Recommended Reference Component: Ortofon MC X40 Moving-Coil Phono Cartridge
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 November 2025 15 November 2025
In August 2025, SoundStage! Ultra editor Jason Thorpe reviewed the Ortofon MC X40 moving-coil phono cartridge and concluded that it “is a fantastic cartridge for any price.” The MC X40 is the top model in Ortofon’s MC X line. At the time of the review, it was priced at US$999, CA$1449, £875, or €999, which Jason describes as “an aggressive price for a midrange moving coil.” Since Jason’s review was published, the US price has increased to $1149, but the Canadian, UK, and European prices have not changed.
Recommended Reference Component: Marantz Model 10 Integrated Amplifier
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 October 2025 15 October 2025
The Marantz Model 10 integrated amplifier (US $15,000/CA$20,000/£11,999/€14,499) is a reference-level component that combines opulent aesthetics with exceptional performance. It demonstrates what a great engineering team can achieve when not hindered by cost constraints. In his September 2025 review of the Model 10 on SoundStage! Ultra, Jason Thorpe characterizes the look of the Model 10 as “stunning in a manner that manages to be understated and totally over the top at the same time.” He writes that its sound is “commensurate with its price: fantastic bass, wonderful retrieval of detail, and a clear, grain-free top end.”
Recommended Reference Component: Meze Audio Poet Headphones
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 September 2025 15 September 2025
When we published AJ Wykes’s review of the Meze Audio Poet headphones on SoundStage! Solo on September 1, we presented readers with a product that’s as striking visually as it is sonically. Meze Audio, a Romanian company known for blending artful design with high-end audio engineering, had already established itself as a producer of headphones that feel luxurious and sound accomplished. With the Poet headphones—an open-back design selling for US$2000, CA$2799, £1899, or €2000—the company solidifies that reputation further.
Recommended Reference Component: Anthem P2 Stereo Amplifier
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 August 2025 15 August 2025
The hi‑fi market tends to be obsessed with newness, which makes Anthem’s P2 stereo power amplifier a rare outlier. As Doug Schneider explains in a review published on this site on August 1, the P2 was originally launched in 2005 as the Statement P2—words still stamped on the front and back panels of today’s units. Jason Thorpe reviewed the Statement P2 the year it was introduced.
Recommended Reference Component: Bluesound Node Icon Streaming Preamplifier
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 July 2025 15 July 2025
For more than a decade, Bluesound’s Node streamers, introduced in 2014, have impressed us with their performance and minimalist design. The Node Icon, the latest addition to the series, has gone far beyond the earlier models in both respects. According to Roger Kanno, who reviewed the Node Icon on June 1 on SoundStage! Simplifi, it “provides an unbeatable combination of sound quality and practical features.”
Recommended Reference Component: Hegel Music Systems D50 Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 June 2025 15 June 2025
Norway’s Hegel Music Systems has taken what some might see as a step back with its D50, eschewing streaming, digital signal processing (DSP), and preamplifier functionality to produce a bare-bones digital-to-analog converter (DAC) of the highest performance. A “racehorse DAC,” company representatives have dubbed it. Earlier this month, George de Sa wrote most favorably about the D50, concluding his review with the assessment that, for some, the Hegel D50 could be an “endgame DAC.”
Recommended Reference Component: Bryston Bi-200 Integrated Amplifier
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 May 2025 15 May 2025
The Bryston Bi-200 integrated amplifier is yet another example of the Canadian company’s enduring commitment to high-end, no-nonsense audio engineering. It builds on the extensive development efforts Bryston invested in its BP-19 preamplifier and 3B3 power amplifier by joining these two components into a single chassis. The design goal of the Bi-200 was ambitious: to provide a convenient integrated solution with the sonic strength of separate components. Philip Beaudette’s review of the Bi-200 was published on this site earlier this month.
Recommended Reference Component: EMM Labs DV2i Streaming DAC-Preamplifier
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 April 2025 15 April 2025
In his April 2025 review on SoundStage! Ultra, Phil Gold discusses the EMM Labs DV2i, a high-end streaming DAC-preamplifier priced at $35,000 (all prices in USD). The DV2i, by integrating network streaming capability with advanced digital-to-analog conversion, marks an evolutionary step from its predecessors, the DV2 and the DV2 V2 (Phil’s reference DAC at the time), which lack this capability.
Recommended Reference Component: Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature Loudspeaker
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 March 2025 15 March 2025
The latest version of the venerable 801 loudspeaker from Bowers & Wilkins, which debuted in 1979, is the 801 D4 Signature. In his review of the 801 D4 Signature, published on SoundStage! Ultra last December, senior editor Jason Thorpe writes that the original model made a deep impression on him and many others and that it was among a small group of “landmark stereo components that changed the direction of audio.” The 801 was indeed a seminal loudspeaker, one that set the course for Bowers & Wilkins. It has undergone many revisions over the years and has introduced design elements that are now found in other models.
Recommended Reference Component: DALI Epikore 9 Loudspeaker
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 February 2025 15 February 2025
The idea that bigger is better does not necessarily hold when it comes to loudspeakers. Some large speakers are capable of such prodigious low-end output that they can overwhelm a room. This was something Jason Thorpe experienced when he auditioned the DALI Epikore 11 ($60,000; all prices USD for a pair), the first model to be released in the Danish brand’s premium Epikore series.
