Recommended Components 2021 Edition

Every product listed here has been formally reviewed in Stereophile. Everything on the list, regardless of rating, is genuinely recommendable.

Within each category, products are listed by class; within each class, they’re in alphabetical order, followed by their price, a short synopsis, and a note indicating the issues in which the review and any subsequent follow-up reports appeared. “Vol.44 No.2” indicates our February 2021 issue, for example.

Stereophile‘s Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products available in the US through the usual hi-fi retail outlets, although products sold online also qualify. Companies that sell only through dealers must have well-established dealer networks. Companies that sell only online must demonstrate the capacity for satisfactory customer support, preferably domestic. A no-risk at-home audition is preferred.

We recommend you read our Recommended Components synopses to decide which products you’re interested in, then read each product’s review carefully before you seriously contemplate a purchase. Many salient characteristics, peculiarities, and caveats appear in the review that cannot be included in the circa 200-word synopsis. Almost all reviews of current products are available online at stereophile.com; look for WWW in parentheses at the end of the synopsis, after the issue number. Back issues of the magazine can be ordered from the website. The editors regret that we cannot supply copies of individual reviews.

The nuts and bolts

The listing is compiled after consultation with Stereophile‘s reviewing staff and editors—including, notably, Technical Editor John Atkinson. Our ratings take into account not only what we heard during the review period but also continued experience with the product (if any) after the formal review has been published. Defects discovered after auditioning may cause a product to be downgraded or removed.

Class ratings are based entirely on performance—but that includes performance on the test bench. Products are downrated to the extent that their deficiencies interfere with the full realization of the program material and the pleasure of the listener, except that obvious limitations, such as limited bass extension in a minimonitor, are assumed. We do not expect every component to aspire to attain the best measurements possible; that would incentivize conformity, boredom, and metric-gaming. Measurements indicating poor engineering or revealing potentially audible defects may cause us to lower our rating. The reviewer’s sonic experience, though, is the most important factor.

Class ratings are based on performance, but different reviewers value different aspects of performance, so it’s best not to expect thematic and methodological consistency. You’ll find high-tech amplifiers with vanishingly low noise and distortion listed alongside old-school tube amps; what they share is the ability to provoke musical bliss in their respective reviewers. Recommendations, then, are most useful to those who share, or at least are aware of, the reviewer’s tastes.

The best use of this list, and the original reviews, is to help you decide what to audition. Never turn down an opportunity to audition a component, especially in your own system.

The prices indicated were current when the listing was compiled (January 2021). We cannot guarantee that they will be the same when you read this.

There is a near-universal consensus that at some point in the upward climb of product prices, severely diminishing returns (performance vs price) set in. However, there is no agreement as to the price level at which that happens. Where we have found a product to perform much better than might be expected at its price, we have drawn attention to it with a $$$ next to its listing. Otherwise, Class ratings do not take price into account as a matter of policy, but of course, some reviewers may implicitly factor value into their decisions.

Products discontinued by their manufacturer are of course removed from the list; so are those that have been revised in ways that could affect performance. Such revisions often lead us to pursue a follow-up review.

When a product is removed from the list, we endeavor to report why it was removed.

Deletion of a product from this list does not mean we woke up one morning and decided it was terrible. In general, products remain listed for just three years. There are two good reasons for this. First, there’s not enough space in the magazine for several years’ worth of products of merit. Second, it’s impossible to compare a component to others when your memory of it is dim—and in some areas of hi-fi, things change quickly. We indicate with a star ★ products we have kept on this list for more than three years. Usually that happens because the product is part of a reviewer’s “kit,” so the reviewer uses it regularly. Because of this recent experience, the product can remain listed.

Sometimes, space permitting, the editor may grant a reprieve, allowing a product to remain on the list beyond its normal span. This only happens when, for one reason or another, there’s a little extra space in the magazine to fill. For example, in this feature, I’ve kept several excellent, unique products in Loudspeaker Systems, Class A, Full-Range that otherwise would have “timed out.” I used the same editor’s prerogative to retain some inexpensive turntables and phono cartridges.

Starred products are not immortal. A product that earns a star and is retained may still be deleted in a future issue. In fact, it almost certainly will be, and probably soon. Come October, when it’s time for the next Recommended Components issue, there could be too much pressure on that part of the list—too many excellent new products—to allow these old ones, however excellent, to be retained.

The presence of a product on this list should provide reassurance to potential buyers, but removal of a product from the list does not mean that the product sounds worse today than it did when it was listed. Please don’t be upset if a product you purchased on our recommendation falls, leaflike, from the Recommended Components tree. If you are upset, please don’t call to tell us about it or send us an email.

Specific reviewers identified by their initials are John Atkinson, Jim Austin (JCA), Brian Damkroger, Robert Deutsch, Art Dudley, Michael Fremer, Tom Gibbs, Larry Greenhill, Alex Halberstadt, Jon Iverson, Fred Kaplan, Michael Lavorgna, Eric Lichte, John Marks, Sasha Matson, Ken Micallef, Julie Mullins (JMu), Thomas J. Norton, Wes Phillips, Herb Reichert, Bob Reina (BJR), Kalman Rubinson, Jonathan Scull, Rob Schryer, and Jason Victor Serinus.—Jim Austin

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How To Use The Listings
Turntables
Tonearms
Phono Cartridges
Phono Preamplifiers
Phono Accessories
Disc & File Players
Digital Processors
Complete Audio Systems
Two-Channel Preamplifiers
Two-Channel Power Amplifiers
Integrated Amplifiers & Receivers
Loudspeaker Systems
Subwoofers
Headphones & Accessories
Powerline Accessories
Signal Processors
FM Tuners & Antennae
Miscellaneous Accessories
Room Acoustics Treatment
Software
Stands, Spikes, Feet & Racks
Interconnects
Loudspeaker Cables
Digital Data Interconnects

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