Coda S5.5 Class A Stereo Amplifier

March 15, 2024 – The Coda S5.5 stereo amplifier (50W/channel, Class A) has become my new reference amplifier and our current best seller. Terry London of Stereo Times is working on a review and posted his preliminary comments on the Audiogon forums. Terry sez, “The world class build quality of Coda amplifiers is on display with the S5.5, along with the most beautiful purity of tonality, precise sound-staging, complete liquidity offered by pure class A design, and what might be the best top end regarding details, decays, and a natural shimmering without brightness or any edge at all.” Click Here for Complete Thread

Weiss Helios DAC

July 28, 2023 – The Weiss Helios DAC is originates in Weiss Engineering’s product line for professional mastering studios. The HELIOS is truly a zero-compromise DAC. For those seeking the same representation of their music as mastering engineers hear when fine-tuning the audio in the studio, the HELIOS is the unit to get. Retail: $21,995. Stay tuned for more information  and reviews soon.

New Weiss Digital Products

July 5, 2023 – Looks like the giant killer DAC of 2023 is the new DAC2xx series. The DAC204 includes USB along with optical and S/PDIF and the DAC205 is optical and S/PDIF only. At $2895 one gets the sound quality of the DAC501 ($9995) without remote volume control, ethernet input, headphone amp and various DSP options. I’ll have display and stock around early September. The first review I’ve seen states, “With the Weiss 204 in replacing the T+A DAC 200 I hear a more dynamic and exciting presentation. With this I hear body and amazing details coming from all over the room as my speakers disappear with ease. Vocals are rich and have texture. This DAC has a clarity and crispness that I have never heard in this price range. I mean, I haven’t heard anything of this quality for under $7k. This Weiss 204 is a DAC that will be right at home in systems costing $15k-$100k.” – Steve Huff Hi-Fi, July 2023, Click Here For Full Review

ACT SCM50ASLT Active Loudspeakers

September 5, 2022 – Widely reviewed, praised and the most popular of the ATC active line of loudspeakers now on display in the rosewood finish. ATC active continues to be my reference. ATC was winner of the AZ Audio Video Club Speaker Fest in 2019 and placed second in the recent 2022 Speaker Monitor Fest. At Big Ear, one of our best selling products for good reason.

Click Here for ATC Client List

Mutec MC3+ Smart Clock USB

October 23, 2021 – Mutec is a professional audio company found in the best recording studios in the world. All recording engineers understand that a studio master clock is critical in order to produce the best sounding digital recordings. Audiophiles are either unaware or overpaying for inferior, overpriced consumer audio copy cats in expensive chassis. The Mutec MC3+ Smart Clock USB optimizes jitter-affected digital sources like CD/DVD/SACD transports, streamers and computers, conditions the signal to audibly improve any DAC and much more. Big Ear now has a unit on hand for your evaluation. For me, it’s a keeper and moves between my recording studio and stereo playback systems.

Weiss Engineering DAC and DSP Processors/Renderers

September 8, 2021 – There’s a lot to like about this Swiss DAC including the headphone output; simply world class. More proof that the best consumer stereo comes from professional audio guys like Daniel Weiss. Many of the world’s best recording studios feature products from ATC and Weiss. The DAC501/502 is the least costly of the top tier DACs and, unlike most, includes an excellent headphone output and a variety of useful DSP functions; equalization, room correction, de-essing, crosstalk canceling and more. RoonReady. Weiss is including factory supplied equalization curves for headphones, currently will all Audeze models available and plans to add more from other top headphone manufacturers. As Weiss receives new curves, they will automatically be installed on the Weiss through regular, automatic, software updates.

Puritan Audio Laboratories Mains Purification

August 23, 2021 – That’s power conditioning on this side of the pond. My experience with power conditioning has been uniformly negative over the decades. Yes, all power conditioners change the sound of your stereo but in most cases negatively. Other recent expensive units from popular cable makers may or may not work in your system and offer poor value if they do make a small improvement. Up to now we have found that the ifi PowerStation to do a good job at a reasonable price and will continue to offer that as an excellent entry level choice. Enter Puritan Audio Labs. Finally, reasonably priced units that clearly improve sound quality without breaking the bank. Unlike most power conditioners, Puritan includes DC blocking making these units a must for anyone experiencing buzzing transformers. Sorry to lay Srajan Ebaen on you, a master of stretching a short paragraph into pages of babble. But, hopefully, you’ll get to the point: “I personally see no compelling reason to spend more on AC power filtering even for our top system”. Puritan Audio Labs PSM156 AC-Purifier

WAM Engineering WallyTools

July 19, 2021 – Big Ear has received a full compliment of WallyTools turntable alignment devices; WallyTractor, WallySkater, WallyReference and WallyFulcrum with WallyZenith and WallyAzimuth coming soon. When used in conjunction with our AnalogMagik, Feickert Adjust+, SMARTractor, various Best Tractors, high quality USB microscope with high precision stand, large collection of test records, electronic laboratory equipment, other turntable set up equipment and over 40 years of turntable set up experience, we feel that we’re closer to perfection in this art as is currently possible. This is still a time consuming process when done right, limiting this service to customers who have purchased their turntables through Big Ear. WallyTools are highly recommended by Michael Fremer and represent the current state of the art in turntable/arm/cartridge alignment tools. WAM Engineering WallyTools

Please watch this very recent YouTube video with Greg Weaver interviewing J.R. Boisclair of WAM engineering. In it, Mr Boisclair reveals how badly made many phono cartridges are regardless of price. Apparently, based on the data presented, there is no correlation between price and quality. The good news; once all the WallyTools are here, I’ll be able to determine if the cartridge you purchased will pass our stringent quality controls. If not, it will go right back to the manufacturer for replacement, ensuring that when the job is complete, you will have zero doubt as to the integrity of your purchase and that all parameters are set as close to perfect as possible. J.R. Boisclair Interviewed by Greg Weaver

Wireworld Cable

December 2020 – We’re proud to be the only stereo dealer in Arizona to become Wireworld cable suppliers. Wireworld makes cable products that we are very impressed with for their neutrality.