@Featured

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 at the… Read the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 it does not handle… Read the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 for, you… Read the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »

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 the Review »