Articles
-
Consonance Orfeo CD Player and Tristan Integrated Amp (Hi-Fi+)
|A surprising thing about Chinese-made products… few take advantage of their Chinese-ness, preferring instead to copy styles and designs from the Golden Age of UK and US hi-fi (the 1950s and 1960s). Of course, this ...read more -
The Conrad-Johnson ET250S Power Amp
|The ET in the product designation of this amplifier stands for Enhanced Triode, while the 250 is the rated output – Watts into 8 Ohms, naturally. But before the bearded triode brethren start getting all ...read more -
Eastern Electric Minimax and Fatman i-tube 252 Integrated Amplifiers (Hi-Fi+)
|Audio power has never been cheaper than it is at the moment. Advances in both semiconductor design and digital electronics have resulted in a situation where a couple of hundred watts of conventional solid-state power ...read more -
Audio Research LS17 Line-Stage and Ref 110 Power Amplifier (Hi-Fi+)
|If any company has established a distinctive visual identity over the last thirty years or so it has to be Audio Research. Witness the fact that I still regularly use an SP 10 pre-amplifier dating ...read more -
The Karan Acoustics KA M 650 Mono-Blocs
|The Karan KA M 1200 mono-blocs have been something of a fixture in the Gregory listening room for some considerable time. A welcome presence with their commanding musical authority and bottomless power delivery, I’ll not ...read more -
Gryphon Diablo Integrated Amplifier (Hi-Fi+)
|When you sit in front of your system for a bit of musical therapy, what are you listening for? It seems logical to assume that each of us listens in a different way and that ...read more -
Channel Islands Audio D-200 Monoblock Amplifier (AVguide)
|Imet Dusty Vawter, President of Channel Islands Audio (often abbreviated to CIAudio), on a shuttle- bus ride to the Denver airport as we returned home from the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Mr. Vawter, I learned, ...read more -
Sutherland Ph3D Phonostage
|Many TAS readers have heard— or at least heard of—Ron Sutherland’s Ph.D phonostage, which was reviewed quite favorably by Wayne Garcia in Issue 144. WG found the $3000 Ph.D impressive not only for the silent ...read more -
Pioneer A-A9 Integrated Amplifier and PD-D6 CD/SACD Player (Hi-Fi+)
|Way back in 1990, Pioneer created something of a sensation in the UK hi-fi market by introducing a reasonablypriced integrated amplifier – the A-400 - aimed at audiophiles on a tight budget. It was a ...read more -
Emillé KI-120 Integrated Amplifiers
|Emillé and their amplifiers hail from Korea, which, in this day and age, is hardly unusual. Which is not the same as saying that the Emillé KI-120s are not unusual… Integrated valve amps from the ...read more -
Audion Silver Night PX25 Mk II Amplifier (Hi-Fi+)
|Encountering the Audion Silver Night PX25 Mk II amplifier proved something of a culture shock. There I was, happily living with Musical Fidelity’s kW-550 – a massive beast of an amplifier, with a mere 500W ...read more -
Rogue Audio Metis Preamplifier
|Rogue Audio draws most of its product names from Greek mythology, so when I received the Metis preamplifier I wondered what the connection between the component and its namesake might be. According to the mythology-oriented ...read more -
NAD M3 Integrated Amplifier (Hi-Fi+)
|The NAD 3020 was something of an icon. The starter amp of the late 70s and early 80s, it established a whole new category of product, budget audiophilia. A modest 20-watter, blessed with an uncommonly ...read more -
YBA Design YA201 Integrated Amplifier and YC201 CD player
|The French high-end audio firm YBA, which takes its name from owner and founder Yves-Bernard André, has just launched YBA Design—a brand-within-a-brand whose components are performance oriented, yet affordably priced. YBA Design replaces YBA’s former ...read more -
NuForce Reference 9 Monoblock Power Amplifier
|Several months ago I visited three members of The Absolute Sound team—Harry Pearson (founder and chairman of the Editorial Board), Jonathan Valin (associate editor), and Atul Kanagat (advisor to the “Cutting Edge” section) and had ...read more