@Featured

The Benchmark DAC3 HGC (buy at Amazon) is one flavor of many in their DAC 3 line-up. The HGC model is a full-featured, mature DAC rocking the latest and greatest ESS ES9028PRO chipset. At 37 years strong, Benchmark has been making studio-grade electronics… Read More »

The Andover SpinDeck 2 (buy at Amazon) is a belt-drive turntable that uses a jazzy AT-3600 phono cartridge from Audio-Technica. With a price tag of just $299, this product is aimed at entry-level listeners, and Andover has added some thoughtful features that will… Read More »

The HIFIMAN HE-R9 is a wired, closed-back headphone from a company primarily known for its open-back offering. It’s a somewhat entry-level pair priced at at $369with a 3.5 mm TRS connection, along with a 6.35mm adaptor so you can plug… Read More »

There are a lot of things the audiophile world does well. For decades, we presented the coolest new tech at the Consumer Electronics Show. More importantly, the audiophile hobby allows us to bring music into our lives in ways that is often… Read More »

Right now, I’m on a crappy flight in United (seat 1E on a crappy old Trump-Shuttle-era  757) en route home from a very well-attended and produced AXPONA 2023 audiophile show. Props the the AXPONA people, who put a lot of… Read More »

One of my favorite places on Earth is the North County region of San Diego. Sound United (right before they got bought by medical technology company Masimo for a cool $1,000,000,000) moved to a sleepy little cul-de-sac in Carlsbad, with… Read More »

From my latest experiences, it is high time we stop discounting Class D amplification as a serious high-fidelity  option. Like the screaming metal-dome tweeters used in loudspeakers from the 1980s era that have been turned into refined resolution machines by… Read More »

About eight years ago, PS Audio introduced the PerfectWave DirectStream DAC to quite a bit of audiophile fanfare. It immediately garnered significant acclaim and was praised for its sonic capabilities relative to its price. Introduced late in 2022 (but not… Read More »

The Stellar S300 stereo amplifier is PS Audio’s entry-level two-channel amplifier (buy at Amazon) targeted at those thinking of upgrading from a receiver or integrated to quality separates. Make no mistake, though: entry-level or not, this is a serious amplifier. … Read More »

When Mark Knopfler famously sang about “money for nothing and chicks for free,” he might have over-exaggerated the glamor of working in consumer electronics, but not by that much. Never have I had so much fun going to work in… Read More »

In the early days of digital audio, Ed Meitner was frequently asked about circuit design from industry people interested in his ideas. It was this recognition of an insight into digital audio that led to one of the most innovative… Read More »

I was first introduced to audiophilia by way of an all-McIntosh system when I was 15 years old. I was still riding a bicycle and most of the music I heard was by way of a handheld AM transistor radio… Read More »

The Topping A90 Discrete ($599 buy at Amazon), while marketed principally as a headphone amplifier, ranks as one of the most ideal analog preamplifiers I’ve used. A couple of months back, I reviewed Topping’s Pre90 analog preamp. The A90 Discrete… Read More »

The Music Hall Classic turntable (buy at Amazon) features an intriguing mix of traditional design elements and modern technology and features. The turntable comes packaged with a tonearm and cartridge, which are partially assembled so the listener can go from… Read More »

When Paul McGowan and Stan Warren founded PS Audio in 1973, their first product was a standalone phono preamp. After several different design iterations, the PS Audio Phono Preamplifier was introduced in 1975. Now, some 48 years later, PS Audio… Read More »

Audiophiles tend to fall into a number of different camps when it comes to the philosophy of system design. The first one if the Linn Camp, which suggests that your system is only as good as your main source component.… Read More »

At $849 per pair, the PSB Alpha T20 floorstanding speaker (buy from Crutchfield) from the legendary Paul Barton at PSB is the company’s entry-level tower. It features a 0.75-inch black anodized aluminum dome tweeter, two 5.25-inch textured polypropylene woofers with… Read More »

Focal introduced its top-of-the-line wired headphone model, the Utopia, in 2016. In the seven years since, the company has developed some new ways to improve the design. The improvements and time since the initial launch warranted a revision of the… Read More »

There was no more unifying concept for my college buddies and me than going Compact Disc shopping. In the mid-1990s, the CD was the unquestioned king of all silver-disc media, and when we weren’t spending every free dollar on audio… Read More »

The Stellar PowerPlant 3 AC regenerator ($2,999) is PS Audio’s entry-level power regenerator intended for powering audiophile source components as well as small to medium power Class AB amps or high efficiency Class D amps in smaller to medium sized… Read More »

Las Vegas is the undisputed gambling mecca in the United States and perhaps the world. Home to casinos galore, breathtaking hotels, entertainment of all varieties and even a surprising amount of debauchery, Vegas is a gambler’s paradise. Catering to all… Read More »

If you’re an audio hobbyist, you are probably aware of Pass Labs, its founder Nelson Pass, and the company’s reputation for innovative audiophile amplifiers, preamplifiers, and integrated amplifier designs. All the company’s amplifiers are solid-state designs (meaning that transistors amplify… Read More »

By any reasonable measure, the T+A SD 3100 HV Streaming DAC is a world-class audiophile component with numerous features and a high degree of engineering excellence. Designed completely in house by a group of 12 full-time staff engineers and even two physicists,… Read More »