Compromise. That's one of the dirty words in the world of high-fi. Nobody talks much about it, but nearly all audio products, regardless of cost, have some compromise built in. The best bookshelf speaker can never reproduce bass to the nth degree of a full-range floor-stander, and a great turntable will be only as good as its tonearm and cartridge. Thus, it seems almost folly to design a stereo system – an all-one-system to boot – and expect good results. But that hasn't stopped the folks at Geneva Sound Systems (www.genevalab.com ) from taking on such challenges. The company has embraced a simplicity-over-gadgets philosophy, giving consumers high-powered all-one-one audio systems designed for CD, iPod and FM radio playback, at an attractive price. The GenevaSound Systems comes in three sizes/models: M (medium), L (large) and XL (extra large). The M and ...

  Gear We Love The Most 2008 Winner! Krell KID and Papa Dock Krell’s KID iPod doc, especially when paired with the matching PAPADOC amplifier, takes the most convenient and relevant audio source of the last 20 years and actually improves its performance in a meaningful way. While an SACD or DVD-Audio disc is always going to sound better than an MP3 player, your music collection on your iPod or iPhone is always going to have better music on it so being able to get that music into your audiophile system with more audiophile grade performance at a very fair price makes the Krell KID/PAPADOC AVRev.com’s Gear We Love Most award winner for 2008 . Click here to read more about the Krell KID/Papa Dock... "Gear We Love 2008" Complete List  Benchmark Media DAC-1 PRE D/A Converter - Preamplifier  Definitive Technology Mythos ST Super Towers/Mythos Ten Speaker System  Escalante ...

Grand Prix Audio is a well-known high-end rack builder. Their racks are simple and beautiful to see. The top-end modular Monaco rack has carbon fiber triangular frames with clear acrylic shelves, mated to brushed metal legs in a three-point system.  Prices run from $3,285 for a three-shelf model to just under $6,000 for the five-shelf model.  Shelf upgrades are also available to the Formula shelves, which are carbon fiber and Kevlar epoxy laminates at $950 each. These are big, bold racks that really make a statement and grab attention for themselves and the gear they display. They come in both short and long wheelbase models for shorter or deeper shelves, depending on your needs, and have the ability to use spikes or Grand Prix’s Apex carbon fiber composite footers.  An SE option is also available to fill one space in ...

The Grand Prix Audio Le Mans isolation rack is a step down in the Grand Prix line from their reference Monaco line. The two are similar in appearance, but the Grand Prix Audio Le Mans isn’t modular, so the legs are continuous bars. Prices are also lower at $3,499 for a four-shelf and $4,375 for a five-shelf model. The Le Mans comes in shallow or deep models to suit your space and needs, offering lower maintenance and price than the Monaco while keeping the same high-tech appearance. These racks can support huge weights in excess of 600 pounds and can be upgraded to Formula Shelving for $950 each or by adding the Apex floor interface instead of spikes. The Monza line is a double-wide version of the Le Mans to accommodate larger, more complicated systems and support displays.

Introduction The concept of power, or “active” loudspeakers, is one the audiophile community has fought since the beginning of time. Audiophiles have been wrong in their initial fears about all new audio formats (think LP, CD, DVD-Audio and even the almighty iPod), anything to do with EQ and, most importantly, room acoustics – they are wrong about active speakers, too. The idea of a company building amplifiers into speaker cabinets that are specifically designed to power the drivers and electronic (active) crossovers that make up a speaker system are in many cases better left to people who have real measurement tools and fixed environments to design from, rather than audiophiles who have a Platinum card and are looking to tweak. And tweaking is exactly what many of us have heard from the audiophile publications as they spew their misguided sermons of ...