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

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.

Onkyo Creator Series GX-30ARC Active Speaker System

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

As I’ve mentioned several times over the past year, when I strike up conversations with music fans at my local record store and quiz them about their sound systems at home, a significant percentage of them report just plugging their turntables into powered or active speakers—in most cases, something from Edifier. And that’s it. That’s their entire audio setup, aside from their solitary saucer-spinning source device. Which means, like it or not, offerings along the lines of Onkyo’s new GX-30ARC active speaker system ($299 when I started my review, $349 by the time it goes to press, all prices USD) are an important way of keeping hi-fi relevant for modern music listeners.

Unboxing the Onkyo Creator Series GX-30ARC Active Speaker System

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

There’s a little secret that most electronics reviewers know, but rarely talk about. When we get a product in for review, we pay attention to how many crossed-out labels are affixed to the box. We notice how many times the package has been taped and retaped. Speaking for myself here, I can use this both as a gauge for how popular a product is and of my overall place in the pecking order of reviewers for the applicable category.

I Was Wrong About Phono Preamps

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

It’s one thing to mess up. It’s another thing altogether to make a blunder when you’re on record with the correct take already. But such is life. In a recent episode of the SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast, host Jorden Guth and I were chatting about gear, and he mentioned how much he loved the PSB Alpha iQ active speaker system, praising it for practically everything, but expressing some skepticism about the system’s phono input. “Will it give you the best phono stage? Will it give you the best reproduction of your records? I’m going to say probably not.”

Anthem MRX SLM A/V Receiver

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

Reviewers' Choice The home-theater marketplace—what’s left of it these days—is awash with slim A/V receivers that prioritize room-friendly aesthetics and/or outright unobtrusiveness over performance-oriented specs and features. And I don’t mean that in terms of amplified output, since the 50Wpc you get from most slim receivers is probably more than enough for most mixed-use spaces. It’s rare, though, to find a compact AVR that delivers the goods in terms of room correction. The most popular models, such as the Marantz Cinema 70s ($1200, all prices USD), rely on bog-standard Audyssey MultEQ—which in my opinion is worse than no room correction at all—instead of the more advanced and better-sounding alternatives like MultEQ XT or XT32. And that’s just one of the many things that sets Anthem’s new MRX SLM ($1299.99) apart from most of its svelte competition.

Technics SL-100C Turntable with Audio-Technica AT-VM95E Cartridge

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

Reviewers' Choice Technics is a fabled name in turntables, best-known for its SL-1200 direct-drive ’table—a fixture in discotheques and dance clubs throughout the 40 years during which it was manufactured. But in 2010, Panasonic, which owns the Technics brand, stopped making turntables.

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