Beautifully made (it is certainly the best-looking Class D amp of the lot, with a body carved from a billet of 6061 aluminum and a wavy faceplate straight out of Rowland’s Classic line), the 250Wpc ...

The Kharma MP150 has been my reference amplifier since I received a pair in March to go with the company’s gorgeous-sounding Mini Exquisite speakers (a review of which will appear in our next issue). Before ...

A friend recently complained that I get so excited about every new component to come along that it’s almost as if I’ve never heard a decent stereo before. My first thought was to suggest that ...

I’ve recently found a number of moderately priced loudspeakers that qualify as bargains—ones that allow you to grow a system around them, upgrading other components before you reach the speakers’ limits. The reference in my ...

In the months following my review of the Triangle Esprit Altea Es (Issue 156), Triangle Electroacoustique announced some key revisions to its popular mid-line offering. Given that the Altea was already very good, I seized ...

“Wow, those things realy sound rich. What are they?”—my wife Daniele upon hearing Stirling Broadcast’s revival of the clasic BBC LS3/5a minimonitor. Danielle’s no audiophile, but she knows what she likes. As her reaction to ...

After an 8-year absence, the man behind Pink Triangle is back With a shape and color reminiscent of one of those pulsating blobs from a ps ychedelic light show , the Funk Firm Funk Vector ...

I love a product that goes against the conventional grain. Crystal Cable is one such line. Rather than resembling various species of large rain forest snakes or wearing the garish livery of a jockey at ...

If Rodney Dangerfield had been an audiophile, he might have joked that tuners “just don’t get no respect.” But they should. Tuners are tasked with responsibilities greater than typical source components. They are a sophisticated ...

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, the MartinLogan Curvilinear Line Source (CLS) full-range electrostatic was my reference loudspeaker, and although I’ve since gone on to other things, the CLS remains one of the purest ...

It will be more than a passing irony if the LP outlives the CD. Yet, if sonic merit is the issue, the LP should be the survivor. Both mediums have their plusses, but I still ...

It was only a few months ago that I declared the innovative Air Tight PC-1 cartridge my new mc reference, because of its standard-setting transient speed and astonishing lowlevel detail. Comes now the Clearaudio Goldfinger, ...

Alongside the $40,000 Walker Black Diamond record player, the $18,000 TW Acustic Raven AC-3 turntable with $4300 Graham Phantom tonearm is the best source component I’ve auditioned—and far and away the most voluptuous sounding. Indeed, ...

A.J. Conti, founder of Basis Audio, designer of its turntables and arms, and passionate enthusiast about all things vinyl, belongs to an increasingly rare breed of audio designer who hates mystique?mongering and is appalled at ...

Floating the platter of a turntable on a cushion of air has been an approach used by some designers of high-performance turntables to reduce bearing friction, improve speed stability and isolation, and lower the noise ...