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Thursday, September 18, 2025

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This new site was launched in July 2010. Visit the older site to access previous articles by clicking above.

Ultra Audio's site platform was changed in August 2010. For equipment reviews previous to that, use this link to transfer to the old site.

: Written by: Jonathan Gorse; Created: 01 March 2024

Reviewers' Choice History, technology, and design

Last year, Naim Audio celebrated its 50th anniversary. It’s incredible to think that there have only been four iterations of Naim’s core model range during those 50 years. Put that in the context of mass-market brands that revamp their entire product line every year, and you’d think the R&D engineers in Salisbury spend most of their day playing croquet on the corporate lawn before retiring inside for a spot of tiffin! I have been behind the scenes, though, and the factory is a hive of activity. The place has a vibe reminiscent of Bletchley Park, where the Enigma code was cracked during WW2: a hodgepodge of buildings and a whole lot of boffins. Serious-looking types stare intently at advanced CAD workstations, while others bustle about in white or beige engineer’s coats, taking prototype next-generation audio hardware under cover into secret listening rooms.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 15 February 2024

Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

It was a snap decision. Back in May, at the 2023 High End show in Munich, Germany, I found myself sitting in YG Acoustics’ room getting the cobwebs of a hangover blasted out of my skull by the Denver, Colorado, company’s new Ascent speakers. The room was populated by a bunch of young folks, all wearing YG Acoustics polo shirts, all extremely enthusiastic, all ready to talk about the company’s speakers, and all more than ready to take musical requests. It was a fun visit, and I was exceptionally keen to get in a pair of these new speakers for review. So I put a bug in the ear of CEO Matthew Webster, and followed up several times via email to make it so.

: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 February 2024

Audionet’s Humboldt integrated amplifier ($58,750, all prices USD) is one of the most imposing amplifiers I’ve ever reviewed. For starters, it’s the most expensive product that’s taken up residence in my listening room by quite some margin. The Humboldt is also physically imposing, weighing in at just over 134 pounds and measuring 12.6″H × 17.8″W × 19.9″D. To put it mildly, it’s a brute.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 15 January 2024

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (see what I did there?), I’d like to tell you about a new optical cartridge from DS Audio—the DS-W3. As some of you may know, I’ve spent the last year or so listening to the DS 003 optical cartridge, which is mounted on my VPI Prime Signature turntable. I’ve written extensively about this technology, which, while it isn’t exactly new, has recently surfaced as the Next Big Thing in analog playback. I’ll lay my cards on the table right now—I’ve been smitten by these cartridges.

: Written by: Jonathan Gorse; Created: 01 January 2024

Reviewers' Choice Design and technology

Wales isn’t well known for its audio manufacturers, but Leema Acoustics and subwoofer specialist REL Acoustics are doing their best to change all that. Leema can trace its origins back to 1998, when its two founders, ex-BBC engineers Lee Taylor and Mallory Nicholls, came together to design their first loudspeaker, the Xen. This project took four years of intensive and innovative development, resulting in a small loudspeaker that—the company claims—can outperform speaker systems many times its size. The Xen was squarely aimed at the professional audio market for mixing and related applications, but the firm soon realized it had a product that hi-fi enthusiasts desired, too.

: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 December 2023

Reviewers' Choice Tokyo-based Technical Audio Devices Laboratories (a.k.a. TAD) is a company I’ve long admired. My first exposure to the brand occurred over a decade ago at CES in Las Vegas, Nevada—the first electronics show I ever covered. TAD’s room in the Venetian Hotel, where the high-end audio exhibits were housed, featured their Reference One mk2 flagship loudspeaker, finished in gorgeous Beryl Red. I was gobsmacked by the outstanding clarity of its beryllium tweeter, which was nestled in the middle of a beryllium midrange in a coaxial configuration. Because I was mainly covering budget gear back then, the notion of reviewing a pair of TAD speakers seemed as remote as Pluto. But the seed had been planted. This year, when TAD demoed their new Compact Evolution One TX ($32,500 per pair, all prices in USD) at the Florida International Audio Expo in February, I got to meet the TAD team, including CEO Shinji Tarutani. Several months later, a pair landed on my doorstep. Game on.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 15 November 2023

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.

Marcia likes to wake up earlier than I do. On weekdays she gets up around 5:30 a.m. and writes in her journal for about 45 minutes. She sits in our darkened living room, and she lights about a half-dozen candles, including one thick beeswax job that ends up with a giant wick.

: Written by: Jonathan Gorse; Created: 01 November 2023

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of reviewing Chord Electronics’ new Ultima Pre 3 preamplifier. Along with the Ultima preamp, Chord shipped me the subject of this review: the matching Ultima 6 power amplifier ($9925, all prices in USD). My first encounter with these components was in February this year at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show. I was impressed enough with what I heard to request review samples.

: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 October 2023

Reviewers' Choice You’d be forgiven for looking at Vivid Audio’s Giya G3 Series 2 loudspeaker ($43,000 per pair, $45,500 per pair as reviewed; all prices USD) and thinking it seems more like an exercise straight out of a design student’s sketchbook than a serious attempt at creating a state-of-the-art loudspeaker. But lead designer Laurence Dickie—the brains behind former employer Bowers & Wilkins’s Matrix cabinet-bracing system and the English firm’s iconic Nautilus loudspeaker—wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s always easy to draw parallels between the automotive and audio sectors, and if that’s fair, I like to compare Vivid Audio with Citroën of the 1950s and 1960s,” Dickie told me. “The Citroën DS was a very curvaceous, aerodynamic design with an awful lot of engineering innovation, and its shape really did divide people. There are those who dismissed it as a frog on wheels, but I like to think we’re [like Citroën]. We’re not afraid of sticking our necks out.”

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 01 October 2023

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.

In this strange time of instant gratification, instant retrieval of information, same-day delivery of purchased goods, and honest-to-god artificial intelligences, it’s good to slow down and return to a simpler age. I’m not suggesting that you start to churn your own butter, but sometimes it’s good to turn off all that stuff and subtract a century from your lifestyle, if only for a few hours.