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JMF Audio HQS 7001
Stereophile
|February 2024
MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER
For some, it takes the likes of Scheherazade to seduce; for me, simple sound will suffice. But not just any sound. If I'm going to enter into a relationship with an audio component, I want it to last.
I don't know anyone who, having heard the JMF Audio system at AXPONA 2023-the HQS¹ 6002 dual-mono power amplifier ($40,000) and PRS 1.5 dual-mono line stage preamplifier ($36,000) with Harbeth M40.3 XD speakers-did not rave about the sound. In my show report, I credited the system, assembled by Fidelis Distribution and Audio Skies, with delivering "some of the finestsounding music" I heard at the show. "This is the perfect sound for mellow music," I proclaimed. "Bliss."
Only the need to write umpteen show reports in a short span prevented me from saying more. Completely won over and hoping that JMF Audio's amplifiers would sound as good with my Wilson Audio Alexia V loudspeakers as they did with Harbeth 40.3 XDs, this serial reviewer of mono amps immediately asked Michael Vamos of Audio Skies, the US distributor of JMF Audio, if he (I) could review a pair of JMF monoblocks. The $77,000/pair JMF HQS 7001, which, according to their specifications, output 300W into 8 ohms, 500W into 4 ohms, and 850W into 2 ohms, were the best JMF Audio amps Michael could offer at the time.² Given their power and price, they promised a near-ideal comparison with my reference D'Agostino Momentum M400 MXV monoblocks, which cost $79,500/pair and are specified to output 400W into 8 ohms, 800W into 4 ohms, and 1600W into 2 ohms.³
Background and technology
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FLERE HISTORIER FRA Stereophile
Stereophile
Life in the emerald beyond
If you find yourself in Monaco on a Sunday night, make your way to La Note Bleue, a cozy restaurant and music bar on the beach by the Avenue Princesse Grace. There, you're likely to find a legendary world/fusion guitarist sitting in with a group of young jazz musicians eager to cut heads with the acknowledged maestro of inner awareness and otherworldly spirits. Forever known to some as “Mahavishnu,” you can call him by his birth name, John McLaughlin.
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36 sides of late Bowie
I Can't Give Everything Away is the sixth and last of the Bowie box sets that survey specific periods in the artist's career. The first was Five Years 1969–1973, released in September 2015. That was followed by Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976), A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982), Loving the Alien (1983–1988), Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001), and finally the new set. Together, the six sets are an impressive testament to a musical giant—a heavyweight tribute figuratively and literally. You could use this last installment to pump up your biceps.
3 mins
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Stereophile
Is this the ultimate old-school analog move?
Dedicated readers know that lately in this space I’ve been on something of an analog kick. Two months ago, in the October issue,¹ I wrote about refurbishing and modding my old McIntosh FM tuner. Last month’s column (November) was on the much-discussed but little-understood topic of the skating force on a phono cartridge stylus.²
4 mins
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Stereophile
STEREOPHILE'S 34TH ANNUAL PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2025 AWARDS
Stereophile's Product of the Year Awards were first published in 1992.1 I decided at that time that, in contrast to other publications' awards schemes, we would keep the number of categories to a minimum.
21 mins
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DeVore Gibbon Super Nine
LOUDSPEAKER
11 mins
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Some marketing claims are true
None of the amps I build are better than the others,” Justin Weber of Ampsandsound told me not long after we met. “They are just different.” I may have smirked inwardly. According to his company’s website, Weber makes no fewer than 23 amplifier models, many capable of driving both headphones and speakers, ranging from the $2700 Kenzie OG to the $38,000 Arch Monos. Are they really all equally good?, I wondered. Surely this was just a clever Buddhist ploy to distract us from some of his amps’ high prices. Doesn't the extra $35k spent on the Arch Monos buy you something more desirable than the performance offered by the little Kenzie? Writing for an audio magazine means I hear a lot of marketing claims, some more risible than others, and I have learned to take them with an entire seabed worth of salt.
11 mins
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Stereophile
Lotti Golden
Her life became a whirlwind. Taking the train in from Brooklyn to Manhattan to pitch songs and experience the East Village scene, she landed a song-publishing deal at age 14. In 1968, at 18, after a chance meeting in an elevator, a legendary songwriter/record producer was interested in assisting her in making her debut album. Released on Atlantic Records in 1969, Lotti Golden's Motor-Cycle was wildly experimental and ahead of its time. Seemingly poised for success, the album and her career suddenly vanished.
4 mins
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Stereophile
Baby you can drive my car(tridge)
While I was coming to grips with this month's review subject, the idler drive Garrard 301 Advanced, I began to think about the various methods that have been used to spin turntable platters over the years. Since the transition a century ago from windup clockwork to electric motors, there have basically been three ways to spin a turntable platter: idler drive, belt drive, and direct drive. True, there have also been a few designs that go their own unique ways, such as the rare, water-driven Oasis made by David Gillespie of Saturn Audio in the late 1970s and the gear-driven H.H. Scott 710 I once owned and foolishly sold. But almost everything made since the 1950s uses one of the three main drive systems. Even the Omega Drive system, which was used by Wilson Benesch on their extraordinary GMT One turntable, is at its core a direct drive design.
10 mins
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Audio Research Reference 330M
MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER
19 mins
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MANUFACTURERS' COMMENTS
MoFi Distribution would like to thank both Ken Micallef and John Atkinson for their time and effort reviewing the HiFi Rose RA280 integrated amplifier (November 2025, p.93).
2 mins
December 2025
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