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Reviews

Funk LAP-2.V3 Preamplifier

Jim Clements

It is becoming increasingly popular for high end audio buffs to use pro studio gear in their home systems. This preamp from a German manufacturer that makes pro gear is in keeping with this trend. As a matter of fact...

Preamplifiers

PSB Imagine T2 Tower Speakers

Piero Gabucci

I'd already begun the review for the Imagine Mini when I was offered the Imagine T2 introduced around CES in 2012. If I hadn't given enough admiration for the Mini in my review, let me reiterate as much, because they now sit at home on a shelf, I couldn't part with them.

Floor Standing Speakers

NHT B-10d Subwoofer

David A. Rich, Ph.D.

The world is saturated with subwoofers, many of which have a peak in frequency response to enhance movie sound tracks at the detriment of music. Tuned to have a bandpass response, the movie-inclined subwoofers limit the low frequency extension at usable SPLs. The frequency peak may persist, even if a first-class electronic room EQ is in the loop, especially if the room is sized and the subwoofer is positioned so a modal resonance peak occurs near this frequency. Here, we review the NHT B-10d, which has a 10" woofer and 300 watts of BASH amplification.

Subwoofers

Yamaha A-1020 Universal Blu-ray Player

Chris Heinonen

The number of Universal Blu-ray players on the market continues to be strong, despite the much-discussed "death" of SACD and DVD-Audio formats. While no longer mainstream enough to be found at your local Best Buy or other big box retailer, SACD especially remains a thriving format in the audiophile market. The A-1020 is a Universal Blu-ray player that handles virtually all disc formats you can throw at it. In addition to its Blu-ray and audio playback abilities, is has the ubiquitous Netflix support and integrated Wi-Fi for streaming the content. It sounds like a good package from the specs, but with the universal player market being so competitive it really has a lot of good competitors to deal with.

Blu-ray Players

XTZ Room Analyzer II Pro Room Acoustics Analyzer Kit

Tyler Stripko & Mark Vignola

We've all heard the adage a dozen times: your room is far more important to the sound that you get out of your system than the system itself. While this statement may very well be true, the process of tackling "your room" is far more difficult than deciding what type of receiver or speaker wire you should buy. Welcome to the world of acoustics: incredibly complicated and undoubtedly intimidating. The XTZ Room Analyzer may just be the thing to help get you into this world a little easier.

Audio Accessories Misc

Crystal Acoustics TX-T2 SE THX ULTRA2 Certified Floor-Standing Speakers

Ross Jones

Crystal Acoustics is a niche-within-a-niche kind of company. It sells high-value speaker systems directly to customers through the Internet. Not just any speakers, though. Crystal specializes in THX certified home theater systems. I've reviewed several Crystal Acoustics speakers, ranging from smaller THX Select certified floor-standers, up to their THX Ultra2 certified TX-T3SE. Now comes the TX-T2 SE, a mid-sized floor standing speaker that carries the THX Ultra2 badge. Are the TX-T2 SE's the best of both worlds, combining a smaller size with Ultra2 performance?

Floor Standing Speakers

MartinLogan Mikros 90 On-Ear Headphones

Stephen Hornbrook

Not wanting to be left out of the lucrative headphone market, MartinLogan has released the noise isolating Mikros 90. Instead of going the exotic, high-end route of designing a pair of electrostatic headphones to mimic their famous loudspeakers, MartinLogan has created a pair of lightweight, portable headphones called the Mikros 90 that at only $299, fall directly into the low-priced high-end headphone sector.

Headphone and Earphone Reviews

Meridian Explorer USB DAC

Stephen Hornbrook and Chris Heinonen

Computer audio is all the rage now, with many people moving their entire digital collections to music servers, and the laptop taking the place of the CD player in many systems. The technologies behind USB DACs have evolved rapidly to where the interface is now on the same level as Coaxial or Optical interfaces. One area that hasn't been addressed as well is the portable audio market, as most USB DACs are rack-sized components that require a wall power supply. This is certainly not a convenient option for those of us that want high-resolution audio on the go.

DACs

Wilson Audio Sophia 3 Floor-standing Speakers

Jason Victor Serinus

For For many audiophiles, there comes a time in our lives when we say, in so many words, enough is enough. We've worked hard enough, long enough, and with enough dedication and sacrifice to no longer have to suffer with a system that fails to satisfy. We deserve a setup that makes us happy: a system that allows us to sit back and listen for as long as we want to the music we love and want to explore and without ever feeling fatigued or short-changed. This review explores the possibility that the Wilson Audio Sophia speakers might be part of such a system.

Floor Standing Speakers

Bowers & Wilkins MT-60D Home Theater Speaker System

Brian Alvarez

I think it's best in reviewing a modular-style 5.1 sub/sat speaker system to get the obvious of out of the way. These systems will not rival large boxes for scale, dynamic range, or efficiency no matter how much power you feed them. Nevertheless, they will do one thing that the big 5.1 speaker systems can't: they will fit in any room. Such is the case for the B&W (Bowers & Wilkins) MT-60D.

Surround Sound Speaker Systems

Pioneer BDP-62FD Universal Blu-ray Player

Chris Heinonen

Every year Pioneer updates their Blu-ray players, and every year I wind up happy yet disappointed with them. Each year performance and features seem to improve only to have a flaw, like edge enhancement or poor colorspace support, derail the Pioneer from being really top notch. This year Pioneer is offering the BDP-62FD, a $400 universal Blu-ray player that carries the Elite badge and features dual HDMI outputs among other features.

Blu-ray Players

Burson Soloist Headphone Amplifier

Stephen Hornbrook

Burson Audio hails to us from Australia, bringing its own design philosophy, "Less is More," to high-end headphone amplifiers. They gained notoriety with the successful HA-160 headphone amp, a pure class A design with an output of 250mW. Here, we review the Burson Soloist Headphone Amplifier, with a specified output of 4 watts.

Power Amplifiers