I used to love to tear open the latest issue of Stereophile, TAS, Hi-Fi News or whichever magazine landed in my mailbox.

That zeal has been virtually lost because there’s so much playing in the vinyl sandbox and unobtainium componentry.

The July 2026 Stereophile is a case in point.

Vinyl Sandbox

The first columnist finally gets to the point of discussing a moving coil he has within his vast stable of cartridges. He writes that he’s trying to achieve its full charm. So he must experiment with a wide range of resistive loads, phono stages, cables and step-up transformers. He says it’s a lotta work.

Ummm, it’s not a lot of work. Shoveling gravel is a lotta work. What it is, is a lot of anal retentive playing in the sandbox.

Even after spending hours upon hours, diddling around with various phono preamps, their loading, cables and then step up transformers… what has this fellow deduced to help YOU, the reader?

The only deduction is that he “likes” this or that combination of contraptions with this or that combination of settings. All of this could change in a finger snap if the cartridge is on a different arm, on a different turntable, with a different azimuth or rake angle, with a different pressing- much less tonearm cables.

I get nothing from this other than realizing, the writer just loves to play with the gear. That… is his hobby… dicking around with stuff.

I have FUN with our hobby because I luv hearing great piano players and female singers in particular. I play other music too, but after I’ve quenched my thirst for my main interests. I’m fine comparing a few things (interconnects/speaker cable/conditioners) along the way. But Mr Reviewer… ya gotta be able to see the forest through the trees.

On to the next writer who is hot on discussing a new phono preamp. Oh no. We can see it coming, again! This guy… is writing pages and pages about a phono preamp that immediately converts analog to digital. Then it can do a zillion and one things with that signal.

You surely know by now that vinyl isn’t synonymous with analog- RIGHT? The vast majority of records that are pressed, are taken from digital files. Yep, that CD these guys dis, is a digital file in your hand, with rare exception. That digital file is cut into a plastic LP that you then play, and pretend is analog. I recommend- just play the CD. Skip all the mechanical steps and noise you’ll incur along the way to make it vinyl.

This review is more vinyl sandbox as all comparisons are digital fiddle fudging. He can remove “ticking / scratching” and “rumble” and re EQ the electronics to agree with the RIAA on the record. He can further EQ the sound with bass/treble etc. Sheeze buddy. Just play the CD already. What you’re describing is simply electronic editing.

After two articles of this sheer blather, I have to move on. What’s next?

Unobtanium

The next columnist is hot to review a pair of tube monoblox for $85k per pair. These are CHEAP compared to his reference amps. Each has NINE tubes (what could go wrong?!) and weighs almost 150 pounds! How many of you are actually INTERESTED in an absurd PROJECT like this? It accepts a wide swatch of tube options, all of which sound different from one another.

Again… after pages and pages the writer says the amps are “honest.” I know what he’s implying but PEOPLE are honest, or NOT. It’s folly to ascribe this term to audio gear- all of which has its own personality. Part of the fun of our hobby is hunting for the flavor you like, which is all he’s doing here- for pages and pages of boredom.

Up next are $22k per pair speakers from Korea. They weigh 276 lbs each because of the aluminum cabinets. Fortunately the hideous grills have wimpy magnets so they pop off when you turn the music up. Leave ‘em off. The owner’s manual is worthless.

The price isn’t crazy given the aluminum cabinets. Magico and YG cost about three times more- but there’s much more to the speaker than the cabinets. This one strikes me as CRAZY because it’s got a beryllium tweeter at about knee level when you’re sitting, and a ribbon tweeter closer to ear level. Somehow these are supposed to sync perfectly at your ears when you sit ten feet away. But hey, maybe these guys are smarter than everyone else.

They move on to a review of a German power amp for $5500. The first one they got was dead in the water. The reviewer liked the replacement. I’m sure it’s a pleasant sounding amp.

I would point out that for under $4k you can get an Atoll AM300 power amp (made in France) that sounds GREAT and has a lot more hardware under the hood. I haven’t done a direct comparison, but given the blood and guts within, and the German amp is a third smaller, there’s no way the Atoll takes a back seat to the German amp. Maybe if the German amp was made to a traditional size, it would be more reliable. It could certainly have larger transformers, filter caps and more MATCHED MOSFET output transistors- like Atoll!

And then… they’re off to yet another review of a PILE OF CHIPS from China- a streaming DAC by Eversolo. These guys are fascinated by Chinese boxes with a million chips that do a thousand and one tasks. It’s just the opposite approach of what makes sense in an IMMEDIATE sounding audio design. I grow weary… and don’t need to read about chips ahoy.

Enough For Me

The only product in the issue that piqued my interest was the cute little German amp with 200×2 power. But reading that the first one outta the box was DOA tells you a lot. The manufacturer sent a defective unit to the importer. Then… the importer was too lazy to QC it before sending it to the reviewer. REALLY?! You can bet their service will be on a par with their QC department.

There are lots of wonderful sounding, affordable products NOT MADE IN CHINA, out here these days.

But clearly the guys writing the rags think you want to read ad nauseam about vinyl toys and oddball curiosities- despite their many flaws.

As a hi-fi purveyor, I want to encourage you to buy great sounding gear that is affordable, with excellent reliability and good support. At the end of the day, these are all machines. Some aren’t made perfectly – or go bad. We still need attentive service options for everything we buy. I keep that in mind for everything I sell.