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In the 36 years that I have been reviewing high end audio components, I have steadfastly held the notion that when it comes to cables, most mechanical filtering usually results in deteriorated sound quality. My rationale; it is very difficult to eliminate or reduce undesired artifacts in the sound signal passing through a cable without... Read More »

One of the more commercially successful combinations in the audiophile sphere, over the past decade, has been the amplifier/digital to analog converter combo. You can now choose this combo component from dozens of brands from prices that vary very widely from a few hundred dollars for a basic, no-frills component, to models like the Boulder... Read More »

"Honey, I shrunk the headphone amplifier and DAC," is what the engineers at iFi probably told their marketing counterparts when they first showed them the prototype of the GO blu, and that is hardly an overstatement! When I received the GO blu in the mail, and unpacked the unit, I encountered a component that is... Read More »

For over a decade now, I have auditioned many models of Sonus faber loudspeakers at several audio shows in North America. Although in every case they sounded marvelous, I have always wondered to myself; if they can sound so good when performing at audio show where, more often than not, the room acoustics are anything... Read More »

"Hello beautiful" is what I found myself thinking, as I unpacked the Xavian Ambra Esclusiva speakers from their carton. I am a fan of immaculately crafted furniture, and if any loudspeaker can claim to have cabinets that qualify as finely crafted furniture, the Ambra Esclusivas surely can. After having reviewed hundreds of speakers with cabinets... Read More »

It is hard to imagine any human inhabitant of planet Earth whose life has not been negatively impacted by the current Covid-19 pandemic. However, amidst this dark cloud there are a few silver linings. One of them is the way it has impacted the listening habits of audiophiles. The feedback that I have received from... Read More »

A fairly common thread that runs through most audiophiles who are partial to vinyl rather than digital, is their penchant for tweaking. In contrast to digital domain, where there is a limited scope to tweak the sound, in the analog domain, a cornucopia of tweaking opportunities abound, and many analog buffs revel in them.   ... Read More »

I have come across a few skeptics in the audiophile community who subscribe to the notion that footers do not make much of a difference to the performance of audio gear. To them, I love relating details of a historical sporting event where footers, or in this instance, shoes, made all the difference to the... Read More »

Over the past four decades I have had the pleasure of taking my readers through, and helping them understand many different music formats. During the 1970s we saw the compact cassette take over from vinyl records as the dominant format for music consumed at the mass-market level. The compact cassette was then eclipsed by the... Read More »

After the very successful Toronto Audiofest (TAF) last year, Sarah Tremblay and Michel Plante followed it up with an even more successful Show this year. Sarah and Michel are the team that also organizes the highly regarded Montreal Audio Fest. The TAF venue was once again The Westin Toronto Airport Hotel, which is conveniently located... Read More »

It was around 5 year ago that I learned a valuable lesson; never discount the validity of an audio tweak even, if it does not seem to have any apparent scientific basis, without trying it out first. The component that helped me learn this lesson was the Akiko Audio Tuning Sticks. It was claimed that... Read More »

One of the many reasons why I love the audiophile hobby so much is that it always affords me so many avenues to learn something new and interesting. For example, take the need to "ground" all your audio components. On the surface, grounding may seem like a boring concept. However, if you dig beneath the... Read More »

The people behind Toronto Audio Fest (TAF) are Sarah Tremblay, Michel Plante and Ben Scarcelli. Sarah and Michel are the ones that organizes the Montreal Audio Fest and Ben partnered with them for TAF bringing his valuable knowledge of the Ontario Market. The TAF venue was The Westin Toronto Airport Hotel, which is conveniently located... Read More »

At the last Diana Krall live concert I attended, I happen to be seated next to an elderly woman who took great pleasure in singing, with all abandon, along with Ms. Krall for most of the concert. What made it worse was that she seemed to be quite tone deaf and sang totally out of... Read More »

Having covered audio shows for many decades now, I have learned to take it with a pinch of salt when I hear exhibitors bandy about words like "revolutionary", "game changer", and "new generation" in trying to get you to focus on their products. However, what was different as I started my coverage of TAVES in... Read More »

This year, for the first time in its history, the TAVES Consumer Electronics Show was moved to a non-hotel setting. The 2017 TAVES venue was the Toronto Congress Center in Etobicoke. This suited the organizers goal of transforming TAVES from a predominantly high-end audio show, to a true, all encompassing Consumer Electronics Show. This transition... Read More »

TAVES has been growing exponentially over the past couple of years. In fact last year, it had a growth spurt that would send any teenagers with NBA stars in his eyes, into rapture. In 2014 the show attracted around 5200 people. Last year that jumped to 6500 and this year the growth continued with the... Read More »

Over the past couple of decades, many of my audiophile friends have often questioned my preference for well designed, intelligently engineered 2-way speakers over their 3-way counterparts. This preference has been based not just on listening tests but also on the fact that 2-way speakers enjoy some significant advantages over all but the very best... Read More »

I have come across many audiophiles who have truly splendid turntables, tone arms, and cartridges, of which cost them an arm and a leg. Nevertheless, they still may not enjoy the best that vinyl has to offer if the bottleneck in their audio arsenal is their phono preamplifier. There is no doubt that the phono... Read More »