It’s official; T.H.E. Show Newport has become the premier U.S. hi-fi show. Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, this year’s show expanded to an adjacent second hotel and saw a 50% increase in ...

My two GenNext sons like their music portable—on iPods played back through earbuds, headphones, or via RatShack hookup to thrift store electronics and scrounged speakers. In this, they’re typical of their twenty-something generation. It’s even ...

Click here to check out our entire list of RMAF 2011 blogs. Before getting to my beat at this show—electronics above $15k—I’d like to tell you about what was for me show’s sonic and musical ...

Invoking yet again the mystery of Stonehenge and its ineffable inner circle, Mystère has recently launched a pair of flagship products aimed squarely at sharing tube magic with a wide audience. Both models use similar ...

This turned out to be a twofer review—two for the price of one—shortly after I accepted the Ultravalve assignment and considered compatible loudspeakers. Speakers are a critical decision that can make or break an amplifier ...

I recently completed an article on the controversial “natural’ wine movement for Edible San Francisco magazine. For you non-oenophiles in our audience, this growing movement practices organic or biodynamic viticulture, a relatively non-interventionist style of ...

Have you ever fallen in love with the sound of a mid-powered amplifier, decided to move up in that manufacturer’s line to a more powerful unit, and found that the sonic magic that originally captivated ...

Have you ever fallen in love with the sound of a mid-powered amplifier, decided to move up in that manufacturer’s line to a more powerful unit, and found that the sonic magic that originally captivated ...

(NOTE: This is the technical sidebar that will appear with my review of the PrimaLuna Seven in TAS #199. While there are undoubtedly valid reasons to refrain from posting the sidebar in advance of the ...

It is impossible to review Vacuum Tube Logic’s MB?450 Series II amplifier as if it were a single amplifier because it is at least two quite different sounding amplifiers in one chassis. And depending on ...

Greatest Bargain at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest Frank Van Alstine has been making super-affordable high-performance gear for decades, but he might have outdone himself with the UltraValve, a 30Wpc stereo all-tube amplifier for just $1695. ...

The German company Vincent was established in 1995 with the goal of placing high-end sound within reach of the common man. The question of how to make the high end affordable was answered by its ...

Entry-level may mean different things to different manufacturers, but at C-J it definitely does not denote a major sonic penalty relative to its ultra-high-end products. Cost containment may be implemented through circuit simplification, judicious passive ...

If someone had told me a year ago that TEAC’s Esoteric Division was about to release a KT-88 tube amplifier I would have dismissed the news out of hand. After all, Esoteric has made its ...

I unpacked the triple-boxed Vincent Audio V-60 integrated amplifier the other day and what a beauty she is. As the images show, this all-tube 60Wpc amp has a look that is equal parts homage to ...