PSB Performance Wall Mount Home-Theater Speaker System

Details: Written by Vince Hanada; Created: 15 April 2021

Some rooms in my house are best suited to speakers that don’t take up much floor space—e.g., in-wall or on-wall speakers. But in-wall speakers require cutting holes in drywall and running cables through walls from amplifier to speakers. Unless you’re handy with home repair, this is tough to do. It’s why I’m a big fan of on-wall speakers, which are easily installed and removed, without requiring in-wall wiring. The problem with many on-wall speakers is that they’re afterthoughts—a way of filling out a manufacturer’s speaker line.

Steve Gadd Band: "At Blue Note Tokyo"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 April 2021

BFM Jazz 621 834 676 2
Format: CD

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

Drummer Steve Gadd has played on so many records, in so many genres of music, that his discography seems to run on forever. To say he’s been in demand over the years is an understatement. He’s also led his own bands; one of these, Steve Gadd Band, is composed largely of musicians who, like him, were members of James Taylor’s touring group. That lineup’s fourth release, Steve Gadd Band (2018), won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

A Receiver or Separates?

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 01 April 2021

In response to my recent love letter to integrated amplifiers, I received some interesting feedback that came in the form of a question: isn’t there some contradiction in the fact that I use integrated amps almost exclusively in my dedicated two-channel system while relying on separates in my main home-theater system? Why not use an A/V receiver in my media room instead of an A/V preamp and multichannel amp if I’m so enamored with one-box solutions?

Rotel A11 Tribute Integrated Amplifier

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 01 April 2021

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

Rotel’s A11 Tribute integrated amplifier is a bit of an oddity. That’s not a value judgment, mind you—merely an observation. What makes it a bit weird is that while most integrated amps in its price class ($799, all prices USD) feature built-in digital-to-analog conversion, if not full-blown streaming ecosystems, the A11 Tribute sports nary a coaxial or optical input, nor a USB port of any sort, and there simply isn’t a way to connect it to the Internet. Technically, it features a Texas Instruments DAC chip, but its only digital input is a Bluetooth antenna (with support for AAC and aptX codecs). But that really only adds to the enigma.

Willie Nelson: "That's Life"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 April 2021

Sony Music/Legacy Recordings 19439839452
Format: CD

Musical Performance

Sound Quality

Overall Enjoyment

Willie Nelson’s 2018 tribute to Frank Sinatra, My Way, showed his affection for the singer’s work, but on the 11 songs Nelson chose to cover he avoided simply retracing the Chairman of the Board’s footsteps. “Summer Wind” had its own relaxed charm, “It Was a Very Good Year” showed a different shade of melancholy from Sinatra’s, and “My Way” was a summing-up that avoided the swagger that marred Sinatra’s own take on the song (it’s one of the few Sinatra numbers I’ve never liked).

NAD Masters M28 Multichannel Amplifier

Details: Written by Roger Kanno; Created: 15 March 2021

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

Reviewers' Choice If you’re a regular reader of the SoundStage! Network websites, you know that we, and especially our founder and publisher, Doug Schneider, are big fans of Purifi Audio’s Eigentakt amplifier technology. Those class-D amp modules provide high power with extremely low distortion and, most important, extremely neutral and musically satisfying sound—as I discovered in September 2020, when I reviewed NAD’s Masters M33 integrated amplifier-DAC, which is based on the Eigentakt amp. The subject of this review is NAD’s Masters M28 multichannel power amplifier ($4999, all prices USD), which boasts seven channels of Purifi Eigentakt technology.

Aaron Frazer: "Introducing . . ."

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 15 March 2021

Easy Eye Sound/Dead Oceans DOC220
Format: CD

Musical Performance

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Aaron Frazer was the drummer and co-vocalist for the soul-revival band Durand Jones & The Indications before going out on his own last year. Dan Auerbach, the guitarist from the Black Keys, heard Frazer’s falsetto on “Is It Any Wonder?,” a track from the Indications’ first album, and got in touch with him about recording a solo album. Auerbach brought Frazer to his Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville and assembled a batch of country and soul musicians to help him record his debut.

(What's So Great About Peace, Love, and) Integrated Amplifiers?

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 01 March 2021

If you haven’t noticed already, there’s a bit of a theme being established with my new and upcoming reviews for SoundStage! Access. To call it “all integrated amplifiers, all the time” would be a bit of a stretch, but not by much. I recently took a deep dive into Marantz’s PM-KI Ruby, and I’m following that up with reviews of Rotel’s A11 Tribute and Vincent Audio’s SV-500. And those will hardly be the last integrated amps to cross my threshold in the coming months.

Marantz PM-KI Ruby Integrated Amplifier

Details: Written by Dennis Burger; Created: 01 March 2021

Let’s go ahead and acknowledge the elephant in the room right from the giddy-up: convincing most people that Marantz’s PM-KI Ruby integrated amplifier ($3999, all prices USD) is an affordable audio component might be a tough sell, especially given the number of highly lauded integrated amps available today for $1000 or less. So why are we reviewing the PM-KI Ruby on SoundStage! Access, a site dedicated to “reasonably priced hi-fi & home-theater equipment”?

Matthew Sweet: "Catspaw"

Details: Written by Joseph Taylor; Created: 01 March 2021

Omnivore Recordings OV-408
Format: 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC download

Musical Performance

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Overall Enjoyment

Matthew Sweet has carried the power-pop banner high ever since his breakthrough third album, Girlfriend (1991), making tuneful, guitar-driven records that sometimes show as much appreciation for bands like Hüsker Dü as they do the glories of AM rock radio. Some of his albums, such as 100% Fun (1995) and Blue Sky on Mars (1997), contain their share of loud, overdriven guitars, but others, like In Reverse (1999), make overt references to the lush ’60s pop production styles of the Beach Boys and the Beatles.