The Audiophile Apartment’s 2025 Products of the Year

These are our picks in the last 14 months or so for our favorite products to go in smaller environments where space is at a premium, and an extra splash of style is a bonus. Read More >

Powered Delight – The Dynaudio Focus 10 Speakers

Think about cables for a few minutes. Then think about having only a pair of power cords in your system.
If you’re in a small space, less is usually more, so this is not a bad thing for you. Read More >

The Sim 390 is a front end that does it all…

If you’d like a high-performance system with a minimal box count, consider the Sim Audio 390.

It’s a line preamplifier, streaming DAC, headphone amplifier and MM/MC phono preamplifier. Read More >

McIntosh MC275 Power Amplifier

The MC275 from McIntosh is not only one of the all time classics, when it comes to vacuum tube amplifiers, it is quite possibly one of (if not the best) of their tube amps, in terms of value, sonics, and build quality. Read More >

It’s National Bobblehead Day!

Phil Sklar, Co-Founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum has just let me know that tomorrow, January 7, is National Bobblehead Day.

Located in my home town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they’ve introduced three new Margaritaville Bobbleheads: The Parrot, Shark and LIzard. Read More >

Vintage audio at Axpona

With just over three months to go, I’ve been asked to give an hour talk about vintage audio at this years Axpona.

I’ll be talking about your vintage journey, what to expect if you’re new to all this, repair issues, and whatever else comes to mind. Read More >

Issue 122

Cover Story

Avid’s Acutus Classic:
A Great Turntable Returns

Features

Old School: Nakamichi 400 series
by Jeff Dorgay

1095: Rega’s ND3 and ND5 MM cartridges

The Audiophile Apartment: Dynaudio Focus 10 wireless speakers

Journeyman Audiophile: Magnepan 2. Read More >

World’s FIRST Review: The Magnepan 2.7X

A long journey of refinement

Visiting Echo Audio in Portland, Oregon always turns up something intriguing from my audio journey, and this day would be no different. Lurking in the back room was a pair of Magnepan MGII speakers  that a customer had recently traded in. Read More >

Voodoo Labs Carbon Age Standard Cables

Further exploration… By Chris Harr and Jeff Dorgay

One of the most over used cliches in the world of audio writing is that a cable delivers a “component level” upgrade. Read More >

The MoFi Master Phono

There’s nothing this one can’t do.

You might think that hyperbole, but MoFi’s Master Phono is aptly named. It features two voltage gain inputs (what every other phono stage has) and a current gain input. Read More >

The dCS Lina DAC

This one is way overdue… I’ve had the Lina from dCS for a long time. Long enough that I bought the review sample, yet it’s been a lot of exploration and comparisons. Read More >

McIntosh D1100 Digital Preamplifier

If you’re absolutely sure you don’t need a turntable (and I wont call you a bad Smurf if you don’t) the D1100 from McIntosh is a great way to roll. Read More >

Welcome to Distilled!

Hello and welcome to Distilled.

We are not abandoning our standard reviews, but for those of you that would like a little more than the canned press releases everyone else is posting, but not sure if you want to make the time investment in a full review, we present the distilled column. Read More >

MartinLogan Impression ESL 11A Speakers

-Photo courtesy, The Music Room

Yep, gotta admit being a fanboy of MartinLogan. Having owned and/or reviewed nearly every MartinLogan panel speaker made since the CLS in the 80s, these panels are not only easy to deal with but easy to incorporate into your room without a lot of placement issues. Read More >

The Weiss 501 DAC

-Photos courtesy The Music Room

This DAC is the perfect example of a great, slightly used product. Having just finished my review on the Weiss 502, they explain the difference between the 501 and 502 is the latter having a balanced, 4 pin headphone output on the rear face of the unit. Read More >

The Java Double Shot Power Amplifier

From the click of the super stylish power button that merely needs your touch to illuminate a diffuse white circle of light, the Double Shot power amplifier from Java gets you going. Read More >