YOU WANT TO ANNOY AN AUDIOPHILE? You know you do. It’s a fun game the whole family can play. Goes like this. Find a sucker who just spent a pile of money on a DAC ...

The 2013 Capital Audio Fest spiffed itself up this year by moving to the Sheraton Hotel in Silver Spring, MD. But the ethos of the show did not change. At heart, it remains, as Stereophile ...

Shure M97xE$89shure.com An entry-ticket to the world of analog sound, Shure’s M97xE moving-magnet cartridge offers generally neutral tonal balance with slight hints of roll-off at the frequency extremes, unflappable tracking, and an overall presentation that ...

In audio the word “neutral” can cover a multitude of virtues—or a multitude of sins. It all depends on who’s doing the talking—and the listening. Take the innovative, somewhat controversial, now- discontinued, $4500 Ortofon MC ...

When I played him Rapsodie espagnole from a test pressing of Chad Kassem’s soon-to-be-released (October 8), 200-gram Analogue Productions’ reissue of RCA LSC-2183 The Reiner Sound, my buddy and TAS Music Editor Mark Lehman, whose ...

Located directly across the street from the John Wayne Airport, the Newport Audio show would have done the Duke proud. Spirits were high, old hands abounded, and a few greenhorns showed up to sample the ...

For some time now I’ve been hoping that the Eagles catalog would be receiving the white glove, 180gram vinyl treatment. I still own the American originals plus some of the British and Japanese pressings and ...

Good old-fashioned American chauvinism notwithstanding, Munich is by consensus the world’s most important high-end audio show, replacing CES as the place to do business—that is, if doing business in Europe and the Far East are ...

Pro-Ject Debut Carbon$399sumikoaudio.net The most significant upgrade to Pro-Ject’s latest Debut is found in the model’s name, which refers to the lighter, more rigid, single-piece 8.6" carbon-fiber arm tube that replaces the Debut III’s aluminum ...

To cut immediately to the chase, when used with the AAS Gabriel/DaVinciAudio Labs Mk II turntable and the Goldfinger Statement cartridge, the DaVinci Master’s Reference Virtu tonearm is the most realistic-sounding pivoted tonearm I’ve yet ...

Several decades ago before the high end acquired both its name and its status, moving-magnet pickups reigned supreme among audiophiles. They were relatively easy to build, neutral in tonal balance, flat in frequency response, low ...

If last year’s New York Audio Show was a rebirth, 2013 saw its fruition. Everything about this year’s show was better. “We can actually get our gear to the rooms,” marveled Andy Singer of Sound ...

Kuzma Stabi S$2075eliteavdist.com The Stabi S is Kuzma’s least expensive turntable, but you wouldn’t know it to listen to the thing. Blessed with deep background silences, the Stabi S makes a great complement to the ...

Some three-and-a-half years ago now, my wife Kathy and I traveled to Bern, Switzerland, to visit audio engineer Peter Brem and his companion Jolanda Costa, the co-proprietors of DaVinciAudioLabs—makers of the AAS Gabriel turntable and ...

AUDUBON, PA, March 28, 2013 — Walker Audio, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-end audio products, introduces the new Proscenium Black Diamond V turntable. The Proscenium Black Diamond V (PBD V) features improvements ...