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INEX Innovation, Inc. is a small audio company that was founded in 2004 by a group of audiophiles with strong engineering backgrounds in fiber optics and telecommunications. Over the last decade they have developed a digital amplifier that has been well received as have been their pre amplifier and CD Player.(1) Fiber optics has a... Read More »

Manche Tests sind das Resultat langer Planung, andere ergeben sich spontan. Zu letzteren zählt dieser. The Pickup war noch im SME V montiert, den Einstein-Chef Volker Bohlmeier nach der High End zusammen mit dem Air Force One in meinen Hörraum wuchtete. Da ein Test mit zwei Unbekannten wenig Sinn macht, wollte ich zuerst den Tonabnehmer genauer kennenlernen.

As many of you know—and as the title reference to "The Acoustic Revive Chronicles" suggests—over the years I've written quite a lot about the innovative Acoustic Revive audio accessories designed by the brilliant Mr. Ken Ishiguro in Isesaki, Japan. In fact, I've spent more time writing about Mr. Ken's Acoustic Revive accessories than I have... Read More »

"Oh help me, please doctor, I'm damaged There's a pain where there once was a heart It's sleepin, it's a beatin' Can't ya please tear it out, and preserve it Right there in that jar?" —"Dear Doctor" by The Rolling Stones So, first, I wanted apologize for jamming two sets of commentaries, the latter of... Read More »

I love and appreciate tube based audio gear and own sixteen pieces of tube gear between my two reference systems. Without a thorough knowledge of tube types and their substitution possibilities, you may be over-paying for your new or NOS tubes you employ, or just pick the wrong ones. This data is based on my... Read More »

"The digital music business has been a war of attrition that nobody seems to be winning," said David Goldberg, the former head of Yahoo music. "The CD is still disappearing, and nothing is replacing it in entirety as a revenue generator." Its no mystery that the wiring of our world has brought enormous changes in... Read More »

Analog Pearls, Volume 1 Cover Stockfisch Enters the Remastered SACD/DSD Market Some of our readers are familiar with Stockfisch Records. It's a small independent record label based in Germany that was initially known for their recordings of folk music starting in the mid 1970's. More recently, they have gained attention for their Super Audio CD... Read More »

The First Blueport "Audio Transcendence" Award (With a response by Marshall Nack) What does it mean that the onset of Global Warming coincides with the arrival of a theoretical Golden Age of audiophile possibilities? I'll think about that awhile as the emergence of DSD (direct stream digital), after a quarter-century languishing in audio twilight with... Read More »

Talking About Power Distributors (With a response by Jim Merod) Every time I'd get in a new power product, Joe Kubala would come over to check it out. And always, after assessing it, the same question lingered in the air: when—not if—would we see a Kubala-Sosna Power Distributor? During the five years it took to... Read More »

I've never really been into headphones or personal listening, I usually enjoy an engaging experience with a normal 2 channel system where the dynamics are also felt as well as heard. That is one of the biggest things one gives up when going to headphones, as the sound is directed right at the ears rather... Read More »

I have owned several iterations of REL subwoofers over the years. Either as a single unit or in pairs. My first was the Stentor III at 133 lbs, 300 RMS per channel, a single 10 inch downward firing woofer and a MSRP of $5K. I then upgraded to the Studio III which was the top... Read More »

The New Lampizator Generation V DSD DAC (Photo: Brian Moura) In May I attended The Show in Newport Beach with a list of new products I wanted to hear. Near the top of that list were the widely applauded, tube-based Digital to Analog Converters from Lampizator in Europe. They had captured the attention—and dollars—of many... Read More »

Alexia. Everyone wants to know Alexia. Everyone wants to have Alexia. She's the femme fatale who has you wrapped up in dreams of being James Bond on a super secret mission to save the world. She's the supercar that turns on a dime, that lurches forward with every step on the gas pedal; she jumps... Read More »

Audience has made a name for itself over the years by producing very fine interconnect cables, phono cables, speakers, and power chords well as the Teflon Aura-TO (Teflon) capacitors. The star of their product line, which has always received rave reviews, has been their power line conditioners.(1) The Audience power line conditioners are not inexpensive.... Read More »

Thomas Mayer ist ein Hersteller, der bislang in der Highend Szene in Deutschland noch nicht so bekannt ist. International sieht die Sache wieder ganz anders aus; zudem ist er hier auch durch seine fundamentalen Fachkenntnisse ein gesuchter Gesprächspartner. Als Testgerät habe ich die „große“ Vorstufe 10Y ausgewählt

SCHUMANN: Kerner Lieder, Op. 35; Lenau Lieder und Requiem, Op. 90; Liederkreis, Op. 39. Darren Chase, baritone; Sergey Schepkin, piano. Arabesque Recordings Z6852 (download only). TT: 79.12. Darren Chase's Schumann program has a great deal to offer. The baritone has a firm, compact voice that takes on a brighter colour as it ascends. The head... Read More »

I discovered the high end in 1978. But I seemed to have a natural inclination towards high-quality experience. My father was a largely self-trained EE, who was hired at RCA Camden as his first job in the US in 1951. He built our hi-fi systems at home including what I recall as the first stereo... Read More »

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." – Heraclitus That's how I feel about most things in life; I appreciate the subtle differences and I don't like to experience the exact same things over and over. While I certainly have my... Read More »

A golden age only happens in retrospect: By the time you realize you're in one, you ain't. Hell, most of us have a hard enough time deciding the winners of the past (ever been stuck in a Linn Sondek LP12 vs Micro Seki DDX-1000 debate?) so speculating on Audio futures is always a dicey proposition.... Read More »