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This is FutureAudiophile.com’s Featured Review page

SVS SB-1000 Subwoofer reviewed

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SVS SB-1000 Pro Subwoofer Reviewed

The SVS SB-1000 (buy at Crutchfield) is SVS’s entry level subwoofer. It features a 12-inch driver and 325 watts of class D power to ensure that the sub produces plenty of desired low frequency sound. The SB stands for sealed… Read the Review »



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Grace Audio m900 audiophile DAC reviewed

Grace Design m900 DAC Reviewed

An audiophile digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is a device that converts a digital signal into an analog waveform that your speakers can produces and your ears will ultimately understand. DACs are in everything these days. They are ubiquitous devices that perform… Read the Review »


PSB Passif 50 audiophile loudspeakers reviewed

PSB Passif 50 Stand Mount Loudspeaker Reviewed

PSB was founded in 1972 by Paul Barton, a designer who believed speakers should sound natural without adding or subtracting anything from the original recording, which the company refers to as the True to Nature design philosophy. Equally important for the… Read the Review »


The Audio Salon in Santa Monica

Your Next Stereo Store Visit Might Not Be Anything Like What We Knew From The Past

Call me what you want… publisher, editor, entrepreneur, schmuck or just Hey You and I likely will respond quickly and with a smile. Despite running my own publishing business for nearly all of 25 years, I still pretty much consider… Read the Review »


Mark Levinson No. 5909 audiophile Bluetooth Headphones reviewed by Jerry Del Colliano

Mark Levinson No. 5909 Headphones Reviewed

Ask 1,000 people at The Mall of the America if $999 is a lot of money for wireless, over- ear, Bluetooth headphones and you might get a fully unanimous 1000/1000 people saying yes. For audiophiles, we often view things a… Read the Review »


A young audiophile's West Hollywood condo

Why You Never Need to Impress Anybody with Your Audio System

Watching the Internet come to life as a commercial entity in the 1990s, when I was in music/business school, was most eye opening. From the time that I got to South Central Los Angeles to celebrate the pending West Coast… Read the Review »


Paradigm Premier 700F Audiophile Floorstanding Speakers Reviewed

Paradigm Premier 700F Floorstanding Speakers Reviewed

The Paradigm Premier 700F (buy at Crutchfield) is a mid-level floorstanding speaker from Paradigm priced at $1,800 per pair, which puts it right in the fray with many of the best players in the high-value speaker market. These moderately tall… Read the Review »


iFi Gryphon headphone DAC reviewed

iFi xDSD Gryphon DAC/Headphone Amp Reviewed

The iFi xDSD Gryphon (buy at Crutchfield) is a portable balanced headphone amplifier and digital-to-analog converter from a company renowned for both its DACs and its HPAs. It will handle just about any connection you can throw at it, including USB,… Read the Review »


Is breaking in a stereo a thing?

Is Break-In a Thing Science-Based Audiophiles Should Take Seriously?

Two weeks ago, I was on the phone with a public relations executive I hadn’t spoken with in a few years. Frank currently represents PS Audio, Audio-Technica and a few other audiophile brands and he was confirming that he had… Read the Review »


Pro-ject MaiA DS3 Integrated amp reviewed

Pro-Ject MaiA DS3 Integrated Amplifier Review

An integrated amplifier doesn’t have to be physically large to be high performance and fully featured. When I read the initial press release for the Pro-Ject MaiA DS3 I thought, “There’s an amplifier that seems to fulfill all the requirements… Read the Review »


Schiit Audio Saga+ Stereo Preamp Reviewed

Schiit Saga+ Preamplifier Reviewed

Some folks prefer a tube-based preamplifier in their audio system while others prefer a solid-state preamplifier. By tube-based, I mean an audiophile preamplifier which uses a vacuum tube as its principal gain device. In contrast, a passive preamplifier attenuates the… Read the Review »


Sonus faber Lumia V audiophile floorstanding speakers reviewed

Sonus faber Lumina V Loudspeaker Reviewed

Sonus faber has a longstanding heritage of making audiophile loudspeakers for music lovers. It all started in 1983 when fine Italian craftsmanship met fine music appreciation in Monteviale, Italy. Not much has changed since, except that we’ve had advances in… Read the Review »


Audiophile And/Or (revisited)

Revising the Conundrum of And/Or When Buying Audiophile Components

Things have changed quite a bit in the audiophile world as compared with just a few years ago when I left the business to try my hand at being an executive at a publicly traded Fortune 500 company. The pink… Read the Review »


Anthem MCA 225 power Amp Reviewed by Andrew Dewhirst

Anthem MCA 225 Gen 2 Power Amplifier Reviewed

The Anthem MCA 225 Gen 2 (buy at Crutchfield) is a two-channel class A/B audiophile power amp from Anthem, which also has three- and five-channel siblings in the 325 and 525. It puts out 225 watts per channel into eight… Read the Review »


Audiophile careers

How A Motivated Millennial Music Lover Found a Highly Lucrative Career in the Audiophile Business Straight Out of College

Greensboro is much like any other mid-sized, sleepy college town in the Southeast. Home to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), part of a statewide system that quite surprisingly encompasses 17 colleges, universities, and institutions of higher learning,… Read the Review »


Cleer Next Headphones reviewed

Cleer Audio Next Headphones Reviewed

You may be surprised to learn that Cleer Audio sells an audiophile-oriented, wired-only audiophile headphone set. Cleer’s primary user base consists of younger, on-the-go listeners who are seeking headphones that perform at a higher level but also look really cool.… Read the Review »


HIFIMAN Deva Pro wireless headphones reviewed

HIFIMAN Deva Pro Hybrid-Wireless Planar Headphones

Audiophiles love wired headphones. Younger tech fans and music enthusiasts love everything to be wireless. For the past few months, I’ve reviewed nearly every high-performance Bluetooth headphone, from brands such as Sennheiser, Bowers & Wilkins, Mark Levinson, Focal, Technics, Apple,… Read the Review »


Parasound P 6 stereos preamp revieweed

Parasound Halo P 6 Preamplifier Reviewed

Parasound has been offering high-value audiophile gear for three generations now,  including many higher-end products designed by legendary consultant John Curl. Today, they offer a broad range of products, including some revered integrated amplifiers, but if you’re looking to move… Read the Review »


COVID and CES 2023

CES Might Be Dead to Audiophiles Now, But It Was Fear of Illness That Poisoned the Well Long Before COVID-19

When I was 19 years old, I remember literally begging my boss, Christopher Hansen, to go to CES in early 1994. I was off from college, and back then the show was the Super Bowl of all things audio. What… Read the Review »


Scansonic MC20 speakers reviewed

Scansonic HD M20 Compact Floorstanding Speaker Reviewed

Scansonic is relatively unknown speaker brand at this point in the United States, but is uniquely related to some more familiar speaker brands such as Raidho Acoustics and ScanSpeak. In fact, it was developed to showcase ScanSpeak driver technology. Scansonic… Read the Review »


Consider upgrading your seating for a better audiophile experience

Five Low-Cost/No-Cost Audiophile Hacks That Actually Work

Acoustician Bob Hodas, who has tuned and pretty much every good recording studio—from Sony Music and Electric Lady Studios to Van Halen’s 5150 and so many more—also works with enlightened audiophiles seeking real-world, non-voodoo tuning of their rooms. This can mean… Read the Review »


Naim Audio Mu-So audiophile speaker system reviewed

Naim Mu-so 2nd Generation Wireless Music System Reviewed

The Naim Audio Mu-so all-in-one speaker/music system (buy from Crutchfield) is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the merger between electronics firm Naim Audio and French speaker juggernaut Focal. The second generation of the Naim Mu-so is a very slick… Read the Review »


ATC SCM7 v.3 Loudspeakers reviewed

ATC SCM7 v.3 Loudspeakers Reviewed

Most of us have probably listened to music through two-way bookshelf-sized loudspeakers at some point or another. What exactly is a two-way bookshelf loudspeaker? It is a loudspeaker that has two drivers: a small driver called a tweeter that handles… Read the Review »


The Best Buy Location in West Los Angeles

The Problem with Best Buy

One of the advantages of living in a big city is all of the access to various services, products, and experiences. Being a resident of a major metropolis gives you access to cultural, medical, culinary, and—in the case of the… Read the Review »


Bowers & Wilkins Px8 Wireless over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones reviewed

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones Reviewed

There was a time when my dear friend Ethan and I brainstormed the concept of what a true pair of high-end wireless Bluetooth speakers would look, feel, and sound like. On my way to the plane for which I am… Read the Review »


MartinLogan ESL speakers reviewed by Jerry Del Colliano at FutureAudiophile.com

MartinLogan ElectroMotion ESL Loudspeakers Reviewed

There was a time when you could walk through Circuit City or other major electronics retailers and see speakers similar to MartinLogan’s ElectroMotion CLS on display alongside all of the traditional cones-in-cabinets speakers. These days, though, there’s a good chance… Read the Review »


Top To Top Shoe Store in Santa Monica

A Local High End Running Shoe Store Ran Out Of Customers Because of Poor Inventory Policies

One of my stated goals as a consumer is to support local retailers. Sure, I buy my fair share of crap from Amazon.com just like everybody else but when possible, I try to shop local. One store that I used… Read the Review »


Focal Chora 806 speakers reviewed

Focal Chora 806 Loudspeakers Reviewed

It wasn’t long ago that a five-liter V8 engine generated 225 horsepower. Today, technology allows 260 horsepower from a much smaller four-cylinder engine – and the fuel economy is far superior. Well-designed bookshelf loudspeakers from a reputable manufacturer like Focal… Read the Review »


Anthem STR Preamp Review

Anthem STR Stereo Preamplifier Reviewed

Like many of you, I don’t have a perfect listening room, so having room correction built into a preamplifier can be a game changer. The Anthem STR preamplifier (buy at Crutchfield) has Anthem’s ARC GENESIS room correction, bass management for… Read the Review »


GrooveWasher's Mondo Record Cleaning Kit

GrooveWasher Mondo Record Cleaning Kit

It should be obvious that a clean record makes for a better listening experience. There are a multiplicity of ways to clean your records. When you pull a rock through a canyon (which is what a record player does) it… Read the Review »


Polk PSW111 Subwoofer reviewed

Polk PSW111 Powered Subwoofer Reviewed

Small subwoofers make the audio world a better place. I am not sure how the audiophile community once missed out on this news story, but with a modest sub, any music lover can add the entire lower octave of music… Read the Review »


The art of audiophile recycling

Maybe We Need an Audiophile Gear Recycling Program to Kickstart New Industry Growth?

You want to know why I’d rather be a high-end sports car dealer than an audiophile store owner these days? More often than not, high-end cars, over time, wear out or get old. People wreck them more frequently than you’d… Read the Review »


Bricasti M20 Preamp Reviewed

Bricasti Design M20 Stereo Preamplifier Reviewed

Given that many of today’s audiophile DACs, phono stages, and even many modern audiophile amplifiers have their own internal volume controls, it may not be clear why you would ever want to integrate a preamplifier into your modern audiophile music… Read the Review »


Technics EAH-A800 bluetooth wireless headphones reviewed

Technics EAH-A800 Noise Cancelling Over-Ear Headphones Reviewed

Retro is all the rage these days, and a number of companies have taken that mantle leaving the musty pawn shops and cluttered old record stores that sell 1970s gear and turned it into a modern audiophile sales boom. McIntosh… Read the Review »


Sennheiser Momentum in white

Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless Over-Ear Headphones Reviewed

Perhaps my favorite product category of the past five years has been wireless over-ear headphones. There’s been so much growth and improvement in this highly relevant space. The Sennheiser Momentum 4 (buy at Crutchfield) are a next-generation offering in the… Read the Review »


Schiit Modi 3e DAC reviewed by Andrew Dewhirst

In the Audiophile World, Higher Price Doesn’t Always Equal Higher Performance

One of the biggest audiophile fallacies is a pricier or more exclusive product is going to perform better than a more affordable or mass-market solution. Perhaps that was once the case, but new-school audiophiles are increasing supporting manufacturers who deliver… Read the Review »


A vintage copy of Audio Magazine from the 1960s featuring Steven Stone's first audio system

Does Inflation Always Makes Audiophile Products Cost More? Not Always… Here’s How to Cope

If you have a pair of ears, or even only one functioning ear, it’s impossible to avoid the “I” word these days. Most of the inflation news today is bad, and that makes sense as bad news creates media-based user… Read the Review »


Trinnov Amethyst Preamp Reviewed

Trinnov Amethyst Stereo Preamplifier Reviewed

I was introduced to Trinnov more than a decade ago when the company’s Room Optimizer was demonstrated to me through a Sherwood R-972 receiver. Now, more than a decade and hundreds of product demonstrations later, I am still very impressed… Read the Review »


Topping Pre90 Preamp Reviewed

How Chi-Fi Is Re-Energizing the Audiophile Hobby 

Recently, I’ve been asking audiophile industry executives what they think of Chi-Fi or “Chinese Hi-Fi (aka: audiophile components made in China, sold directly to  clients all over the world at often hard-to-conceive-of prices). It has been notable how many were… Read the Review »


Focal's Bathys wireless headphones

Focal Bathys Bluetooth Active Noise Cancelling Headphones Reviewed

The audiophile world is filled with wired headphones that can bring the excitement of live music straight to your head. They can deliver the dynamics of the studio experience without having to worry about the acoustics of the room or… Read the Review »


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