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Reviews of Attainable Hi-Fi & Home-Theater Equipment

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Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 February 2015

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

Reviewers' Choice Paradigm has been around since 1982, and since then the Canadian company has become one of the top hi-fi manufacturers in the world, in terms of both volume of sales and quality of product. Their nearly 250,000-square-foot facility, outside Toronto, is the most impressive audio factory I’ve seen. They design and build just about everything in-house, test prototypes in their own 33,000-cubic-foot anechoic chamber, and ship to over 55 countries. Paradigm’s success is a result of many factors, but perhaps most significant is their process of evolutionary rather than revolutionary design, whose success is borne out in high sales and good sound. Despite this, I was never taken with Paradigm’s offerings. There was nothing distasteful about them; I just found their appearance somewhat pedestrian and lacking in personality.

Details: Written by: Erich Wetzel; Created: 15 January 2015

Cary Audio SL-100 Cary Audio is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1989, Cary Audio quickly became known as a builder of high-quality, two-channel, tubed audio electronics. Their model 805 monoblock, now named the CAD-805AE, has been around for nearly as long as the company itself, and has received many positive reviews over the decades. Cary now serves a wider audience with both tubed and solid-state amplifiers and preamplifiers, a hybrid headphone amp and hybrid D/A converters, as well as solid-state DACs, music servers, and surround-sound processors.

Details: Written by: Vince Hanada; Created: 01 January 2015

NuPrime IDA-16 NuPrime, based in Los Angeles, split off from another California audio company, NuForce (Fremont). NuForce had begun in 2005 with high-end power and integrated amplifiers, such as the award-winning Reference 18 mono amp and the P-20 preamplifier, that had innovative switching power supplies that sounded exceptional -- something then virtually unheard of. Then the high-end side seemed to take a back seat, as NuForce went on to introduce $100 DACs and $500 integrated amplifiers.

In 2014, NuForce’s cofounder, Jason Lim, with backing from the OEM factory, bought the assets of NuForce’s high-end division and formed NuPrime. The new company’s first product is the IDA-16, which I first heard about from SoundStage! writer Roger Kanno. A 200Wpc integrated amp with a DSD-capable DAC? This was something I had to review.

Details: Written by: Vince Hanada; Created: 15 December 2014

Anthem MRX 510 Reviewers' Choice For a high-end audio company, one of the most difficult types of component to design is the home-theater receiver. First of all, they need to cram five to nine channels of amps into a single housing. Those amp modules need to be of high quality, as is expected of a high-end brand. On the audio side, there are analog signals, A/D and D/A conversion, and DSP programming to contend with. On the video side, proper HDMI implementation is tricky, along with analog video, A/D conversion, and video upscaling. Another big concern is providing troubleshooting support and firmware updates -- it’s impossible to test an A/V receiver with the myriad combinations of gear it could be hooked up to. Finally, the manufacturer needs to sell it at a price that competes with the plethora of A/V receivers from mass-market audio companies. No wonder only a few audio-enthusiast companies still go to the trouble to design and build them. One of those companies is Anthem.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 December 2014

Monitor Audio A100 Reviewers' Choice It’s easy to look at a small integrated amplifier and scoff. Consider something like NAD Electronics’ 40Wpc C 316BEE, or Arcam’s 50Wpc A19 -- compact, not terribly impressive-looking components thoroughly lacking in style, and sounding excellent. But go smaller still and it’s difficult to picture a tiny, inexpensive, class-D integrated amp powering a pair of real loudspeakers. That’s the province of big class-AB designs adorned with heatsinks and having substantial power supplies.

A few years ago, NuForce’s DDA-100 changed all that. The 2.64-pound -- 2.64! -- integrated amplifier-DAC retails for $549 USD, and offers 50Wpc of minimalist class-D brawn and several digital inputs. Most important, it sounded fantastic -- far better than I’d been aware could be had for under $1000. NAD then reimagined its legendary 3020 integrated amplifier as the D 3020, a class-D integrated amplifier-DAC that develops 30Wpc, and also includes analog inputs, aptX Bluetooth wireless connectivity, a subwoofer output, and a headphone amp -- all for $499.99.

Monitor Audio, a British company with decades of experience designing and making loudspeakers, has entered the mini-integrated-DAC fray with its Airstream A100 ($499.99). It might be easy to prejudge Monitor’s freshman effort in amplifier design as little more than a me-too product, as I did when I was ushered into the company’s suite at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. Like the NuForce and NAD before it, the Monitor is a small, lifestyle-size model. Unlike them, it trots to a different, perhaps more sophisticated beat.

Details: Written by: Oliver Amnuayphol; Created: 15 November 2014

Arcam airDAC Reviewers' Choice I remember when I saw my first outboard digital-to-analog converter. A wide-eyed teenager -- an audio neophyte, for sure -- I was visiting my first high-end audio store. The year was 1991. By that time, standalone DACs were already a hot commodity. They were one-half of a two-component solution (the other half being, of course, the CD transport) that comprised the audiophile’s version of the ultimate digital front end. With landmark products like the Mark Levinson No.30/31 combo paving the way, the future of disc-replay technology looked quite promising.

Who could’ve guessed that, not a quarter of a century later, DAC-transport combos -- never mind the entire category of component disc players -- would be almost obsolete? Ask any audiophile, and he’ll probably tell you that the catalyst behind this change can be described in three words: computer-based audio. With physical media quickly becoming a thing of the past, it seems there’s hardly any need for disc players or transports anymore.

Details: Written by: Roger Kanno; Created: 01 November 2014

Revel Performa3 F208s Reviewers' Choice I first heard Revel’s Performa3 F208 and M106 speakers at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas -- they were my favorite speakers at that show. I guess good things come to those who wait -- I recently received for review a home-theater speaker system comprising the Performa3 F208 mains ($5000 USD per pair), C208 center ($2000), M106 bookshelf/surrounds ($2000/pair), and a B112 subwoofer ($3000), for a total system price of $12,000.

Since I’d first heard the Performa3s, some truly world-class speakers for under $5000/pair have passed through my listening room. I wondered how the Revels, which sounded so promising a couple of years ago, might compare . . .

Description

The Performa3s look nothing like Revel’s earlier Performa models, whose rectilinear cabinets and natural wood accents were rather plain. The new Revels have curved enclosures with tasteful, matte-black top accents and deep finishes -- all four of these models are available in Piano Black or High Gloss Walnut. The Performa3s’ qualities of veneer and fit and finish are outstanding, and as good as anything I’ve seen in this price range.

Details: Written by: Roger Kanno; Created: 15 October 2014

Definitive Technology Cube When it comes to new technology, I’m not much of a trailblazer. I use new technologies when they’re useful to me, but not merely for technology’s sake. I have a smartphone for work, primarily to answer e-mails when I’m away from my desk, or to send text messages and, occasionally, surf the Internet. But other than that, I have little time or patience for apps, whether they’re actually useful, merely for amusement, or whatever else it is that smartphone apps can do. I have had great luck with Definitive Technology’s Sound Cylinder Bluetooth speaker, designed for use with tablet devices, however. Portable sound need not disappoint. The Sound Cylinder’s innovative industrial design and performance certainly impressed me.

Recently, fellow SoundStage! Network writer Brent Butterworth wrote a feature article, “Why You Shouldn’t Ridicule the Bluetooth Speaker.” In it, he extolled the virtues of a simple-to-use, self-contained speaker system that would appeal to the vast majority of consumers. At $249 USD, Definitive Technology’s Cube is about middle of the road price-wise for a Bluetooth speaker. But considering DefTech’s track record for producing high-performance speakers -- including the fantastic Mythos ST-L SuperTower, which I recently reviewed -- I was more than a little curious to hear their larger, more ambitious Cube.

Details: Written by: Colin Smith; Created: 01 October 2014

NAD D 7050 Reviewers' Choice Considered as a device that can be all things audio to all people, NAD’s D 7050 Direct Digital network amplifier ticks many boxes. Its compact footprint and stylish design make it a friend of the style conscious. Those more comfortable with texting than talking will love that the D 7050 can handle all manner of ways to distribute music: Bluetooth, AirPlay, Spotify, something ancient called TosLink, and . . . coaxial? Like, whatever! Wires are so my great-grandparents.

Description

Audio enthusiasts like you and me are no doubt impressed by the D 7050’s Direct Digital innards, descended as they are from a lineage that would make the bluest blood swoon with envy. In the beginning there was NAD’s M2 Direct Digital amplifier, and it was very, very good. The M2 had the Direct Digital world to itself for a couple of years, then begat the C 390DD -- one of the best midpriced amplifiers ever, and a component whose presence I miss to this day. What’s remarkable about this technology trickle-down isn’t that it happened, but that, at each step, NAD has slashed the price of admission. The M2 still sells for $5999 USD. Much of its capability is resident in the C 390DD, for $2599. Now comes the D 7050, for only $999. Is it even possible that the D 7050 can hold a candle to its bigger brothers?

Details: Written by: Sathyan Sundaram; Created: 15 September 2014

Wyred 4 Sound mINT Because most of the recordings I listen to are stored in digital formats, as files or on discs, when I connect a traditional amplifier to my system, numerous analog inputs are typically left vacant. This is becoming the case for more and more listeners. While vinyl has lately experienced a bit of a renaissance, turntable aficionados remain outnumbered by those who’ve never used one. Fortunately, to address this need, audio companies have been producing equipment that combines integrated amplifiers with digital-to-analog converters -- an appropriate solution when the onboard DAC is of good quality.

In its six years, Wyred 4 Sound, of Atascadero, California, has racked up awards and positive reviews throughout the industry, including from SoundStage!. Their product line includes DACs, music servers, preamps, power amps, integrated amps, and cables, along with upgrades, such as to the Sonos Connect. Within most of those categories are W4S products at several price points -- a remarkable array from a small company. The US-made mINT -- an abbreviation of “mini-integrated” -- lives up to its name: At a svelte 8”W x 3.5”H x 8”D and a mere 9 pounds, it’s the smallest integrated amplifier I’ve reviewed. Nonetheless, it’s full of features, packing a DAC, integration options, and a headphone amplifier, along with some impressive specifications. It costs $1499 USD.