For many years we’ve published our Editors’ Choice Awards in the March issue and our Buyers’ Guide in this issue (November cover date). These two features included many of the same products, leading to a good deal of duplication. I’m happy to report that we have now eliminated the Buyers’ Guide issue and overhauled how we present the Editors’ Choice Awards.

Editors’ Choice Awards will now be divided into two parts. The first part, published in this issue, focuses on “shared space” components—that is, those products we believe best fit into a living-room system or another domestic space that isn’t used exclusively for music listening. The other half of the Editors’ Choice Awards, which will be published in our March issue, is devoted to those products that are best suited for systems in a dedicated listening room.

This approach reduces redundancy and opens more pages per year for features. For starters, we can publish about 12 more product reviews per annum. In addition, our new format also allows readers to more easily focus on those products that are appropriate for their living spaces. Having said this, I have to confess that the dividing line between what is a “shared space” product and what is a “dedicated room” component isn’t always clear cut.

For example, an integrated amplifier with built-in streaming, network capability, a DAC, and a phonostage that costs $40,000 would appear in the “shared space” Editors’ Choice, while a linestage preamp, a separate phonostage, a separate DAC, and monoblock power amplifiers that collectively cost $25,000 would best fit in the “dedicated room” Editors’ Choice. Nonetheless, price can be one of the factors determining which issue’s Editors’ Choice Awards a product appears in.

We realize that in the real world, some very expensive components are often part of systems that go into relatively small shared-use spaces, such as an apartment in New York, London, or Tokyo, and we arrived at the split you see in this issue after many long hours of discussion and spirited debate among our three full-time editors (Jonathan Valin, Neil Gader, and me). But, in looking at the division from a distance, now that the feature has been laid out with illustrations, we feel confident in our choices. Remember that the groupings we’ve created don’t constitute a rule that you should follow. Rather, they are a convenient way of organizing our recommendations. I’m sure that some of you will have monoblock amplifiers on the floor of a shared-space room, and some dedicated listening rooms will be built around an integrated amp.

Another new feature in our Editors’ Choice Awards is the inclusion of products that have been formally reviewed on The Absolute Sound’s YouTube channel. If you haven’t checked out our video reviews, I urge you to visit our channel and sample what it has to offer. It brings you many more products than we can fit in the magazine, as well as reviews of products that are accessible to those on a budget or to music lovers just beginning their journey in the high end.

Our YouTube channel has a highly capable reviewing staff, who show and tell you all about the latest offerings. It also offers designer interviews, show reports, factory tours, and technology explainers.

We currently have more than 400 videos on the channel with more added every week. It’s important that we reach out to quality-conscious music lovers who want better sound but who may not be inclined to read a magazine like The Absolute Sound—yet. When you visit the channel, I hope that you’ll subscribe.

Finally, The Absolute Sound’s longtime Creative Director, Torquil Dewar and his firm October Custom Publishing have created an entirely new graphic design for the Editors’ Choice Awards. As you’ll see, the new design is cleaner, easier to navigate, and more photo-rich than before.

In the pages of TAS, we think you’ll find the new Editors’ Choice Awards format more useful and appreciate the additional product reviews we can bring you every year.

It’s a challenge for a print monthly to review even a fraction of the new products introduced annually. But between the inclusion of our YouTube-reviewed-and-recommended products and the additional components we can review in print, we will greatly expand the breadth and depth of our coverage of high-end audio.

I’d like to hear your views on our new Editors’ Choice Awards format and on our YouTube channel, so write to me and tell me what you think.