The $30k Magico Mini II was being showed in the Soulution room with, uh, Soulution electronics. The sound was darker than I’m used to from Minis (and from the ARC amplification I used with them), ...

I returned to the Sumiko suite in the Venetian on two different days this year and was rewarded with the opportunity to hear two speakers that this well-regarded distributor/importer will be pinning much of its ...

With all the ultra-high-end gear displayed at CES 2009, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the great bargains that were also showcased. Following are the TAS Editors' and Reviewers' picks for the “Biggest ...

Digital Audio Jitter and Image Stabilizer Binoculars Robert Harley I recently bought a pair of Canon Image Stabilizer binoculars for wildlife viewing. Image Stabilizer technology, widely used in digital cameras and camcorders, optically eliminates the ...

What were the “Most Important Trends” at CES 2009? Our TAS Editors and Reviewers identified several, including: ROBERT HARLEY: The proliferation of music servers designed for sound-quality. A good example is theBlue Smoke “Black Box” ...

(Editor's Note: JV has already commented on the Magico M5, Vandersteen Model Seven, and Wilson Audio MAXX Series 3 loudspeakers in other blogs. However, in his upcoming CES Report in The Absolute Sound, JV comments ...

This CES brought a whole slew of affordable new integrated amps, preamps, and power amps from established players as well as from less-familiar brands. The biggest news in affordable electronics at CES was undoubtedly the ...

For no other reason than word count, there were a couple of loudspeakers that didn’t make my upcoming CES report in TAS but grabbed my attention nonetheless. Lafleur Audio of Canada demonstrated the robust X2, ...

Is Balanced Connection Better than Unbalanced? I received this e-mail from a reader, and thought I'd share his question and my answer. Editor: I am hoping you can clarify or comment on balanced vs unbalanced ...

Several noteworthy phonostages made their CES debuts. Pass Labs introduced its new high-performance phonostage, the SCP-1 (less than $4000), which has up to 76 dB of gain. Unlike the two-chassis Xono, which it replaces, the ...

What was “Biggest Surprise” at CES 2009? TAS Editors/Reviewers weigh in with their selections. For full audio coverage of CES 2009, see the upcoming issue of "The Absolute Sound." ROBERT HARLEY: After more than 30 ...

For many reasons this was a CES to remember. And although this is not the best of times for some, there was still a lot of fertile ground to cover in this broad segment—a task ...

What was “the most significant” new product at CES 2009? Our TAS Editors and Reviewers weigh in with their opinions. For full audio coverage of CES 2009, see the upcoming issue of "The Absolute Sound." ...

Several TAS editors and writers attended CES 2009 in Las Vegas. Each was asked to select his choice for “Best Sound at CES.” Following are their selections: Robert Harley: The Magico M5 loudspeaker ($90,000) driven ...

Contrary to what some people may think (see my Magico M5 blog), I did listen to other ultra-high-end speakers besides the Magico M5 at this year's CES, and after the M5 the two I thought ...