In one sense, this review is easy to write. The Venture Grand Ultimate is a superb speaker system that does everything extremely well. At another level, however, it presents a major challenge: The Grand Ultimate ...

I know it’s a stretch, but for the sake of argument let’s say that you don’t have six dimes to drop on a pair of the highest-fidelity, lowest-coloration, fullest-range loudspeakers I’ve heard in my home—the ...

Let me begin with the punch line. The Olive O6HD offers very high sound quality, a simple way of storing large amounts of music, and ergonomics which may take a day or so of getting ...

If it does nothing else (and it does plenty else), the Magico Q5—the current top-line, full-range, four-way dynamic loudspeaker from the Berkeley-based company that has, over the last four years, shaken up the status quo ...

Our sonic expectations for compact loudspeakers have risen dramatically in recent years. Every aspect of small speaker performance has benefited from advancements in materials technology and analysis, and computer-aided design. Output has increased; driver and ...

The Esoteric K-03 is not your usual CD/SACD player. Its designers have innovatively combined a highly refined CD/SACD transport and a full-function DAC within the same luscious chassis. Although on the surface that doesn’t seem ...

Perreaux electronics sightings in North America have been infrequent in recent years. A sign of the times to be sure. But as Dylan sang, the times they are a changin’. Perreaux, based in New Zealand, ...

A reader recently wrote in to complain that TAS reviews overuse the phrase, “(Component X) performs like units costing many times its price.” Whether you agree with that sentiment or not, I can assure you ...

Over the last few years I’ve reviewed some truly great solid-state amplifiers and preamplifiers from MBL, BAlabo, and Soulution and heard a goodly number of other top contenders from Spectral, Boulder, Krell, Burmester, Pass Labs, ...

I beg your indulgence for a moment, as I step into the Way-Back Machine, and emerge on a quiet afternoon in the spring of 1986. I am working at a high-end audio store, and on ...

Some loudspeakers are simply born to dance. It’s part of their bloodline. They reproduce music with a distinctly light, nimble touch in much the same way Fred and Ginger seemed to defy the laws of ...

Amplifiers with switching output stages have not enjoyed much success in the high end. Although these so-called Class D amplifiers are revolutionizing mainstream audio because of their small size, cool operation, light weight, and high ...

One thing you have to love about our audiophile community is the way we passionately embrace and hold on to technologies that the rest of the planet either views as outmoded or, in some cases, ...

The Octave Jubilee Mono monoblock power amplifiers are an assault on the state of the art by a German firm and its lead designer, Andreas Hoffman. They are tall, superbly styled tube amplifiers that that ...

JR Transrotor of Germany produces a vast array of analog playback components. They run the gamut from a stable of turntables—from noble to immodest—to motors, tonearms, and various and sundry accessories. For example, there’s the ...