Half way into the 2013 California Audio Show, at the dimly lit bar of the Westin Hotel I sat with a hand full of other audiophiles, comparing notes on exhibits we had heard. A soon to become audiophile buddy and I started to talk about cables. He eventually asked if I had heard of the […]

Line Magnetic is an intriguing brand out of Mainland China. The owner of the company has for many years been restoring Western Electric amplifiers, loudspeakers, and drivers and operating as an OEM manufacturer for other more mainstream audio brands. This seems to be rather common in China with many companies first serving as OEM makers […]

A couple of years ago, I was faced with what seemed to be a straightforward question. It was however very much a loaded question. “What is the single most significant musical event you have experienced in your life thus far?” I reluctantly responded in the context of an audiophile event, specifically a one-of-a-kind audio system […]

Last year was the first audio show for Gordon Burwell and his sons to bring their custom built speakers to the audiophile world. While the cabinets were exceptional and many of us would drool over the vintage Altec drivers, the speakers still seemed to be a work in progress to me. Both Gordon Sr. and […]

Publisher’s note: highend-electronics.com, the U.S. Importer of Voxativ, advised Dagogo during the fact-check reading of the official draft in October that the Ampeggio, the model being reviewed has been discontinued.  As this advice came not during the review period but after the official draft was submitted for fact-check, we offered highend-electronics.com the opportunity to provide […]

The Ray Brown Trio Soular Energy ANALOGUE PRODUCTIONS 200g 45rpm 2LPsMastered by Kevin Gray at CohearentAudio Musicians:
Ray Brown, bass Gene Harris, piano
Gerryck King, drums
Red Holloway, special guest, tenor sax Emily Remler, special guest, guitar Tracks:
LP1 – Side One:
1. Exactly Like You
2. Cry Me A River
LP1 – Side Two:
1. Teach Me Tonight
2. Take The “A” Train
LP2 […]

Acoustic Zen and Triode Corporation Room Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen makes wonderful speakers in San Diego, California. I should probably also mention that Mr. Lee is one of the nicest hosts around, and a true gentleman.He was showing his Crescendo loudspeakers ($16,000/pair), which use a slightly horn-loaded ribbon tweeter, two 5″ midrange drivers, and […]

Ok, I’m kidding, but I couldn’t not mention that the “New England Lobster Market & Eatery” was by far the best lobster I have eaten outside of Maine. I understand they supply lobster to many of the seafood restaurants in the Bay Area. Whatever they were doing, it was GREAT!!!! Best Audio System At CAS […]

The Duette Series 2s were in a great room on the second floor. I should mention one of the best things about this show was the great size of the rooms on the first and second floor as well as the corner rooms on the third floor. This was not a room I expected to […]

King Rex is a Taiwanese company making affordable audio products as an entry way for audiophiles to get into better computer audio reproduction at reasonable prices. I recently reviewed their T20U class T integrated amplifier which had its own on-board USB DA converter, allowing users to connect their computers up and enjoy music. However, the […]

Big Bands Live – Duke Ellington Orchestra – Live at Liederhalle Stuttgart, March 6, 1967, Jazz Haus 101-722 180 GRAM VINYL + FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD Recorded live at Liederhalle Stuttgart on March 6, 1967 Side a: • Take The “A“ Train • Johnny Come Lately • Swamp Goo • Knob Hill • Eggo Side b: […]

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 […]