For someone who has lived through a decade when tube amplifiers were considered by many to have been obsoleted by transistor designs it was delicious irony to witness the renaissance of tube amplification in the ...

I’ve listened to a lot of audio equipment over the years, but I can count on one hand (without using all my fingers) the number of times I’ve heard something that was fool-me realistic. The ...

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 ...

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 ...

Technology Preview: NAD M2 Direct Digital Amplifier Is This The Future of Audio Amplification? Robert Harley Note: The full review of the M2, including a detailed description of its sound quality, will appear in the ...

My beat at the sixth annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest was upper-end preamplifiers and power amplifiers. This show started out as a showcase for ultra-expensive exotic gear, but as it shifted toward the mainstream, the ...

For the past six months I’ve been using the superb $40k Soulution 710 stereo and $115k 700 monoblock solid-state amplifiers from Switzerland in my system—the latter the same amp with which Magico triumphantly debuted its ...

Here’s a question: What stereo amp generates 130Wpc into 8 ohms, is stable down to 2 ohms, has a bandwidth that extends to 400kHz, is capable of 40 amp swings, has a damping factor greater ...

When I went to Tokyo this past spring I met a number of Japanese high-end audio designers. Alas, Fumio Ohashi, chief designer at Bridge Audio Labs (BAlabo), was not one of them. That’s a pity ...

An interesting shootout is shaping up chez Valin. As some of you already know from previous posts and blogs (see www.avguide.com/blog/best-amp-ever-soulution-710-amplifier), I’ve had the Soulution 710 stereo amp, the Soulution 700 monoblock amplifiers, and the ...

Integrated amplifiers continue to surprise and inspire me. Just when I think I’ve heard pretty much all there is to hear from this segment, along comes the Muse Model Two Hundred. And to look at ...

As I previously reviewed and recommended the Atma-Sphere MA-1 Silver Edition OTL for induction into the Audio Hall of Fame, it didn’t take long for the hallmark purity and neutrality of the more affordable M-60 ...

It’s serious business striving to be taken seriously. Even when you’ve been producing exceptional electronics for years, as Cambridge Audio has, the moniker “value high-end” is a stigma that tends to stick. But some companies ...

For about 30 years, the Canadian electronics firm Bryston has been the darling of the professional sound set. Its electronics are unconditionally stable—you never heard of a Bryston blowing up, did you, even when heavily ...