The Latest Features
RME ADI-2 DAC FS Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Details
- Written by Matt Bonaccio Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 January 2023 15 January 2023
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.
Breaking into the audiophile sphere can be profoundly difficult for a professional audio company. Audio professionals and stereo enthusiasts tend to hold wildly divergent values regarding the gear they use, and at times, they seem to speak different languages altogether. So when a company introduces a product that crosses over from one of these worlds into the other, at best, it may be regarded as being a bit out of touch. At worst, it will garner little more than caustic derision. Hi-fi companies with pro audio roots tend to avoid revealing too much about their history for this reason. Given the circumstances, it’s a bit unusual that German audio company RME isn’t shy about disclosing its professional-grade background. In fact, they seem kind of proud of it.
Recommended Reference Component: SME Model 60 Turntable and Series VA Tonearm
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 January 2023 15 January 2023
In his December 2022 review of the SME Model 60 turntable and Series VA tonearm on SoundStage! Ultra, Jonathan Gorse declared that SME is “one of the crown jewels of the British audio industry, and is as quintessentially English as the BBC, Windsor Castle, or strawberries and cream at Wimbledon.” In his review, Jonathan described the firm’s new Model 60 turntable as “the culmination of over 60 years of audio development.” Jonathan commented: “SME released its last flagship turntable, the Model 30, in 1990—over 30 years ago—so it’s not a company that releases new products just to appease the whims of the marketing dept.”
The Two Most Impressive Speakers I Heard During 2022
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 January 2023 01 January 2023
In 2022, I traveled to more countries to visit more hi-fi companies and hi-fi shows than in any previous year. I went to the Netherlands and England twice, three times to Germany, once to Poland, all the way across Canada, and to several places in the United States. In doing so, my purported “standing” with a couple travel-related companies blossomed—I regained Silver Elite status on Air Canada, and achieved Gold Elite status at Marriott for the first time.
Hegel Music Systems P30A Preamplifier
- Details
- Written by Jason Thorpe Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 January 2023 01 January 2023
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.
On the plane back to Toronto from Warsaw, Poland, at the close of Audio Video Show 2022, I watched—for the third time—Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. As I age, I find myself having more in common with Clint’s character, Walt, than with his fickle and ever-suffering children, or the neighbors with whom he bonds. I’m becoming that crusty, insular curmudgeon who’s resistant to new ideas.
The 2022 SoundStage! Network Awards for Outstanding Achievement and Products of the Year
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 15 December 2022 15 December 2022
We’ve presented our awards for Products of the Year annually for more than 20 years. But new for 2022 is our Outstanding Achievement award, which we created to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to the hi-fi industry. From now on, at least one Outstanding Achievement award will be presented every year, to coincide with the announcement of the Products of the Year.
Recommended Reference Component: Dynaudio Focus 30 Active Loudspeaker System
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 December 2022 15 December 2022
Active speakers using digital signal processing (DSP) aren’t new—they’ve been part of the audiophile landscape for more than 30 years, although they were prohibitively expensive back when and have been getting far more affordable in the last decade or so. But what can be considered new are some of the features now being implemented on active speakers, such as wireless connectivity and music streaming. And in the case of Dynaudio’s Focus 30 loudspeaker system, which Gordon Brockhouse reviewed on SoundStage! Simplifi on December 1, room correction. For the Focus 30 system, room correction is provided via Dirac Live, and we believe this is the first time that Dirac Research’s software has been implemented directly on a speaker system.
The Best of Warsaw's Audio Video Show 2022
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 December 2022 01 December 2022
About two years ago, I became quite critical of hi-fi shows. We were in the middle of the pandemic, there hadn’t been a hi-fi show in over a year, yet most companies were selling more products than they had sold in years.
Pro-Ject Audio Systems X2 B Turntable with Ortofon Quintet Red Cartridge
- Details
- Written by Philip Beaudette Philip Beaudette
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 December 2022 01 December 2022
The Great Recession of 2008 was the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression of the early 20th century. In North America, the big-three car manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) suddenly found themselves in trouble as increasing fuel costs meant that consumers could no longer justify their love affair with the gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks these companies had focused their marketing and manufacturing on. With SUVs sitting on dealer lots across the continent and few buyers to be found, governments in both Canada and the US intervened to bail out GM and Chrysler with massive loans. Taxpayers were told the failure of these automotive behemoths would have meant further economic hardship for the rest of us. So much for the laissez-faire economics of capitalism.
JBL's Best-Kept Secret Is a Killer All-in-One Music System—the L75ms Integrated Music System Revisited
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 December 2022 01 December 2022
This is the article that almost never happened. The idea for it first came up when I was picking up the JBL L75ms Integrated Music System ($1500, all prices in USD) from Gordon Brockhouse’s place. Gordon had just finished reviewing it for SoundStage! Simplifi, and his endorsement of this all-in-one system in that review was so glowing that our team basically had to give it our Reviewers’ Choice award. His praise also piqued my interest. So as I was bundling it into my SUV with the plan of returning it in a few weeks’ time to JBL’s Canadian distributor, Erikson Consumer, I told him that I was tempted to listen to it myself. But that’s when he said, “I have to warn you, it’s really hard to get in and out of the box.”
Recommended Reference Component: EMM Labs DS-EQ1 Optical Phono Preamplifier
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 November 2022 15 November 2022
Last month, we recognized the DS Audio DS 003 optical cartridge and its companion DS 003 phono preamplifier with a Recommended Reference Component award. As Jason Thorpe explained in his review of that combo on this site, DS Audio’s cartridges don’t “rely on magnets and coils to generate an electrical signal.” Instead, DS Audio cartridges use LEDs and light sensors, and the resulting signal must then be boosted and equalized by a phono preamplifier designed specifically for optical cartridges.
