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High-Performance
Audio Gear Reviews,
Music News, Show Reports, Articles & More!
30 Years Of Service To Music
Lovers.
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McIntosh Laboratory Factory Tour
Gramophone gives us a look at a
legendary premium audio company.
Founded in 1949, McIntosh Laboratory offers premium home audio systems that produce an exceptional audio experience. While the company initially
focused on stereo system, in modern times they have expanded to offer stereo and immersive audio multi-channel audio
products. McIntosh Labs is best known for their signature blue Watt output meter
and green logo. McIntosh Labs' products are designed and handcrafted at
their Binghamton, New York factory by passionate employees who love music. Furthermore, McIntosh Labs has powered moments in music history and pop culture including
the USA's then President Lyndon Johnson's inauguration speech to the first Woodstock music festival. Many also know the company for helping power the now-famous Grateful Dead 'Wall of
Sound'.
---> McIntosh Laboratory Factory Tour.
Valve Amplification Company Factory Tour
An exclusive factory tour of VAC thanks to Jay's Audio Lab.
Article By Steven R. Rochlin
Valve Amplification Company (VAC) was launched by chief designer Kevin Hayes with a passion about music realism so it sounds like the real thing within your home. With many awards and positive reviews globally in many publications, VAC products are considered masterpieces as they not only sound incredible, they also look the part
too. According to VAC, "The difference between a good amplifier and a great amplifier resides in the details, and in the passion of the designer. One of the reasons for superiority of VAC equipment is that VAC uses vacuum tube technology almost exclusively. After almost 100 years since its invention, the triode vacuum tube remains the most linear (accurate) amplifying element known producing superior sonic
performance."
---> Valve Amplification Company Factory Tour.
Klipsch: In 1989 A Fan Visits The Klipsch Factory
Plus a bonus video interview with Paul W. Klipsch!
Enjoy the Music.com is featuring very special vintage videos! The company's self-proclaimed "#1 Klipsch Fan" Kevin visits the Klipsch in Hope,
Arkansas back in 1989 and enjoyed videoing a special factory tour. As many audio historians know, the genesis of the company began within a tiny tin shed back in 1946. This is when Paul W. Klipsch designed and hand-built the legendary Klipschorn speaker with the goal of bringing live music into his
home. Today, that tin shed is now a full-fledged factory with its own cabinet production line, while Klipsch's headquarters have moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. Getting back to Paul W. Klipsch, it was during his service at the Southwest Proving Grounds that he refined his corner horn speaker
design.
---> Klipsch: In 1989 A Fan Visits The Klipsch
Factory.
June Audiophile
Review Magazine: Expert Insights On High-End Audio Sound Systems
In-depth analysis of the latest hi-fi audio masterpieces, trends, plus two show reports.
Five audiophile shows in the past two months.
Re-read that first sentence, let it sink in for a moment. Many longtime
friends of Enjoy the Music.com know we've been very, very
busy. Of course there's three magazine issues too, including the June
2025 issue we just posted online. This issue of Enjoy the Music.com's
Review Magazine offers a dynamic exploration of the high-end audio world, melding in-depth technical reviews with nuanced editorials that challenge the very notion of
stereo hi-fi perfection. This edition delves into the evolution of sound through incisive commentary on performance systems, emerging audio technology, and the contrasting perspectives of
today's audiophiles and music lovers. It navigates topics ranging from the intricacies of
powerful home audio sound systems to the transparent, uncolored playback most purists champion, inviting readers to reconsider what defines the
"right" hi-fi sound. This thought-provoking blend of rigorous analysis and
passionate opinion creates an engaging narrative for both industry insiders and dedicated music enthusiasts .
---> June Audiophile Review
Magazine: Expert Insights On High-End Audio Sound Systems.
audioXpress' 2025 Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook
The freshly minted 2025 Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook (LIS)
by audioXpress packs the same exhaustive supplier, vendor, and service-provider listings that make it the audio
sector's go-to rolodex, but layers on even more editorial firepower for an era when hedging bets and diversifying supply chains feel existential. The book opens with J.
Martins' sweeping State of the Speaker Industry report, tracing last
year's bull run through Q3 2024. Dan Digre, who has captained MISCO Speakers for 40+ years, dissects what
"resilience" really looks like for a U.S. loudspeaker manufacturer with Asian operations, offering granular anecdotes on dual-sourcing, component localization, and the chess game of logistics.
Audio Engineering Society ( AES) president Gary Gottlieb zooms out, revisiting the
Society's 75-year history of standards-setting (think balanced lines, loudness metering, immersive-audio reference curves) and arguing that
today's fractured, app-centric ecosystem needs an even stronger AES backbone. Meanwhile, WiSA Association chief Tony Ostrom maps the future living
room....
---> audioXpress' 2025 Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook. 
Musician, Producer,
& Singer/Songwriter Brian Wilson Passes
Brian Douglas Wilson, best known as a member of The Beach Boys, was born on June 20, 1942, in Inglewood, California, and grew up in the working-class Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne. A childhood accident left him virtually deaf in his right ear, yet he became enthralled by harmony after hearing his mother sing Gershwin and by studying the sophisticated
voicing of the Four Freshmen. Gifted a reel-to-reel recorder at 16, he mastered overdubbing, teaching his brothers Dennis and Carl intricate vocal parts before recruiting cousin Mike Love and schoolmate Al Jardine to form the
Pendletones—renamed The Beach Boys upon the 1961 release of their debut single
"Surfin'." Wilson quickly emerged as the group's creative engine, penning sun-drenched hits like
"Surfin' U.S.A.," "California Girls," and "I Get Around" while serving as bassist, keyboardist, arranger, and producer, an unprecedented level of control for a pop musician of the
era. Between 1964 and 1967, Brian Wilson all but reinvented studio craft, applying Phil
Spector's Wall-of-Sound tactics to ever-denser vocal stacks and
orchestration.
---> Musician, Producer, & Singer/Songwriter Brian Wilson Passes. 
Pure Audio Streaming Lossless Immersive Music Service
For modern music lovers and ImmersivephilesTM, Pure Audio Streaming sets out to be the first service that treats immersive music with the same no-compromise reverence audiophiles and music lovers expect from Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Music. Instead of Dolby
Atmos's lossy streams or other proprietary lossy formats, Pure Audio Streaming is built around the AURO-3D codec and the Artist Connection back-end. Together, they can deliver uncompressed PCM up to 7.1.4 channels at 96 kHz, plus Hi-Res Audio lossless stereo up to 192 kHz and a true-to-source 48 kHz binaural fold-down for headphone listeners. The catalogue debuts with more than 300 master-grade titles—Grammy-winning releases such as
2L's "LUX" included—that were previously locked to Pure Audio Blu-ray discs; a public demo in
AURO-3D's reference room at High End Munich proved the stream can replicate the holographic depth of the original discs while adding the convenience of on-demand
access.
---> Pure Audio Streaming Lossless Immersive Music Service. 
Legendary
Singer, Songwriter, And Musician Sly Stone Passes
Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart on March 15, 1943, in Denton, Texas, emerged from a musically enriched family that nurtured his innate talent at an early age. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Stone was immersed in the gospel traditions of his church and learned multiple instruments during his formative years. His early career saw him working as a disc jockey and record producer, which melded with his passion for performance to eventually form the groundbreaking band Sly and the Family Stone. This group, renowned for its unique blend of funk, soul, rock, psychedelia, and gospel, became a cultural beacon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, celebrated for its racial integration and innovative sound that captured the revolutionary spirit of the
era. In later years, while Sly Stone's early artistry helped define an entire genre and inspired countless musicians, his personal life was marred by relentless struggles. His battles with drug addiction and health issues, including a prolonged fight with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, shadowed the latter part of his career and
life.
---> Legendary Singer, Songwriter, And Musician Sly Stone Passes
Away. 
Hi-Fi+ June 2025 High-End
Audio Magazine
Editorial: What Is Essential To Audiophiles
AudioQuest Rocket 44, Mackenzie RCA, And Carbon USB Cables
Audiomica Rhod, Dolomit, Europa Ultra... AcouPlex Cables And Supports
Innuos PhoenixNET And PhoenixUSB Network Switch And USB Reclocker
finite elemente CARBOFIBRE° Statement Equipment Platform
Melco S1 Network Switch
Synergistic Research PowerCell SX Mains Conditioner
Chord Company PhonoARAY Turntable Grounding
Furutech Project V1 Cable System
Entreq Macro Box Kit Magnetic Field Control
JPlay Music Software
...And Much More!
---> Hi-Fi+'s
June 2025 High-End Audio Magazine.
HIGH END 2025 Munich Audiophile
Show Report
The HIGH END 2025
audiophile / immersivephile event is an internationally renowned audio exhibition that will take place from May 15 to May 18, 2025, at the
M.O.C. Event Center in Munich, Germany. This event is a must-visit for anyone passionate about high-quality audio technology, as it brings together
manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and in open to consumers from over 40
countries. The HIGH END 2025 exhibition will feature hundreds of exhibitors showcasing their latest innovations in
consumer electronics technology, including hi-fi audio, high-end video, home theater, and bespoke entertainment
solutions for millionaires and billionaires alike. Visitors can expect to experience groundbreaking trends, technological advances, and exclusive world
premieres. This year's brand ambassador is the Norwegian singer Anette Askvik, who embodies the event's motto "Passion for Music". Her hypnotic sound and deep emotion perfectly reflect the passion for promoting audio technology that the HIGH END
2025 exhibition aims to convey.
---> Enjoy the
Music.com's HIGH END 2025 Audiophile Show Report.
Audiophiles: Can There Be Too Many Notes?
Not just listening, but truly hearing the music.
Article
By Roger Skoff
Do you remember the
part in the movie Amadeus where Emperor Joseph II, his Kapellmeister,
and other music advisory staff, including Salieri, have just heard a part of
Mozart's latest work, are less than pleased with it, and the emperor declares
that it "has too many notes"? Mozart is shocked and amazed, and, to everyone's horror,
openly disagrees with the emperor and his sycophants, saying, instead, that
there are precisely as many notes as there needs to be. That was about an opera, The
Abduction From The Seraglio, but
the same thing could be said of any piece of music – there are neither more
nor fewer notes than there needs to be to communicate what the composer is
trying to say. I remember hearing a lecture many years ago about Beethoven,
where the speaker was analyzing one of the great Beethoven symphonies, note by
note, phrase by phrase, and showing that even that great and complex work was
composed of just a few simple themes and leitmotifs, layered, interwoven,
repeated, inverted, changed in key, and passed from one instrument or
instrumental group to another.....
--->
Audiophiles: Can There Be Too Many Notes.
World Premiere Review!
Defining Audio Excellence: Avantgarde Acoustic Colibri C2 Hornspeaker And C18 Subwoofer Review
Experience sonic brilliance — where dreams sometimes do come true.
Review By Paul Schumann
Let's
go back in time a few years ago. It was January 2000, so that's over 25(!) years
ago. The world had survived the
Y2K crisis. Having recently purchased a couple of issues of Sound Practices,
then listening to an amazing DIY system, was starting to catch SET
(Singe-Ended Triode) fever. I was
also following an audio review website that focused quite heavily on SET gear
and high-sensitivity loudspeakers to use with it. That website was, of course, Enjoy the Music.com.
That January back in 2000 our Creative Director, Steven R Rochlin, posted a review of the
then new Avantgarde Acoustic Uno hornspeakers. They had big blue horns and looked unlike any
loudspeaker
I had ever seen. You could tell from Steven's Avantgarde Acoustic Uno review that they were something very
special. After reading it, I had a bad case of audio envy. However, there was
also family with three young children then, so extra funds were diverted to more
noble causes. Realistically, even if I had the funds, the Unos were way too big
for my small living room. But we all have our silly little pipe dreams, don't we?
--->
Avantgarde Acoustic Colibri C2 Hornspeaker And C18 Subwoofer Review.
Art
Dudley's The Intro
When I first heard about the Internet, I thought it was a load of crap.
Editorial By Art Dudley
When I was five years old, grocery stores began selling a
product called Happy Nut, which I considered ingenious: peanut butter shaped into quarter-pound sticks, like
butter, and filled with a core of grape jelly. With Happy Nut on the butter dish, one
did not have to bother opening two jars (or even one!) before enjoying a healthy,
satisfying meal: It was a simple and time-saving matter of dipping one's knife,
spreading one's spread, and eating. The fact that the Happy Nut logo was a picture of a
monkey was icing on the cake. To my five-year-old consumer consciousness, nothing made more sense: This
was the pinnacle of modern achievement. From the moment I first saw it, I could not
imagine life without Happy Nut.
---> Art Dudley's The Intro.
Mark Levinson No 390S CD
Processor Review
Incredible resolving power that breaths like real music.
Review By Alvin Gold
It should be pretty obvious even to the least observant that compact disc players are on the decline. The rate of new model introductions has slowed to a trickle as buyers switch to DVD players which are well on their way to becoming the disc spinners of choice. The reason can be summed up in two inelegant words: increased versatility. Why buy a CD player when you can buy a one that also plays DVD-Video discs, and serves a dual role in a combined hi-fi-cum-home theatre system? And as I write, even this is beginning to look old hat with the latest generation of DVD-Audio and SACD players adding still more grist to the mill. This structural change in the market is not only understandable, it is self-evidently a good idea, or it would be except that DVD player design involves serving two masters - video as well as audio - and inevitably there is a sonic price to be paid. Over time, the CD replay performance of DVD players has improved, and it will certainly continue to do so in the future.
---> Mark Levinson No 390S CD Processor Review.
How To Do A Proper Listening
Test
Part 1
Article
By Ethan Winer
There are two ways to assess the quality of audio devices:
measuring and listening. Measuring is usually the better choice because the
results are absolute, and repeatable because they avoid the vagaries of human
hearing perception. But when measuring isn't practical or possible, a
listening test using a music source is perfectly fine. For example, listening is
needed to compare CD quality at a 44.1 kHz sample rate to "high definition"
audio at 96 kHz. Both will measure the same if the frequency response is limited
to the audible range, but some people believe they sound different. Another
example is when comparing MP3 bit-rates, especially higher values such as 256
versus 320 kbps. It's pretty much impossible to "measure" the effect of
lossy compression using traditional means because the frequency response changes
from moment to moment.
---> How To Do A Proper Listening
Test.
More reviews & articles within our Review Magazine.
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