RECOMMENDED RC2025 COMPONENTS

Every product listed here has been reviewed in Stereophile. Everything on the list, regardless of rating, is genuinely recommendable. Occasionally we get complaints from manufacturers who object to being included in, say, Class B. That's their error: Inclusion in Class B is a significant honor.

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Within each category, products are listed by class; within each class, they're in alphabetical order, followed by their price, a review synopsis, and a note indicating the issues in which the review, and any subsequent followup reports, appeared. "Vol.48 No.9" indicates our September 2025 issue, for example. "WWW" means the review is also posted online.

Stereophile's Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products sold at hi-fi retail outlets in the US. Companies that sell only through dealers are expected to have well-established dealer networks. Companies that sell only online must demonstrate the capacity for satisfactory customer support. A no-risk at-home audition is strongly preferred—and that goes for bricks and mortar dealers, too. Moderate restocking fees are completely fair when the value is high.

We recommend you read our Recommended Components synopses with one main purpose: to decide which reviews to read. Then read the review. Read it carefully with your needs and desires in mind before seriously contemplating a purchase, as the many salient characteristics, peculiarities, and caveats described in reviews cannot be covered in a circa 180-word synopsis.

180-word synopses are no substitute for the industry's most thorough reviews.

The editors regret that we cannot supply copies of individual reviews.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS

Please keep reading: Most of the questions we receive and see posted online are answered in this short essay. Reading it all the way to the end should take no more than a minute or two.

This listing was compiled after consultation with