The quest to review the Pearl Acoustics Model One began at the 2025 Montreal Audiofest, which I was covering for Stereophile. It was there I crossed paths in a hallway with Galion Audio's Thomas Tan, ...

I view preamplifiers the way my dog views vacuum cleaners: warily and a bit mystified by their existence. The less-is-more, straight-wire-with-gain approach has always seemed the correct one to me.

At AXPONA 2026, Rogue Audio delivered all the warmth, color, and tone that tube aficionados have come to expect from this venerable brand. Coupled to digital sources and the big Maggies (a.k.a.

There's no need to consult my notes. The memory of the sound of the Audio Research 330M monoblock amplifiers ($90,000/pair) at AXPONA 2025 is so vivid I can still recall what I heard and felt. I sat ...

Almost 14 years have passed since a review of a Soulution product appeared in the pages of Stereophile. Given the Swiss company's steady ascent in the high-end pantheon, it is high time that we again ...

Back in 2016, I documented the rise of class-D amps using the early TriPath technology. Used in the Bel Canto eVo 200.2, TriPath cracked open the door to the High End but was never admitted due to a ...

Here's a hard truth: A written review of a full-sized speaker—any speaker, really—is, at best, semi-useful. We all listen differently, we have different musical tastes, our system electronics are ...

A few summers ago, I briefly got it in my head that I could become a wine connoisseur. This was due to a very generous and unexpected gift. A local acquaintance had passed away, and his wife wanted to ...

Bluetooth headphones have brought me joy for years—sometimes a little too much. Once, while waiting for a flight at my regional airport, I switched on the active noise cancellation, closed my eyes, ...

In my high-school days, I visited a friend whose well-to-do dad proudly demonstrated his new Quad ESL system for us. First up was a recording of a man with heavy footsteps traversing the space from ...

During my 30-odd years inhabiting New York City's Greenwich Village, I've seen many things come and go. Today's Village buzzes, blasts, and bellows in every direction, change itself the only constant.

There has not been a conventional preamplifier in my main audio system for quite a while, because no multichannel preamp is available that's of high enough quality. Instead, I use the high-precision ...