Jerry Del Colliano

Rarely, if ever, do I mention that I live in Pacific Palisades, California in my reviews or opinion pieces. If it is ever relevant in an article or social media post, I say that I live in Los Angeles, which… Read More »

Upmarket headphones today are as much of a fashion statement as a technological one. For many audiophiles, wearing a pair of Bose or Sony doesn’t send the right message. For others, having a gorgeous-looking set of headphones with some audiophile… Read More »

Today’s audiophile gear has gotten so good and so affordable that it is amazing. We talk a lot about Chi-Fi, but that is far from the end of the volume of top-performing audiophile gear in the market today. There are all sorts of… Read More »

Much like the FutureAudiophile.com crew, Linear Tube Audio’s team tends to attend the best regional audiophile shows all over the continent. Nicholas and his team are a fun-loving group of guys, and their audiophile-grade hotel room demos always sound notably… Read More »

PS Audio just announced its all-new PMG Signature Series of top-of-the-line ultimate-performance audio components. The four models in the series include the PMG Signature Preamplifier, PMG Signature 512 PureStream DAC,PMG Signature Phono Preamplifier and PMG Signature SACD Transport. All are… Read More »

Being exiled from our home because of the Palisades Fire, we are now living 125 miles south in San Diego, which in a matter of days has jogged some long-forgotten, geographically specific audiophile memories. When I was in Music and… Read More »

Anyone who has seen the 1997 feature film Boogie Nights (or lived through that times as an adult) knows that, for an American man in the 1970s, your masculinity was often significantly defined most by what car you drove. Muscle… Read More »

It wasn’t all that long ago when no self-respecting audiophile would listen to the same system for both stereo and their multi-channel home theater setups. Most thought that a purist two-channel audiophile system that was carefully set up could provide almost holographic… Read More »

It was pre-pandemic and I got an unexpected call from audiophile icon Dan D’Agostino, the founder of Krell and the impresario behind his namesake brand of uber-high-performance audiophile gear. He wanted to know if I still owned my 1997 Porsche… Read More »

A trusted source with inside information into the inner-workings of Best Buy and more specifically, Magnolia, has told FutureAudiophile.com that McIntosh electronics will no longer be sold in the national chain. Initially we learned that this more would not be an… Read More »

The audiophile hobby is on the verge of its first major demographic change since its inception back in the early 1960s. That might not be a popular or uplifting topic with some of the OG audiophiles, but it is a… Read More »

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, and perhaps for five plus years before, there has been an unforeseen rise in the availability of uber-high-end audiophile equipment. By this, I mean really big, really powerful, really exotic and really expensive components, often costing… Read More »

Not many of us saw Bose buying McIntosh and Sonus faber (read about it here), but that recently happened, with the pundits saying it was a way for Bose to get further into the automotive space. That’s all well and good, but… Read More »

The idea that a really cool television shouldn’t be part of your stereo system is one of the worst cliches of the audiophile hobby. Let me get this right … I am supposed to not hang a gorgeous 65-inch UHD… Read More »

When talking very high-end, reference-level audiophile speakers, there are many brands that always come into the discussion such as Wilson Audio, Magico, Bowers & Wilkins, Stenheim, Estelon,and so many others. One that belongs in the conversation, but sometimes can get forgotten about, is Paradigm. These… Read More »

One of my favorite professors in college was named Ken Lopez. He was the former president of JBL Professional and an overall great guy. This guy knew audio in ways that were tangential, but very important to my overall education… Read More »

No one brand has impacted more audiophiles in their early years than NAD. For my fourteenth birthday, my Dad generously bought me a Nakamichi Music Bank CD changer, a pretty sweet NAD receiver, a pair of Polk floorstanding speakers, and some classic… Read More »

MartinLogan gets more editorial and consumer attention for its hybrid electrostatic loudspeakers than it does for its subwoofers, which is a bit of a shame. The design resources that MartinLogan and its sibling brand, Paradigm, have available to them in… Read More »

One of my best industry friends is an absolute king maker in terms of building and managing the top selling and performing audiophile brands. He’s been the president and/or CEO of a few of the most lofty brands out there… Read More »

There were two goals that I took on professionally in 2024 and, in an unprecedented outcome, I think that I have achieved them both as we come to the close of the year. The first one was to elevate my… Read More »

Let’s not fool ourselves … there are sadly very few women involved in the audiophile hobby. I would be shocked, if we did a study of 1,000 people who attended one of the growing number of regional audiophile shows, we… Read More »

Simply put, no one factor impacts the sound of your audiophile system more than the acoustics of your listening room. Some audiophiles are blessed to have a dedicated listening environment where they can address their acoustical issues without much push-back or spousal approval.… Read More »

By the time that this stereo preamp review goes live, you will likely have seen that its close relative, the SPL Director MK2 DAC Preamp for $3,699 (read the review), has won our 2024 Gear We Love Component of the… Read More »

There is no better way to improve your audiophile system than to address the physical acoustical issues found in your listening room. And do you have them? Yes, my friend, you do. So do I. In fact, my room is… Read More »

Audiophiles were shocked when the well-hated but billion-dollar consumer electronics brand, Bose, bought McIntosh (read our coverage here) from its most recent investment group owners. What shocked me, as an industry insider, was that they didn’t look to cherry-pick some… Read More »

As I sit here typing, we are a few days away from my wife and kids moving back into the house after a pretty major kitchen cabinet upgrade in our home. A few years ago, I had purchased some good… Read More »

One of the big editorial questions that we’ve been discussing here at FutureAudiophile.com in 2024 is, how do you get more performance from a streamer over, say, a BlueSound Node? The Sonos Port has an impressive interface, but not suitable for an audiophile system,… Read More »

One of the founding principles in the Mission Statement of FutureAudiophile.com was to take on the challenge of finding newer, younger and more diverse audiophiles for our hobby. This is no small feat, as I have learned over the past roughly two… Read More »

Argent Pur is best known as an audiophile cable company that specializes in pure silver cables. Silver cables (including power cables) have a cult following because of their detailed sound. Few, if any, companies that make silver audiophile cables have… Read More »

BLUESOUND, the original wireless hi-res multi-room music brand, proudly announces that its highly anticipated flagship wireless music streamer, the BlueSound NODE ICON (buy at Crutchfield), is now available worldwide. Starting at $999, the NODE ICON is the pinnacle of Bluesound’s… Read More »

There are a lot of back stories that don’t get told in the audiophile press for mainstream consumers. Often, these stories are pretty incredible. The back story of how Krell was almost sold is a recent one that ended in… Read More »

There are a lot of tweaks that you can make to an audiophile turntable. Many of them make big differences, as the analog nature of spinning vinyl discs benefits from having excellent setup. The reality for nearly every audiophile today is… Read More »

Mainstream loudspeaker company, Bose, announced today that they are purchasing Upstate New York based, McIntosh. McIntosh is one of the most iconic brands in the history of audio and bring a respected electronics brand to pair with Bose. Italian loudspeaker manufacturer, Sonus faber,… Read More »

When you think about it, audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts should really have a lot in common. Any good home theater starts with great sound reproduction, and audiophile gear is all about producing studio-quality audio. The surround sound part of… Read More »

One of the best things about the audiophile hobby is the diversity of designers and equipment manufacturers. Having owned a major home theater publication in my somewhat recent past, I can tell you that only a few companies make a… Read More »

For the past 31 years, I have lived in Los Angeles. However, I grew up in Philadelphia, which can be a pretty strange place on any number of levels. Despite its proximity to New York, which is a simple, one-hour… Read More »

Wireworld Cable Technology, one of the world’s most respected brands of high-performance audio and video cables, is introducing their next generation ‘Series 10’ audio cables. These new cables incorporate several technical and visual improvements over the previous ‘Series 8’. The… Read More »

It is no secret that I am a fan of many of the growing number of regional audiophile shows. Do they have their issues? Sure, they do, but where is there a better place for audiophiles to experience some of… Read More »

The first installment of this How to Creatively Save Money to Buy Audiophile Gear (read it here) was quite popular, so we are back with some more ideas on how to stash some dough away for that new streamer, turntable,… Read More »

Audio-Technica, a producer of innovative audiophile experiences for more than 60 years, recently opened TECHNICA HOUSE – New York, a unique marketing salon dedicated to connecting the various artistic communities — music, art, fashion, cuisine, and more — that make the… Read More »

One of our favorite ultra-high-end audiophile dealers and one of the publication’s best industry friends, Sunil Merchant, and his Sunny Components in Covina, California, was recently robbed on Father’s Day 2024. The robbers were “pros” on one level, in that… Read More »

One of the most affordable and, in this case, powerful ways to rock your audiophile system is to look for a high-end integrated amp for your power needs. The Pass Labs INT-250 is one of many strong options in the $10,000-plus price… Read More »

Perhaps no single brand in the history of audio defines the high end of the hobby more than McIntosh. The marquee’s legacy dates back before the boom in popularity of music, as well as audio, in the late 1960s. In… Read More »

Last week, I spoke with one of my high-end audio dealer friends, as he was in need of rightfully venting a little bit after a highly organized client demonstration of some ultra-expensive audiophile electronics ended up in an unsalvageable situation.… Read More »

One of the fastest-growing categories in the audiophile hobby today is streaming. There are many mainstream music streamers that offer pretty fantastic connectivity and Apple-like ease-of-use, stunning graphical user interfaces and whole-home connectivity. With less than nine percent of all… Read More »

So I get a phone call from a fellow audiophile friend who is known for un-Earthing some of the more high performance and often value-oriented brands in the audiophile world and he’s ranting and raving. He recently found a German… Read More »

There are a lot of colorful personalities in the audiophile business. When I was exiled from audiophile publishing between the end of 2019 and 2022 because of the non-compete that I signed after the sale of HomeTheaterReview.com and AudiophileReview.com, I… Read More »

Professional audio products sometimes have a somewhat strained relationship in the audiophile hobby, but they shouldn’t. The people who actually make the music that we love are some of the best-equipped to design or inspire the best-performing music playback equipment.… Read More »

Putting aside the huge percentage (year to year) gains in sales that vinyl enjoyed during the pandemic, we really live a digital world when it comes to audio, and that world is almost all streaming as of 2024. Physical media… Read More »

It wasn’t that many years ago that SVS was a forum-promoted, somewhat small subwoofer company with a solid cult following in the DIY-enthusiast home theater market. Today, SVS is an entirely different entity that dominates the subwoofer market and has been able… Read More »

The entire editorial mission of FutureAudiophile.com is to bring the audiophile hobby to a new generation of enthusiasts. Someone who is younger, more diverse and who loves music. They also should be interested in high-performance technology and understand that, to… Read More »

Swiss-made audiophile gear is all the rage these days, especially in the world of electronics. However, speakers from Switzerland are equally as sought after as amps, preamps and digital components. These days, Stenheim is at the top of the list… Read More »

For those of us who make our living selling things, in my case, advertising, there is a certain joy in working with a truly professional salesperson. Somebody who isn’t pushy. Somebody who knows their products as well as how they… Read More »

The worlds of high-performance audio and home theater should get along better than they do most of the time. Most good AV stores that sell audiophile components also sell home theater systems. In these magical home theater systems, things connect… Read More »

One of the most exciting yet volatile categories in the audiophile hobby includes DACs and streamers. Without question, the Chi-Fi brands have disrupted this category in ways that can only be seen as good for mainstream consumers and value-seeking audiophiles alike. External DACs was… Read More »

There is a lot of exotica in the audiophile hobby and, when it comes to power amplifiers, Boulder is likely to land at the front of the pack. Jeff Nelson’s team in Boulder, Colorado designs and builds some of the… Read More »

When I think of badass audiophile power amps, there are a few brands that pop into my head, but at the front of the list is Boulder. Before the CEDIA trade show (mostly for AV custom installers) this past fall… Read More »

Each month in 2024, it seems like I have been to another audiophile show. The Tampa show was in February. Dallas was in March. AXPONA was in early April, and soon, I will park my wide-load in a seat and… Read More »

Bowers & Wilkins is finding itself branded in more and more luxury cars. Why did a publicly-traded medical products company spend $1,000,000,000 to buy a bunch of audiophile and home theater brands? Many were left asking that question when the… Read More »

Is anybody else tired of the word “billionaire” being used so often in modern media and society? I am. There are reportedly 2,800 billionaires on the planet Earth that is host to roughly 8,200,000,000 human beings. Here in the richest… Read More »

If we lived in a perfect world, we might seek audiophile components that do nothing other than sound great. There are examples of such products out there, such as ATI amplifiers, which up until recently used to be handmade right… Read More »

A few months ago, I wrote about secret designers quietly making very high-value audiophile components. Seeking these products out is often worth the effort, as they tend to punch above their weight class. Darren Meyers is quite not an audiophile… Read More »

One of the business books that I have always loved is Trout and Ries’ The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (buy at Amazon) which I believe was originally published back in the 1970s. One of the key elements of the… Read More »

Sometimes, in life, things seem too good to be true. In the audiophile world, nowhere is this more prevalent than when talking about Chi-Fi (Chinese-made and often sold direct) gear. If you still not hip to Chi-Fi check out my… Read More »

The University of the South was not a school that I had heard of until my audiophile friend, classical recording engineer and former Absolute Sound and Stereophile writer John Marks, told me about their audiophile listening room. A priest at … Read More »

PS Audio is one of the most time-tested and trusted brand names in the audiophile hobby. Not every audiophile knows that, a few years back, PS Audio made the controversial move to dump all of their traditional dealers, thus leaving… Read More »

One of the key editorial tasks that we took on was taking on audiophile lore and cliché and seeing how it holds up over time. We’ve recently stepped into the “all DACs sound the same” topic (hint: they don’t). We’ve… Read More »

The audiophile world is jam-packed with companies making uber-expensive components that cost what they cost mainly because of scarcity, esoterica and, sometimes, simple gross profiteering. Bricasti’s audiophile offerings are a breath of fresh air in this sometimes-polluted world of technological… Read More »

The world of semiconductor-based amps has been the most wonderfully disruptive category in the audiophile hobby, and Orchard Audio is one of the main brands behind the movement. We discussed this matter in depth in this featured news story. A… Read More »

For 20 years, there have been some faint voices discussing demographic issues that the audiophile hobby has, mainly being the fact that the hobby is nearly all-male and predominantly supported by Baby Boomers who are now aged into their 70s.… Read More »

The Chord Qutest audiophile DAC is a small form factor $1,595 dedicated digital-to-analog converter designed for both audiophile and desktop solutions. Made in England, this diminutive DAC is built to survive any possible unforeseen nuclear fallout, with its thick aluminum… Read More »

There are a lot of things to love about the audiophile hobby, from its long past dating back to the 1960s (perhaps even before depending on your historical outlook), as well as the rich potential that listening to music has for today’s… Read More »

 It is likely the audiophile forum Audio Science Review that should get credit for starting this thread talking about digital to analog converters and the vast improvements in today’s DAC chips. The question was “Do All DACs Sound the Same?”… Read More »

Don’t feel bad if you can’t tell me the unique differences between an audiophile endpoint and a music streamer. It is a bold new world where streaming music services have delivered basically full access to damn close to every album… Read More »

Do you wanna know when an AV company is the real deal? Some might say that it is when they are sold in Best Buy or Magnolia stores, and that’s a good standard. Before Sonos made that distribution leap, they… Read More »

Audiophiles today have more and more digital music options available to them, thanks to the last of the spinning disc players and countless options in the streamer and/or endpoint market. Many of the above audiophile digital source components come with… Read More »

By Jerry Del Colliano You’ve seen the film This Is Spinal Tap!, right? Even if you haven’t, the chances that you don’t know the joke that goes “but this one goes to 11” are pretty slim, unless you’ve been living… Read More »

Why is Wall Street trying to get every classic rock-era artist to sell them their songwriting? Streaming is why. The music business is now the software business, and the software business is good and always has been. Just as you… Read More »

You know when Wall Street is buying up all of the music catalogs that there is something good going on in the music industry. What’s good is that, according to the RIAA in 2022, gross combined revenue (including all sources)… Read More »

Thirty years ago was the first time that I saw a Sonus faber bookshelf speaker. I was working in very high-end audio sales at Mark Levinson’s Cello Music and Film boutique, nestled in the Hollywood Hills right above Geffen Records,… Read More »

Unless you are into sports like golf or polo as your pastime, the audiophile hobby is one of the more expensive ways that you can spend your discretionary dollars. While audiophiles like you and I are always looking for those… Read More »

By Jerry Del Colliano  Anybody who’s been in the audiophile hobby, even for a little while, knows that when they enter the realm of the audio salon or stereo store, they can pretty easily ask for (and get) a 20-percent-off… Read More »

It is hard to feel bad for that guy who just spent $275,000 on that new V8 Ferrari, but how do you tell him that no matter how little he drives his Prancing Horse from Maranello, Italy, and no matter… Read More »

Have you ever eaten at Din Tai Fung? It is a Taiwanese soup dumpling restaurant that is the only “chain” to have earned a Michelin Star, which is about as lofty a culinary goal as there is in the world of fine… Read More »

$2,000 for a pair of floorstanding speakers might be the most competitive price point in all of the audiophile market. $400 wireless Bluetooth headphones can give this two-grand speaker category a run for the money for a brutally competitive audiophile… Read More »

If you want to get the attention of my 11-year-old Vincenzo (Enzo, for short), you would be well-served hitting him up on ROBLOX. This seemingly low-resolution video game in the metaverse has him and every boy (and many a girl) every… Read More »

STAX is one of the longest-standing, most trusted headphone brands in the audiophile world. Their amazingly open-sounding, often tube-powered, electrostatic headphones are not just high-performance, but today are actually collectable. The highest end of the STAX lineup is the STAX… Read More »

In a perfect world, no right-minded audiophile would ever throw away his or her equipment boxes. None of us live in a perfect world and, for many of us, storage space comes at a tremendous premium. How to manage your… Read More »

In a perfect world, we would all have a workspace that is perfectly positioned in front of our best small audiophile loudspeakers. In the real world, we tend to be tethered to our devices, our laptop or, in my case, a… Read More »

Nelson Pass’ name is on the front door of Pass Labs and for good reason. He is very possibly the most important amplifier designer to walk the Earth. Here’s something that not every audiophile knows but is true, though: Nelson… Read More »

Imagine you walk into your favorite local audiophile dealer to spend some time listening to the latest and greatest gear on display. Years ago, most professional stereo salespeople had a short stack of their best Compact Discs ready to play… Read More »

There is a sea change going on in the audiophile hobby coming from the world of electronics – specifically via a whole crop of new-school, Class-D amplifiers (learn more here). These amps are designed around any number of somewhat modern… Read More »

Tekton Design is no longer merely known as the other speaker company from Utah. Today, the company is its own unique phenomenon from the world of audiophile loudspeakers, as head speaker designer and company owner Eric Alexander  has found a… Read More »

The audiophile hobby has always been a bit of a cult of personality, based around mostly male, Baby Boomer engineer types, whose main purpose in life is to find the highest possible quality music playback performance from any and all… Read More »

Accepting that you are repeated loser can be a tough pill to swallow when you have any modicum success in your professional life, but this is where I stand today. The reason for my malaise is that, no matter how… Read More »

Classé is one of the most respected electronics brands in the audiophile world, but the last handful of years have been a bit tumultuous for the company. They’ve been spun-off, sold, and re-sold. Their current owners are thankfully Masimo Consumer,… Read More »

My wife and I recently realized that during our COVID-era lockdown, we inadvertently got away from many of the things that we really enjoyed doing. But for now, we are back out and enjoying life and trying to restore some… Read More »

Sitting in our living room with the inward-facing French doors open to let the cool evening ocean breeze waft in, I cued up my audiophile system for some chill, trip-hop, loungy/electronic jams as my wife and I had a rare… Read More »

Longtime audiophile reviewer Steven Stone was being shy in a recent phone conversation. As far as I can tell, he coined the phrase oligarch audio which describes audiophile components that are priced north of $100,000. By anyone’s measure, that is… Read More »