2024 Recommended Products $1,000 to $10,000 | Tom Martin reports...

[@bigblueocean]

I'm going to subscribe to the magazine. It's a hell of a lot of value for ten bucks!

[@TheTASmagazine]

We think so too!

[@frederickhardman3389]

The choices we have between $1k to $10k is crazy good. I was surprised that the technics amp made the list. I need to check it out in person

[@ptg01]

Great list ! Much more approachable for us mere mortals !

[@rickc661]

good stuff. in last couple years I changed my stereo - intended price was total $ 3000. same SACD /DVD and powered Sub. New - Outlaw receiver. KEF meta 50 spks and thorens 103 full auto T' table. went over by about $500. and the T'table was a definite overkill, I much prefer Concert DVD's be it Diana Krall, Paris. A. Netrebko, LaTraviatta or G.Dead movie....

[@davewin1792]

Taking your advice on the Technics SL 1210G. Saving for it at the moment. Thank you

[@MrNicks-gn8jc]

I have the 1200G as my main table.......YOU WON'T REGRET IT

[@davewin1792]

I'm pretty geeked about getting it. Fitting it with the Hana ML. Being a classical music lover, vinyl puts digital to shame imo :)@@MrNicks-gn8jc

[@jeffreypicciolo7706]

....beautifully done ...

[@TheTASmagazine]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@andrewweis5857]

The AQ Thunderbird are the first interconnects I’ve owned that I’m happy with and deserve your rating. Good to see a cable of high merit being praised by an authoritative source of reviews.

[@luminmusic]

Great to see LUMIN T3 feature in your selection! Thank you! 🙏

[@REX4340]

Suggest you do recommended systems at $10K, 20, 40, 80 and 160K

[@thomasmartin2219]

Interesting idea. Thanks!

[@craigjordaens8366]

Agreed. Having Mr. Martin select multiple components that are both recommended, and come in at the total system price point would be very educational. Where is the money best spent, what compromises would he make, etc.

[@justanaverageguytoday]

No 1K 2k 3k etc

[@samuelsalins8309]

Great ✨️.

[@gtrguyinaz]

Great review and lists of affordable products.. I have 1 recommendation , I used a modified Oppo cd players.. because I decided to spend majority of the budget on preamp,power amp and speakers.. there is a benefit , I get to see the source on an 18 inch screen rather than a miniature led .. Please consider a review of a single box cd / streamer like Oppo… there are many new excellent choices that many come close to equaling separate dac / streamers….

[@thomasmartin2219]

The review staff have been discussing a related topic: what is the role of CD in systems with streaming capability? One view is that once you have streaming, you have almost all recordings that were on CD and you have many of those in hi-res (not possible with CD) - so CD is obviated. You clearly have a different view, as do some reviewers. What is the role of CD for you in a post-streaming system? Thanks.

[@gtrguyinaz]

@@thomasmartin2219 this is exactly the same position many of us, including myself, or in about 8 to 10 years ago we wondered what we should do with vinyl and I mistakenly decided that I was going to focus on CDs and streaming, and I sold my VPI turntableGrado cartridge, and a 500 pristine record albums so now I am not going to revisit vinyl, but can CDs make a comeback in the future I don’t really know but that’s what makes the hobby so interesting. My Opo CD player was modified extensively by MOD right who was very instrumental in improving the sound dramatically, and without an AB comparison I am unsure if it can compete with separates, but I know that the total cost of $1900 is very attractive in terms of price versus performance

[@d.nakamura9579]

@@thomasmartin2219for those who like to own their music, CDs will never be obsolete. I don’t like the idea of a hard drive crashing or wi fi going down and you can’t even listen to your own tunes.

[@thomasmartin2219]

@@d.nakamura9579 Understood. Very clear. Thanks.

[@arthurgrab926]

стриминг-это бред-а СД-добавьте Цап с предом внутри!

[@sidvicious3129]

Hi Tom, have you or do you plan on reviewing Denon's newest direct drive turntable, the DP-3000NE and comparing it to the Technics SL-1200G? Have you heard either the Technics SL-1200GR or the newer Technics SL-1200GR2 and do you have any plans to review the GR2 as it compares to the G?

[@thomasmartin2219]

I have the 1200 GR2 in for review right now (just landed).

[@toddhupp]

very cool

[@respondent5226]

Magico A1 ???

[@TJJJ82]

The KEF R3 Meta is a spectacular speaker.

[@brianmoore581]

I had a Technics turntable that looked exactly like that, heavy, solid. I think it was even called a 1200 something. I believe it cost about $400. Audiophiles said it ain't no good because it ain't belt drive. Multiply the price by ten, and now it's good!

[@connorduke4619]

Here are my picks at this price range - Puritan PSM156 Power distributor, Teac VRDS-701 CD player, Rotel Michi X3 Integrated amp, Dynaudio Contour 20i Loudspeaker.

[@arthurgrab926]

это глупо(

[@Mr.HotRod]

You forgot the Nakamichi Dragon Surround Sound System. As an all in one it is comparable to or better then all of your reviewed products. If you haven't heard it give it a try you will be impressed.

[@sheelmirji5494]

Is Absulute sound Magzine available in India 🇮🇳?

[@thomasmartin2219]

The digital version of the magazine is available in India (and all countries with internet!). The print version may be available, but digital is more timely and a year of digital costs less than one issue of print in most countries.

[@HungryEatNow]

Yup everything is based on price tag...

[@craigjordaens8366]

A great follow up to your sub-$1000usd list. I was hoping to see some representatives in the $1000-2000 range, but alas…….that R3 Meta might be worth a stretch though….I really must try to get a listen of that one. So gents….I’m getting off this ride and will be a mere spectator to the lists to come…..but I’ll stay interested, if a little envious of the potential that may be contained there. Thanks Mr. Martin….but if you’ll indulge me as I’ve always been skeptical, have the cable evaluations included any controls? Do you rely on familiarity of the recordings? I know this is a charged topic, but I’m curious what your take on it is.

[@thomasmartin2219]

I’ll try to take up this topic at length in a separate video (some day!). But to partially answer your question, our “control” is ‘the absolute sound’ which is the sound of music performed in a real space. I find (other reviewers may beg to differ) that cable-cable differences are very subtle, but that changing a full cable loom (all cables in a system) makes a noticeable difference when comparing high-end cables to basic cables. There are also differences from cable type A to cable type B, though these are sometimes more noticeable with certain core components than others. This makes sense to me since cables work via electromagnetic wave propagation and one can imagine that this is complex to model and thus cables might differ. Similarly, we know cables differ in inductance, capacitance and resistance, so again we might assume that cables would sound different and those differences might depend on the electrical parameters of source and destination devices. And we know there are various electromagnetic waves from phones and networks etc, so one can imagine that different cable systems and components have different susceptibility to these signals. I have been impressed with the ability of cables to function as antennas and create horrible component behaviors. That said, skepticism is always warranted, particularly when it comes to audibility; similarly, I would also think it odd to claim that we “know” that cables can’t make a difference, given the variations observed in electrical parameters. It is also the case that not all cable differences yield gains. When they do, I find that the magnitude of these gains is more noticeable with higher performance gear, so I would be careful about over-budgeting for cables as a % of system cost. Hope that helps a bit.

[@craigjordaens8366]

@@thomasmartin2219 I'm looking forward to that video already...I'll forgive you if it takes some time. That's not a topic one wades into frivolously. Thank you sir for such a thorough and thoughtful reply. You and I are mostly aligned with respect to cables I think.....with me perhaps on the more skeptical side. But I haven't listened to a fraction of what you have, and my gear would never warrant an investment of any kind in cables; so I remain agnostic and open to any result that's arrived at fair and honestly (subjective OR objective). Now....where is the subscribe button for the paper version........

[@thomasmartin2219]

@@craigjordaens8366 subscription link should be in the description

[@arthurgrab926]

кабели только открывают -но не добавляют!

[@arthurgrab926]

@@thomasmartin2219 брависимо-наконец-правдв!

[@barneyrubble9309]

So nothing below 2.0k? So where's the 1k components?

[@thomasmartin2219]

We selected these from products we reviewed in the last 18 months. As it happened, we did a lot below $1k and then almost nothing between $1k and $2k. We have more coming in the $1k-2k range this year, but honestly we don't choose products to review by their exact price bands, but by what seems musically meritorious for the money.

[@thomasmartin2219]

For products under $1k: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmGzhnyNhcSCrs0si=gwIAiCeggjsrKmHI

[@thomasmartin2219]

See the description for the link to Recommended Products Under $1k. Or just click on the logo to scan recent videos.

[@goodsound4756]

Wow, under 10 K not a single tower speaker is recommended...

[@thomasmartin2219]

You will see many more tower speakers reviewed in 2024. For some reason, the new tower introductions we noticed in 2023 took a while to get into production or to get through our review process.

[@martinbishop2966]

I was very disappointed not to see a CD player in this list. There are certain you tube channels that would appear to be biased against CD and perhaps are in the pockets of streaming services. I hope you have not sold your soul to the devil. 👎

[@thomasmartin2219]

We favorably reviewed the new Hegel CD player recently. There just aren’t very many new ones being marketed, so you won’t see them very often.

[@meesmo4]

​@@thomasmartin2219really? What about Esoteric, Dcs, Accuphase? Wadax?

[@Natan9000]

Take it easy

[@andygrenn680]

No mention of Shatki Stone….Well, well under $1000 . A phenomenal tweak component. I don’t believe in much, but I do believe in Shatki Stone!

[@blairsprague8112]

As soon as the name Audioquest is mentioned I get visions of snake oil...and run as fast as I can in the opposite direction

[@tommy-6597]

dont ever buy kef - terrible company, speakers break, no support

[@r423fplip]

You can get top class audio components for next to nothing these day. Clarity, low distortion are a thing of the past. Cables make no difference, lets do a blind test to see who takes home the money. I will buy a new car !

[@chrisrichards2827]

if you think cables don't make a difference you better get the wax out of your ears because you obviously can't hear very well, my system is worth 72,000 and you can tell instantly if a cable is better or worse I don't know how good your system is but mine is very resolving, and if you can't hear the difference it can't be that good.

[@chrisrichards2827]

and you can get top class equipment now for next to nothing where is that lol

[@Antibackgroundnoise]

One should try pressing pause or mute, and from the MLP, if one is unable to differentiate whether the systems off or on that's telling one, one has quality cabling! When listening, I prefer not to put up with the faint background signal noise (noise floor) After auditioning three separate AVR's, the same so-called ambient sound of the room was still present! It was only on the third occasion when I finally purchased shielded cables that the noise floor in my small room finally came down to satisfactory levels. Cables often act as antennas for attracting RF, and the longer the cable, the better the antenna. Probably explains why when I used to disconnect my heights and surrounds within 10 minutes, the faint background signal noise (RF/EMI) within my small room used to disappear/dissipate. When friends of guests come around rather showing them how loud the system goes, I now prefer to press pause and show them how quiet it goes. None of them gets it, of course.😂

[@MG-gf8mz]

really really really boring. that's why most people under 40 years try to avoid HiFi

[@steve-94951]

this publication is now total crap