You know I love to chide the rags. Stereophile’s Oct 2021 issue lists 478 recommended products. Yowza! Most of these are indeed fine products. Here’s a word of warning though. Please be sure you read this while lying down in bed. If not, you’ll likely fall over and sustain a concussion as you read some of the ridiculous pricing and foolish rankings/omissions.

You see, it says right on the cover of the mag “Recommended Components.”

Turntables

Really boys? You’re “recommending” turntables for $363K, $162K and $450K. Seriously? Who are you trying to impress? This is just showing off. This is not a guide or recommendation. This is supreme vanity.

I do give them credit though for highly rating the Rega RP-10 for $5700 sans cartridge. The other tables in this class run $10-25K.

They also recognize the MoFi Ultradeck in the same class with the classic Linn and SME. Nice catch! The MoFi UltraDeck and StudioDeck offer the best turntable value in our biz!

I do however, call sheer BS in class C. The Rega Planar 3 and MoFi Studiodeck are dramatically better tables in all regards than the budget Project Debut Carbon. Shame on you guys for misleading John Q in his shopping expedition.

Cartridges

They do a much better job here. They recognize the Ortofon MC Windfeld ($5159) in the top class. The Windfeld is a well manufactured product with reliable performance and consistency. Just a couple issues ago MF showed a very expensive cartridge with misaligned stylus on the cantilever. He didn’t tell us the brand name. My point is … you want a properly manufactured cartridge, not a onesie

that relies on some rickety craftsman having a good day aligning a stylus.

Further in the listings are several other Ortofons. Good call boys. These are made with TLC

in Denmark. Performance, price and consistency are a slam dunk.

Probably THE best buy in a high end cart today is the brand new MoFi UltraGold MC which runs only $1500. It needs an MC phono section and will compete with the MULTI THOUSAND dollar carts listed in the rag.

Phono Preamps

We’re seeing prices at $5k, $53k, $31K, $89K… The next class runs about $2k-20k. The mag clearly doesn’t know about MoFi’s Ultraphono, a $500 MM/MC phono preamp that will perform right

there with their $2-3k recommendations!

CD Players

They don’t have a CD section. Unbelievable! They lump CD & File players together. Really boys? Don’t you remember how silly it was when people tried to kill off turntables? You should know better. Some of the best music you’ll ever want to hear is not available via streaming or LP.

On their list is the DCS stack for $124K. Hmm. That’s what you think it takes to get a fine sounding disc player? Or, they have the Gryphon for $40K with a pile of Sabre chips. It surely is a fine player. How many people reading this mag have a $40k or $124K disc player? What about people who pay $14 a year for the subscription and actually work for a living?

For us poor working slobs who can’t afford a $40k CD player (sheeze!), please consider the

phenomenal Marantz SACD-30n for $3k. SACD-30n is a stunningly fine player in all regards. Its transport is made by Marantz, not bought out of a bin. Marantz has its own D to A conversion without using DAC chips. I’m not dissing Sabre. But the Marantz system sounds lighter and airier. Its tracking system is second to none. As in- there is nothing better!

And no, I’m not interested in any of your servers. They will all have issues finding the correct metadata and some dark day down the road… they will crash and burn. So if YOU are a server lover, be sure to back up your server!

In the meantime, how tough is it to get off your duff and play a disc? You’ll waste thousands of hours saving discs to a drive that will go bad and won’t find the right metadata much of the time.

WHAT?! Your wife won’t let you put discs in the music room? Really? The house is full of her stuff. Where were your LPs back in the day? Hey, she gets the rest of the house. You need to commandeer some space too.
Um, they might be inclined to say we’re not recommending CD because the bit rate is 16b.

Really? Have you listened to a GREAT CD lately? Clearly you have not.

What do you have to say about SACD? We’ve had it since 1999. 24b! If we had all been on board with SACD 20 years ago (some of us were) it wouldn’t be the odd duck it is today. Really? You want us to go on HD Tracks and buy Hotel Calif for $25 again?! And by the way, a great 16b recording can compete with most 24b recordings. A lot goes into recording beyond bit rate my friends.

I’m fine streaming. I’m fine playing LPs (if they don’t annoy me with the bobsled going through the groove noise). But I absolutely have to have my silver discs! Nothing plays them better than a Marantz and SACD-30n is the sweet spot at $3k.

Full Range Speakers

Their full range speakers run $11k (GoldenEar Triton Refs) to a quarter mil on up. Again, really fellas? What good is this? You want to recommend speakers for half a mil on up? You’re just showing off your connections to audition unobtanium speakers.

The Triton Refs are a GREAT value at about $11k per pair. Nice call!

But they don’t even recognize two of the best lines in the biz- Bryston and Amphion. The Bryston Model T at about $10k and Amphion Krypton 3 at $20k will clearly outperform a number of speakers on their list. No question about it. And no, I’m not worried about what they’re recommending

for $50K on up! Oh, and the Maggie MG 20.7s for about $18K- another attainable speaker that is in the conversation of the best out there.

No, I’m not listing any stats. There are too many farts, buzzes and problems. Can you change out stat panels at your house?

Limited Extreme Low Frequency Speakers

The GoldenEar Triton Ref is a full range speaker for sure! Virtually all of their other full range speakers cost bazillions. Do we really need 50+ speakers listed for over $25k?

Don’t forget the Amphion 7LS for $6300 in a stunning walnut finish! What about the Bryston A2 for $3810?

I’m not saying Stereophile’s list is no good. But it is really spotty. They list some highly specialized and niche-like speakers- and miss some of the best values in our biz. I thought the idea of these listings was to help you decide which products to audition.

Restricted Low Frequency Speakers

They list the GoldenEar BRX. Nice call. Rogers or Harbeth PS3ER? Nope. You’ll pop the woofs if you even sneeze at them. You’ll love BRX and you won’t break it.

Elac sounds fine, if a bit dark, but the company can’t be bothered to even get you parts. The Dyn 40 has pleasant sound and acceptable bass for $3500. The new KLH-5 is a smokin’ deal for $2500, closer to LIMITED extreme LF than RESTRICTED.

My fave option is the Amphion Argon 3s ($3200pr walnut)- it provides an image larger than any of these competitors without a bright top- and delivers convincing, if not thunderous bass.

The Wharfedale Linton at $1800 with stands can’t be beat at its price point.

Another small fave is the Bryston Mini A ($1665pr) which is a smooth, solid 3-way that has bass. The Rogers, Kef and Harbeth will all be in the hospital while the BRX & Mini A are still rockin’ on.

Integrated Amps

My favorite category of electronics…

They list some fancy integrateds! $33k, $8300, $25K, $15K, $52K etc. They also have some affordable products on the list. Good for you guys!

NAD’s M33 at $6K is the best value of the bunch, with built in streamer no less- still rated in the top class. Great call men!

Hegel’s lineup from $2-6K- how can you leave them out of the recommendations? That’s utter malpractice!

Power Amps

The top class has the Swiss guys for $80-100K and many that run about half that. I’m happy they found the best deal in the power amp world, still in their top strata, NAD’s remarkable C-298 for only $2400! It’s made by a real, international company with cutting edge technology and world wide support. Add in the new NAD M23, $3750. It’s another GREAT power amp at an affordable price. It runs 200×2 or 700 mono.

Sometimes they recommend stuff that literally is so amateurish that it could have been built in your buddy’s basement in 1975 as you smell cowpies out back. Nice evolution here.

Preamps

Once again, $17-50K seems to be their bread and butter. Ouch.

Yet their biggest swing and a miss in the entire listing of 478 products is the omission of the state of the art (yes, that’s right!) Bryston BR-20 preamp/DAC. What were you guys NOT thinking?

You can take the time to recommend a $24K equalizer, but not the groundbreaking Bryston BR-20?! They recommend the BP-17 Cubed which the BR-20 replaced a year ago.

I’m happy to see a Rogue on the list for $5k. The new Rogue RP-1 for $1800 is actually competitive- but unbalanced with fewer features.

For those of us who work for a living, look no further than NAD’s C658, $2000, an affordable preamp streamer that belongs in all but the top echelon systems out there. Yet I’ll admit, it isn’t a Bryston.