Ever since my first listen to a full MBL system at an audio show, I have marveled at the company’s sound. MBL’s omni-directional loudspeakers, which resemble no other loudspeakers on the planet, project music with such an air-filled, enthrallingly three-dimensional soundstage that, when I’ve listened to any of my familiar reference recordings through MBL equipment, […]

Introduction On a recent Friday afternoon, a brown UPS truck rolled up to my door with a delivery.  While this in itself is not an unusual event at my house, things began to get a bit surreal when the driver asked where the loading dock was located.  Soon thereafter, I walked out to the truck […]

Occasionally, newsworthy articles appear devoted to exposing insider secrets of industries such as retail banking, online stores, insurance companies or car dealerships. A common revelation is that the public is overpaying for underperformance. Some of the practices are not consumer-friendly, so typically a call is made for reform. Consider this an “insider’s secrets” article for […]

KingRex is a Taiwanese company specializing in compact computer-based home stereo systems using Class T amplification.  Like the Trends Audio System, KingRex seems ideally tailored to computer desktop systems and audiophiles who wish to have a system in a small space.  Indeed, such a system is also ideally tailored for those audiophiles who have wives […]

These great looking little wonders have been making big news on the Audio Show Circuit. How couldn’t they be with someone as enthusiastic and welcoming as Mr. Wei Chang demonstrating them, but it takes more than enthusiasm to make a real buzz. It takes something you can really hear. My first opportunity to hear this […]

The First Watt SIT-1 is a single-ended Class A monoblock power amplifier that uses a single transistor, no feedback, and no output transformer. Let me just start the review by saying two things. First, this amp does not sound like a world class 300B SET amp. Second, if you like the sound of 300B SET […]

Background Linn is such a well known and respected name in the high-end audio market that I’m not sure that it was a good thing to name a new speaker company Linn Audio. To be fair their founder is David Linn, an Electrical Engineer, who is also a lifelong lover of music and audio. He […]

About a year ago I had the pleasure of reviewing a speaker that was to become my personal reference, the Eficion F300. My strong feelings for this speaker have only grown even stronger as I got to know them better, and had the opportunity to really “dial them in” to my room and system. Fortunately […]

Channel D / Merrill Audio / TAD Merrill Wettasinghe of Merrill Audio and Rob Robinson of Channel D were on hand.  Rob was “spinning” some excellent-sounding “Pure Vinyl.”  This room overall was a real treat to the ears. The system included the superb Merrill Audio Veritas monoblocks (which I reviewed earlier this year), the TAD […]

Saskia /EMIA / TelWire Here is a room that really defied my audiophile sensibilities. Mr. Win Tinnon of Win Tinnon Audio teamed up with Mr. Dave Slagle of EMIA to put together a rather stunning display of what can be done when much care and purposeful design and execution are the order of the day. […]

Incredible as this may seem, RMAF 2013 was my first experience attending the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. What first struck me about the show was its sheer size. This is far from being simply a regional audio show. While I have covered many regional shows over the past several years on these pages, I must […]

The more things change…. A very wise man once told me, “Everything changes, nothing stays the same”. I sure have changed over the last fifteen years of reviewing. What I value in life and in audio has changed. My taste for obscure audio for instance has moved a bit more towards the mainstream of audio […]

Omega Speaker Systems has been building speakers since 2001, and they are all handmade in Norwalk, Connecticut. All of the company’s 3-series speakers are single-driver speakers. The company also has a full production line of other speakers including the Hoyt-Bedford line of floor standers and monitors, plus a subwoofer. The company sells through a dealership […]

I’m going to list just my three rooms All three were head and shoulders better than any of the other rooms I heard. (I suppose it says something about me that so many of the rooms that other’s raved about, sounded boring and without soul to me. ) My three favorites very different from one […]

This year’s RMAF was better than ever. I decided to make my major emphasis on the equipment I had not covered at the California Audio Show. I will get to some of that later. Let me start with a brief run through and then I’ll come back with a few articles on specific room and […]

Shot in the heart, and they are to blame. Having just reviewed a pair of 200lb mono amps, the notion of reviewing a couple pair of interconnects was a huge relief for my back in particular. There is nothing in the audio chain that slips into the system with such ease and simple mindedness- true […]

I’ll start this review with two confessions. First, when I first saw the HB Cable Design PowerSlave distributors, I thought these have to be the most expensive, best looking power bars I had ever seen. To be honest, they seemed a little ridiculous; I mean there is no traditional kind of power conditioning going on […]

The Norwegian audio company Electrocompaniet, with which you are probably familiar, has been around for about 40 years, and has a special place in my personal HiFi history. As many of you know for many years I listened to what we now call the QUAD 57 Electrostatic Speakers. I tried amps from QUAD, Marantz, McIntosh, […]

Since 1995, Ultimate Ears has revolutionized the way artists perform music onstage with their professional custom-fit earphones. The company got their start in the back of a tour bus and has since grown to be a standard for touring musicians around the world. In 2008, industry giant Logitech purchased Ultimate Ears and has continued to […]

When I got a call from John McDonald there was no mistaking his excitement over his new baby loudspeaker. My first thought was I can’t wait to hear these little speakers, my second thought was I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone so excited about their least expensive product.  John calls this tiny speaker “The […]

HeadAmp first started designing headphone amps in 2002 while owner and chief designer Justin Wilson was still in college. Justin was making headphone amplifiers based on designer Kevin Gilmore’s design and selling them first through a now defunct website called Headwize. Most of the marketing is done now through Headfi.org , the largest headphone community […]

The Fritz Speakers and WyWires room was a revelation. I heard several other reviewers say the same thing. My best description of this room was it is what I would consider an incredible price for a true high end system. There were several rooms at the show that had outstanding sound for the money. One […]

I first heard Inner Sound electrostatic speakers, the predecessors to Sanders Sound speakers, nearly a decade ago at an audio show.  I was immediately impressed and each successive year at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest I made a point of listening to them, often bringing friends to do the same.  At last year’s RMAF I spent […]

This was the first time I attended the California Audio Show, now in its fourth year. It was also my first time organizing a section of the show and I am thankful for all the people who helped me to make the event a major success. The HeadMasters vendors who were present there made for […]

Blue Coast Records Cookie Marenco was doing a live recording utilizing the Sonora DSD Recording system developed by Sony. The recordings featured Steve McQuarry on Yamaha Grand Piano and Ted Burik using an acoustic bass. The 8-channel recording was done with the EMM Meitner A-D/D-A converter, Korg 2000 mixer and the Sony AR1 speakers . […]

I remember the days when I used to scour listings of used gear looking for that “world class” component being sold for a song. I sought something that was respected and well known enough that if it didn’t suit my taste I could resell it for a break even demo. The upshot was that I […]

Acapella Van Schweikert Speakers & Raven MSR Audio Note Audioengine Music First Audio Salk Signature Sound    

The audiophile mind treats cables differently than components.  Be it a turntable, digital player, preamplifier, power amplifier or speakers, we are comfortable in putting our finger on what has changed and what improvement has been wrought, because it is easy to describe fundamentally different designs in the product category.  This is precisely one reason cable […]

It has been many, many years, (perhaps 25 or even 30?) since I have had my system decked out in MIT cables. Back when I discovered the joy of electrostatic speakers I splurged and invested in some MIT CVT interconnects and speaker cables. Those were in my system for a number of years until I […]