“Wow, this baby’s loaded,” I muttered to myself as I scanned the back panel of the Simaudio Moon i3.3 and its sister, the CD3.3, which was idling nearby. I do my own fair share of ...

Most American audiophiles are probably too young to remember the time when small European firms like Tandberg and Electrocompaniet were familiar names in the high end. At least some, however, will remember that Electrocompaniet was ...

Affordable excellence. Funny how sensible, refreshing, and downright sane that phrase seems these days. Don’t get me wrong: For those who can afford it, which more or less excludes most of us, owning the finest ...

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show Rotel debuted the 15 Series, an impressive range of components encompassing most segments of the audio, A/V, and custom-installation markets. Beyond its eye-catching appearance and upgraded internals the 15 ...

Note: This review was originally published in The Absolute Sound issue 194 in conjunction with Editor Robert Harley's interview with Meridian Audo co-founder Bob Stuart. To read that interview in its entirety, click here. __________ ...

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 ...

For those of us living with limited shelf space and ever-tightening budgets there is no more egalitarian audio component than the DVD/CD receiver. It offers a multitude of features, sufficient power, and construction quality consistent ...

The Italian high-end audio manufacturer Goldenote is based in Florence, perhaps the world’s most beautiful city as well as the birthplace of the Renaissance. That beauty and history is reflected in the company’s S-1 Signature ...

It’s been a while since I’ve laid my hands on some new Rotel products. Fact is, I was beginning to wonder what was up since the line was getting a little long in the tooth ...

The Esoteric X-05 is a CD/SACD player that makes you want to gather every compact disc in your collection and give it another spin. And all the more so if you’re still listening to vinyl. ...

For those of us who enjoy concert performances on video, Blu-ray Disc is a revelation. The format delivers lossless high-resolution multichannel audio, which in itself is cause for celebration after more than ten years of ...

Dutch-based PrimaLuna has in recent years garnered much critical acclaim for the phenomenal price-to-performance ratio of its line of tube gear. The business model of European designs manufactured in China is not new per se, ...

The $2000 CD Made from Glass Robert Harley Japanese CD manufacturer Memory-Tech is offering to replicate CDs made from glass rather than the conventional polycarbonate. The rationale? Glass CDs sound better. Memory-Tech calls the discs ...

Do Hard-Disk Drives Sound Better than CDs? Robert Harley A reader's post of an interesting and relevant question regarding the sound quality of hard-disk-based music servers versus CD (http://www.avguide.com/forums/cd-player-vs-computerserver-system) prompted me to post my experience ...

Alright, I’m coming clean. Believe it or not sometimes I just like my audio & video simple. I mean “one box” simple. I don’t want to pull another interconnect, power on three or four components ...