american hi-fi

Viola Labs: America's 'secret' high-end audio brand

American companies dominate the worldwide high-end audio market, but those brands are known only to the most passionate audiophiles in their home country.

Like most American high-end brands, Viola Labs, based in New Haven, Conn., has just a few retail outlets in the U.S. Audiophiles in Asia and Europe have made up the majority of Viola's customers since 2001.

So chances are most of my readers are in the dark about Viola. That's why I made the trek to New Haven to learn more about the brand. Viola's two original founders, Tom Colangelo and Paul Jayson, … Read more

Affordable American hi-fi, does it exist?

While I regularly write about ultra-high-end gear that's made in the U.S., I also cover as much affordable stuff as I can find. Grado Labs in Brooklyn manufactures some of my favorite headphones priced from $79 and phono cartridges from $60. My friends at Schiit Audio in Newhall, Calif., make headphone amplifiers and digital-to-analog converters with prices starting at $249. As for speakers, Zu Audio makes gorgeous-sounding models priced from $1,200 per pair. These companies aren't just based in the U.S., they also manufacture their products here.

If $1,200 doesn't qualify as affordable, … Read more

High-end audio sounds great, lasts decades

At the end of the 1960s it looked like transistors had completely replaced vacuum tubes for hi-fis, musicians' amplifiers, recording gear, etc., but then a handful of American high-end companies began designing new tube components. Audio Research was in the vanguard of the movement, and is still crafting electronics coveted by audiophiles across the globe. During my recent visit to the Audio Research factory in Plymouth, Minn., I spent some quality time listening to its least expensive integrated amplifier, the VSi60.

As high-end amplifiers go, the VSi60 isn't very big--it measures 14 inches by 8 inches by 16 inches--and … Read more

The White House's all-American hi-fi

You don't see the phrase "world-class" associated with American-made consumer goods. TVs, iPods, computers, and cameras are mostly designed and built in other countries. The U.S. may be the world's leading consumer state; we just don't make the very best products here anymore.

High-end audio may be one of the few remaining industries where America still designs and builds the very best products. I'm proposing an all-American hi-fi system that could be installed in the White House. It would be the sort of hi-fi the president could, after a hard day's work … Read more

The K2: JBL's new $30,000 speaker

Most of you probably think of JBL as a manufacturer of affordable high-performance speakers, but the company offers a truly vast range of consumer and professional models.

The K2 S9900 ($15,000 each) is the best consumer speaker JBL makes. It's a massive thing, weighing in at 182 pounds, and it's armed with a 15-inch woofer, 4-inch magnesium, horn-loaded midrange, and 1-inch magnesium horn-loaded tweeter. It can handle amplifiers as large as 500 watts a channel.

The JBL K2 S9900 will be equally at home in ultra-high-end music and home theater systems.

The K2 was originally developed for … Read more