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3 days ago | 
theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley
Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of the Wadax Reference digital products. Their sound quality is unmatched in my experience, delivering a warmth, ease, dimensionality, resolution, and timbral realism that are the state of the art in digital playback. But there are two big problems with the Wadax Reference products—their size and cost.
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3 weeks ago | 
theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley
As a veteran of more than a 100 hi-fi shows, I can say that this year’s AXPONA was one of the best in terms of the number and enthusiasm of the attendees. This year attracted 10,910 attendees, a 5% increase over last year, which itself was a record. The show had 213 exhibit rooms plus the Expo Hall, with many more vendors in the headphone area. AXPONA has rapidly established itself as the premier North American hi-fi show.
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1 month 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.
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2 months 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley
There are two things you need to know about the Berning/Hi-Fi One Reference SET power amplifier before we go any further. The first is that the amplifier outputs 20W, and the second is that it costs $230,000. That works out to just over $11,000 per watt, which makes the Reference SET likely the most expensive amplifier in history on a “watts per dollar” basis. Why would anyone consider paying so much for an amplifier with such low output power?
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley
For many years we’ve published our Editors’ Choice Awards in the March issue and our Buyers’ Guide in this issue (November cover date). These two features included many of the same products, leading to a good deal of duplication. I’m happy to report that we have now eliminated the Buyers’ Guide issue and overhauled how we present the Editors’ Choice Awards. Editors’ Choice Awards will now be divided into two parts.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
theabsolutesound.com | Robert Harley
In the October 2024 issue’s Letters, reader Earl Shick asks how his nearly 50-year-old Carver receiver, Revox turntable, and Dahlquist speakers compare to today’s “unaffordable” equipment. Specifically, he asks whether he could hear a difference between his vintage gear and today’s products. His letter made me reflect on the dramatic changes in high-end audio over the last 50 years, in technology, sophistication, industrial design, types of manufacturers, and yes, pricing.
