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Over a decade ago, the late John Sunier of Audiophile Audition called me with a hardware review offer for the original AURALiC Aries streamer. I was clueless as to what a streamer was or what it was supposed to do, John was unable to offer any explanation of its function to me, and I only... Read More »

Ann and I are always interested in steps we can take to bring our listening to life. For us, this often means seeking greater clarity, greater transparency, to the sound. Years ago, it was the clarity we heard when listening to the monstrous resolution delivered by the Walker Audio Proscenium Turntable—a veritable vinyl grooves vacuum... Read More »

Want a souped-up fanless case for your music server but don't want to overspend, are willing to roll up your sleeves a bit, but you don't know where to look? It turns out the HDPLEX H1 V3 just might be your end game! Several years ago, I built my reference music server by purchasing an... Read More »

Several years ago, I sold a very nice, expensive, music server to free up funds for better speakers, and sought a more cost effective one to manage and serve my digital recordings, streamed high res services like Qobuz and quality internet radio stations. It wasn't long until I discovered the Intel NUC. Dialing it in... Read More »

When something is not as advertised, I have no problem calling it out. So it was when music streaming came along. I read reviews, heard the demos, and my ears told me it was a step backwards, plus it was always crashing. I stayed on the sidelines until about four years ago when my DAC... Read More »

Something strange happened recently that caused me to rethink the testing paradigm used by reviewers. I was multitasking, putting some low-priced music streaming gear through its paces, while checking out a sampling of AudioQuest Ethernet cables. I began with AQ's bottom-of-the-line Pearl ($49.95/1.5m), then swapped to the top-of-the-line Diamond ($1599.95/1.5m), when it struck me. For... Read More »

Photo courtesy New York School of T'ai Chi Chuan Sundays at noon I take Qigong class, a Chinese discipline of standing postures and slow movements. Translated, it means "energy work," and is related to T'ai Chi Chuan. The aim is to help you achieve relaxation. Sounds easy, right? That's what you think. By the time you... Read More »

The last few years I've been pretty pleased with my system, so I've really not been considering any major changes. My current gaggle of components, cables, and room treatments works well in my somewhat difficult room, and delivers most of the passion of the music while usually keeping me happily engaged.  I even get to... Read More »

Hey Kids! It's 2021, and with no more pressure to have the US BeBest, let's all go play with the USBe Perfect! When the call came in, Georgia area code—caller unknown, I let it go straight to voicemail. Finally weeding out spam calls, I found—tucked between a Police Defense Fund plea and a faux breast... Read More »

Okay so I have always been about removing or filtering out "noise" or whatever crap is in the signal or wherever… stuff that can cloud or obscure the music. Been after this ever since I realized it was there. Crap that gets in the way of the music. AC conditioners, AC regenerators, signal filters, grounding... Read More »

I had not yet drunk the Kool-Aid—I was more of a doubting Thomas—when the package arrived. My West Coast editor advised me, "Just swap out the one you have, plug this one in, give it the requisite 50 hours, and then take a sip," or something to that effect.  In the box was a new... Read More »

      Music lovers come in all stripes and colors. As much as I love the multi box room dominating rack of separates which make up my reference audio system, that kind of space and financial commitment isn't realistic for, or desired by everyone. Often a more modest space saving approach is called for.... Read More »

Over the past four decades I have had the pleasure of taking my readers through, and helping them understand many different music formats. During the 1970s we saw the compact cassette take over from vinyl records as the dominant format for music consumed at the mass-market level. The compact cassette was then eclipsed by the... Read More »

Jump back in time to May 2016; Beth and I are going through probably the most difficult period of transition in our lives together. We'd just sold our house of thirty years, and our closing date was rapidly approaching. And we were in a mad scramble to move all our belongings into multiple storage units.... Read More »

It's not news that streaming has gobbled up 75% of the USA consumer music market, as reported recently by the RIAA, simply how fast it happened. This is the most exciting development in the High-End right now. The urge to jump quickly to the new thing is very tempting. My prudent advice for anyone considering... Read More »

Streaming digital media is the future of music playback; I've been playing about with it now for roughly five years, often with USB sources directly connected to my stereo. But it's become apparent to me over the last few years that Ethernet streaming with my Sonore UltraRendu is vastly superior to a direct USB connection.... Read More »

It's winter time. Want to know the best tweak for the season? Humidity. Get a humidifier and maintain about 35% RH at the equipment rack. Not only does it make you feel better, it will make the equipment perform better. Sound travels through air: consider it the final wire in your system.   Ralph Pays... Read More »

Guest review by Mattias Jung of HiFi Statement. In the past few years I had lost track of the Lindemann company and their audio products. This was despite the fact that I had only the finest memories of the products from Bavaria since the early days, and whenever I passed by a Lindemann demonstration at... Read More »

For those of us who are pushing things in terms of what can we accomplish with playing our music back via files within some networked system, well… where does one stop? Or better yet, what else can one do to improve things? Obviously, it starts with files whether ripped from a CD or sourced from... Read More »