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Reviews of Attainable Hi-Fi & Home-Theater Equipment

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Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 March 2023

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

Reviewers' Choice I wanted to start this review with a joke. Something to the effect of “What’s the exact opposite of a mullet?” And in case you’re not familiar with that particularly atrocious hairstyle and the humor surrounding it, the response would have been some ham-fisted attempt to describe NAD’s new C 3050 LE Stereophonic Amplifier (also referred to as a “HybridDigital DAC Amplifier”) as a party up front and all business in the back. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t make it work. But take a look at this thing, and you start to get a sense of why I was drawn to this unsuccessful dad joke.

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 01 February 2023

Reviewers' Choice My first experience with the Fluance brand was some years ago when I reviewed their then-top-of-the-line XL7F floorstanding loudspeaker (now discontinued), which I found to be an amazing value. While the firm still makes several speakers for home audio/video applications, they’ve become just as well known for a line of turntables that retail for eye-openingly low prices. In keeping with this trend, the RT83, the subject of this review, sits squarely in the middle of their offerings but sells for a reasonable $349.99 (all prices in USD).

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 January 2023

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

It’s not my intention to go full-blown “get off my lawn” on you here. But when I was growing up, it wasn’t difficult to know what to call a component with volume control, source selection, and built-in amplification. Did it have an AM/FM tuner built in? It was a receiver. Did it not? It was an integrated amp. That’s hardly helpful with a product like the new SVS Prime Wireless Pro SoundBase ($699.99, all prices USD), though. It lacks a radio tuner, sure. But it has so many other features that “integrated amp” hardly cuts it. SVS calls it a “smart integrated amplifier,” and I reckon that works.

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 01 January 2023

Since my early days of audio madness, I’ve relied on Dual turntables, most of them automatic. Automatics are turntables that independently lift the arm and set it down on the lead-in groove, pick the arm up at the end of the side, return it to its rest position, and shut off the motor when done. So I was pleased to see that Dual had added a new automatic model to its lineup, the CS 329 ($499.99, all prices USD), a little brother to the more sophisticated CS 429 ($799.99) I reviewed back in October.

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 December 2022

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

In a recent editorial about the appeal of vintage audio, I said, and I quote, “Build me a $1500 stereo receiver or integrated amp that looks anything like [the $9500 Technics SU-R1000 stereo integrated amplifier], and I think I could turn a lot more uninitiated music lovers into high-performance audio enthusiasts.” Needless to say, at $2699.99 (all prices USD), the Technics Grand Class SU-G700M2 integrated amplifier isn’t precisely that amp. Still, this new offering promises to be a much more value-oriented alternative to the company’s big-boy flagship, at a price that places it reasonably within the spectrum of attainability for many people, even if they’re not hardcore.

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 15 November 2022

In 1991, at a time when most people thought vinyl was dead, Heinz Lichtenegger introduced the first Pro-Ject Audio Systems turntable. He knew there were probably millions of people who still owned billions of records and that many of them would want to hold on to their collections. So he set out to build a turntable that offered great sound at a budget price. That turntable was the Pro-Ject 1.

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 November 2022

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

As I’ve said more than once here lately: with well-established brands, once you get to a certain level of product you can very nearly take performance for granted these days. At least in the two-channel domain. It really just comes down to whether or not the product in question fits your specific needs.

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 01 October 2022

Reviewers' Choice At one time—in the 1970s and into the 1980s—Dual automatic turntables were in probably half the entry-level stereo systems in the US. But when the CD came along, and turntables became yesterday’s story, Dual went through some very rough times.

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 15 September 2022

The automatic turntable, absent from audio dealers’ offerings for years, is definitely making a comeback. The first unit I reviewed was the Andover Audio SpinDeck Max ($599, all prices USD). There are at least three more automatic turntables coming to me for review, and many more I haven’t reviewed or arranged to review. In this article, I’m looking at the Thorens TD 102 A ($1099), a fully automatic unit from the renowned Swiss/German company.

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 September 2022

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

There’s this pervasive notion in the world of hi-fi that if a box does more than one thing, it simply must perform worse at its multiple functions than separate boxes performing the same tasks. In other words, there are people who argue that a separate amplifier and preamp will by definition sound better than an integrated amplifier with identical specifications, and that an integrated amp and standalone DAC will certainly sound better than an integrated amp with a DAC built in. The argument, as I understand it, is effectively: “something’s gotta give somewhere.”