Only a couple of years ago I was convinced that a new generation of high-resolution digital formats, SACD and DVD-Audio, was poised to grab the baton from flagging Red Book CD and run with it. ...

A fundamental principle of high-end audio design holds that the signal path should be as short and simple as possible, and the power supply as elaborate and massive as practical. The VK-600M SE solid-state monoblock ...

The very first time I powered up the new linestage preamp and monoblock power amps from ARC, I knew they were extraordinary. As fate would have it, I was listening to an EMI LP [ASD ...

Cruising the halls of Consumer Electronics Shows, I’ve often paused to admire the products of Simaudio, a Canadian firm with over twenty-five years’ experience manufacturing high-quality electronics. It has always had a reputation for high ...

Where does one find highly musical and reliable, full-range tube monoblock amplifiers for around $2k per pair that are capable of driving most any loudspeaker, while also avoiding the syrupy thicknes, soggy low end, and ...

This is not a review for audiophiles who have blundered into the wrong magazine and think that all amplifiers sound the same. It is an exploration of two new amplifiers from the same designer and ...

Music Hall in Great Neck, New York, has long been a source of musical, mostly twochannel audio equipment. The folks there are uncannily good at finding high-performance gear that won’t break the budget. I’m thinking ...

Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t admire and respect NAD electronics? For decades they’ve been the gold standard for “budget” high-end audio, combining brick-solid engineering, clean execution, and performance to burn. And therein lies ...

Every January at CES I make my annual pilgrimage to the Sound Lab room to hear the latest iteration of Dr. Roger West’s M-1 electrostats, and every January I come away thinking that the M-1s ...

I was tickled pink by Cayin Audio’s A-88T all-tube integrated amplifier from the moment I began to unpack it. The inclusion of white gloves signaled an attention to detail in the presentation that puts to ...

Full-function preamps with integrated phonostages are becoming hard to find, so if you want to listen to vinyl these days you’ll probably need to buy a separate unit. But many inexpensive solid-state models sound cold, ...

Nothing puts a bigger smile on my face than reveling in great-sounding audio gear the average Joe—or Jolene—can actually afford. Priced at $1299 and $1599, respectively, the Audio by Van Alstine (AVA) Ultra SL preamp ...

Audio critics seem to forget that the people buying the stuff they write about are doing so for a pretty simple reason: to get musical pleasure. And while it is their job to convey how ...

In 1984, Mission introduced its Cyrus line of electronics. These components developed an enthusiastic following but were somewhat overshadowed by Mission's own loudspeakers, at least on these shores. Indeed, the last TAS review of any ...

Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers.” So wrote Emerson in his seminal essay “Nature,” perhaps the most famous complaint in American literature. (I wonder what he would have made of ...