Equipment Reviews

Network Hub Buying Guides Newsletter Signup Advertisers' Index

Tuesday, July 01, 2025

Legacy link:

This new site was launched in July 2010. Visit the older site to access previous articles by clicking above.

Ultra Audio's site platform was changed in August 2010. For equipment reviews previous to that, use this link to transfer to the old site.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 01 July 2025

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

Reviewers' Choice I’m not sure I’m the right guy for this job. With all the reviews I write for SoundStage! Ultra, I never cease to be conscious of how expensive these products are. Speaker cables that cost more than a car. Preamplification components that could put my daughter through a year of private school. Every Ultra-class component that comes through my house and my system is a reminder that I’m not rich.

: Written by: Phil Gold; Created: 01 June 2025

Danish loudspeaker manufacturer Audiovector, launched by Ole Klifoth in 1979, introduced an audacious wedge-shaped cabinet that year that broke away from the conventional boxy designs of the time. Unlike rectilinear cabinets, which are susceptible to internal standing waves, Audiovector’s design had no large parallel surfaces, thereby effectively eliminating this problem. It also had a back-leaning baffle that ensured phase alignment of the drivers. While tilted baffles have been featured in speakers from other brands, the Trapeze design was unique and remains unparalleled.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 01 May 2025

In this month’s editorial, I spent a fair bit of time relating how I perceive certain products in the world of high-end audio. I didn’t dwell much on sound quality, although that aspect of performance is obviously the most important factor when choosing an audio component. But still, there’s more than sound quality to consider.

: Written by: Phil Gold; Created: 01 April 2025

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.

Reviewers' Choice In today’s overcrowded hi-fi market, quality products can sometimes be difficult to identify among the many run-of-the-mill offerings. Every so often, though, an audio component is of such exceptional quality that it stands out. A few such outstanding performers can be found in digital audio, from brands such as Chord Electronics, dCS, MSB Technology, and EMM Labs, which eschew off-the-shelf DAC chips, choosing instead to develop their own DACs. The result? Some of the finest digital playback available today.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 15 March 2025

The world of fanciful, unlikely, unbelievable audio tweaks is constantly evolving. Over the years, we’ve had such outlandish concepts as the Beltist idea that wrapping your cold-water pipes with solder wire will improve the sound of your system, as will parking your car in the driveway facing out. Next came little dots that you place on your walls to . . . do something, I guess.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 01 March 2025

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.

The power amplifier is the tough guy of the audio world. A good power amp is quiet, solid, and powerful. There are no moving parts in an amplifier. It does one thing only, and, if it’s a good one, it does that with grace, strength, and purpose. My martial-arts teacher, a quiet, solid, powerful Korean gentleman who’s now in his early 80s, says that while you can’t always tell who is tough by looks alone, it’s pretty damn easy to determine who isn’t tough.

: Written by: Jonathan Gorse; Created: 15 February 2025

They say it’s best not to meet your heroes, so I thought long and hard about how to approach this review. The Linn Sondek LP12 is arguably the most famous high-end turntable of all time. Its reputation as one of the most engaging and enjoyable high-end vinyl spinners has made it a legend the world over. Back in the late 1980s, when I was just 18 and putting my first system together for university, the LP12 and its archrival, the Michell GyroDec, were the two turntables I coveted most of all. Both were hopelessly beyond the reach of my student budget. So, they joined the Lotus Esprit Turbo and Kate Bush—in a dance leotard, staring wide-eyed at me—on my bedroom wall as examples of the things I most desired in life.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 01 February 2025

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

Reviewers' Choice This could be the easiest review I’ve ever written. Or the hardest. This here speaker in my room right now, the DALI Epikore 9, is so closely related to the Epikore 11, which I reviewed back in March 2024, that it’s essentially the same speaker with two fewer woofers.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 15 January 2025

When was the last time a reviewer trotted out the dollars-per-pound trope? I haven’t used it for at least a decade. I’ve reviewed a lot of large speakers over the last two years—big, room-dominating, expensive, luxurious, endgame speakers. The Estelon XB Mk II. The DALI Epikore 11. The YG Acoustics Peaks Ascent. Most recently, the Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature.

: Written by: Jonathan Gorse; Created: 01 January 2025

Reviewers' Choice For more than 25 years, the AVID Acutus has been regarded as one of the world’s finest turntables. A brainchild of Conrad Mas, who heads AVID HiFi to this day, the fundamental design of the Acutus has remained largely unchanged since its introduction in 1999: a heavy subchassis and 10kg platter hung from three sprung suspension turrets held in position by elastomeric bands and driven by an AC motor via twin rubber belts. Of course, the Acutus line of turntables and associated power supplies have undergone many refinements over the years.