Home  |  Audio Reviews  Audiophile Shows Partner Mags  News     

 

 

 

September 2016
Enjoy the Music.com Review Magazine
Best Audiophile Product Of 2016 Blue Note Award
Best Of 2016 Blue Note Equipment Awards
Enjoy the Music.com celebrates the best high fidelity audio gear of 2016!

Click here to e-mail our staff

 

  Enjoy the Music.com's Best Of 2016 Blue Note Awards celebrates the many great achievements by audiophile manufacturers within the high-end audio and Hi-Res Audio industry. Our 2016 Blue Note Awards is a culmination of sixteen years of reviewing and carefully choosing what products have earned special recognition for our annual awards. Our Best Of 2016 Blue Note Award celebrates the very best products we have reviewed during the previous 12 months. Recipients have been carefully chosen after much debate and consideration. With each passing year our industry has experienced great advancements in technology including analog circuitry, vinyl LP and analog tape playback, digital-to-analog converters (DACs), headphones, loudspeaker design, plus of course portable media players, computer software and streaming media. While there are many great pieces of high fidelity audio equipment now available within the marketplace, the below list is compiled from products we have reviewed within the past 12 months that have earned extra special attention.

In 2014 our staff found a mere 13 products plus a special $5000 system to earn this award. In 2015 we bestowed only 11 high-end audio components to receive an Enjoy the Music.com Blue Note Award. Let it be said here and now we make no apologies that during 2016 our staff found 15 products to receive our special Best Of 2016 Blue Note Award. With so many products spanning an array of categories reviewed from late 2015 through September 2016, this does not mean that everyone gets an award. This is not to say that other products do not merit your attention, it is simply that only the very best of the bunch should stand out and be recognized clearly and concisely. Take note that we do not carry over products from our Blue Note Awards 2014 and Blue Note Awards 2015. Giving away so very few awards each year seems to be the anti-norm for a magazine hoping to get free commercial promotion, since such awards always find their way into being featured on Web sites, social media networks and of course within print advertisements.

Our longstanding staff here at Enjoy the Music.com, with hundreds of years in combined expertise, now presents to you our choices for Best Of 2016 Blue Note Equipment Award. And the winners are:

 

Parasound Halo Integrated 2.1 Channel Amplifier With DAC
Price: $2495

Click here to read the complete review.

"I've never met a Halo product I didn't like," says Phil Gold, "and this one isn't going to be the first." A small sun m of $2495 will buy you a 160 Wpc amplifier, somewhat old fashioned in style but up to date in most other ways. It has a built in highly specified DSD compatible DAC based on the ESS Sabre32 Reference ES9018K2M with USB and optical inputs, a well implemented headphone output, phono inputs for moving magnet and moving coil cartridges and it's available in a black or silver finish in a very sturdy 33 pound chassis.

 

 

The feature list is impressive. It includes an ESS Sabre32 Reference DAC, USB 2.0 support for PCM up to 384kHz/32-bit plus DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 and DoP DSD. Add to that a phono input for MM and MC cartridges, a high current headphone amp, balanced and unbalanced inputs, front panel 3.5mm AUX input, subwoofer level control, home theatre bypass and defeatable tone controls and you begin to get the picture. Even a rack mounting kit is available. What you won't find is wireless streaming, Internet radio or an interactive front panel display. Unusually, this unit not only offers unbalanced preamp out, it also includes balanced pre out and record out. You'll also find 12V Input and Output Jacks, an IR Input Jack and an IR Loop Output Jack. When connecting a subwoofer you can control the low pass and high pass settings at selectable crossover frequencies on the rear panel or you can use a balanced sub out. The subwoofer levels can be adjusted on the front panel.

 

 

Add to that a full featured remote control, a front 3.5mm input jack, defeatable tone controls, home theatre bypass, subwoofer output and bass management and you can see how the value keeps adding up. All this would be for nothing if the sound quality were suspect, but even for a straight two-channel amp at this price, the performance of the John Curl designed circuitry is competitive.

A hands down winner this year, at a bargain price!

Click here to read the complete review.

 

 

    Next --->    

 

Previous Annual Blue Note Awards

Enjoy the Music.com Best Of 2016 Blue Note Award
Product of the Year Awards 2016
, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     
 

Quick Links


Audiophile Review Magazine
High-End Audio Equipment Reviews

 

Equipment Review Archives
Turntables, Cartridges, Etc
Digital Source
Do It Yourself (DIY)
Preamplifiers
Amplifiers
Cables, Wires, Etc
Loudspeakers/ Monitors
Headphones, IEMs, Tweaks, Etc
Ultra High-End Audio Reviews

 

Videos
Enjoy the Music.TV

 

Columns
Editorials By Tom Lyle
Viewpoint By Roger Skoff
Viewpoint By Steven R. Rochlin
Various Think Pieces
Manufacturer Articles


Show Reports
Pacific Audio Fest 2023 Report
T.H.E. Show 2023 Report
HIGH END Munich 2023
AXPONA 2023 Show Report
Salon Audio Montréal Audiofest 2023
CanJam Singapore 2023 Report
Florida Intl. Audio Expo 2023
Capital Audiofest Show 2022
KL International AV Show 2022
Toronto Audiofest Show 2022
CanJam SoCal 2022 Show Report
...More Show Reports

 

Other
Audiophile Contests
Cool Free Stuff For You
Tweaks For Your System
Vinyl Logos For LP Lovers
Lust Pages Visual Beauty

 

Resources & Information
Music Definitions
Hi-Fi Definitions

 


Daily Industry News

High-End Audio News & Information

 

Partner Print Magazines
audioXpress
Australian Hi-Fi Magazine
hi-fi+ Magazine
HIFICRITIC
HiFi Media
Sound Practices
The Absolute Sound
VALVE Magazine

 

For The Press & Industry
About Us
Press Releases
Official Site Graphics

 

Contests & Our Mailing List

Our free newsletter for monthly updates & enter our contests!

 

 

    

Home   |   Industry News   |   Equipment Reviews   |   Press Releases   |   About Us   |   Contact Us

 

All contents copyright©  1995 - 2023  HighEndAudio.com and Enjoy the Music.com®
May not be copied or reproduced without permission.  All rights reserved.