The Latest Features
Chord Electronics Ultima Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by George de Sa George de Sa
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 July 2024 15 July 2024
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
The British audio manufacturer Chord Electronics Ltd. produces some of the most distinctive-looking audio products on the market today. Chord has imbued its products with a unique aesthetic—a fusion of nautical, steampunk, and classic sci-fi themes, wrapped in organic stylism. The design elements of their products include rounded eye-like buttons, colored lights, porthole windows, domes, and gentle contours, which together deliver visual impact and generate curiosity. Chord’s new Ultima Integrated is a ground-up design that continues in this tradition.
Recommended Reference Component: Marantz Model 40n Streaming Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 July 2024 15 July 2024
In August 2022, Dennis Burger reviewed the Marantz Model 40n for SoundStage! Access. It was an enthusiastic review that earned the 40n a Reviewers’ Choice award. This amplifier has since continued to prove its excellence and versatility and has continued to garner critical praise.
The Loudspeaker Class of ’74: A Canadian Reunion
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 July 2024 01 July 2024
I don’t think anyone in the world could have predicted that a 1974 meeting between Paul Barton, founder of PSB speakers, and Dr. Floyd Toole, a research scientist at Canada’s National Research Council, would change the way loudspeakers, headphones, and soundbars are designed—not just in Canada but globally.
iFi Audio iDSD Diablo 2 DAC–Headphone Amplifier
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- Written by Killain Jones Killain Jones
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 July 2024 01 July 2024
During the pandemic, I became enthusiastic about brewing my own coffee at home. I’d twist myself into knots trying to figure out which brewing method suited me best and what all the flavor profiles on packaging and in reviews meant. Terms such as “acidic,” “sweet,” and “full-bodied” sounded descriptive enough—but acidic, or sweet, or full-bodied compared to what, I wondered. Then there were admonitions to use light roast for this, medium roast for that, and dark roast for something else. With experience, I have found that espresso is my preferred brewing method, and learned that there is no such thing as an espresso bean.
Lyngdorf Audio MXA-8400 Multichannel Amplifier
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 June 2024 15 June 2024
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
In the last few years I have reviewed the two integrated amplifiers currently on offer from Lyngdorf Audio: the TDAI-3400 and TDAI-1120. I have always admired Lyngdorf’s integrated amplifiers for their fantastic sound and excellent user interface, and these two amps were no exception: they performed wonderfully in my system. I was especially impressed by the room-correction system built into these amps, Lyngdorf’s proprietary RoomPerfect software.
Recommended Reference Component: DALI Epikore 11 Loudspeaker
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 June 2024 15 June 2024
During a visit to loudspeaker manufacturer DALI (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) in 2022, Jason Thorpe had the opportunity to listen to the brand’s flagship model, the Kore. Deeply impressed with its sound, Jason was tempted to request a pair for review, but scrubbed the idea as a nonstarter at the thought of trying to get this 350-pound behemoth—two of them—into his basement-floor listening room.
High End 2024—Have You Ever Been Experienced?
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- Written by Matt Bonaccio Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 June 2024 01 June 2024
I set my backpack under the table and sat down gingerly. Across from me was SoundStage! Ultra senior editor Jason Thorpe, his lips pursed. We’d ducked into a small café in the Maxvorstadt section of Munich, not far from our hotel, hoping a late breakfast of espresso and pastries might revive us. Outside a spring rain washed the streets. Jason raised an eyebrow at me and said, “You’re looking a bit peaked.”
Amphion Argon7LS Loudspeaker
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- Written by S. Andrea Sundaram S. Andrea Sundaram
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 June 2024 01 June 2024
In Greek mythology, Amphion, the son of Zeus and Antiope, was a gifted musician; so much so that when he played his lyre, he caused great stones to move and form themselves into the city walls of Thebes. Anssi Hyvönen, the founder of Amphion Loudspeakers, may not expect his speakers to move stones, but he seeks to make them a pathway through which music can move the soul. Many other companies espouse the same goal, but the Amphion philosophy is that this is best accomplished if the loudspeaker acts as a neutral conduit for the music, rather than adding its own “musicality.” In a nod to this ambition of neutrality, all of Amphion’s home-audio speaker models are named after noble gases—elements that do not react with substances with which they come in contact.
Recommended Reference Component: GoldenEar T66 Loudspeaker
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 May 2024 15 May 2024
“Sometimes the speaker marketplace seems a tad crowded, with too many models that seem like mere variations on a theme,” Philip Beaudette writes in the conclusion to his review of the GoldenEar T66 loudspeaker (published on May 1 on this site). “GoldenEar is legitimately doing something that most of its competitors aren’t, and built-in powered subs are what the brand has become synonymous with.” GoldenEar, which was founded in 2010 by Sandy Gross and Don Givogue, was sold in 2020 to The Quest Group, parent company of AudioQuest, primarily a cable brand. The T66 is the first loudspeaker released after this acquisition, and it carries on GoldenEar’s tradition of incorporating a self-powered bass section into each tower.
Subwoofers, Speakers, and the Sonus Faber Suprema
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 May 2024 01 May 2024
Show me the cattle
“All hat and no cattle,” they say in Texas, I’m told, of those who are all talk but no action or those who have the appearance but not the substance. That saying came to mind during the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early in January when Sonus Faber introduced its new Suprema loudspeaker system to the press. I didn’t attend that show—it’s been a decade since CES has mattered at all for hi-fi—but, like many, I watched from home as coverage of the system trickled out. Disappointingly, other than regurgitating Sonus Faber’s press release, this coverage focused on just two extraordinary features of this system: its stratospheric price of $750,000 in the US and its gorgeous finish options, something the Italian brand is well known for.