Most-Read Features Articles (Last 365 Days)

Sonus Faber’s Lumina II Amator Loudspeaker—Luxury and Beauty for Small Rooms and Budgets

In the last installment of this column, I wrote about the Estelon Aura loudspeaker, which retails for $19,900 a pair (all prices USD). The amplifiers I used to power the Auras ranged from the $2499 Marantz 40n integrated amplifier (reviewed in August 2022) to the $30,000 duo of Simaudio Moon 791 streaming preamplifier (reviewed in November 2023) and 761 power amplifier. This month’s installment takes the “System One” column back to its roots, when it focused on more affordable equipment, with the Sonus Faber Lumina II Amator, a two-way standmount design priced at $1499 a pair. Although much cheaper than the Aura, the Lumina II Amator, too, combines great sound with a striking appearance and more than a hint of luxury.

Read more ...

Estelon Aura: A Beautiful, Great-Sounding Stereo Starts with Beautiful, Great-Sounding Speakers

When I started this column five years ago, I intended it to feature the kind of components and systems found in real-world listening rooms, such as my living room, where I’ve set up all the equipment I’ve been writing about here. It was meant to focus on inexpensive products, which I defined in my first installment (and have reiterated several times since).

Read more ...

Why Bigger Is Not Always Better: Focal Vestia N°3 Loudspeaker

Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Reviewers' ChoiceAs I’m typing these words, I’m listening to Bruce Cockburn’s latest album, O Sun O Moon, through a pair of Focal Vestia N°3 floorstanding loudspeakers, the subject of this review. But when I initially set this review up, I’d planned to listen to the album, and some of my reference recordings, through Focal’s Vestia N°4 floorstanders.

Read more ...

A New Direction for “System One,” Mapped Out While Living with Bowers & Wilkins’s 705 S3 Loudspeakers

Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Back in December 2018, I launched a new regular feature on SoundStage! Hi-Fi. As I outlined in that inaugural column, the name “System One” could refer to “someone’s first system, or someone’s only system—or something else, depending on what’s covered that month. What won’t change is the theme . . . cost-effective, high-performing equipment that many people can afford.”

Read more ...

JBL's Best-Kept Secret Is a Killer All-in-One Music System—the L75ms Integrated Music System Revisited

This is the article that almost never happened. The idea for it first came up when I was picking up the JBL L75ms Integrated Music System ($1500, all prices in USD) from Gordon Brockhouse’s place. Gordon had just finished reviewing it for SoundStage! Simplifi, and his endorsement of this all-in-one system in that review was so glowing that our team basically had to give it our Reviewers’ Choice award. His praise also piqued my interest. So as I was bundling it into my SUV with the plan of returning it in a few weeks’ time to JBL’s Canadian distributor, Erikson Consumer, I told him that I was tempted to listen to it myself. But that’s when he said, “I have to warn you, it’s really hard to get in and out of the box.”

Read more ...

Movie Night, Music Night with the Focal On Wall 302 Loudspeaker

When I started this column about three-and-a-half years ago, I envisioned it would be for products priced in the hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. But occasionally I’ve felt the need to stretch the budget, like the time I wrote about the Sonus Faber Lumina III loudspeaker and Rotel RA-1572MKII integrated amplifier-DAC, which are priced at $2100 per pair and $2099.99 respectively (all prices in USD). Granted, they’re not cheap, but they’re good value for money and I felt that thrifty audiophiles should know about them.

Read more ...

Blown Away by Monitor Audio Bronze 100 Loudspeakers

Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

Diego Estan reviewed a pair of Monitor Audio Bronze 100 loudspeakers on SoundStage! Access in August 2020. About three months after that, Jay Lee produced a follow-up Take 2 video review on the Bronze 100 for our YouTube channel. Last month, James Hale wrote about the 100 yet again for his “Art+Tech” column on SoundStage! Xperience. Does anything more really need to be said?

Read more ...

The Affordable All-in-One Streaming Solution that Surprises—Bluesound’s New Powernode

I’m often the last stop for products that are sent to the SoundStage! Network for review. Normally, a review product is shipped direct to the assigned reviewer, who listens to it and writes it up, and then it gets shipped to me for photography and/or measurements. Typically, I also listen to a product before it goes back to the manufacturer or distributor, so I can get a feel for how it sounds.

Read more ...

Back to Inexpensive Basics—KLH Albany II Loudspeakers

Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.

In my previous “System One” installment, in May, I wrote about Rotel’s RA-1572MKII integrated amplifier and Sonus Faber’s Lumina III loudspeaker. The Rotel sells for $2099.99 (all prices in USD), while the Sonus Fabers are $2199 for the pair. Their prices are a little more than twice what I thought to be an upper limit—around $1000—for each component when I launched this column.

Read more ...

Double Trouble—Rotel’s RA-1572MKII Amp and Sonus Faber's Lumina III Loudspeaker Enter the Mix

In December 2018, I wrote the first article to appear under the “System One” column name. In that article I explained: “The title means someone’s first system, or someone’s only system—or something else, depending on what’s covered that month. What won’t change is the theme around which I wrote the first two pieces: cost-effective, high-performing equipment that many people can afford.”

Read more ...

More Articles ...