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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?
Dynaudio Confidence 20A Active Loudspeaker System
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- Written by George de Sa George de Sa
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 July 2025 01 July 2025
Most audiophiles want to assemble their systems themselves, to match components in the hope of maximizing performance. Since a system built around passive loudspeakers requires an amplifier, hi-fi enthusiasts have traditionally favored passive loudspeakers over active models, which have built-in amplifiers.
Recommended Reference Component: Hegel Music Systems D50 Digital-to-Analog Converter
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 June 2025 15 June 2025
Norway’s Hegel Music Systems has taken what some might see as a step back with its D50, eschewing streaming, digital signal processing (DSP), and preamplifier functionality to produce a bare-bones digital-to-analog converter (DAC) of the highest performance. A “racehorse DAC,” company representatives have dubbed it. Earlier this month, George de Sa wrote most favorably about the D50, concluding his review with the assessment that, for some, the Hegel D50 could be an “endgame DAC.”
Has JBL Reached the Summit? The Ama and Makalu Loudspeakers at High End 2025
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 June 2025 01 June 2025
During High End 2025 in Munich, Germany, held from May 15 to 18, the renowned American loudspeaker brand JBL unveiled three new additions to its flagship Summit series: Ama, Pumori, and Makalu. The Summit Ama is a two-way standmount speaker, while the other two are three-way floorstanding speakers. The new Summit speakers represent the pinnacle of JBL’s engineering and design, and their names reflect that: Ama Dablam, Pumori, and Makalu are among the most impressive peaks in the Himalayas.
