@Featured

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

$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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »