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Don't Mess with Success   Armed with a seemingly boundless reservoir of engineering creativity, a healthy dose of professional humility, and keen market instincts, the stealth-like stalwarts at San Francisco-based Parasound continue to re-calibrate accepted price-vs-performance expectations in the high end. The firm has survived (and thrived) not by touting revolutionary design advances to its... Read More »

Audio is all about good times. At least, it should be. Yes, I'm like everyone else in this silly hobby, poring over the mysteries of phono cable capacitance or trying to squeeze gear the size of a Mennonite hope chest into a room too small for much hope to fit. Still, at the risk of... Read More »

SPEC Corporation is a Japanese company founded by Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki, former chief engineer of TEAC and Pioneer, in order to achieve one goal: to provide a tube sound with solid-state amplifiers. The RPA-MG1000 amplifier is its latest and the most expensive product. And it's a Class D one. If we were to adopt an... Read More »

As many of you know, Luxman has a long and proud tradition in the HiFi industry. Within that history, the HiFi press has bestowed accolades to many of their models over the years. Recently Victor Chavira and I at PF got a chance to review an integrated amplifier in their lineup, the LX-380 to be... Read More »

A little over three years ago, I reviewed the original PS Audio Sprout integrated amplifier (HERE). That unit received widespread acclaim throughout the audio press for its feature set, performance and price. However, those who paid attention to my review would recognize that though I respected it for its effort and its potential significance in... Read More »

The H590 is an extremely important device for Hegel Music Systems. Basing only on the description, it would seem very similar to the H190 model, which we reviewed in High Fidelity, and it was featured on our cover, in November last year (HF | No. 163). Even comparing their features would suggest these are very... Read More »

The image above is presented as proof of my credentials for reviewing vacuum tube integrated amplifiers. The photo of my younger son was taken two decades ago sitting next to the Air Tight Acoustic Masterpiece M-101 integrated amplifier (audioMusings Issue 6, 1998 HERE). The infant is now a grown man and moved on to pursue his... Read More »

Introduction to the AVM I love audio components that offer a lot for the money. The Evolution A5.2 Integrated Amplifier is just such piece of audio gear. Built by German audio manufacturer, AVM, the A5.2 is a part of AVM's extensive Evolution line of high fidelity components. AVM has been building HiFi gear since 1986,... Read More »

When Mark Still contacted me in June about reviewing his handcrafted Still Audio EL84 integrated amplifier (below) I was immediately intrigued, particularly when Mark urged me to give it a try with my pair of vintage Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers, whose visceral musicality I adore. I was impressed with Mark's chassis design for his Still... Read More »

Luxman Corporation of Japan celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015. In late 2017 into early 2018, the high-end audio manufacturer introduced several new models to its already extensive lineup of preamplifiers, amplifiers, integrated amplifiers, source components, and cables, and established its own distribution in the United States. One of the introductions was the L-507uXII integrated amplifier,... Read More »

A Distinguished Legacy My use of, and admiration for, the expansive range of audio products from British manufacturer Musical Fidelity (recently purchased by none other than Heinz Lichtenegger, the director of Pro-Ject Audio Systems and a close friend of retiring Musical Fidelity head Antony Michaelson) dates back almost 20 years. In the late 1990s I... Read More »

I wanted, I really wanted to start this text somehow differently, to escape from the memories from the review of the Chopin MkIV by Struss Amplifiers, but I gave up—though never I had an amplifier from this company, our paths have been crossing in one way or another for some time. For the last time we... Read More »

I don't know if you've already read the Fonica i Thorens – historia pewnej współpracy (Polish) article by Mr Paweł Cendrowicz and Maciej Tułodziecki that was published in September's issue of the High Fidelity (No. 161)—if you haven't let me encourage you to do so. It shows the mechanism of contacts between Polish audio companies looking... Read More »

John Marks essays the Ars-Sonum Filarmonia integrated in this article. In doing so, he's revisiting...he had given a very favorable evaluation of an earlier iteration of the Filarmonia some ten years ago, while writing for Stereophile.  An offer to Positive Feedback by long-time audio friend Rich Brkich of Signature Sound provided John with the opportunity to hear... Read More »

The SPEC company and its founder, Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki, as well as its main constructor, Mr. Banno Tsutomu, have a special place in my heart. I was the first person from outside Japan to test the company's products and my relationship with Mr. Shirokazu is especially close. It was no coincidence that he described the... Read More »

Technics is on a roll. Leave it up to the brand which helped define consumer HiFi in the 70s, to continue delivering the goods in 2017. That's quite the stretch, in a competitive industry like the entry level consumer HiFi market. Looking though their luxe, visually bold website, nay, experience portal, one can't help reminisce... Read More »

A few times I've been lucky enough to review a product before the rest of the audio-press get their red-hot hands on it, but mostly I've been Gary-come-lately to the audio-party. I'm grateful of course, for opportunities to be the first to review a new offering; but while plotting how to get ahead of the... Read More »

This article, by Dave Clark, Larry Cox, Francisco Duran, and Roger McNichols, originally ran when audioMUSINGS was in print - Issue 4, 1998. Let's see, a 50-watt integrated amplifier for $3600 (okay, $3595). I'd be the first to agree that this seems like a lot of money, but in all reality (audiophile "reality," that is) this... Read More »

If you have the slightest interest in all things audiophile—and given that you're reading this, it's a good bet you do, you will have noticed the steady influx of Chinese made audiophile products to our shores in recent years. One such company is JE Audio, and the JE Audio IS250 Integrated Amplifier is the subject... Read More »