Bel Canto's extraordinary Black amplification system is featured on the cover. Combining state-of-the-art class-D monoblocks with an all-digital preamplifier, the Black sounds and measures as good as it can get. At a price, of course—but at the other end of the price spectrum, we review Creek's Evolution 100A integrated amplifier, as complete in its way as the Black is in its. These are not your father's amplifiers.
Emotiva's new XMC-1 preamplifier/processor, which incorporates the Dirac room-correction software is featured in "Music in the Round," while on the analog playback side, two European tonearms come under our scrutiny—one of which is declared to be finest tonearm ever&151;along with turntables from Pear Audio Blue and Pioneer. And Herb Reichert discovers a bargain-priced phono cartridge from Shure.
"Are you still into that sound stuff?" asks Robert Schryer's mother in "As We See It." Yes we are, and getting more from our music than we ever did in the past.
