THE REVIEWS
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EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARDS 2022
The following choices represent the Editors’ Choice Products of the year.
BREAKTHROUGH PRODUCTS 2022
The Breakthrough Award was created to recognize those products that have ‘broken through’ the musical and technological barriers of high-fidelity, audio reproduction.
THE MOLA MOLA KALUGA MONO-BLOCK AMPLIFIERS - REVIEW
The Mola Mola Kaluga mono block amplifiers, at approximately 17 grand, deliver far more sonic goodness than their price indicates. Yes, 17 grand is a lot of money, but within the context of a market that gives us power amplifiers of all designs that are priced at many multiples of the Kalugas, these amps are to be reckoned with.
ABYSS AB1266 PHI TC - REVIEW
I think that I’ve said it all. The Abyss AB1266 Phi TC is a phenomenal headphone. It brings an undying passion for musicality and a ferocity for transparency and clarity and detail retrieval, formerly the domain of the best electrostatic headphones. But this planar headphone speaks that language—electrostatic—fluently and well.
AURORA HEADA HPA - REVIEW
The Aurorasound HEADA headphone amplifier is musical from ‘Square One’, ‘Jump Street’, ‘Scratch’, or, practically, as soon as you turn it on, though it gets worlds better thereafter. It is a beautifully, carefully designed endgame component to pass down. Or perhaps to take to the other side. Solid state dynamics, resolution, detail retrieval, and spaciousness married to tube liquidity…
THE MEZE LIRIC - REVIEW
The LIRIC’s combined traits will challenge not only much more expensive dynamic headphones but planar headphones and, perhaps, an electrostatic headphone or two. The Meze LIRIC is an easy GOLDEN KEYNOTE award winner for all its combined talents—its ability to capture the listener with its incredible transparency and resolution, the beauty of its voice, and the excitement it compels. Enough said.
DENAFRIPS TERMINATOR II DAC - REVIEW
The DENAFRIPS Terminator II checks all of the required music lover and audiophile boxes easily and well and is a prodigious talent, especially when its price is taken into account. DACs within its ‘ambient’ pricing circle should take pause and perhaps never agree to a side by side comparison, lest they suffer a humiliating defeat.