Issue 227   October 2012
The Big Tent
Editorial By Robert Harley

   

  Welcome to our Buyer's Guide, a special annual edition of The Absolute Sound in which we recommend our top picks in every product category — the components we ourselves would buy or recommend to family and friends. In this issue you'll find products to fit any budget, from the $99 Shunyata Venom3 power cord to the $200,000 Wilson XLF loudspeakers — and everything in-between.

As I looked over our final product choices for this issue I was again reminded that the designation "high-end audio" has nothing to do with price and everything to do with the mindset of the products' designers. Was the component conceived by the company's marketing department to fill a price niche, and then built at the lowest possible cost? Or is it the work of musically sensitive listeners tirelessly striving to extract the best possible sound quality for the money?

To mass-market companies, audio components are nothing more than widgets. The success of the widget is measured purely by how much profit it generates. To high-end companies, audio components are vehicles for expressing music, with the yardstick of success being sound quality, and by extension, listener involvement. This is true no matter the product's parts-budget or retail price. Take Focal's Bird, for example. This complete music system comprises an amplifier chassis with an integral woofer, a pair of satellite speakers, and the ability to receive wirelessly streamed music. Despite the retail price of just $995 and its "lifestyle" orientation, the Bird provides a musical experience that goes far beyond anything remotely possible in mass-market products, whose entire existence is predicated on maximizing "perceived value" rather than true sound quality. AudioQuest's remarkable DragonFly DAC is another example. This $249 USB-stick-sized DAC is packed with components and design techniques that you'd never find in mass-produced products. This effort pays off in the listening room: The DragonFly brings great-sounding digital audio to a price no higher than that of mass-market dreck. There are many such examples; the high end abounds in high-value components that nearly anyone can afford.

At the other end of the high-end spectrum are the designers who choose to push the envelope of what's possible in music reproduction. They have absolutely no interest in designing to a price point but rather are driven to move the state of the art forward. These designers relentlessly pursue higher and higher fidelity through innovative technologies, countless hours of design work, and an attitude that doesn't admit compromise. A product that exemplifies this no-holds-barred approach is the Magico Q7 loudspeaker that was recently installed in my home for review. Everything about the Q7, from its massive aluminum enclosure to its state-of-the-art drivers to the world's finest crossover parts, was obviously created with no regard for expense or practicality. At a cost of $165,000 per pair and a weight of 750 pounds each, the Q7 represents its designers' vision of how a state-of-the-art loudspeaker should be built. To give you a brief preview, the Q7 more than lives up to its audacious goal, sounding more like live music than any other loudspeaker I've heard. The Q7 to me represents the very pinnacle of high-end audio's loftiest aspirations and achievement.

Between the $249 DragonFly DAC and the $165,000 Magico Q7 is a cornucopia of products from companies that combine technical skill with musical sensitivity to craft products that bring us closer to music. That's the beauty of high-end audio's big tent: There's a musically rewarding product and system for virtually any budget. And this special annual Buyer's Guide is just the place to discover the "best of the best," whether you're looking for an entry-level system or the state of the art in music reproduction.

 

 

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