@Featured

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 »

Having spent many years producing high-quality remastered LPs, when the newly-established electronics division of Mobile Fidelity decided to manufacture a turntable, a natural segue from recording to source component was born. MoFi Electronics was formed, and today produces turntables, cartridges,… Read More »

The Clarus Sextet is a six-outlet power conditioner with advanced surge protection. The Sextet’s smaller sibling, the Duet, has been a staple in my system for nearly five years. At the time, the Clarus Duet was the first power conditioning … 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 »

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 »

The Victrola Hi-Res Carbon (buy at Crutchfield) is the latest turntable from the Victrola brand of turntables. While this brand was once thought of as a maker of phonographs, it is now making products like the Hi-Res Carbon, which has… Read More »

I’ve said it before and I will say it again – the single most important component in any audiophile system are your ears. Surprisingly, this is an often-overlooked topic of conversation among audiophiles, who are (given their age and male-dominated… Read More »

Few mainstream electronics brands offer such a vast array of products and yet still manage to maintain a reputation for quality, customer service, and value as the California-based Monoprice. Looking for a couple THX-certified dual 15-inch 2000-watt subwoofers for your… Read More »

Orchard Audio is a six-year-old audiophile electronics company that is the brainchild of an electronics engineer named Leo Ayzenshtat. Leo has earned his stripes by designing digital electronics for satellites. Yes, the ones that orbit the Earth and cost more… Read More »

Upgrading our audiophile system is a big part of the fun in this hobby. Maybe we want to simply heighten our musical enjoyment by improving the configuration of our audio system. Perhaps recent listening experiences at an audiophile dealer, an… Read More »

The Bluesound Node music streamer (buy at Crutchfield), with its built-in DAC (digital to analog converter), provides a convenient way for consumers to access their preferred music streaming service from the Internet, or from digital music files stored on a… 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 »

The Pro-Ject X1 B (buy at Crutchfield) is a $1,299 mid-range, belt-driven audiophile turntable that is a clear step above the plethora of $350 to $500 more entry-level players flooding the market today. The Pro-Ject X1B turntable features 33, 45, and 78 RPM… Read More »

Founded in 1977, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, better known today as MoFi, has been a leader in producing high quality, remastered, specially plated and pressed versions of previously released LPs. In the late 1980s, they added uniquely remastered Compact Discs… 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 »

RBH’s latest offering, the 61-SF from their Signature Series of audiophile products, sets a compelling standard in the realm of bookshelf speakers. At a glance, this smaller audiophile speaker boasts an unassuming yet sleek design, but it is what lies… Read More »

The market for floorstanding audiophile speakers in the $2,000 dollar range is incredibly diverse, and quite competitive. You can find a pair of speakers in nearly any color, as well as many different shapes and sizes, at this price range.… 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 »

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 »

I recently had the opportunity to review Adcom’s latest update on the Nelson Pass-designed Class-AB $1,395 GFA-555ms power amplifier, and walked away quite impressed by its combination of ample and clean power, retro appeal and astonishing value. As is the story with… 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 »

Streaming music is all the rage for audiophile of all ages and at any level of progress in the hobby. Vinyl has had an unlikely comeback with today’s youth, perhaps as an anti-technology statement to their often-too-connected or too-much-blue-light world… 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 »

There are those outside our beloved hobby who might claim audiophilia is little more than a collection of technological snobs. Others may feel audiophiles are certifiably crazy. They point to the lunacy of the cost of upper level audio systems… Read More »

The Bowers & Wilkins 805 D4 is the latest version of the British audiophile speaker company’s top-of-the-line stand mounted, two-way, front-ported loudspeaker, priced at $8,500 per pair. Two-way stand mount monitors have an audiophile fanbase since they benefit from diminutive… Read More »

I have been fortunate enough to experience GaN amplification since it first dropped into the audiophile world about five years ago. I have even replaced a trusty Parasound A21+ amplifier) that was  in my audiophile gear collection for over a… 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 »

Let’s start with the fact that FIIO is a Chinese company. I’m not sure I’m ready to call the R7 Chi-Fi, however. I’m not sure we have an Oxford definition of the term Chi-Fi, but to me that term is… 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 »

Back in the early 1990s, the PSB Speakers Stratus Gold earned its place as one of my favorite loudspeakers of all time. Even today, these legacy loudspeakers represent some strong, music-first engineering that sets a meaningful bar for what a… 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 »

STAX just introduced the SRM-D10 II portable headphone amplifier, available for sale from the first quarter of 2024. Featuring significant updates from the original SRM-D10, the SRM-D10 II continues to elevate listening experiences for STAX fans worldwide.  The SRM-D10 II… Read More »

If you’re not a modern-day oligarch audio, times may seem uncertain, money a little tight. But if you’re also an audiophile, you still have your system hopes and aspirations. Your dream might be to own an audiophile power amp that… 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 »

Adcom was once one of the most dangerous audiophile creatures on the planet back when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth—when sporting a Sony Walkman was quite stylish. This era predates my audiophile journey by about a decade, but I have… Read More »

The NAD M33 (buy at Crutchfield) is so much more than an integrated amplifier that it’s a shame that we have it listed in our audiophile amplifier category. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Swiss Army Knife of Audio Components category… Read More »

It has become a somewhat common trend to try and eliminate a stereo preamp, particularly in digital-only systems. Connecting an amplifier directly to an audiophile DAC, to some, saves money on component costs, cable costs, and, theoretically, provides a shorter… 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 »

In the very early days of musical playback, as far back as the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, most music devotees bought a console audio system. These units were the ultimate all-in-one. A single, large cabinet housed the stereo power… 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 »

REL Acoustics is a well-known subwoofer manufacturer with fourteen different models across five lines. Unlike many hi-fi companies, REL only makes subs, with a focus on how a sophisticated subwoofer design can extend the capabilities of even the most exotic… 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 »

The $12,000 Bricasti Design M1 has been beating oligarch audio-level DACs exceeding $50,000 in performance since 2010. It has won numerous awards over its tenure and made it into the engineering studios of world-famous music halls and countess audiophile systems… Read More »

When most people think of MartinLogan, the first thing that likely comes to mind is the company’s famous electrostatic speakers like the CLS or the more modern MartinLogan ElectroMotion ESL floorstanding speakers or any number of hybrid electrostatic speakers with… Read More »

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing FutureAudiophile.com for a whole year now, but since our late-2022 launch, we’ve reviewed over 150 audiophile components ranging from very high end to sub-$200 Chi-Fi integrated amps and seemingly everything in-between. Getting back in the… 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 »

Nestled slightly south east of Boulder, Colorado, is a high-end audio company whose name is synonymous with world-class, high-performance gear: Boulder Amplifiers. In fact, Boulder is generally considered by many savvy audiophiles as one of the best overall electronics brands available… Read More »

Loudspeakers are somewhat of a marvel. Where electronic components are designed to efficiently move electrical signals from one place to the next, speakers have the unique job of converting those signals to the mechanical vibrations we perceive as music. Without… Read More »

Quantum physicist and well-known audio engineer Mark Porzilli, someone who has been designing award-winning audio products for decades, has, since 2019, been updating and perfecting his third and latest line array loudspeaker system: The Note. Manufactured by Laufer Teknik, The… Read More »

It is no secret that we at Future Audiophile are fans of GaN technology and have a great deal of respect for AGD Productions for getting on the bleeding edge of this technology. I was so thrilled by AGD Productions… 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 »

We’ve been pretty psyched here at Future Audiophile about Amped America’s presence on the audiophile astral plain. What’s not to love? The company’s affordable Class D amplifiers like the AMP 2400 utilize the same core technologies as amplifiers costing six times… Read More »

The 3050 may be NAD’s newest audiophile integrated amplifier, but it takes little more than a casual glance to see that it’s been inspired by some of their most meaningful legacy products – ones that helped guide the first steps… Read More »

RBH Sound knows a thing or two about speaker design. The Utah-based company has been doing it since the mid-1970s, producing OEM speakers for major players such as McIntosh and JBL before pivoting to focus on their own in-house speaker… Read More »

After my article about three recent in-warranty repairs, my publisher, Jerry Del Colliano, asked me to write about out-of-warranty audiophile repairs. Those are the ones that you can expect to have to pay for. Basically, there are three out-of-warranty repair… Read More »

Magnepan’s LRS+ ($995 per pair) is a somewhat modestly sized planar speaker that operates as a dipolar design, meaning the room contributes to the sound of the speakers more than you’d expect with a typical pair of dynamic speakers. They’re… Read More »

A few years before COVID, I walked into a listening room at a CEDIA show in Denver for an audition of Wisdom Audio’s latest powered and room-corrected speakers. Calling it a room is a stretch, mind you, as these demo spaces are easily assembled… Read More »

Few industries have a wider range in terms of the sizes of companies creating products for public consumption than does the audiophile market. Some companies, such as Harman and Sony, are multi-billion-dollar conglomerates. Others, such as like Orchard Audio, are… Read More »

The Kanto ORA Two-Way Active Wireless Reference Desktop Speakers by Kanto Living offer a refreshing blend of audiophile performance and versatility. Immediately, I was drawn to these speakers and their ability to produce clear and vibrant sound, which seems uniquely… Read More »

The Marantz SACD 30n SACD player (buy at Crutchfield), like the recently reviewed Model 30 integrated amplifier, has a blend of old-school features and design with modern technology. Marantz calls the SACD 30n a complete digital source player, and while… Read More »

In a world where digital streaming dominates the music landscape, there’s a certain charm and nostalgia that comes with spinning vinyl records. For audiophiles and music enthusiasts alike, the warm tones and nostalgic sound of vinyl offer a unique and… Read More »

The human ear is quite an amazing piece of audio gear. It’s an intricate yet vast system of tiny, superbly-tuned components working in sync to convert mechanical energy into what we interpret as sound. Most people, audiophiles included, will go… Read More »

How many people back in the day really knew how special a car designed by Enzo Ferrari was? Today, years after his death, an Enzo-era design from Modena is almost always more than a million-dollar investment. When it comes to… Read More »

One of the ugly truths of consumer electronics is that stuff breaks. When we’re lucky, a malfunction occurs while the product is still under warranty. But what do those warranties actually cover, practically speaking? The following stories draw from my… Read More »

Tekton Design is well known as a disruptive force in the world of audiophile speakers, what with their mix of distinctive design, high value, dramatic dynamics, and even exotic, custom paint jobs. The one thing missing in their very extensive… Read More »

Marantz’s Model 30 integrated amplifier ($2,999 buy at Crutchfield) has a blend of old-school features and design with modern technology, but perhaps not in the way most audiophiles might anticipate. The Model 30 has a classic, old-school interface and feel,… Read More »

For most audiophiles, the road to sonic nirvana often follows the path of increasingly better equipment. Many of us spend decades and untold thousands of dollars replacing an existing something for a something better – all in the hopes of… Read More »

Long before Classé became part of Masimo Consumer (the parent company that also owns Polk, Definitive Technology, Denon, Marantz, and Bowers & Wilkins), the company was making some of the highest-performance audiophile components in the market. I’ve owned past versions… Read More »

When I first looked at the Bluesound Powernode Edge (buy at Crutchfield) streaming amplifier and noticed its retail price of $649, I was taken back to my younger self in the late 1980s when I purchased a Yamaha stereo receiver… Read More »

We talk a lot about how the future of the audiophile hobby needs to be inclusive. We need to ditch some of the old-school standards and practices like only listening in a messy listening room by yourself versus having your… Read More »

The Music Hall MMF 1.3 (buy at Crutchfield) is a high-value turntable priced at a mere $349.99 that nonetheless comes equipped with an Audio-Technica AT3600L cartridge, a built-in phono stage, as well as an electronic 3-speed (33-1/3, 45, and 78… Read More »

In today’s subwoofer market, the SVS SB-3000 subwoofer will be a sweet spot for many in terms of performance, features, and value. It’s far from the most-expensive sub on the market – in fact, it’s not the costliest subwoofer in SVS’s lineup… Read More »

Monoprice has become known for their exceptionally high-value products, often sourced from China. But while the affordability has long been the draw for many shoppers, Monoprice also has a higher-performance lined of amplifiers and speakers and headphones and so forth… Read More »

For the past few months, I have been somewhat obsessed with these new Gallium Nitride (GaN, for short) amplifiers. Long-time Stereophile writer and classical music recording engineer John Marks was the first to hip me to the concept via an … Read More »

Many audiophiles know what a Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series loudspeaker typically sounds like, or at least we think we do. I’ve reviewed my fair share and even been blessed enough to own a couple of pretty cool Bowers &… Read More »

At the AXPONA audiophile show in Chicago this past spring, I had a conversation with a well-respected member of the audiophile community, on the manufacturer side, who was talking about the future of the hobby. His premise was that for… Read More »

Vinyl has witnessed a remarkable resurgence in recent years, capturing the hearts of music enthusiasts seeking an immersive and nostalgic audio experience and a disconnect from an increasingly online world. As the demand for audiophile turntables continues to grow, music… Read More »

The first review published in Future Audiophile was an SMSL integrated amplifier (read the review) that cost less than $175. It is a great little amp with an extensive input and feature set in a small chassis. Today, I’m going… Read More »

The audiophile hobby is guilty of a lot of things, perhaps the most painful of which is our overreliance on often-confusing terminology. This is the case for nearly every category of the hobby. On the pages of FutureAudiophile.com, we try… Read More »

The NAD C 558 (buy at Crutchfield) is a well-crafted, audiophile-grade, belt-driven turntable that is priced fairly but not quite at the bargain-basement levels you’ll often see from more mainstream brands. NAD’s top turntable sets itself apart in its class… Read More »

The Schiit Yggdrasil+ OG (Yggdrasil+) is one of three currently available versions of the company’s flagship, audiophile digital-to-analog converter. OG—in case you’re not familiar with early-1970s street slang or early-1990s hip-hop culture—stands for “Original Gangsta,” because it is the original… Read More »

My publisher, Jerry Del Colliano, says I coined the term “Oligarch Audio,” but because I form all my thoughts in a spoken and written language, in my case English, I doubt I’ve ever had a completely original thought in my… Read More »

RBH Sound from Layton, Utah, has been making audiophile speakers for close to 50 years but doesn’t always get the attention they deserve in the audiophile press.  Perhaps this is because they started off as an original equipment manufacturer (known in the industry… Read More »

SVS, with its 20-plus year history of producing critically acclaimed subwoofers and audiophile-grade speakers at real-world prices, continues this legacy with its latest floorstanding speaker offering: The SVS Prime Pinnacle Floorstanding Speakers (buy at Crutchfield). Designed to fill a niche… Read More »

When Harry Weisfeld founded VPI Industries in 1978, he probably could have never imagined his modest company, initially known for making record weights and isolation bases, would become the market leader it is today. His first commercially successful turntable was… Read More »

There were a lot of things that shocked me during the pandemic. Having sold HomeTheaterReview.com and AudiophileReview.com about 100 days before the shit hit the fan with a global  pandemic, I was trying to figure out at nearly 47 years old… Read More »

Have you heard of Gallium Nitride (GaN) audiophile amplifier technology? If not, let me let you in on a little audiophile secret: unlike loudspeakers, which haven’t benefited from a major technological breakthrough in generations, GaN amplifiers represent a total rethinking of how… Read More »

The Bowers & Wilkins 702 S3 floorstanding speakers ($7,000 per pair – buy at Crutchfield) represents the company’s latest take on the largest model in their 700 series line, which resides just below their reference 800 series. In between its… Read More »

Audiophiles have a long  and strange relationship with video, be it TVs or projection. Many old-school audiophiles refuse to put a television between their best audiophile loudspeakers when home theater enthusiasts use this configuration as the basis for their entire… Read More »

The a25.3 is the latest integrated amplifier from Music Hall. This $650 integrated amplifier produces 50 watts of power per channel into 8 ohms, and 75 watts per channel into 4 ohms, and it comes equipped with Bluetooth, a moving… Read More »

One of the biggest conundrums in the audiophile world is how some change-resistant audiophiles haven’t embraced the amazing power of streaming music. For the cost of one Compact Disc per month, you can have access to nearly every recording made,… Read More »

Welcome to the age of the modern audiophile, where products like the SVS Prime Wireless Pro SoundBase (buy at Crutchfield) make it possible to buy an entire audiophile system for under a grand. Manufacturers have been clamoring to make one-box… Read More »