LATEST ADDITIONS

The quest to review the Pearl Acoustics Model One began at the 2025 Montreal Audiofest. It was there I crossed paths in a hallway with Galion Audio's Thomas Tan. "Rob! Rob!" he called out through a stream of visitors between us. "You have to hear my TS A20 power amp driving Pearl Acoustics speakers!"

Spend as much time prowling audio websites as I do, and a pattern becomes clear. They're full of glamour shots of shiny products, promises of performance never before experienced, and cherry-picked pullquotes from reviews. The website of Japanese audio concern Elekit is a different kind of experience.

Mike Campbell is a consummate support artist. He was Tom Petty's right-hand guitar man for 47 years, first with Florida swamp-rockers Mudcrutch, later as a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, then ultimately extending his reach to support Petty's solo endeavors.

EISA, or the Expert Imaging and Sound Association, is an organization representing 53 of the most respected special interest publications and websites from 26 countries that cover Hi-Fi, Home Theater, Photography, Mobile Devices, and In-Car Electronics. Every year EISA's Expert Group members, including editors from this publication, test a very wide range of new products from their field of expertise before comparing results and voting to decide on the cream of every product category.

Consider vinyl playback: Pick up a record, put it on the platter, start the platter spinning, position the stylus over the lead-in groove, lower the arm, and voilà, music is playing . . . Digital playback is simpler than vinyl if your goal is to play music from a single source, like a streaming service.