its master to touch and appreciate it.

CES 2017

Caged Cash

Herb Reichert Jan 05, 2017

How does that saying go? What stays in Vegasnever gets back to Brooklyn? What happens in Vegasgets blabbered in Stereophile?

Headphone Reviews Integrated Amp Reviews

Woo Audio WA5 integrated amplifier/headphone amplifier

Herb Reichert Dec 29, 2016

When I applied for this fabulist audio-preacher gig, John Atkinson protested, "But Herb, aren't you a triode-horn guy?"

"No, that was decades ago! Today I'm still a bit of a Brit-fi guy, but my mind remains wide open."

However: As a professional reviewer, I am biased toward affordable, lovingly engineered audio creations made by family businesses with traditional artisanal values. I enjoy solid-state as much as tubesoften more!

Gramophone Dreams Headphone Reviews

Gramophone Dreams #13: Audeze The King & Focal Elear

Herb Reichert Nov 29, 2016

My passion for listening to music through headphones is fueled by the enhanced sense of intimacy and extra feeling of connectedness I experience in rediscovering recordings I already love. You know the old audiophile cliché: It's like hearing my record collection for the first time. High-quality headphones provide a sharper-than-box-speaker lens that lets me experience lyrics, melodies, and instrumental textures more close-up and magnified.