Introduced back in 2022, Peachtree Audio’s Carina was a hell of an integrated amplifier that packed cutting-edge digital tech into an analog-looking wood cabinet that housed way more Hypex NCore amplification than nearly anybody needs. And it sold for a mere $1999 (all prices USD). So, in a sense, it’s somewhat surprising that the company has already introduced a successor—three of them, in fact: the $2999 Carina GaN, the $1499 Carina 150, and the bad boy we’re unboxing today, the $1999 Carina 300.
What do you do when you’re shopping for a product in a category you know nearly nothing about? It’s a question I’ve spent most of my career in hi-fi journalism attempting to answer, and it’s my hope that readers perceive me not as someone who tells them what to buy, but who helps them figure out how to decide what to buy.
Read more: A Vinyl-Apathist’s Quest for His Perfect First Turntable
In recent articles here on SoundStage! Access, I’ve made a couple of references to procuring an NAD C 3050 as my new reference integrated amplifier. I’ve had more than a few people ask me about the differences between the regular production model and the Limited Edition release I reviewed a little over a year ago.
Read more: NAD C 3050 vs. C 3050 LE—What Do You Lose If You Buy the Cheaper, Non-Limited Version?
On April 20, 2024, I rolled into the parking lot behind the brand-spanking-new Village Green Records in Montgomery, AL, armed with something that should never be part of any journalist’s toolkit: an agenda.
There’s something coy about the way Arcam designed the packaging for its new A25 integrated amplifier ($1499, all prices in USD). It’s clean but utilitarian. Its labels are sparse but precisely informative. There are no diagrams, no claims about performance specifications, no lists of supported formats or connectivity options. There isn’t even any indication that the power stage relies on an amp topology that many people have never heard of or experienced: class G.
If you’ve been reading my stuff for any appreciable amount of time, what follows is going to read like a bit of a greatest-hits compilation, insofar as I can claim to have had any hits. It just feels like all of it needs to be repeated, perhaps with a slightly different approach that will hopefully sink in.
Sometimes, I like to approach a new review product as if I had encountered it in the wild, unawares, even if I know exactly what I’m getting ahead of time. And when I look at the packaging for Yamaha’s R-N1000A streaming stereo receiver ($1799.95, in USD) in that frame of mind, I have to admit that my first thought is to wonder whether this is a piece designed with the A/V market or the hi-fi crowd in mind.
Read more: Unboxing the Yamaha R-N1000A Streaming Stereo Receiver
As some of you know, I await the publication of my own hardware reviews like a kid anticipates Christmas—not because I want to re-read my own words, but because that’s when I finally get to see our measurement specialist Diego Estan’s objective data for the first time. I see those measurements when you do, dear reader, and not a minute before.
It’s getting a little difficult these days to sort out a piece of Marantz gear’s place in the overall product family by designation alone, but that’s where my complaints with the company’s current lineup begin and end. Its latest integrated amplifier, for example, is simply called the Model 50 ($1800, all prices USD). Is there anything in that title that indicates a sort of little sibling to the Model 30 ($2999) released in 2020?
Read more: Unboxing the Marantz Model 50 Integrated Amplifier
It seems that I’ve been misunderstood. That’s always a danger when you’re monologuing, but thankfully the SoundStage! Network is more of a slow, ongoing dialog between an incredibly motley crew. To wit: the most recent volley in my ongoing parley with SoundStage! Ultra editor Jason Thorpe is a piece titled “I’m Not an Oligarch!”—which is a response to my January editorial, “The Needs of the Many versus the Needs of the Reviewer.”
Read more: On the Nature of Stoics, Straw Men, and Solved Problems