OpEd

Announcing the SECRETS Recommended A/V Gear

So, we’re making a list…

…and yes, we’ve checked it more than twice! Welcome to the new year folks. And despite the title of this article, I fully realize that Christmas is over and that I ain’t jolly old Saint Nick. But right now, I’m talking about a list of a different sort and, if you’re so inclined, you may consider it as a belated gift (or our first gift of 2022) to you, our loyal readers. While you are all familiar with our annual SECRETS Best of Awards, where we recognize the best audio and video products we’ve reviewed each year, we’ve been thinking for some time now that we needed to have a consolidated list of what we, here at SECRETS, feel is the best gear that we have reviewed, EVER.

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So, hypothetically, this “list” would begin as something broken down into tiers where readers can reference and research our take on these various products to better inform themselves should they be making a purchase or looking to design a system. Those products that make this hypothetical list would have to be currently available and in production, or an almost identical updated replacement be available instead. These outstanding products would also have to be selected from the vast array of stuff our writers and editors have looked at over the last few years. Each prospective candidate would have to be recommended to our Editors by the respective reviewer, confirming that they were suitably wowed into abject befuddlement. The Editors would then need to meet and go over these recommendations, hem, and haw and do much kvetching and gnashing of teeth until one list to rule them all was decided upon. The list would then be passed to our boss, the right honorable John of the Johnson Jr, where he would scrutinize it over a cup of the finest hot cocoa, do much deep pondering, and, ultimately, deem it to be just and good.

Well, my friends, this supposed list of ultimate A/V goodness will not be hypothetical for much longer. For soon it shall be released on the SECRETS website for all the world to gaze upon and it will be called, (cue the drumroll and much fanfare) The SECRETS Recommended Gear List! Yes, you may clap now.

Okay, so you’re saying to yourself, there are best-of lists for everything everywhere. Who needs another best-of list? Well, frankly dear readers, you do. Yes, I’m being serious! Consider it this way. At SECRETS we’ve been reviewing audio and video gear online for the last 28 years. We like to think that we’re pretty good at it and that we give you an honest and unvarnished look at the equipment that is worth your time to find out about. We’re not here to tell you what to buy, but we are here for you to use as a trusted resource as you research and inform yourself in making a decision. Anything that we can do to make our experience easier for you to access is a good thing and that’s what the new SECRETS Recommended Gear List is all about. In our list, we’ve decided to streamline the rating levels into four distinct and clearly defined tiers. They are as follows:

Essential

These components provide excellent performance and represent a superb value with a focus on the entry-level. Anyone looking to set up a great affordable system can rely on these choices.

Superior

The upgrade choice. This gear exhibits superior design and performance in every detail. A significant step up over Essential class.

Reference

Reference Standard components. These choices provide “cream of the crop” performance with no compromises.

Elite

This is an elite category for price-no-object components. Dream gear for most of us. Ultimate works of art and craftsmanship.

So that is the long and the short of it. Look for Essential, the first tier of components, to be published on February 8th with the remaining tiers to be released, one per week after that. Yes, we could publish the entire list all at once but what would be the fun in that? It’s our very first list so we’re going to draw it out as much as possible. Balloons, party hats, the works!

Just be happy that we didn’t hire the mimes!

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All the best!
Carlo Lo Raso
Co-Editor-In-Chief

Carlo Lo Raso

A native of Toronto Canada, Carlo's interest in audio began at a young age when, unbeknownst to his mother, he started taking apart her numerous transistor radios to see how they worked. This desire for “knowledge through deconstruction” continued through to the family’s 8-track tape player, turntable, headphones, and speakers. Carlo subsequently spent a lot of time in his room. Toronto was a fertile ground for Hi-Fi in the 1970s and 80s and Carlo spent much of his wayward youth hanging out in downtown Toronto stereo shops, listening to all manner of gear and picking the brains of the various store owners. Through that formative experience, Carlo developed an appreciation for good music and good sound reproduction. Also, as a budding graphic artist, the aesthetic aspects of a given piece of gear became increasingly of interest to his eyes. It was at about that time as well that Carlo began purchasing “Audio Magazine” on a regular basis and came to appreciate, in particular, the writing and reviewing of the late Leonard Feldman. Later on, he was also influenced by the writing and observations of the staff at Sound and Vision Canada, helmed at the time by Alan Loft. Carlo graduated from Sheridan College with a degree in Classical Animation and was subsequently employed by Walt Disney Consumer Products for 10 years as a Character Artist and Art Director. Having become disenchanted with Los Angeles, he then decided to strike out on his own. Carlo started his own company and has been freelancing artwork, from his home studio, primarily for the toy and publishing industries since 2001. In 2013, on a bit of a lark, Carlo answered a “Call for Writers” ad from an AV website that he had been regularly reading for about 5 years called Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. He had come to appreciate the website’s combination of subjective impressions along with the objective bench-testing available in several of the reviews. The “B-Team” must have been working that day because by some miracle he was hired as a writer and his first review for the site was published early in 2014. Carlo has been continually writing, editing, traveling, listening, and learning on the company’s behalf ever since. Carlo currently lives in Granville, Ohio with his wife, two sons, and a very old, but chill dachshund.