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Reviews of Attainable Hi-Fi & Home-Theater Equipment

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Details: Written by: Al Griffin; Created: 01 April 2018

MartinLogan is best known for its electrostatic tower speakers, which range from the ElectroMotion ESL ($2500 USD/pair) up to their flagship model, the Neolith ($80,000/pair). While I’m a longtime fan of their electrostatic designs, the MartinLogan models I’m more likely to recommend to friends are found in its budget-leaning Motion Series, which includes a trio of floorstanders: the 60XT ($3000/pair), the 40 ($1999/pair), and the 20 ($1599/pair). Philip Beaudette reviewed the Motion 40 for SoundStage! Hi-Fi in October 2012. Here I listen to ML’s entry-level floorstander, the Motion 20.

Details: Written by: Sathyan Sundaram; Created: 15 March 2018

Norway’s Hegel Music Systems makes CD players, DACs, and amplifiers -- integrated, pre-, and power -- and since its founding has focused on solving the problems that plague contemporary amplifiers, such as harmonic distortion. In fact, harmonic distortion so intrigued founder Bent Holter that, in the late 1980s, he wrote his thesis on the subject. Among the technologies to come from this research has been Hegel’s patented SoundEngine circuitry -- now reincarnated as SoundEngine2 -- which seeks to retain the original detail and dynamic range of the signal with error-correction technology. The various stages of an amplifier -- input, gain, output -- are usually connected in series. The trouble with this is that any distortion produced in one of these stages is then sent on to the next stage to be amplified, along with the signal. At the end of this series, this cumulative distortion is then, hopefully, minimized by a global feedback loop.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 March 2018

I’ve become well acquainted with Monitor Audio in the past few years, having visited their offices in Rayleigh, just east of London in the UK, in 2014. I reviewed their Bronze 6 loudspeaker in 2016, and recently I used as my reference loudspeaker the flagship model of their previous generation of Silver models, the Silver 10 floorstander. I respect Monitor’s no-nonsense approach to loudspeaker design: not much pomp and circumstance, just sound engineering and modestly attractive looks.

Details: Written by: Brent Butterworth; Created: 15 February 2018

Monolith THX Ultra 15” subwoofer measurements can be found by clicking this link.

The Monolith THX Ultra 15” subwoofer (product no. 24458) is a radically different product for Monoprice. As I’ve written previously on SoundStage! Xperience, Monoprice’s business model is to sell products that are pretty good, yet are more affordable than those of most competitors.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 February 2018

Reviewers' Choice I’ve owned or reviewed half a dozen KEF products over the past five years, and with good reason. KEF makes sensible, high-quality, well-engineered loudspeakers. But for all my experience with this British brand, I’d never heard any of their affordable Q speaker models.

Read more: KEF Q750 Loudspeakers

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 15 January 2018

There’s a never-ending controversy about which type of phono cartridge is better: moving-coil, moving-magnet, or moving-iron. I fall firmly in the MM/MI camp. It’s not that I don’t appreciate MCs -- some MCs I’ve heard have created an almost magical sound -- but I’ve resisted, for a number of reasons:

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 January 2018

Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Bowers & Wilkins has had an action-packed two years. In May 2016, the storied English loudspeaker maker was bought by EVA Automation, then a 40-person startup run by a former Facebook executive, the stated goal of the acquisition being to marry EVA’s expertise in automation with B&W’s prowess in audio engineering. B&W also launched the 800 D3 loudspeaker, the top model in the company’s flagship 800 Series Diamond line. More recently, B&W announced its new 700 Series of speaker models, the successor to its outgoing CM Series. Does the new line continue the magic of past Bowers & Wilkins models, or does it strike off in a bold new direction for one of the high end’s biggest players?

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 December 2017

Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Reviewers' Choice A couple years ago, a buddy of mine shot me an e-mail telling me that he was hoping to buy some speakers for his dad, whose speakers from college had finally bitten the dust. He needed three pairs of bookshelf speakers, and wanted to spend a total of somewhere between $300 and $500 USD -- “Nothing fancy, as he probably couldn’t tell the difference between new ones and the ones he currently has.”

Details: Written by: Sathyan Sundaram; Created: 01 December 2017

The United Kingdom’s history of making sound-reproduction equipment is long, and Wharfedale has been there from almost the beginning. Wharfedale Wireless Works was founded by Gilbert Briggs in 1932, when wireless meant AM radio, and by the 1950s the company was firmly established as an important maker of loudspeakers. Today Wharfedale is owned by the International Audio Group (IAG), whose other brands include Audiolab, Castle, Ekco, Luxman, Mission, and Quad.

Details: Written by: Al Griffin; Created: 15 November 2017

Reviewers' Choice I’ve never been fussy about audio cables. When I moved into my present house more than a decade ago, I bought an enormous spool of Monster Cable S14-2RCL, a 14-gauge, two-conductor speaker cable specified for in-wall use. What was important for me was that I could safely run it under floors and through walls to reach other rooms while minimizing the cables’ visual impact. Sound quality? It’s always seemed to me that the main factors responsible for determining a system’s sound are the speakers, amps, and source components.