The Latest Features
Digging in the Dirt
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- Written by Matt Bonaccio Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 October 2023 01 October 2023
I found it awkwardly stuffed between a Mormon Tabernacle Choir recording and an LP by the likes of Burt Bacharach or Herb Alpert. It was a copy of A Hard Day’s Night—the American pressing from United Artists with the caution-sign red-orange cover and a different track listing than the UK version. The black disc was naked inside, pressed thick in early-1960s fashion, its surface replete with tiny marks and scratches. Within its grooves lay a dozen jangly teen pop ditties preserved in glorious monaural sound. On the front cover, the cheeky black-and-white closeups of the band’s mop-top hairdos had faded to a dusty gray. The crusty, worn sleeve had suffered sufficient abuse over the past 60 years that only the bottom edge still held together—the others had split apart entirely. Oh man, I thought. Score!
NuPrime Audio Evolution Two Mono Power Amplifier
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 October 2023 01 October 2023
The NuPrime Audio Evolution Two mono power amplifier can trace its roots back to the NuForce Reference models from almost 20 years ago. I first heard those small monoblock class-D amplifiers around that time at THE Show, which ran concurrently with the annual CES in Las Vegas at the St. Tropez hotel. The high-end exhibits of the CES were housed at the nearby Alexis Park hotel.
Technics Grand Class SL-G700M2 Streaming SACD Player/DAC
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 September 2023 15 September 2023
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
Some audiophiles still prefer reading their digital music in real time from shiny discs to streaming it from the internet or accessing it via computer from a networked or attached drive. So companies like Marantz, Denon, Esoteric, Yamaha, Luxman, Arcam, McIntosh, and Mark Levinson, among others, continue to manufacture high-quality CD and SACD players. Technics, the brand relaunched by Panasonic in 2015 and best known for its SL-series direct-drive turntables, also produces SACD players as part of its Grand Class lineup. Introduced in 2019, the SL-G700 network SACD player has been updated and replaced by the SL-G700M2, the subject of this review. While the cost has increased from its original price of $2999.95 (all prices USD), this high-quality, streaming optical disc player retails for a still reasonable (by high-end standards, at least) $3499.95.
Recommended Reference Component: Hegel Music Systems H600 Integrated Amplifier-DAC
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 September 2023 15 September 2023
Norway’s Hegel Music Systems has produced separate preamplifiers and power amplifiers since the early 1990s, but in recent years it has become best known for its DAC-equipped integrated amplifiers. In August 2023, Hegel introduced the H600, priced at $12,500 (in USD), which replaced the H590 as the company’s flagship integrated amp.
Evaluating a Stereo System’s Sound with a Single Song
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 September 2023 01 September 2023
As followers of my personal social-media pages know, I post something almost daily (Doug SoundStage Schneider on Facebook, Doug Schneider on LinkedIn). Sometimes I’ll deliberately choose a provocative topic that’s sure to stir up emotions to spur a lively discussion. Anything about MQA, analog versus digital, tubes versus transistors—these and such other topics fire audiophiles up. Other times I’ll choose a product, a company, or a person to write about. I recently wrote a complimentary post about Taylor Swift’s success on Facebook, for instance. Occasionally, though, I’ll post a question simply to get people’s thoughts and opinions on a subject.
Ars-Sonum Armonía Stereo Amplifier
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- Written by Matt Bonaccio Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 September 2023 01 September 2023
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
Say it with me: Are-moh-NEE-uh. Handcrafted by Ars-Sonum, the Armonía ($5250, all prices in USD) is the boutique Spanish audio company’s first power-amplifier offering. It’s a stereo power amplifier based on the company’s Filarmonía SM integrated amp. Spain is probably not the first country that comes to mind when discussing boutique stereo tube amplification; nor is Ars-Sonum the first company name to roll off the tongue—if you’ve even heard of them, that is. This small outfit produces just a few hundred amplifiers per year, lovingly hand-assembled at Ars-Sonum’s facility in Madrid. Though such boutique manufacturers often aren’t afforded the space or resources—or economies of scale—that larger manufacturers leverage to pump out appealing products at affordable prices, they tend to have a considerable amount of freedom to build truly unique and outstanding products. Ars-Sonum is no different, and the Armonía is a premium tube power amplifier, designed for sound quality above all else, that reflects this reality.
EISA’s Best Products of 2023–2024
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: 2023–2024 2023–2024
- Created: 14 August 2023 14 August 2023
SoundStage! Hi-Fi became a member of the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) in May 2018. EISA’s roots are in photography—it began in 1982 when the editors of five European photo magazines got together to jointly select the best camera of the year. Nowadays, EISA has six subgroups spanning a wide range of consumer products: Hi-Fi, Home Theater Audio, Home Theater Display & Video, In-Car Electronics, Mobile Devices, and, of course, Photography. It’s expanded beyond its European origins. EISA is now global in scope, with approximately 60 member publications worldwide across all the subgroups.
Recommended Reference Component: Yamaha YH-5000SE Headphones
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 August 2023 15 August 2023
In his July 2023 review of Yamaha’s YH-5000SE headphones, SoundStage! Solo senior editor Geoffrey Morrison noted that Yamaha’s flagship headphones “come with a flagship price: $4999.95 (all prices in USD).” Unlike some competitors, these headphones have “no wood veneers, no fancy colors, just structural metal work, grilles, and a hint of yellow where the cables connect to the earcups”—a design that “shows purpose, and if you know what you’re looking for, they telegraph their price in perhaps an even more impressive way than some other, more visually bombastic headphones.”
Canadian Hi-Fi Trilogy: Axiom Audio, Bryston, and Magnum Dynalab—All Under One Expanding Roof
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 August 2023 01 August 2023
First came Axiom
Colquhoun Audio Laboratories Limited and Axiom Audio, its sole brand at first, were founded in 1980 by Ian Colquhoun. In 1983 the company moved from its place of birth, near Toronto, to Dwight, Ontario, about 150 miles north. This is where Colquhoun (pronounced co-hoon) grew up and where he and his company remain.
Hegel Music Systems H600 Integrated Amplifier-DAC
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- Written by Philip Beaudette Philip Beaudette
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 August 2023 01 August 2023
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
In “Big Yellow Taxi,” from her 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon, Joni Mitchell sings, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” I think this comes as close to a universal truth as it gets. It’s when we get sick, isn’t it, that we’re reminded how much we take our health for granted; when the power goes out that we become aware of how much we rely on power.
