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Audiophile Archives

The Latest, Dave’s Faves, and the AE Newsletter all in one:



01.2024

Bryston Meets Axiom In 2010 James Tanner (Bryston CEO) designed a loudspeaker for Bryston to use as a tool to evaluate its electronics. James wasn’t happy with commercially available speakers by the big names due to limited bass, dynamic range and sound stage. So he created his own! Bryston hired a friendly Canadian company down the road a piece, Axiom, to build…

Stereophile December 2023 Issue

What are the boys are writing about this month? The Dec issue is often fun because it has their Product of the Year (POY) winners. Let’s see what’s up. Speaker Measurements JA says that to measure a speaker accurately without an anechoic chamber is impossible. He has tried to do so outdoors with no wind or traffic to try to get an…

12.2023

McIntosh MA8950 Integrated Amp: 200×2 McIntosh won’t let dealers post pricing on their higher end gear. That’s their rule and we have to comply. How many players are in the field on a baseball team? Mac is still made in Binghamton, NY, with luscious blue meters. It’s the coolest looking and most reliable gear in our business. Have you heard… we don’t…

Bryston’s New BP19 Preamp

The analog signal path is a fully balanced design, using an array of very tightly matched components and a compact circuit design to achieve the lowest possible noise and superior common mode rejection. With the new balanced inputs/outputs of the BP-19, we have been able to make significant improvements in performance.

Dave’s Faves – Grado RS 1x Headphones

Grado RS 1x Headphones $750 Grado’s new RX 1x headphones offer a host of technological innovations to deliver conspicuously warmer, more musical sound than mass oriented brands. They are distinctly less bright and zingy than highly advertised brands that don’t use Grado’s TLC. It starts with Grado’s 50mm X series diaphragm. The diaphragm is twelve percent larger and more responsive than that…

Bryston Nostalgia

I was feeling nostalgic today so I thought I would put together some of my early first memories of this long Bryston journey.

11.2023

Rega Turntables Of England Rega was started by Roy Gandy in England in 1973. He and his wife still run the company! Audio Emporium has sold Rega since we opened in 1977. Rega’s niche has always been to make great sounding, affordable tables. In the early years, Rega made the turntables, but bought tonearms and carts from other sources to round them…

Mytek Liberty 2 DAC: Best DAC Value Out There!

Mytek Liberty 2 DAC $1500 (1.74h, 5.5w, 8.8d) Mytek Liberty 2 is so good, and so fairly priced, that a good argument can be made for not having to spend a penny more, or less, in a great DAC. First of all, there’s no reason to buy an outboard DAC unless it whups what’s in your CD player or streamer. I’m telling…

We’re Going A Different Direction

The audio industry has gone largely cookie cutter in the last few years. Company after company is hiring the same handful of Chinese OEM vendors to make gear for them. They’re doing it with speakers and electronics. The market has become FLOODED with badged mediocrity. For not a lot more money, you can do much better. But first, let’s analyze how we…

Massive Image

Nobody has a perfect listening room. With virtually every visitor I meet, one of their first comments is, the audio system has to work around the living room, not vice versa. “I have a weird room.” Practically every living room is comprised of hard surfaces on the walls and ceiling. Most likely the floor is carpeted, or has a large rug. With…

10.2023

Bryston A110: $2300 For An Amazing Speaker Array! Two grand is a popular price point in the speaker market. What’s the best value for about $2k? Let’s up the ante a little bit because $2300 gets you into a WHOLE NEW WORLD for just a little more money. The majority of offerings in this range are Chinese imports. Most are flimsy, booming…

09.2023

JL Audio Double Subs Most hi-fi guys know that it’s very tough to get tower speakers to produce bass as deep and powerful as a good subwoofer. Much less TWO good subwoofers. Bryston is among the very few speaker companies who can give you such prodigiously deep bass in a tower that you might think- well, I really don’t need a sub….

08.2023

Tubes! Rogue Sphinx V3 Integrated Amp $1700 With Remote (5h, 17w, 15.5d, 25 lbs, 100×2 into 8 ohms. 200X2 into 4 ohms) One of my favorite integrated amps on the planet is the tube driven Rogue Sphinx V3 (Version 3). When Rogue went from V2 to V3, it incorporated some important changes that made it a much better performer. Rogue insists that…

07.2023

Bryston A1: $4990 Per Pair {47.5h, 9.25w, 17d, 71 lbs, 88 dB SPL, 4 ohms} They’re baaaaack! My fave sub $5k speakers are at long last back in the house. Covid 19 put Bryston behind the 8 ball as much as any company out there. After three long years of being at least 6 months behind on product delivery, Bryston is catching…