Tom Martin

In the past year or so, I have reviewed a reasonably large swath of the DACs in the $10k to $50k range. There are many such DACs to consider however, so this has not been a complete survey. And it will likely continue – and still be incomplete. Today, I consider a streamer/DAC combination from WADAX that from some angles is the best DAC I’ve covered. Let’s take a look at what that means, because, well, details matter if you actually consider buying the equipment we review and you actually listen to the equipment you buy.

How can you convince potential customers that your business is right for them? TOM MARTIN explains the secrets behind credibility in sales.

Is there a better way of taking in the British Isles than travelling by train? From a train window, Britain is not arranged for inspection.

Audio Solutions is a new (to the U.S.) speaker manufacturer. They are from Lithuania and have a broad range of models, of which the Vantage M is next to the top. They have a distinctive and impressive sound, befitting the $123,000 price. Of course, you have to judge value based on your needs and budget.

Tom Martin attended the High End Vienna show 2026, on the hunt for new, impressive, or otherwise noteworthy products. Of course, with dozens of rooms and hundreds of products we can’t cover everything nor properly review Sound Quality, so we don’t. Best of Show signals a particularly good sonic impression, not a precision ranking.

This review will be quite a bit different. Here I’m reviewing a system of components from Esoteric. I’m covering the entire electronics chain from source to power amplification, all from Esoteric’s top Grandioso line. The idea is that there may be system synergies from this approach and the only way to get a feel for that is to listen to the system rather than individual components. Let’s take a look at this idea and at the Grandioso system.

Figure 1 Figure 1. Midpoint estimates with broad uncertainty ranges reflecting incomplete historical coverage and differences between companies, brands, and exhibitors.

Phew, it's hot. The yard dust hangs in the air a little longer. The dog seeks out the shade of the grain store. Even the swallows seem to have slowed down.

Eminent Technology has built planar magnetic speakers for several decades. Their designer, Bruce Thigpen, is an original thinker and this is reflected in the design of the speakers. Eminent Technology has been in business 43 years. Thigpen has 16 patents, some licensed to Monsoon for computer speakers, Philips for tweeters; he also patented a record vacuum hold down that SOTA uses, the ET-2 air bearing tonearm, as well as the TRW-17 rotary woofer which was featured in BBC television programs, a Telarc organ recording, and used in research labs around the world.

Why average listening level, musical peaks, and speaker sensitivity must be considered together