Reviews of Attainable Hi-Fi & Home-Theater Equipment
Newest Features & Reviews
NAD C 3050 vs. C 3050 LE—What Do You Lose If You Buy the Cheaper, Non-Limited Version?
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- Written by: Dennis Burger
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?
My First Record Store Day Won’t Be My Last
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- Written by: Dennis Burger
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.
Yamaha R-N1000A Streaming Stereo Receiver
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- Written by: Dennis Burger
Yamaha’s R-N1000A Network Receiver ($1799.95, all prices USD), as I said in my unboxing blog post, represents a trend in audio that I absolutely adore. It is, in a sense, a two-channel A/V receiver, what with its HDMI ARC connection, YPAO room correction, and subwoofer output with legitimate bass management, but it doesn’t compromise on pure two-channel performance to make such accommodations (well, for the most part—more on that in a bit).
Vera-Fi Audio Vanguard Scout Loudspeaker and Vanguard Caldera 10 Subwoofer
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- Written by: Thom Moon
Vera-Fi Audio isn’t well known to most audiophiles, but the company sells an interesting range of products, some of them designed in-house, others sourced from outside vendors. A few of these products border on the bizarre. For example, there’s the Meow ($165, all prices in USD) from Tombo Audio in Thailand. The Meow looks like a cartoonish sculpture of a cat. Put a Meow on top of a component, and it “will omni-directionally reflect the sound in good order,” Vera-Fi says on its website. “After the noise is cleared, the frequency bandwidth is easily separated. The micro-detail and harmonic could be instantly perceived.”
Read more: Vera-Fi Audio Vanguard Scout Loudspeaker and Vanguard Caldera 10 Subwoofer
Unboxing the Arcam A25 Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by: Dennis Burger
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.
Unitarian Universalism for Hi-Fi?
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- Written by: Dennis Burger
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.
Marantz Model 50 Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by: Dennis Burger
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.
I promise I’m here to review Marantz’s latest integrated amplifier, the Model 50, and not to relitigate a previous review. Before I get into the specifics of this evaluation, though, let me paint you a picture of what went through my head as I sat down to start writing it. A few years back, when my review of Marantz’s Model 40n network integrated amplifier–DAC went live, someone posted a link to it on Reddit, prompting a response from a Redditor named /u/mourning_wood_again, who thought he caught me slipping:
Dayton Audio TT-1 Turntable with Audio-Technica AT-VM95E Cartridge
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- Written by: Thom Moon
Parts Express’s Dayton Audio operation is a major supplier of speaker components as well as audio testing and measurement tools, and has recently expanded its offerings of home audio products, many of them at exceptional prices. Their latest offering is the TT-1 manual turntable, which comes with a factory-mounted Audio-Technica AT-VM95E cartridge.
Read more: Dayton Audio TT-1 Turntable with Audio-Technica AT-VM95E Cartridge
Unboxing the Yamaha R-N1000A Streaming Stereo Receiver
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- Written by: Dennis Burger
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
Digital Deception?
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- Written by: Dennis Burger
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.
- PSB Imagine B50 Loudspeaker
- Living Sounds Audio Statement 100 Loudspeaker
- Unboxing the Marantz Model 50 Integrated Amplifier
- On the Nature of Stoics, Straw Men, and Solved Problems
- Dayton Audio HTA200 Integrated Amplifier–DAC
- Fluance RT81+ Turntable and Audio-Technica AT-VM95E Cartridge
- Unboxing PSB’s Imagine B50 Loudspeakers
- Price Categories for Hi-Fi Don’t Make (Much) Sense
- Technics Grand Class SU-GX70 Streaming Stereo Receiver
- Fluance Reference XL8F Loudspeaker
