The Absolute Sound

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2023 the absolute sound EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARDS • Welcome to the 2023 edition of TAS’ Editors’ Choice Awards, our annual recommended products feature. On the following pages we present the gear that our editors and writers have selected as most worthy of your consideration. These are components that we ourselves would buy—or recommend to friends and family. Each product category is divided into price ranges, with components listed in order of ascending cost (though some items, like accessories, are listed alphabetically). Each recommendation is accompanied by a capsule review, the original reviewer's name or initials, and the issue number the review appeared in. Note that, in some cases, a product may have been reviewed, but the review has not yet been published; in other cases, a product may not have been formally reviewed, but has still earned a recommendation based on the writer's extensive experience with it. Given that this is the high end, where components generally have long lifespans, some of our recommendations look back several years. At the same time, to be as selective and up to date as possible, we have dropped certain components that appeared on last year's list, usually because they have been discontinued, but sometimes because fresh competition has caused us to reconsider the choice. All the products in this feature have been pricechecked and their availability in the market confirmed. In addition, we have created a new category, “Preamplifiers with Digital-to-Analog Converters,” to accommodate the increasing prevalence of preamplifiers with integral DACs and, sometimes, streaming and networking functions. DACs with a volume control but without analog inputs remain in the DAC category.

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