Some years back, my dad and I found ourselves in a bit of a street race: our C7 Corvette versus a Ferrari F12berlinetta. $83,000 of automated-factory-line American plastic against $320,000 of hand-crafted Italian swank. V8 versus V12. Two of the finest front-engine GT cars ever developed going head-to-head. And we won. The F12berlinetta simply couldn’t keep up in the corners.
Read more: Price Categories for Hi-Fi Don’t Make (Much) Sense
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.
First impressions carry a lot of weight, but they’re not everything. And thank goodness for that, because I didn’t get off on the right foot with Technics’ new Grand Class SU-GX70—an amp I now positively adore. To be fair, most of my quibbles could be filed under the category of “vibes.” As I mentioned in my unboxing blog post, I want a Technics integrated amp to look like a swanky retro throwback, and the SU-GX70 ($1999.95, all prices USD) just evokes any number of nondescript black boxes that have cycled through my system over the years. Worse still, one of my first tactile interactions with the unit was when I gave the volume control a twist only to find that it felt like dragging a wooden spoon through half-crystalized honey.
Read more: Technics Grand Class SU-GX70 Streaming Stereo Receiver
My introduction to the Fluance brand occurred over ten years ago, when I reviewed their XL7F tower, a three-way speaker with an 8″ woofer, two 6.5″ midrange drivers, and a 1″ silk-dome tweeter. At $469.95 per pair (all prices USD), I thought it was an incredible bargain.
Remember those old commercials where two people walking down the street in opposite directions—one obliviously carrying an open jar of peanut butter; the other mindlessly nomming a whole chocolate bar—slam into each other as absentminded people will do and invent Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? Swap the peanut butter for a Bob Carver tube amp and the chocolate for something like a solid-state ChiFi amp from the likes of SoundArtist, and I have to think that meet-cute collision would result in something that looks like the Dayton Audio HTA200 hybrid integrated amplifier ($349.98, all prices USD).
Read more: Unboxing the Dayton Audio HTA200 Integrated Amplifier-DAC
I love the missives I receive from readers and listeners, and I give every one of them my individual attention. But it has to be said that they tend to fall into a few distinct categories, and some I like better than others. First are the people who disagree with me or have spotted a mistake (or seeming mistake). I truly love and appreciate those.
Read more: The Needs of the Many versus the Needs of the Reviewer
About a year-and-a-half ago, I reviewed a loudspeaker that was, to me, the platonic ideal of everything a speaker selling for less than $3000/pair should be. It was tonally neutral, had amazing bass extension and good dispersion characteristics, and was beautifully built. And yet, in the months that followed I saw at least one user review on an online retail site describe it as a sort of jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none speaker that sounded “metallic” and failed to connect with the listener. So, while we have mountains of research describing the sound of a speaker that most people will prefer, it’s clear that not every audiophile likes what most people like. And it’s clear that not every reader is going to like what I like. So when Bowers & Wilkins offered its new 603 S3 floorstander for review ($2500 per pair, all prices USD), I leapt at the opportunity.
It’s funny how quickly certain impressions can take hold in the mind. Say the words “Technics integrated amplifier,” and immediately my mind’s eye is filled with wall-to-wall VU meters recessed behind a panoramic window of glass against a clean, white background. So, for me, the look of the company’s new SU-GX70 amplifier was somewhat surprising, as it does not follow that aesthetic, but I think a quick peek at all of the logos on its packaging gives some indications as to why. This isn’t an integrated amp with streaming capabilities onboard so much as it is a streamer with amplification built in.
Read more: Unboxing the Technics SU-GX70 Streaming Integrated Amplifier
As I write this, one of the most talked-about bootleg albums circulating the web is a fan-remastered version of Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version), undertaken to fix some of the odd sonic artifacts of the official release, which dropped on October 27 of this year.
Read more: Tell Me Taylor Swift Fans Don’t Care About Sound Quality
How do you follow up a review of a $6499 flagship receiver with 15 channels of amplification and nearly every feature under the sun? If you’re a publication that focuses mostly on affordable hi-fi with the occasional foray into home theater, you might go to the other extreme and review one of the most affordable AVRs on the market. That was the plan, anyway. But as the great Rabbie Burns once pointed out, the best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Wookiees gang aft agley, so here I am reviewing an AVR that makes the Denon A1H look like a budget alterative: the $8000 McIntosh MHT300 (all prices USD).
The name Reloop was vaguely familiar to me as a brand that caters to dance club DJs. Then one day I ran across Reloop HiFi online and decided to investigate. As it turns out, Reloop HiFi is a new division that makes turntables for home listeners. As Reloop explains on its website,
Read more: Reloop HiFi Turn 2 Turntable with Ortofon OM 10 Cartridge