SoundStage! Access | SoundStageAccess.com (GoodSound.com)

First Look: Magnetar UDP800 Universal Disc/Media Player

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 August 2025

Every once in a while, I feel compelled for whatever reason to justify the existence of these unboxing blog posts, because it’s not about consumerism or SEO or anything else of the sort. Bottom line: it’s about telling a story slightly tangential to that of my in-depth gear evaluation—one that, I feel, gives you a more thorough overview of the product and the experience it delivers.

Outdoor Audio Done the “SoundStage! Access” Way

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 August 2025

I don’t often dig deep into the sausage-making process in my editorials, since I think most of the decisions we make behind the scenes at the SoundStage! Network are quite a bit more boring than many people would suspect. Each of the SoundStage! editors has a lane, it’s not difficult to figure out what is and isn’t our beat, and we rarely have to worry much about which product categories are right for each of us. But when KEF reached out to me with an offer to review its new outdoor speakers, it prompted a lot of editorial discussions about whether outdoor audio—typically the domain of expensive custom installers—had any place in a publication focused on home theater and affordable hi-fi.

KEF Ventura 6 CI Series Outdoor Speaker

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 August 2025

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know here, but the way most people shop for audio products barely resembles the way hi-fi enthusiasts and audiophiles shop for audio products. Imagine you’re in the market for an outdoor audio system centered on passive speakers intended to be driven by an amp. You and I might research the category, do comparisons based on specifications, try to read some reviews, factor in any brand loyalties we might have, and plunk down our credit cards after some careful deliberation. Most people purchasing KEF’s Ventura 6 outdoor speaker (US$599.99, CA$749.99, £459, €599 per pair), on the other hand, probably asked their custom integrator for an outdoor speaker system, and it just so happened that their integrator was a KEF dealer.

TEAC TN-3B-SE Turntable with Audio-Technica AT-VM95E Cartridge

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 15 July 2025

If the name TEAC is unfamiliar to you, here’s a short history. The firm was founded in 1953 as the Tokyo Television Acoustic Company. In 1956, an affiliate, the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company, was formed to manufacture reel-to-reel tape recorders. Subsequently, the two companies merged to form TEAC Corporation. From the ’60s to the ’90s, TEAC was best known for its reel-to-reel tape recorders and cassette decks. When those fell out of fashion, the brand withdrew from the North American market.

First Look: Unboxing and Setting Up KEF Ventura 6 Ci Series Outdoor Speakers

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 July 2025

Here’s something you don’t see very often in the pages of Access, or any of the SoundStage! Network publications, for that matter: outdoor speakers. In a former life, when I covered the custom-installation industry heavily, speakers of this sort crossed my threshold on the regular. But in consumer audio, and especially in the domain of budget-conscious passive speakers, they’re much rarer, for reasons I’ll be discussing in an upcoming editorial.

On the Nature of Science and Uncertainty in Hi-Fi

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 July 2025

“OK, but how do you know?”

Those were the words SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider threw back in my face when I was telling him about the distinctive tonal balance of the phono stage built into the Advance Paris PlayStream A7 streaming integrated amplifier I was reviewing for SoundStage! Simplifi at the time.

NAD C 700 V2 Streaming Integrated Amplifier

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 July 2025

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

The recent news that Harman is acquiring Masimo Consumer Audio’s old Sound United brands—Denon, Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, the Professor and Mary Ann—has me thinking a lot lately about how brands maintain anything resembling a unique identity when they’re all owned and controlled by the same corporate overlords. Interestingly, though, there’s one company that has already figured out how to cater to very different hi-fi enthusiasts at similar price points, and to see what I mean, just consider three different NAD integrated amplifiers all selling for around 2000 USD (at least as I write this in the middle of May 2025).

Fluance RT85N Turntable and Nagaoka MP-110 Cartridge

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 15 June 2025

Fluance is a direct-to-consumer operation that specializes in high-value speakers and turntables. Over the years, I’ve reviewed a goodly number of the Canadian firm’s products: the Reference XL8F floorstanding speaker and the RT81, RT81+, RT83, and RT85 turntables. I’ve always found Fluance’s equipment to be excellent.

First Look: NAD C 700 V2 Streaming Integrated Amplifier

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 June 2025

One of the trickiest needles for any journalist to thread is the concept of bias. We’re human. We have biases. Pretending otherwise leads to all sorts of preposterous knot-tying and apologetics. So my position on bias is that when I recognize one of my own (I can’t possibly recognize them all, which is why I say “when”), I spell it out.

What Do Knitting and Hi-Fi Have in Common? (Hint: It’s Politics)

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 June 2025

I know the date you’re seeing at the top of the page indicates it’s the first of June, 2025, at the very earliest. But you should know up front that I’m writing these words around the middle of April. I say that only because I have no idea what the future holds (no one does), and by the time this is published, I could look like either a lunatic or a prophet, or a bit of both.

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