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Recommended Reference Component: Meze Audio Poet Headphones
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 September 2025 15 September 2025
When we published AJ Wykes’s review of the Meze Audio Poet headphones on SoundStage! Solo on September 1, we presented readers with a product that’s as striking visually as it is sonically. Meze Audio, a Romanian company known for blending artful design with high-end audio engineering, had already established itself as a producer of headphones that feel luxurious and sound accomplished. With the Poet headphones—an open-back design selling for US$2000, CA$2799, £1899, or €2000—the company solidifies that reputation further.
How a Trip to Montreal Made Me Hate the Compact Disc a Little Less
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 September 2025 01 September 2025
For nearly 20 years, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the Compact Disc (CD). I admire it for outlasting every prediction about its demise—but that stubborn endurance also frustrates me. In a world where technology races ahead, the CD has somehow refused to be left behind, a theme I explored in a Real Hi-Fi video just over two years ago.
The Original Treble Clef Audio TCA-M Loudspeaker—Over $100,000 for Visually Polarizing Precision
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 September 2025 01 September 2025
Let me get something out of the way: this is not a review for everyone. The Treble Clef Audio TCA‑M loudspeaker will have many readers shaking their heads in disbelief the minute they learn the price: from $103,900/pair in the United States and €93,000/pair in Europe. Nor is this review for those fixated on traditional passive loudspeakers or those who might shudder at the TCA‑M’s unconventional appearance. The TCA‑M isn’t just expensive; it’s an active design that’s audaciously sculptural in appearance and, therefore, divisive in more than one way.
Cambridge Audio EXA100 Integrated Amplifier–DAC
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 September 2025 01 September 2025
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
Cambridge Audio’s product offerings are diverse and extensive, encompassing nearly every type of audio product, including home-theater components, speakers (from in-ceiling speakers and subwoofers to an all-in-one, wireless streaming speaker), turntables, phono preamps, and headphones. When looking at the company’s integrated amplifiers, one finds a surprising disparity in both price and specified performance between the Edge- and CX-series amps. With the recent release of the EXA100 integrated amplifier, Cambridge Audio has bridged this gap, providing a high-quality, high-power integrated amplifier at a moderate price.
EISA’s Best Products of 2025–2026
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: 2025–2026 2025–2026
- Created: 14 August 2025 14 August 2025
The Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) traces its roots to 1982, when editors from five European photography magazines joined forces to select the year’s standout camera. Since those early days, EISA has steadily broadened its scope to include a wide spectrum of consumer electronics—specifically hi-fi, home theater, in-car electronics, and mobile devices—which it categorizes as “Expert Groups.” Over time, the association has also expanded its reach well beyond Europe, growing into a global network of around 50 member publications spanning nearly 30 countries.
Recommended Reference Component: Anthem P2 Stereo Amplifier
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 August 2025 15 August 2025
The hi‑fi market tends to be obsessed with newness, which makes Anthem’s P2 stereo power amplifier a rare outlier. As Doug Schneider explains in a review published on this site on August 1, the P2 was originally launched in 2005 as the Statement P2—words still stamped on the front and back panels of today’s units. Jason Thorpe reviewed the Statement P2 the year it was introduced.
Inside Views: Why SoundStage! Goes the Distance
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 August 2025 01 August 2025
This article will be briefer than usual because as I write this, I’ve been home for less than 24 hours after visiting Beijing and Weifang, two cities in China. The outward journey took about 24 hours, but the trip home—delayed by bad weather that diverted our final flight—stretched to a grueling 34 hours. I’m not just jetlagged; I’m thoroughly exhausted and more than a little edgy. Still, the message I want to share feels too important to postpone—and I wanted to relay it with this trip fresh in my mind.
Anthem P2 Stereo Amplifier
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 August 2025 01 August 2025
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
The Anthem P2 stereo amplifier is not a new product, nor is this the first time we’ve reviewed it. Launched in 2005 as the Statement P2 stereo amplifier, it was reviewed by Jason Thorpe, who praised its sonic transparency. At that time, the amplifier retailed for a very reasonable $2500 in the United States, and Jason bought the review sample and used it for several years. Now, 20 years later, we’re reviewing the Anthem P2 again.
Recommended Reference Component: Bluesound Node Icon Streaming Preamplifier
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 July 2025 15 July 2025
For more than a decade, Bluesound’s Node streamers, introduced in 2014, have impressed us with their performance and minimalist design. The Node Icon, the latest addition to the series, has gone far beyond the earlier models in both respects. According to Roger Kanno, who reviewed the Node Icon on June 1 on SoundStage! Simplifi, it “provides an unbeatable combination of sound quality and practical features.”
Torn Between Component Types—A New Twist on the Integrated-versus-Separates Debate
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 July 2025 01 July 2025
I’ve been thinking a lot about Natalie Imbruglia lately—not about her music, but about the sentiment behind her best-known hit, “Torn,” from 1997. The word captures how I’ve been feeling as I reassess what I really want from my hi-fi system. No, I haven’t been feeling emotionally wrecked, lying naked on the floor as the singer laments in the chorus; but I am torn, more than ever before, as I suspect many audiophiles are these days, pulled between two very different sound-system philosophies. Do I want a sleek, full-featured piece of gear that delivers nearly everything I need—amplification, phono EQ, preamplification, streaming, digital-to-analog conversion, and maybe even a tuner—in one elegant chassis, or do I want a modular, flexible suite of separate components that could potentially, though not necessarily, provide better sound?
