When you think about it, “elicit” is a pretty nifty name for an audio component. After all, the verb not only rolls nicely off the tongue, it describes what we’d like our playback systems to ...

Professional Monitor Company or PMC is the U.K.-based loudspeaker firm that has been internationally heralded for the big active systems it designs for the pro market—systems for film- and sound-recording studios as well as broadcast ...

As I said in my review of the Magico M5s (in Issue 196), the first obligation of a loudspeaker—or, for that matter, any piece of audio gear—is to vanish as a sound source. Thanks to ...

In his excellent biography of the Swiss-born sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, James Lord relates a charming story from a difficult time. It was 1939, the Germans had just invaded Czechoslovakia, and the Swiss government ...

“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 ...

The term “digital” is often erroneously applied to amplifiers with Class D (switching) output stages, but in the case of NAD’s new M2 Direct Digital Amplifier that word is appropriate. In fact, the M2 represents ...

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 ...

While most high-end audio firms are small artisan-minded affairs that were founded by guys whose passions border on or exceed the obsessive, most of the design and production facilities I’ve visited appear to be anything ...

The forward momentum in high-end design, even during these troublesome times, continues to produce some breathtaking surprises. Nowhere is this more evident than in improving the reproduction of sound from the venerable long-playing record. It ...

It has long been an article of faith among audio “objectivists” that passive components—wire, resistors, capacitors, and inductors—have no effect on the sound of the product in which those components are used. That is, two ...

First, a confession: I generally don’t like big dynamic loudspeakers. To me their chief raisons d’être are loudness and bass. And since I gravitate toward small-scale acoustic music where neither is a necessity, I don’t ...

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 ...

There are few things in audio as sweet as the speed and coherence of an impeccably executed two-way compact speaker. At least that’s my view. The reason? Simplicity. Two-ways apply the bare minimum of parts, ...

I’ve known for some time that clock-timing accuracy is essential to good-sounding digital-audio reproduction. But I didn’t realize just how important it was until I heard the Esoteric G-0Rb Rubidium Master Clock Generator. That’s right—the ...