SoundStage! Simplifi | SoundStageSimplifi.com

: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 October 2024

Close your eyes for a second and envision the Platonic ideal of a streaming amplifier. Then open them again and keep reading. You probably pictured something along the lines of the NAD C 700, right? Or maybe the Cambridge Audio CXN100? Or the SVS Prime Wireless Pro SoundBase? In other words, a black box with either a touchscreen or at least a digital display.

: Written by: Todd Whitesel; Created: 15 September 2024

Reviewers' Choice Canada’s Bluesound has made a name for itself with its highly regarded music-streaming products. In July 2023, I reviewed Bluesound’s Powernode Edge streaming integrated amplifier for Simplifi and was impressed by its sound and design. Bluesound has recently introduced three new music streaming devices: the Node Icon reference music streamer ($999, all prices USD), the Node performance music streamer ($549), and the Node Nano wireless music streamer ($299), the subject of this review. As the names suggest, each model offers different levels of functionality and performance, with the Nano being the most basic.

Read more: Bluesound Node Nano Streamer

: Written by: Roger Kanno; Created: 15 August 2024

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

Few audio brands are as steeped in tradition as Naim Audio. In my mind, companies like McIntosh, Bryston, and Naim, along with a few others, conjure up memories from my early years as an audiophile of coveted but unattainable audio products. In February last year, fellow SoundStage! Network reviewer Jonathan Gorse wrote about his experience with the original Nait integrated amplifier and his introduction to the Naim brand almost 40 years ago. I was reintroduced to the brand ten years ago when the Naim Statement NAC S1 preamplifier and NAP S1 mono power amplifier made their debut at the annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas.

: Written by: Gordon Brockhouse; Created: 01 August 2024

The French speaker brand Triangle isn’t especially well known here on the left side of the pond, but its products have had a good run on the SoundStage! Network. Back in May 2020, Diego Estan reviewed the Triangle Borea BR03 on SoundStage! Access, a passive two-way standmount speaker. This $559/pair speaker (all prices in USD except where noted) received a Reviewers’ Choice award and was later named a 2020 SoundStage! Network Product of the Year. Exactly three years after Diego’s review was published, I reviewed the Triangle Borea BR03 BT powered loudspeaker system ($799) for SoundStage! Simplifi. The two models have the same driver complement and virtually identical cabinet designs, but the BR03 BT also has a built-in 60Wpc class-D amp with a phono stage, optical and digital inputs, and a Bluetooth receiver. Just wire the system to a source (or pair it with your smartphone) and start listening. Like the Borea BR03 before it, the Borea BR03 BT won a Reviewers’ Choice award.

: Written by: Todd Whitesel; Created: 15 July 2024

When is a speaker more than a speaker? When it’s a system. That is precisely what UK-based Q Acoustics is offering with its M40 HD: an all-in-one music system—just add a source and start playing. Priced at $999 (all prices in USD), the M40 HD is a follow-up to the bookshelf-size M20 HD system ($499), which Kurt Wetzel reviewed for Simplifi in June 2022. But the M40 HD speakers are floorstanders that each have two mid/bass drivers; the M20 HD speakers have one. That, and their greater output power, enable them to play louder and deeper than the M20 HD speakers. For floorstanding speakers, the M40s have a relatively small footprint, which listeners with limited space or a preference for unobtrusive designs are sure to appreciate.

: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 June 2024

As I mentioned in my unboxing of Arcam’s new A25 integrated amplifier ($1499, all prices in USD) on SoundStage! Access, I have an incredible hardwired affection for the brand that I feel compelled to mention right up front—not to bias you, dear reader, but simply to lay bare my own biases. Because I can’t help but think that those biases affect the way I view and interact with a product like the A25’s companion piece, the ST5 streamer ($799).

Read more: Arcam Radia ST5 Streamer

: Written by: Gordon Brockhouse; Created: 15 May 2024

Reviewers' Choice Ever since I got into file-based playback in 2011, I’ve consistently used an Apple Mac Mini as a music server—but lately, I’ve changed things up a bit. For the past few months, I’ve been using a Roon Nucleus One to stream music throughout my home and play music through headphones. Priced at $499.99 (all prices in USD), the Nucleus One has one purpose and one purpose only: to run Roon Server software.

: Written by: George de Sa; Created: 01 May 2024

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

When spring arrives, decluttering becomes a priority for me. Blame it on my OCD, but I want to clear everything out and start afresh. Yet, you can’t get rid of everything—some things are essential. If you’re a music lover, a serious sound system is one of those essentials. Sure, a phone with a Bluetooth speaker can play tunes, but if you really want to feel the music, to have it calm you down or get you dancing, a more capable system is in order. A streaming integrated amplifier like the Rotel RAS-5000 ($2999.99, all prices in USD) coupled with a set of nice loudspeakers might be the ticket. Just connect it to your home network and start streaming. You can also connect external source components, such as a disc player, HDTV, and personal computer.

: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 April 2024

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

Reviewers' Choice I love it when a hi-fi manufacturer gets into a groove, and Marantz seems to be doing exactly that with its recent two-channel gear. For a while now, the upper end of the company’s two-channel range has been dominated by two-piece solutions, with an all-analog integrated amplifier handling preamplification, source-switching, volume control, and power duties, and a separate disc player/streamer/DAC doing everything else—well, everything except for vinyl and tape playback.

: Written by: Gordon Brockhouse; Created: 15 March 2024

In a sense, what you’re reading here is a review of two different products—the LSX II LT active speaker system that KEF announced on January 18 of this year, and the LSX II system on which it’s based.

: Written by: Gordon Brockhouse; Created: 15 February 2024

Every hobby has its killjoys—and audio has more than its share. I’m thinking of purists who insist that there’s only one right way to listen to reproduced music: with your head locked in the sweet spot between a pair of speakers. Members of this party’s fanatical wing may have other bugaboos, too. DSP—not allowed! Lossy compression—intolerable! Listen through a Bluetooth speaker out on the patio? Anathema! Listen through a smart speaker while you prepare dinner? Sacrilege!