Robert Harley

3 weeks ago | theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley

The Absolute Sound was founded on the premise that audio equipment should be evaluated on the basis of listening. This was not an entirely new idea. From the very beginning of recorded sound, the result has been evaluated by comparing and listening to the sound being reproduced. This is, after all, only common-sense logic: accuracy of sound reproduction should be judged by hearing the results. But the idea behind TAS was rather more specific than this general principle.

1 month ago | theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley

A nearly quarter-million-dollar price tag for a 20W amplifier may seem like the height of audiophile excess—until you listen to how this extraordinary amplifier transcends mere “hi-fi” to bring music to vivid life. Conceptualized as the ultimate realization of David Berning’s output-transformerless “ZOTL” circuit, the four-chassis Reference SET is the culmination of six years of development between Berning, Rick Brown of Hi-Fi One, audio legend Steve McCormack, and an array of global partners.

2 months ago | theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley

This full-range four-way ribbon speaker from Spain is simply one of the world’s greatest loudspeakers. It has an uncanny ability to make reproduced music sound like the real thing, with a beautiful rendering of timbre, image tangibility, an expansive and detailed spatial presentation, and an ability to portray the physicality of instruments with lifelike transparency, resolution, and transient speed. The impression of an instrument or vocalist existing in your listening room—right there—is spooky.

2 months ago | theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley

The Vandersteen Audio Model Seven XTRM is the culmination of 47 years of continuous development that can trace its fundamental design principles to Vandersteen’s Model Two from 1977. It incorporates innovative thinking that separates it from other “cones-in-a-box” loudspeakers. For one example, this four-way system has an integral 400W amplifier to drive the dual 11″ side-firing woofers, along with an 11-band equalizer built into the speaker that helps smooth the speaker’s in-room bass response.

Jan 21, 2025 | theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley

One of the worst-kept secrets in audio engineering is that what we hear does not always correlate with what we measure.” —Richard Heyser“Whenever connoisseurship is found operating within science or technology, we may assume that it persists only because it has not been possible to replace it by a measurable grading.” — Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical PhilosophyThere’s no greater paradox in audio than that of the single-ended triode (SET) amplifier.