Índex per May 2026 a Stereophile

Lately, hi-fi’s technical emphasis has shifted toward time, away from its longtime main focus on the frequency domain. I’m thinking the trend, which I consider a good thing, started years ago with growing awareness it might be better to accept some aliasing in order to avoid the phase distortion resulting from a “brick-wall” reconstruction filter. More recent examples include the approach to D/A conversion taken by CH Precision1 and—dare I mention it?—the theory behind MQA.2 I also encountered the trend once on the analog side; I’m thinking of Haniwa, which makes phono cartridges, phono preamps, and single-driver speakers that aim to preserve phase relationships.3 I was reminded of this while preparing this month’s lead review, of the Marten Mingus Septet Statement Edition loudspeaker, a time-coincident design. In most speakers, time…

When I was a child, my favorite trips were on a northwest-bound train called the Red Arrow. My parents and I left Moscow in the early evenings. I loved everything about the sleeper cars: the glasses of hot tea in their shiny metal holders, the black bread–and-butter sandwiches my mother packed, which we ate with exaggerated relish, and best of all being rocked to sleep while the moonlit countryside flashed by behind drawn curtains. In the mornings we arrived in Vilnius, the Lithuanian city where my mother had grown up. Everything there looked different. Back in Moscow, we lived in one of the identical cinderblock apartment towers that circled the city; they were built a few years before I was born but were already falling apart. In Vilnius, there were…

I measured one of the Marten Mingus Septet Statement Edition loudspeakers, serial number 25080551A, in Jim Austin’s listening room, with the speaker driven by the Gryphon Antileon Revelation amplifier he had in-house for review. I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and calibrated DPA 4006 and Earthworks QTC-40 microphones with an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the Mingus Septet’s farfield frequency behavior. I used the Earthworks QTC-40 mike, which has a small, 1/4"-diameter capsule, for the nearfield responses. It wasn’t possible to raise the 211lb loudspeaker off the floor. Marten’s Leif Olofsson wrote in an email that the optimal axis on which to perform the measurements was 38" from the floor, with the speaker supported on its feet, rather than on the tweeter axis, which is 44" high. Olofsson was also concerned…

“Is the Meitner MA3i1 integrated DAC ($11,500) sufficiently different from its predecessor to warrant a full review?" That’s the question Editor Jim Austin posed as he contemplated the alternative: a shorter follow-up to my 2022 review2 of the now discontinued MA3 ($10,500) that would omit an extensive interview and measurements. After electrical engineer–in-training Amadeus “Deus” Meitner, son of digital pioneer and EMM Labs/Meitner Audio founder Ed Meitner, informed us that “almost everything in the MA3i is new,” we opted for a full review. After spending many weeks with both old and new units, I agree with the pronouncement of Deus from his lofty perch on high.3 Setting the stage At the start of our extended Zoom interview, Deus tolerated a brief digression into bitch-face rant mode. “I’m so sick of…

I was born and raised in Argentina. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by machines. My mother used to call me “Botones” (Spanish for “Buttons”) because I pressed every button and turned every knob I encountered. I was particularly interested in machines that played music, especially my dad’s Grundig console, which sounded like a warm breeze in a beautiful sunset. It’s hardly surprising that I pursued an education in the sciences. I was a graduate student in physics at the University of Chicago in the late 1990s and a poor, inquisitive audiophile. I tried to improve my mid-fi audio equipment in whatever ways I could, which mostly meant opening things up and tinkering. Every day on my way to the physics research building, I walked by the research…

All “serious” music fans know pop music is kid’s stuff: too simple, too accessible, the embodiment of that cringeworthy moniker “disposable.” But pop music is also what keeps the lights on in the music business, selling gobs of streams, merchandise, and concert tickets. And hasn’t that always been the case? In 1956, during the first wave of rock’n’roll as well as the bebop revolution in jazz, four of the top 10 singles were pop records by Nelson Riddle, Les Baxter, Doris Day, and Kay Starr. Perry Como, the bête noir of rock’n’roll, grabbed the 16th spot that same year with “Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom).” Today, pop music is even more dominant, as the major Grammy Award winners in 2026—Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Jelly Roll—all are unquestionably pop.…

Wish You Were Here isn’t my favorite Pink Floyd album, but I can’t deny its success or how often it has played within earshot over the course of my life. Released mid-1975 to mixed reviews, time worked in its favor: Today many consider it a peer to the group’s masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon. Wish You Were Here 50, from Pink Floyd Music and Sony, is a golden anniversary Super Deluxe package of four LPs, two CDs, and a Blu-ray disc. LPs 1–3 and the two CDs contain the same material: the 2016 James Guthrie remix/remaster of the original album and a pile of outtakes and demos that will surely be of great interest to hardcore Floyd fanatics. It hardly matters that they were of less interest to me,…

Marten Mingus Septet Statement Edition Rhythm Distribution and Marten are deeply grateful to Jim Austin for his insightful review of the Mingus Septet Statement Edition. We particularly appreciate the technical focus on first-order crossover filters. As noted, these filters are “essential for true time-domain integrity.” While they represent a significant engineering “pain” to implement correctly, we believe the results are undeniably worth the effort. By combining these crossovers with our custom drivers—including pure diamond, beryllium, and ceramic membranes—we have achieved “pistonic” performance that minimizes distortion while maintaining phase relationships. All these efforts are to achieve what Marten’s founder, Leif Olofsson, has always prioritized: the “truth and beauty of natural sound.” It is incredibly rewarding to hear that these design choices translated into a transformative listening experience. We are honored by…

Appreciation for Rogier van Bakel (and Alon Wolf!) As an eight-year owner of Magico loudspeakers, I have read a number of Magico reviews and side articles on Alon Wolf. None come close to Rogier van Bakel’s article on Alon in the April issue. It captures the essence of Mr. Wolf’s design choices and his rationale, drive, and what sets Magico apart under his leadership. Outstanding job! Gaines Wilburn Greensboro, North Carolina Appreciation for Tom Fine My profound thanks to Tom Fine for his review of the McIntosh DS200 streamer DAC in the November 2025 issue of Stereophile. It literally changed my life. I have been an audiophile since the 1960s and never quite emerged from the analog world. Streaming was too confusing; I saw it as just another source of…

Treviso, Italy–based Unison Research has launched the Unico PRE V2 preamplifier/DAC and Unico DM V2 dual-mono power amplifier. Both will be introduced at AXPONA and available at US dealers at the same time. With the Unico DM V2, Unison introduces what the company calls “a significant technical evolution at the heart of the new Unico series: Analog Synchronized Hybrid Amplification (A.S.H.A.) technology.” This circuit topology is described as “hybrid class-A/class-AB.” Eric Smith, director of education at Unison’s US distributor, Fidelity Imports, explained the new power amp circuit. “The A.S.H.A. amp design is Unison Research’s approach to eliminating switching noise in traditional class-AB designs. There are MOSFET outputs for the positive and negative of the waveform like in AB; however, the MOSFET powering the positive part of the waveform never shuts…

PS Audio, based in Boulder, Colorado, is offering three complete hi-fi systems. The company says the systems were “curated for synergy [and] priced to astonish.” The Foundation System includes PS Audio’s Strata MK2 integrated amplifier, FR5 loudspeakers, a P3 power regenerator, and a pair of AudioQuest Rocket speaker cables, for $5000, a discount of more than 50% compared to the sum of the products’ MSRP ($10,797). The Horizon System includes the StellarGold DAC, StellarGold Preamplifier, StellarGold S300 power amplifier, FR5 speakers, P3 Power Plant, and AudioQuest Rocket speaker and Red River XLR cables for an even $10,000; that system would cost $18,015 if the pieces were purchased separately. The top-end Summit System includes the Stellar-Gold DAC, a StellarGold Preamplifier, a pair of Stellar M1200 Monoblock power amplifiers, FR10 Speakers, a…

I get nervous when I hear that an audio company I like is suddenly under new ownership. Are the new owners planning to carry forward the legacy of the company’s founders, or will they try to move things in a different direction? Worst of all is when just the brand name is sold off to some marginally connected manufacturer so that they can slap a prestigious name on some cheap garbage, such as the $15 Nakamichi-branded kids’ headphones I recently saw for sale at Walmart. Then there are companies that are either gone altogether, like Thiel, or seemingly dormant, like Wadia and Infinity. These companies were once cornerstones of the high-end audio world and are now either dead or surviving as a website with promises of upcoming activity that rarely happens.…

The origins of Canadian audio manufacturer MOON, from the company called Simaudio, stretch back to 1980, when audio engineer Victor Sima created his first designs. Sima’s company became Simaudio Ltd. in 1990. Simaudio launched the MOON brand in 1997. Simaudio’s factory is located in Boucherville, Quebec, across the St. Lawrence River from Old Montreal. Currently helmed by principals Costa Koulisakis and Thierry Dufour, Simaudio has been at the forefront of Canadian audio design and manufacture for 45 years. With only the tiniest exceptions, everything Simaudio does is done at their Boucherville factory. I’m not sure how consumers got so lucky. Today, even with the chaos tariffs created, customers interested in audio can now choose from a surfeit of products that are better designed and manufactured, do more, and cost less…

I measured the Meitner MA3i Integrated with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system,1 repeating some tests with the magazine’s higher-resolution APx555 system. I performed the testing using the AES3 and coaxial and TosLink S/PDIF inputs, all of which accepted data sampled at all rates up to 192kHz, as well as via the USB and network ports. Apple’s AudioMIDI utility revealed that the MA3i’s USB port accepted 16- and 24-bit integer data sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 384kHz. Apple’s USB Prober app identified the Meitner as “MA-3i DAC with MQA Decoder” from “EMM Labs,” and confirmed that the USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. Roon recognized the Meitner as “Meitner MA3i” and confirmed that it would act as an MQA decoder and renderer. The Meitner’s analog outputs preserved…

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. The preamps I own¹ often sit forlornly in my gear closet until I am in temporary need of their services. To me, a preamp is like a traffic cop. It routes signals and keeps everything moving smoothly. When source components began offering their own volume controls, it felt not just reasonable but principled to plug them directly into the power amplifier. By the mid-2010s, this was commonplace. Streamers, DACs, even CD players were marketed with “digital preamps.” The traditional active preamp began to look like a legacy component: a switchboard operator in the age of smartphones. So I got nervous when…

In the opinion of this hi-fi reviewer, the debate over the efficacy of audio-quality network switches should be over. As logic would dictate, when connections are made via a network switch, the quality of its inputs, outputs, oscillators (clocks), power supplies, and pathways affects the sound of everything downstream. It’s clearly audible. Everything matters. What about reclocking switches? And what if you only need to connect two units—which could be connected with just a cable? Do reclocking switches offer any advantage? That is one of several questions I set out to answer by auditioning the Nordost QNet7 seven-port network switch ($5499.99). I auditioned it two places in my system: in front of the Innuos Nazaré music server/streamer, which fed the multibox dCS Varèse, and without the Innuos Nazaré, infront of…

Each side of the one-sheet lyrics insert accompanying Squeeze’s latest LP, Trixies (Love/BMG), has been divvied up into three equal columns that can be folded over to replicate a 4" × 11 1⁄2" nightclub menu. Subtitled “Trixies Concoctions Menu,” the insert conjures the theme of the 13-track song cycle that comprises Trixies, whose storyline traces several scenes set in and around a fictional nightclub. The most telling line on the lyrics sheet reads, simply, “Difford & Tilbrook: The Mixologists/Since 1973.” Difford &Tilbrook are, of course, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, the songwriting partners and creative foils in Squeeze, the veteran British pop-rockers who have been making new waves and mixing new musical ideas on and off for the better part of six decades, producing indelible earworms such as “Pulling Mussels…

The last time my head turned when a recording received “Best of Month” notice from several magazines was in 2023, when Warner released Antonio Pappano’s Turandot. The time before that was 26 years ago when Sony released pianist Murray Perahia’s spiritually transcendent take on J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Since 2023, no universally feted recording has struck me as more novel, compelling, and profound than its disparate parts might suggest—until Willows, from 49-year-old Finnish violinist and contemporary music champion Pekka Kuusisto. Named for a tree that shimmers all the time—“light through a willow never stands still,” Kuusisto writes in the liner notes—Willows is an intimate and moving testimony of strength amidst loss. Kuusisto recorded the opening work, Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, in the spring of 2022 while his mother was…

The Thursday after AXPONA, I planned to go to a listening party, sponsored by our town’s library and held at a local art gallery. I thought that for once I would expand my horizons and spend time with others who love music instead of sitting alone in front of my hi-fi. I tempered my audiophile expectations, knowing it was more about music and togetherness than audiophilia. The library’s monthly newsletter read, “Bring your favorite vinyl,” so I packed up my third copy of Boston’s debut album. Not my first or second copy, both Double Wallys,1 but the third, non–Double Wally, in case it was not handled properly. Approaching the gallery, I noticed windows on two walls, a third with a mural and the fourth with a refrigerator. There was a…

Barco, which is based in Kortrijk, Belgium, has reached an agreement to acquire Ver-Vent Audio Holding, the parent company of Focal and Naim. Barco specializes in precision monitor screens for medical and industrial uses and is the market leader in digital projection systems for movie theaters. A Barco press release valued the deal at €135 million and said VerVent’s annual revenues are approximately €110 million. The acquisition will be self-financed. “After closing, VerVent will be integrated into Barco’s Entertainment division,” wrote Barco in a press release. “Barco intends to support the company’s ongoing strategic plan, which focuses on high-end premium audio positioning, a technology upgrade toward digital, active, and connected products, portfolio rationalization, and leveraging its sales network, including consumer channels and brand licensing.” VerVent was formed in 2014 following…

Esoteric, the high-end audio subsidiary of TEAC, has upgraded its N-05 streaming preamplifier and its matching S-05 class-A power amplifier to XE status. The N-05XE features an updated streaming engine, arrives Roon Ready, and supports Qobuz, Tidal, and Spotify Connect. Users can choose either electrical or optical (SFP) network connections. The internal clocking circuit has also been updated. The analog part of the preamp now includes a dedicated power supply for the stepped attenuator volume control. The built-in headphone amplifier is a new circuit described as “Dual-Mono Parallel Single-Ended,” said to be capable of up to 1200mW into 32 ohms. The front panel now includes a USB-C input for connecting smartphones and other devices. Esoteric says the new DAC has “richer musicality, incorporating the Grandioso N1 technologies”—a reference to its…

There was no limo, just a walk filled with Christmas-in-Chinatown sights from the F train east down East Broadway, past 169 Bar, under the Manhattan Bridge, to the Dim Sum Palace. I was having a dinner meetup with an artist-writer friend named Joe who invited me to catch up on old times and hear the wide-range AER drivers that he has bolted onto clear acrylic AER baffles with big, round, clear horns on the front. I auditioned these speakers at great length at Capital Audiofest, but I could not picture them in Joe’s sixth floor walk-up. Joe’s apartment is small, like mine, with art, records, and hi-fi things piled everywhere. Starting by his front door, a narrow pathway leads straight to Joe’s bedroom, where I found a vaguely defined empty…

I performed a full set of measurements on the MOON 371 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system.1 As is typical with modern products, when I connected its Ethernet port to my router, the MOON suggested that I update its firmware. I did so; after the update it was running firmware V.1.02 with the MiND module running V.2.07. Before I started the measurements, I preconditioned the amplifier by operating it at 1/8 the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the temperature of the heatsinks on the amplifier’s sides was 137.8°F/58.6°C. The temperature of the top panel was lower, at 94°F/37.4°C; still, this amplifier needs plenty of ventilation. Looking first at the MOON 371’s balanced and single-ended line-level inputs, the amplifier preserved absolute polarity, ie,…

Silver platters and I began divorce proceedings over a decade ago. The separation began when the husband and I contemplated liberating ourselves from crime-ridden East Oakland and moving to placid Port Townsend (where anarchist deer, rather than Norteño gang members, wreak havoc on our daily lives). There was no way I was going to haul 55 big boxes of CDs 846 miles and have no place to put them. I refused to part with my vocal CDs. Ditto for my LPs and 78s, though my only turntable was destroyed in transit. All that media plus eight large boxes of CDs and SACDs that inexplicably slipped through the cracks and remained unsold at moving time ended up in a huge, diesel-belching van that destroyed all semblance of tranquility in our new,…

I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system1 to perform a complete set of measurements using the PMG Signature’s balanced inputs and outputs. I used the menu on the front-panel touchscreen to make sure that AC Couple was turned off and the input gain trim controls were deactivated. (The display showed that the preamplifier’s serial number was 5D0197 and its firmware was v.2.3.5.) I repeated some of the tests using the unbalanced RCA inputs and outputs, then did more tests with the magazine’s higher-performance APx555. With the Phase control set to Off, the PMG Signature preserved absolute polarity (ie, was noninverting) with the balanced and single-ended inputs and outputs. (Its XLR jacks are wired with pin 2 hot, the AES convention.) The volume control operated in accurate 0.5dB steps, and with this…

“THANK YOU VERY MUCH INDEED.” That’s David Gilmour offering his recurrent humble rejoinder to thefever-pitched audience response throughout the 2.5-hour performance that makes up the bulk of his latest solo release, Live at the Circus Maximus (Sony Music), which was recorded in Rome over the course of three shows held at the storied Italian venue October 1–3, 2024. As is his wont, Gilmour tends to speak in the traditional, understated English way—and, mind you, he’s very much not speaking with a tone of “quiet desperation,” as an infamous lyric he sings toward the end of the ageless Pink Floyd track “Time” puts it.1 Whether he’s acknowledging the audience’s fervor, introducing the next song, or identifying his bandmates, Gilmour comes across as a seasoned country gent, albeit one adorned in his…

After ignominious dismissal from Metallica shortly before that band’s debut recording, guitarist Dave Mustaine could have easily become a Greg Walls–esque footnote in metal history. But his seething anger, easily audible in his subsequent discography, led him to retaliate by forming Megadeth, which, if not as lucrative as Metallica, was just as influential. Nearly 40 years after Megadeth’s first release, Mustaine, who hits retirement age this fall while suffering from Dupuytren’s contracture, has released his 17th and final album, titled, simply, Megadeth. This occasions a retrospective of his output, which lurches from brilliance to banality. Though some heavy metal artists have recorded under their own name—Ozzy Osbourne, Yngwie Malmsteen—the genre mostly presents as collective music. Yet Mustaine is Megadeth in its totality: founder, main songwriter, singer, decider. 1985’s Killing Is…

With the hi-fi business, arguably, at a critical juncture, keeping it fun is more important than ever. Hi-fi salespeople play a key role in that—they’re the boots on the ground. If anyone is going to foster interest and imbue the hobby with fun, it’s salespeople. At Albany, New York–area dealership Hippo’s, Nicholas Shippey has been doing that for almost five years. He, his colleagues, and his customers call him “Audio Curator.” He’s not a manager exactly, but he plays several key roles at the dealership, including meeting with vendors and helping to decide which brands and products are a good match: Since signing on at Hippo’s, he has brought in more than 30 new brands. He provides in-home consultations and helps dial in customers’ systems. His most important role, though,…