Stereophile

Brian Damkroger Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to spend a couple of afternoons listening to a system built around the late David Wilson’s magnum opus, the Wilson Audio WAMM Master Chronosonic loudspeaker ($685,000/pair), which Jason Victor

Back in the 1990s, my friend Nick Despotopoulos and I published an article in The Tracking Angle titled “Zen and the Art of Record Cleaning Made Difficult,” describing author Michael Wayne’s record-cleaning methodology.1 That regimen, like the articl

It all started when I moved my playback system from my 11' by 16' living room to my 12' by 17' family room: The latter has proven the better-sounding setting, and it’s also sunnier and more accessible—and the floor is more level and stable. (The fami

As I wrote before in these pages, I have long been acquainted with French electronics manufacturer Trinnov. Years ago, at an Audio Engineering Society convention in New York, a Trinnov rep used a mastering console equipped with their processor to mov

Mark Levinson isn’t known as a budget brand, and most people would not consider $8500 a budget price for anything short of a new car. One could argue, though, that Levinson’s new No.5805 integrated amplifier ($8500 with DAC and phono stage) is a budg

After 1985, when I moved to Los Angeles, I saw less of Adams, but we kept in touch. One afternoon, when he was in LA for performances, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, of his gangbuster work Harmonielehre,3 I showed him around the 20th Century Fox lo

For logistical reasons, I measured a different sample of the Mark Levinson No.5805 integrated amplifier (serial number 0951) than the one auditioned by Jim Austin (serial number 0906). There were some setup issues with this early sample—the firmware

Has Serinus been demoted? You might well ask. This month, instead of reviewing a $58,000 stereo amplifier, I’m tackling a $599 powered loudspeaker system. Truth be told, I’m always on the lookout for products that deliver outstanding sound at bargain

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Vanatoo Transparent One Encore’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 microphone for the nearfield responses. Except where noted below, all the

I am an artist-painter and an audiophile. When I listen to recorded music, I sit in the sweet spot and stare at the empty space between the speakers. And while I listen, I survey and critique the soundfield, as if it were an unfinished landscape pain

When I unpacked the PrimaLuna EVO 400 preamplifier, it looked very familiar. It appears identical to PrimaLuna’s ProLogue Premium line preamplifier that Herb Reichert reviewed in our June 2017 issue.1 But on closer inspection, while the earlier pream

I’ve been the proud owner of a Kuzma Stabi S turntable and Stogi S tonearm since 2001. The combination was an impulse purchase, made after seeing and hearing it in action at Stereophile’s Home Entertainment Show at the New York Hilton. Even under unr

CH Precision’s massive, versatile, technologically sophisticated, 165lb M1.1 power amplifier ($54,000 configured for stereo) can easily crush your foot if you’re not careful when installing it. But the more important consideration is this: Can this c

Because the CH Precision M1.1 is so heavy (165lb), I drove the 45 miles to Michael Fremer’s home with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1), cables, noninductive power resistors, and analog and digital oscilloscopes

Five years ago, in our July 2014 issue,1 I reviewed Joseph Audio’s2 Perspective loudspeaker, a reflex-loaded, floorstanding, two-way design with two SEAS Excel magnesium-alloy–cone woofers and a SEAS Excel Millennium tweeter using a 1" Sonatex, impre

After Larry Greenhill had finished auditioning the updated sample of Bryston’s BP-173 preamplifier—see his Follow-Up review in the June issue—he shipped it to me so I could measure its new phono and D/A stages with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (

Editor: All of us at Sumiko would like to thank John Atkinson for his comprehensive review of the Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra. This is a tricky product to grasp at first, since it’s neither a DAC nor a server. Rather, it is a device that adds networ