Equipment Reviews

Network Hub Buying Guides Newsletter Signup Advertisers' Index

Sunday, October 01, 2023

Legacy link:

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: Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 September 2020

I don’t like the idea of meeting my heroes. The athlete likely takes performance-enhancing drugs and womanizes. The inspired yet tortured artist’s genius no doubt springs from a lifetime of trauma, haphazardly managed through substance abuse. And the stunning object -- a car, watch, loudspeaker -- is ultimately only that: an object, a thing, designed and made by beings as imperfect as you and I. The more I obsess about these people and things, the greater the expectation, and ultimately the greater the disappointment.

: Written by: Jeff Fritz; Created: 01 September 2020

It’s easy for reviewers to digest a company’s products by starting at the bottom of a manufacturer’s line and working their way up to the top models. You’re initiated into what that company can do at a lower price, and hopefully you see and hear more and better as you ascend their price ladder. It seems to make psychological sense to experience a company’s line this way, and it often works out just as you’d hope: the higher the price, the better the qualities of build, appearance, and sound.

: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 August 2020

Few spirited e-mail threads are exchanged among the SoundStage! Network’s editorial staff. With so many articles coming out each month that need eyes on them to ensure that they’re squeaky clean for your reading pleasure, I find myself weighing in only when I spot something amiss, or I see a chance to lob a snarky remark at the infallible Jeff Fritz or the Napoleonic Doug Schneider. Recently, however, an objectivist/subjectivist discussion broke out that prominently featured the topic of “bias.” No matter where you are on that continuum, bias is of course unavoidable, and to suggest otherwise would be ignorant.

: Written by: Jeff Fritz; Created: 01 August 2020

I’m not a member of the Everything Matters camp. I won’t list here all the things audiophiles do to alter the sound of their systems, but suffice it to say that I don’t spend hour after hour comparing footers or cable elevators in attempts to season the sound of my stereo to suit my palate. But most things, of course, do matter, and that’s where I focus my attention.

: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 August 2020

Reviewers' Choice I like to think I was ahead of the curve when, in mid-2009, I bought a Benchmark Media Systems DAC1 USB (discontinued) off a dude on Audiogon. That was in the infancy of high-end computer audio, and the well-regarded Benchmark was one of the first mainstream DACs with a USB input. My previous source had been a cheap Sony CD changer (don’t judge -- I was 23), and the Benchmark DAC offered a big step up in sound quality: that immaculate, analytical sound that digital sources of the aughts all seemed to possess. And at the DAC1 USB’s modest price of $1295 (all prices USD), that kind of sound made it a steal.

: Written by: Aron Garrecht; Created: 15 July 2020

Reviewers' Choice EMM Labs’ DV2 ($30,000 USD) digital-to-analog converter is the product of a three-way collaboration of Ed Meitner, EMM’s founder and chief designer, responsible for the DV2’s overall design, hardware, and layout; Mariusz Pawlicki, who engineered the DSP and firmware; and Kris Holstein, who designed the case and mechanics. The DV2 is based on the circuitry of EMM’s DA2 DAC ($25,000), but partners it with EMM’s VControl -- an all-new, very-high-resolution (50-bit), digital volume controller.

: Written by: Jeff Sirody; Created: 01 July 2020

Reviewers' Choice My chronic addiction to Audiophilia nervosa has lasted more than 30 years now, and in that time I’ve owned countless components. Family and friends often joke that I should install a loading dock outside my listening room, to ease the swapping of gear in and out. At one time or another I’ve owned products from almost every major maker of high-end audio equipment, and in some cases -- Conrad-Johnson, Magnepan, Mark Levinson, McIntosh Laboratory, etc. -- several of their current and past offerings.

: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Created: 15 June 2020

Reviewers' Choice “Electrons don’t care what kind of wires they’re in,” an electronics engineer once said to me. He was being glib, but I knew him to be a serious man when it came to audio. He builds great tubed and solid-state gear and has good taste in music.

: Written by: Aron Garrecht; Created: 01 June 2020

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

McIntosh Laboratory is no stranger to that adage. Ever since its founding, in 1949, by Frank McIntosh and Gordon Gow, the company has designed and made audio components oriented more toward those who prefer to buy such a product once or, at most, twice in a lifetime. For that, I applaud them. In this industry, sustainable and profitable rarely go together -- you’re far more likely to see an only slightly revised version of the same product offered every two or three years instead of every five to ten, or even only once every decade or two. This may be forgivable for products in the rapidly evolving digital categories of streamers, DACs, even AVRs -- but for analog gear, and especially amplifiers and preamplifiers, it’s seldom necessary.

: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 May 2020

Despite all evidence to the contrary, there might still be some trusting souls who imagine that all audio reviewers are consummate professionals so seasoned in the ways of audiophilia that mistakes aren’t just few and far between, but nonexistent; that their judgment, honed through years or even decades of experience, is infallible; that the process of sitting down to conduct some critical listening is highly ritualized, even sacred. Let’s imagine what that rite might look like: