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At the enthusiast audio shows I have visited in the USA over the years, I've always thought that year-to-year, the Audio Note (UK) rooms had some of most consistently excellent musicality & sonics of all the show rooms I visited. The fact that those Audio Note (UK) show rooms utilized relatively modestly priced equipment and... Read More »

FTA cables are extremely luxurious Some of you may have have seen my Final Touch Audio Callisto USB cable review (HERE). If not I suggest going back in time and giving it a read. The short summary is that the Callisto USB cable changed my thinking about if a USB cable could actually have a... Read More »

In a high performance / high resolution audio system everything matters. Every link in the chain needs to be optimized to the greatest extent possible, including cabling and connections. Good power and signal connections require quality connectors. n my experience, connector quality is a significant contributor to good cable performance. Connection points can be sources... Read More »

Dragon2 USB Cable by Dragonfire Acoustics After 8 years of development by Dr. C, creator of Dragonfire Acoustics, comes his statement product:  the Dragon2 USB Cable. Trying it in comparison to the best of the best of the USB cables that I have access to here brought its attributes into focus. With superb solid connectors... Read More »

Focal are a company who need no introduction in the world of Hi-End audio. With a well-established vertically integrated base, the French company have developed a strong foothold in an already saturated marketplace. Originally versed in loudspeaker technology, the brand have made use of their extensive R&D knowledge to create a line-up of game-changing headphones.... Read More »

Core Power Deep=Core 1800 Sometimes the job of an audio reviewer is hard. This is especially true for things like cables, power conditioners, and other components outside of source devices, preamplifiers, amplifiers, and speakers. Not only is there a fundamental debate in the audio world over whether or not these non-audio producing / processing devices... Read More »

Just a mere month ago, Audio Tourism looked like the next new thing. Given the continuing demise of brick-and-mortar retail salons, regional, national, and international audio shows were popping up all over—how brilliant was having a show in Florida in February, not in Miami, not in Orlando, and not during school vacation week? But then,... Read More »

With a strong pride for American-built products, Schiit are the company behind some of the best value for money propositions in the amplifier and DAC market. Their playful style and thematic nomenclature have helped entice a wealth of consumers into the entry-level market, earning them many accolades from across the globe. The Schiit Vidar is... Read More »

The telltale sign that everything was right—better-than-right—appeared when I set my CH Precision M1.1 monoblocks to produce a flat response, meaning bass, mids, and treble were output in equal measure, just as they were designed to do at the factory. Previously, I had found it necessary to boost the mids (or lower the treble) to... 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 »

The Road Goes On Forever...  A long time ago, a wise old soul told me that if folks work hard and save their pennies, they can likely afford to pursue a single spend-iferous hobby during an otherwise humdrum human existence...And although I doubt the veracity of that anecdote, I get where he was going with... Read More »

Jump back in time to May 2016; Beth and I are going through probably the most difficult period of transition in our lives together. We'd just sold our house of thirty years, and our closing date was rapidly approaching. And we were in a mad scramble to move all our belongings into multiple storage units.... Read More »

DethonRay is a new boutique audio brand started by Anson Tse— a figure with many years of experience in the industry of personal HiFi. Their first and only product so far is the DethonRay DTR1 Prelude—a compact digital audio player that does without the bells and whistles of contemporary players, and focuses primarily on sound... Read More »

"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue." Has anyone not heard that famous phrase before? If not then I have seriously dated myself and will move on. That being said though, all of that phrase is exactly what the TNJ Turntable is all about! One of the never changing rules in this business /... Read More »

Exploring the possibilities over the last few years on the digital front has been both rewarding and frustrating. I have reviewed or auditioned several cutting edge components, including the Esoteric K-01X SACD Player/DAC ($20,000), PS Audio Direct Stream DAC ($6000), Berkeley Alpha Reference Series 2 DAC ($16,000), the Aurender N-10 Music Server ($8000), and I... Read More »

When it comes to projecting a sound-field that images well, especially in this day and age of speaker manufacturing, performance can work in the favor of the smallish speaker. Even very small designs can image like crazy, particularly listened too in the near field. But to truly reach the peak that is live music, a... Read More »

I am an imaging junkie. Musical images, properly recorded, must have realistic tonality, unwavering stability, a rounded aspect, and—whether vocal or instrumental—must be room-present. Dr. John Coolege, a writer for TAS once exclaimed, "The music has blood in it." Zesto Audio's new Leto Ultra preamplifier is bloody wonderful, and USA made! George Counnas, the award-winning... Read More »

The savvy audiophile is keenly aware of the weakest link of the chain theory when it comes to our hobby. The arena of vinyl playback is one place where this event is illuminated with the brightest of lights. Vinyl hobbyists will debate cartridge types, turntable drive formats, and the methodology for cleaning vinyl, however all... Read More »

We live in exciting times for phono reproduction, a new golden age for LPs from manufacture to playback. The key lesson learned since the production of full-range stereo LP recordings in 1958, some taped in stereo as early as 1954 and released in 1958, is this:  the weakest part of the chain is playback in... Read More »