Audio Esoterica

Being asked to audition a loudspeaker from Wilson Audio Specialities is a bit like being asked to drive a Lamborghini into the city and back: you know it’s going to be great, but you know you’re going to miss it when it’s taken away. At least on this

Merging Technologies is a latecomer to the consumer audio scene, but the brand has been building state-of-the-art digital components for audio professionals for over 30 years. If you are wondering about the curiously complex heading to this review, i

Audio-Technica’s newest moving-coil phono cartridge, the AT-MC2022, was released in 2022 to celebrate the famous Japanese company’s 60thAnniversary, hence the model number. We were able to listen to the very first one to arrive in Australia, which la

Wow! When you partner Marantz’s new reference 15.4-channel pre-amplifier/processor, the AV 10 — which has Dolby Atmos, DTS:X Pro, Auro 3D, 8K, IMAX Enhanced and HEOS streaming — with the company’s new flagship power amplifier, the AMP 10 — which has

Magico, the celebrated Canadian brand behind some of the world’s most expensive loudspeakers, has “entirely re-engineered” its much-loved S3 floorstanders for their third-generation outing. What’s more, they borrow some of the technical prowess from

What is Linn’s Selekt DSM? The easy answer is that it’s a network music streamer: that’s what Linn calls it, after all. But look closer and you find sophistication and versatility beyond such a simple descriptor. Linn loves to reference ‘ecosystem’

Here we are in the rarefied pages of Audio Esoterica magazine, home to high-fidelity equipment of extreme design and extraordinary performance. So we would quite understand if some readers are wondering why we’re in a home cinema. Put simply, it’s be

It’s hard to isolate the invention of the thermionic valve, even who to thank for it. Do we lump it in with the electric filament bulb, so giving the credit to Swan in Britain and Edison in the US (and the others Edison never credited, such as Lewis

Audio-Technica’s 60th-anniversary celebrations were pretty excessive, as they deserved to have been! The reputable Japanese company resurrected its iconic portable Sound Burger turntable from the 80s, launched an all-transparent deck that equally as

Every history of PSB Speakers starts with an anecdote about the company’s founder and chief designer Paul Barton, who is the P and the B in PSB. The S was added between them for his high-school sweetheart Sue, becoming part of the logo he’d doodled i

Yamaha has enjoyed a resurgence in two-channel stereo over the last decade, giving it full respect and full resources ever since a new flagship 5000 Series rolled out in 2016. Back then we reviewed the NS-5000 loudspeakers, large beryllium-toting box

Electrocompaniet has gone big with its 50th-anniversary celebrations, having re-engineered its legendary, quarter-of-a-century-old AW 600 NEMO power amplifier to produce its latest flagship powerhouse. The new AW 800 M takes the reigns as the company

Clearaudio is turning 45 this year, for which we proffer our hearty congratulations. The German family-owned company has become a byword for analogue precision in vinyl reproduction, reaching for the musical firmament with products such as the Statem

“I remember when I was in my younger years how I used to get together with friends and listen to a record… so many friendships forged around music,” reminisces George Moraitis, co-founder of Melbourne-based high-end hi-fi distributor and consultor Ni

The 700 Series from Bowers & Wilkins has long been the loudspeaker range upon which many of the brand’s customers settle. A new 700 Series generally follows fairly swiftly upon the heels of a new flagship 800 Series, the speakers to which some of tho