KEF KIT100 Speaker System Reviewed

You just gotta love marketing guys. They probably assumed that the only people who remember the original usage of the name 'KEF KIT' are now such old farts that it's OK to resuscitate the moniker for something with absolutely no......Read More

Opera Mini Bookshelf Loudspeakers Reviewed

And so Italy continues its attack on the mid-price market, taking over the role that British manufacturers seem to be relinquishing...willingly or not. With Audio Analogue about to release half-width components with sub-£500 price tags, with Unico's integrateds setting new......Read More

Stirling LS3 V2 Bookshelf Loudspeakers Reviewed

Al Pacino's gift to impressionists was a line in - you know, the one about how every time he breaks away, they dra-a-ag him back. For Michael Corleone, it was the hold of la Cosa Nostra. For me? The humble......Read More

AAD PL-100 / PL-200 / PL-200C / SD-10 Loudspeakers Reviewed

While I have been around Audio and Video for many years, I have to confess having never heard of American Acoustic Development LLC (AAD). So I can evaluate their product with no preconceived ideas. Now Phil Jones, the founder and......Read More

ALR Entry 2M Loudspeakers Reviewed

Irony, said to be something which Americans fail completely to comprehend, was written all over this assignment because of one teensy detail. Before I was allowed to review ALR's Entry 2M budget two-way loudspeaker, I was commanded from on high......Read More

Anthony Gallo Acoustics Due Loudspeakers Reviewed

Why are we giving a lifestyle product space in the magazine? Two reasons. The first is that Anthony Gallo Acoustics, like M&K, B&W and others, is trying desperately to reach the lifestyle market WITHOUT compromising sound quality. The second, which......Read More

Anthony Gallo Due Speaker System Reviewed

Size matters. This is a catch phrase we tend to hear in advertising, and one that men have heard throughout the ages as a sort of mantra. However, when it comes to technology, bigger isn't always better. With cell phones,......Read More

ATC A7 Loudspeakers Reviewed

"Hot minis continue to proliferate." It's the kind of phrase you'd expect to find in any show report, in any magazine, covering any British hi-fi show. It's the clichÈ that has marked the British loudspeaker industry ever since the 1970s,......Read More

ATC SCM20 Bookshelf Loudspeaker Reviewed

Bribery, hypnosis, threats -- it doesn't matter what method you employ. If your other half doesn't want big speakers in the house, t'ain't nothing you can do but opt for a smaller system. And it's tough if you have your......Read More

B&W Nautilus 805 Loudspeakers Reviewed

Presuppose for just a second that the cheapest model in a range will always outsell the model above it in logarithmic proportion. Presuppose it all the way up the range, to its flagship edition, and you can only imagine the......Read More

B&W Solid Sub/Sat Speaker System Reviewed

Sub-woofer/satellite systems can be a pain in the butt for reviewers because all the myriad permutations must be addressed. And, hey, does the B&W Solid Solutions system permutate. That's not B&W's fault. They're dealing with a format established years ago......Read More

B&W VM1 Speakers and AS1 Subwoofer Reviewed

When my workday is done, I like to slide into my deep sofa chair, sling my legs over one wonderfully tall armrest and lean my head back against the other. With everyone else's agenda behind me, I can relax and......Read More

Boston Acoustics P400 Home Theater Speakers, Bravo II Speaker and PV900 Subwoofer Reviewed

The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) is an international trade association of companies that specialize in designing and installing electronic systems for the home. Some CEDIA members develop innovative products for commercial and residential applications, and others are......Read More

Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) 602 Bookshelf Loudspeaker Reviewed

Should reviewers distinguish between the wares of giant manufacturers and the cottage industry? I say, 'No'. After all, no handicaps are applied in favour of, say, tiny TVR when car magazines place one in a shoot-out against the Fiat-owned Ferrari......Read More

Canton Movie 10-MX II Home Cinema System Reviewed

Unlike some of my colleagues at Avodah Publishing, I was first exposed to consumer electronics with 12-volt products. By the time I was out of high school, I was building custom vehicles and looked to car audio to add the......Read More

Castle Durham 900 Loudspeakers Reviewed

Maybe it's coincidence, penance or simply market forces. Whatever the cause, I seem to be spending a lot of time lately with speakers competing in that 'difficult' price bracket: just above budget level. As this could also be called the......Read More

Celestion 3000 Ribbon Loudspeakers Reviewed

Hybrids are supposed to be the best of two or more technologies, and we've seen the approach used for all manner of products. Solid-state-plus-valve electronics, moving-coil cartridges with 'Decca' architecture -- I could go on and on. The most feverish......Read More

Celestion 5 Loudspeakers Reviewed

Picture this: a design team staggers into the office, obviously hung over from the previous day's/night's celebration. They're the crew responsible for designing a product so clever, so competent, so absolutely ¬right¬ that they're the company's heroes of the moment.......Read More

Celestion SL700 Loudspeaker System Reviewed

Love-hate reponses suggest a strong personality. I detest, for example, the mere thought of Tony Hancock; my closest friends think he was the funniest man since Will Hay. I adore Chinese food; other friends would rather die of starvation that......Read More

Dali Evidence Speaker Ensemble Reviewed

I first saw the various Dali speaker lines last January at the CES show in Las Vegas. While I didn't have time to do more then quickly look at the speakers themselves and listen rather briefly to the newest addition,......Read More

Definitive Technology Powermonitor 900 System Reviewed

Creating a great-sounding home theater is a surprisingly challenging feat. It requires careful auditioning of speakers, preamplifiers and amplifiers. Some consider the electronics the most important link in this audio chain, but I would argue that the speakers have the......Read More

Definitive Technology Procinema 60 System Reviewed

Many products in the consumer electronics industry are either ho-hum or me-too. Once a product segment is introduced, many manufacturers jump on the bandwagon with their two cents. And that's exactly what many of their efforts are worth. In the......Read More

Diapason Karis Bookshelf Loudspeakers Reviewed

While there's been no announcement to the effect, nor a banner across the upper corner to indicate it, this is part of a series of reviews. The theme? To find a replacement for the late, lamented LS3/5A. The requirements are......Read More

DynAudio Contour T2.5 Speakers Reviewed

Most of us are familiar with Dynaudio speakers primarily because of the ubiquity of their bass units. You know the ones, with the distinctive (and oft-copied) oversized dust-cap with slots around the edges. But it was only last year when......Read More

Energy ACT6 SUB/SAT Speaker System Reviewed

A friend of mine dates women based solely on their looks. I agree that outward appearance is the first thing to spark interest, but looks aren't everything. My friend hasn't come around to that realization just yet, so my wife......Read More

Indigo Stage One Bookshelf Speaker reviewed

Anyone who says LS3/5A-plus-AB1 or WATT-plus-Puppy is gonna get a star: Indigo's Stage One is another grow-with-it scenario of a small two-way monitor with an upgrade path of a dedicated passive add-on woofer system. Not an active sub, not a......Read More

Infinity Kappa Series and Intermezzo 1.2s Subwoofer Reviewed

Sitting under a shade tree at the edge of the Willamette River watching brilliant leaves fall, I drifted off to a time and place when I knew young love. There is something about the nostalgia of fall that makes me......Read More

Infinity TSS-750 Home Cinema System Reviewed

The name Infinity has been associated with innovative speaker designs for three and a half decades. In that time, the company has created unique speaker systems that propel their passion for lifelike music reproduction to high levels. As a leading......Read More

JBL L1 Bookshelf Speakers Reviewed

Prejudice is a weird phenomenon. Are we all so vulnerable to the once-bitten-twice-shy system that we simply cannot deal with the rehabilitated? Hi-fi is riddled with brands which -- in the eyes of the British dealer/press/consumer -- can do no......Read More

JBL Northridge E Series 24A WII - Infinity Outrigger - Polk Atrium 65SDI Reviewed

It wasn't too many years ago that my outdoor barbeques weren't that festive and friends were often bored. Not because I wasn't living up to my "life of the party" image, but more because my outdoor sound system included a......Read More

JBL SCS160SI Home Speaker System Reviewed

Not long ago, I had some friends over to listen to several sets of speakers I had in for review. After pouring over the same music tracks repeatedly, it was unanimous with the entire group that the smallest speaker ensemble......Read More

JBL SCS300.7 Surround Cinema Speakers Reviewed

When the clock in the publishing office strikes 3 p.m., a sense of excitement that's been building all afternoon reaches a crescendo. It's at this time of day delivery people arrive with new electronic products for the editorial staff to......Read More

JBL XPL 90 Loudspeakers Reviewed

Metal fatigue -- I'm tired of metal drivers, which have taken the notion of 'fashion' to new and ever more ludicrous extremes. For every speaker thus equipped which actually sounds good (and there are quite a few) there's another......Read More

JL Audio XR650-CSI Component Speakers Reviewed

Colorful receiver displays, shiny amplifiers, monster subwoofers and motorized LCD screens. These are the kinds of things that catch people's attention when they see a mobile entertainment system. But the flash of a multimedia system wears off as quickly as......Read More

JM Labs Micron Carat Speakers Reviewed

Sheepishly, I'm here to review a product from a company we've been ignoring for all the wrong reasons. Mentioning 'JM Lab' might trigger a response in those who remember the minutiae of show reports. They'll think 'French', 'speaker manufacturer'...'Focal drivers'.......Read More

JM Labs SIB & CUB 5.1 Speaker System Reviewed

April, 2004 Right around the second quarter of last year, reviews of the JM Lab Sib & Cub 5.1 speaker ensemble started popping up all over the world. This is to be expected when a company well known for......Read More

KEF Q-Series Speaker System Reviewed

When people hear the name KEF, they think about their excellent reputation as one of the pioneers of high-quality sound from the British Invasion (of speakers, that is) as well as the notoriety and adulation they have received regarding their......Read More

KEF Reference 205/201/202C and PSW4000 Subwoofer Reviewed

KEF is on a roll. When we tested the new, revitalized Q series, we discovered that not only did we like the sound, but also the new look. I liked that system enough that they ended up at my brother's.......Read More

KEF XQ Series and psw3500 Loudspeakers Reviewed

While small, unobtrusive speakers are the craze these days for most newbies putting together a home theater, that's only because they haven't had the experience of hearing what a full-sized package can deliver. And they also might not realize how......Read More

Klipsch Synergy Series SLX/SUB-10 System Reviewed

Since the Klipschorn® was patented 60 years ago, Klipsch loudspeakers have continued to evolve while never wavering from the four design principles the legendary Klipschorn® embodied: high efficiency with low distortion, controlled directivity, flat frequency response and wide dynamic range.......Read More

Loth-X Ino Amaze Loudspeakers Reviewed

Don't worry: I haven't suddenly acquired a taste for high-sensitivity speakers. It's just that I couldn't resist having a stab at a third Loth X product. Although its profile is odd-ball - a Singapore-based company making freaky amps and......Read More

LOTH-X ION BS1 Loudspeaker Reviewed

Rare these days in that it's a purist company producing amps, speakers AND turntables, Loth-X is a darling of the single-ended-triode/horn-loaded crowd. Its credibility is indisputable, up there with Wavac and Edgarhorn and Living Voice and the other tube/horn......Read More

Mirage OMNISAT 6 Speakers Reviewed

The advertisement appeared just months before the speaker did. It was intriguing at first ... then almost annoying. Enough marketing, when would I get my chance to audition an OMNISAT ensemble? Finally that day came. A relatively small box arrived......Read More

Mirage Omnisat Micro Loudspeakers Reviewed

If your home is your castle and you rule with an iron fist, you may want to stop reading right here. But if your queen is like most others, she has a powerful influence when it comes to decorating your......Read More

Monitor Audio Bronze Series Loudspeakers Reviewed

Over the past few months I've been fortunate to audition several speaker ensembles in the $1,300 to $1,800 range. And the scores indicate that I have generally been impressed with the ensembles I have reviewed. While some yield a higher......Read More

Monitor Audio Reference 1200 "Gold" Loudspeakers Reviewed

With the Metal Dome Grand Prix now into its fourth or fifth series (and with Monitor Audio and Celestion the clear leaders), it's fairly obvious that metal dome tweeters are here to stay. They've made the grade insofar as there are......Read More

Monitor Audio Studio 10 Loudspeakers Reviewed

All-metal drivers are nothing new. Anyone possessing old copies of the missing-in-action Hi-Fi Yearbook can rattle off a list of forgotten manufacturers who offered metal woofers and tweeters of myriad shapes and sizes. The current revival in metal as a......Read More

Opera Callas Speakers Reviewed

Talk about weird nomenclature: Opera Callas. Wasn't Callas the bird who shacked up with Ari Onassis while he was hitched to Jackie? Doesn't matter: I'm not going to allow my hatred for opera and its practitioners to influence my judgement.......Read More

Opera Platea Loudspeakers Reviewed

It's not just sound which comes in waves: hardware trends seem to as well. With domestic congestion, urban dwelling and bitch-wives* from hell deeming with increasing vehemence that any speaker larger than a loaf of bread is an intrusion, it......Read More

Orb Audio Mod4 Custom Home Theater Speaker System Reviewed

Orb Audio has been a leader and innovator in the small, compact and round speaker market for years. While not the only manufacturer to make a "round" speaker Orb Audio has long been my favorite for two reasons, first being......Read More

Paradigm Phantom Speakers Reviewed

Years ago while traveling through Canada with the circus, I happened upon a pub in what seemed to be somewhere between the Ice Age and the beginning of existence. It was so cold my nipples had cut through my favorite......Read More

Phase Technology Velocity V-10 Speaker System Reviewed

If you're new to home theater, you probably don't understand much of the technical jargon included in many equipment reviews. Special features need to be explained in layman's terms so you will understand. To even consider buying new equipment that......Read More

Polk Audio RM6900 Home Theater Speaker System Reviewed

The year was 1972. President Richard Nixon made an unprecedented eight-day visit to Communist China and was later re-elected by a landslide. Police apprehended five men attempting to bug Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex. Eleven Israeli......Read More

RBH CT-7.1 Compact Theater Speaker System Reviewed

It is interesting to watch the trends that come and go and come again in the vast world of home entertainment. Years ago, the industry transitioned from large monitor or "tower" speakers to relatively compact "satellite" speakers. While Bose enjoyed......Read More

RBH MC Series Mark II Reviewed

Now that I've been evaluating gear for a few years, it's comforting to have a portfolio of reviews I can look back on and reference when writing new ones. That said, developing a sizeable frame of reference can actually be......Read More

Rogers db101 Speakers Reviewed

Wealth by association is a funny concept. But that's never stopped merchandisers from exploiting weird non-sequiturs like Ferrari-badged wristwatches, Marlboro clothing or any of the perfumes which inevitably follow the success of a designer in the rag-trade. And while writing......Read More

Rogers LS3a Bookshelf Speakers Reviewed

Certain visitors to the Rogers room at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January may be forgiven for their unavoidable double-takes. Just as it's impossible to proof-read your own writing because you'll subconsciously insert the odd missing......Read More

Roxsan Hotcakes Bookshelf Loudspeakers Reviewed

'Lifestyle' products usually emanate from the marketing-led mass-market companies, so it's a pleasant surprise to learn that at least one hard-core audiophile firm has the guts to be cute. Roksan's Hotcakes are the last thing I expected to be made......Read More

Ruark Epilogue Loudspeakers Reviewed

'Y'gaddaseeit!' 'Y'gaddaseeit!' 'Y'gaddaseeit!' Three times is usually enough to convince me that something's afoot. Ordinarily, there's so much new and worthwhile kit at a hi-fi show that the surfeit of brilliant new products tends to overwhelm. But when a consensus......Read More

Sonance Cinema Ultra II LCR Speaker System Reviewed

Sonance has been well known as a maker of in-wall speakers for the past 20 years. In fact, the company, which calls itself "the leader in architectural audio", was among the first to take in-wall speakers into the world of......Read More

Sonus fabber Musical Loudspeaker Reviewed

It's easy to forget that, once upon a time, the doyen of Italian speaker manufacture made amplifiers. They were mainly valved, oozed the sort of woodcraft found in the company's speakers and sported daft names like 'Quid'.* They were not......Read More

Sonus faber Concerto GP Loudspeakers Reviewed

Keeping one step ahead of the competition has been Sonus Faber's trick ever since the birth of an Italian 'school' of speaker design. Whatever the origins of the genre - and there are stories to make Boccaccio blanch - the......Read More

Sonus faber Cremona Bookshelf Loudspeaker Reviewed

Down in East Kent, we have a 'sad bastards club' which meets Saturday mornings. We discuss hi-fi, cars, music, cameras, watches - and anything else that isn't young and female because we're all 40-plus . We number among us a......Read More

Spendor S-3/5 Speakers Reviewed

There's nothing to suggest tongue-in-cheekiness at Spendor, no tradition of wry mickey-taking. Spendor is not the sort of company to issue a speaker with '-zilla' as its suffix nor release a system with a grille bearing a reptile print or......Read More

Spendor S3 Speakers Reviewed

OK - so we promised that October's coverage of the Cicable crossover and the Stirling would be the last LS3/5A-related piece for some time, but we hadn't reckoned on Spendor. Philip Swift, formerly of the late, lamented Audiolab, bought Spendor;......Read More

Tannoy 603 Audiophile Loudspeakers Reviewed

New maxim for the Recession of '92: When the going gets tough, the tough go down-market. Unbelievably, the flood of beer-budget killers continues, when a year ago all feared that the hi-fi makers could produce only rhino-bucks hardware. The AR-M1......Read More

Tannoy Arena 5.1 Loudspeaker System Reviewed

In this issue, it seems like the mandate was satellite/subwoofer systems. I had the pleasure of auditioning what might be the upper end of the spectrum. Tannoy is my product of choice, purely based on what appears to be the......Read More

TDL Studio 0.5 Bookshelf Loudspeakers Reviewed

Bass versus size -- the age-old dilemma has been addressed in a number of ways, some successful and some (usually electronic) not so successful. And whatever the satellite system designers produce -- hidden subwoofers, for example -- British hi-fi enthusiasts......Read More

THEIL Viewpoint Speakers and Smart Sub Reviewed

Very few companies in today's flooded C/E world actually have the engineering or manufacturing capability to push the boundaries of high-end high performance audio or video. Thiel has not only pushed the boundaries with the introduction of the ViewPoint custom-built......Read More

THIEL ViewPoint Speakers Reviewed

Immediately upon opening the ViewPoint packaging, Editor Clint Walker and I knew we were in for a real treat. The ViewPoint's cabinet was built-to-order completely out of aluminum, which complements our V, Inc. television nicely. Thiel trims the cabinets to......Read More

Totem Acoustic: TRIBE I, TRIBE II & STORM Reviewed

About 19 years ago, Vince Bruzzese in Montreal, Canada, founded Totem Acoustic. The mission was pure: to create an affordable "soul mover" for the music lover. There is more to it of course, but that is the heart of the......Read More

Wharfdale Diamond 8.1 Speakers Reviewed

Forget you know about Wharfedale Diamonds. Ignore the 1982 original, which won hearts for its astonishing value for money and its unequalled big-sound-from-an-unfeasibly-small-box miracle-making. Forget, too, the 'dark years', when Wharfedale deliberately manufactured everything to be cheap'n'nearly cheerful - to......Read More

Wharfedale Diamond 8 Series Speakers Reviewed

I consider myself a very lucky man. My wife, Mandy, isn't a "girlie girl" who insists on owning thousands of shoes or wearing a ton of war paint. She's intelligent, funny and damned good looking. When I met her she......Read More

XHi-Fi xDucer 2.1 Desltop Loudspeaker Systems

You'd think that xHiFi's xDucer 2.1 Multimedia Loudspeaker System would be everything I hate. First of all, there's the dreaded term 'multimedia', which is a euphemism for 'total compromise'. Then, it bears a suspiciously low price tag. And it's just......Read More

Yamaha DVX-S120 Home Cinema Speaker System Reviewed

The four letters that make any true electronic entertainment enthusiast shudder -- HTIB -- for home theater in a box... those letters usually mean "pre-packaged meritocracy with severe performance shortcomings." No respectable audiophile would dare think of buying a complete......Read More

Zingali Coliseum Loudspeakers Reviewed

Horns suck. That's what I maintain, that's what my ears tell me. Conversely, I'm not so stupid as to rule out the possibility that there are exceptions to my generalisation, e.g. the absurd-looking Beauhorn B2s. So, while I studiously avoid......Read More