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Vinnie Rossi LIO modular integrated amplifier
My girlfriend, "bb," a 6'-tall Aries artist, always says, "Math, science, religion, and even history, are all simply stories we tell ourselves about our experiences with a phenomenon we call energy."...
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Line Magnetic Audio LM-518IA integrated amplifier
When I began writing for Stereophile, I heard people whispering: "Herb is one of those triode-horn guys." Wrong. Most of my life, I've favored solid-state integrated amplifiers driving small,...
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Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800 integrated amplifier
Nuvistorsminiature, small-signal, vacuum tubes made of metal and ceramicwere introduced by RCA in 1959, at the dawn of the transistor revolution. RCA used them throughout the 1960s in its New Vista...
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Listening #155
Please don't tell her I said this, but lately, my wife has been getting twitchy about my records. Twitchy as in: She wants me to sell them. Or at least some of them. I have only myself to blame. For...
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Parasound Halo Integrated integrated amplifier
Like baking bread or watering my garden, playing records in my monk's cell is an expression of my devotion to living mindfully. It is part of my search for identity and comfort. It shows me how my...
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Mark Levinson No.585 integrated amplifier
In July 2000, I reviewed the Mark Levinson company's first integrated amplifier, the No.383, and found that its sound had "clarity, transparency, liquid mids and highs, with dynamic contrasts." Also...
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Jadis Orchestra Reference Mk.II integrated amplifier
I don't think Americans dislike the French a tenth as much as the corporate media, in their endless struggle to sell our pettiest ideas back to us in cartoon form, suggests we do. Our nations'...
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Moon by Simaudio Neo 340i integrated amplifier
August 26, 1944: The liberation of Paris. Imagine ranks of tattered Canadian soldiers marching past the Moulin Rouge à Paris. The voice of Édith Piaf singing "Ou sont-ils, mes petits copains?" (Where...
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April Music Aura Note V2 CD receiver
Described by manufacturer April Music as an "all-in-one music center," the Aura Note Version 2 ($2500) is a 125Wpc integrated amplifier with a built-in CD player, USB DAC, and FM tuner. The Aura Note...
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Schiit Audio Ragnarok integrated amplifier
This is a story about vulgar words and what is likely one of the most innovative and exciting, yet self-consciously idiosyncratic, audio components of the 21st century: Schiit Audio's Ragnarok...
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Unison Research Unico Primo integrated amplifier
In 1999, I visited a friend, professor of Italian history Bill Adams, at his castle lair in the mountain village of Panzano, in Chianti, Italy. The 10th-century Castello di Panzano towers over the lush...
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Heed Audio Elixir integrated amplifier
I recently watched Terra, an exceptional film by French directors Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot. It's not a nature documentary per se, rather a history of life on Earth from lichens to...
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Pass Laboratories INT-60 integrated amplifier
If I told you that Pass Laboratories' INT-60 integrated amplifier ($9000) was engineered by meth-lab trolls, its faceplate was wonky, its transformers buzzed, and it made every instrument sound like a...
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Cary Audio SI-300.2d integrated amplifier
My entrée to high-end audio was in the late 1990s, when I bought a used pair of Cary Audio CAD-572SE tubed monoblock amplifiers to add to my Marantz CD player, Audio Note M2 preamplifier, and ProAc...
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Woo Audio WA5 integrated amplifier/headphone amplifier
When I applied for this fabulist audio-preacher gig, John Atkinson protested, "But Herb, aren't you a triode-horn guy?""No, that was decades ago! Today I'm still a bit of a Brit-fi guy, but my mind...
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GamuT Di150 LE integrated amplifier
As Stereophile's true cub reportersorry, Herb Reichert, you're senior staff!I work in the domestic fields of the high-end audio landscape. Meanwhile, my fellow Stereophile correspondents trot the...
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Classé Sigma 2200i integrated amplifier
The last few years have seen a flood of new integrated amplifiers in an audiophile market traditionally wedded to separate preamps and power amps. That might reflect the fact that integrated amps make...
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Parasound Halo Integrated integrated amplifier
Like baking bread or watering my garden, playing records in my monk's cell is an expression of my devotion to living mindfully. It is part of my search for identity and comfort. It shows me how my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mark Levinson No.585 integrated amplifier
In July 2000, I reviewed the Mark Levinson company's first integrated amplifier, the No.383, and found that its sound had "clarity, transparency, liquid mids and highs, with dynamic contrasts." Also...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jadis Orchestra Reference Mk.II integrated amplifier
I don't think Americans dislike the French a tenth as much as the corporate media, in their endless struggle to sell our pettiest ideas back to us in cartoon form, suggests we do. Our nations'...
View Article