The year was 1987 and digital audio was still emerging unsteadily from its technological stone-age. The year was also noteworthy for the highly anticipated, first-ever release of the Beatles catalog on compact disc. Although the ...

Okay you’ve just blown your budget acquiring the stereo or mono (or both!!) box sets of the new Beatles Remasters. That’s a big bundle of discs that you’ve just added to your collection. Sure they ...

It’s been more than a couple years since I unboxed a Simaudio integrated amp. WG recently did their latest entry level i-1 gear and loved it and truth be told I kind of felt a ...

Here’s a question: What stereo amp generates 130Wpc into 8 ohms, is stable down to 2 ohms, has a bandwidth that extends to 400kHz, is capable of 40 amp swings, has a damping factor greater ...

When I went to Tokyo this past spring I met a number of Japanese high-end audio designers. Alas, Fumio Ohashi, chief designer at Bridge Audio Labs (BAlabo), was not one of them. That’s a pity ...

This is the work station for the critical vertical bearing assembly; the small hand press (right) is used to check tolerances/resistance. Detail of bearing assembly SME's latest tonearm, the twelve-inch V-12 V-12 tonearms awaiting final ...

At this year’s CES I was introduced to Sonus Faber’s new Liuto which was being demoed in the Sumiko room. Filling the gap between the Domus line and the exclusive Classic line, the Liuto is ...

Before turning to the next batch of images a little background on SME Ltd is in order. The company was originally formed in 1946 by Alastair Robertston-Aikman and was known as the Scale Model Equipment ...

There are few names in audio, analog or digital, that get the heart racing like the turntables and tonearms from SME Ltd. Long admired for its precision mechanical engineering and jewel-like construction SME components are ...

Since the early 1970s, the arrival of a new preamplifier from Audio Research has been an occasion for excitement, and sometime early next week I’ll be getting ARC’s latest thinking on a piece of equipment ...

J. Gordon Holt: An Appreciation and a Remembrance Harry Pearson [This is a preview of a piece that will appear in Issue 197 of The Absolute Sound—RH] This isn’t going to be a conventional farewell. ...

Demo or Die! Robert Harley “Publish or perish” is a well-known phrase in the academic world—if your work isn’t published in professional journals, your career will perish. The high-end audio industry should adopt a parallel ...

An interesting shootout is shaping up chez Valin. As some of you already know from previous posts and blogs (see www.avguide.com/blog/best-amp-ever-soulution-710-amplifier), I’ve had the Soulution 710 stereo amp, the Soulution 700 monoblock amplifiers, and the ...

Founded in 1978, T+A Elektroakustik of Germany began by building loudspeakers and by 1988 had expanded to electronics. By 1997 T+A which stands for Theory + Application was into active loudspeaker design, CD players, tuners, ...

The Audience ClairAudient Loudspeaker: A 20-Year Dream Realized Robert Harley On a recent visit to Southern California, I stopped in to see Audience, maker of a highly regarded line of AC power-conditioner and signal cables. ...