Electronics
Electronics are the heart of every hi-fi system, and have a considerable influence on the sound signature of whatever you are listening to. Manufacturers have a variety of philosophies when it comes to sound and design—therefore it is critical to understand these different philosophies and sonic characteristics, as well as technical specifications, in order to match electronics with source components and speakers to build a system that sounds greater than the sum of its parts. All our brands are carefully selected based on the sounds that we like, as well as what we think represents the best value-for-money. Using our many years of experience matching components—a big advantage to buying from a dealer like Glenn Poor’s—we can help pick out the right piece for anyone’s needs.
BALANCED AUDIO TECHNOLOGY: B.A.T. debuted its revolutionary VK-5 line stage preamplifier in 1995 and has been making revolutionary products ever since. Some of these include the Unistage circuit design, the tube auto-bias, the 6H30 triode, massive power supplies, and no feedback topologies. The all-balanced B.A.T. electronics give the most accurate representation of the music possible, demonstrating the advantages of supporting a direct signal path with an unshakeable foundation. This unique approach to audio allows the listener to be completely immersed and forget where they are.
BEL CANTO DESIGN: A small, specialty manufacturer from Minneapolis, MN that has developed an incredible line of compact, efficient (think "green") amplifiers, CD players, FM tuners, and digital-to-analog converters that are as beautifully made as they are wonderful to listen to.
BLUESOUND: Very good quality electronics that provide what is perhaps the best and easiest way to add streaming to any system, and also to set up an entire house for music playback.
BOB CARVER: Bob Carver's amplifiers are made by hand with point-to-point wiring, right here in the United States. No circuit boards to burn or integrated circuits to become obsolete, just beautiful and robust workmanship that will ensure your investment today will provide the consumer with a lifetime of music enjoyment.
ESOTERIC: Esoteric has been delivering the finest audio components to the most discerning listeners for nearly 40 years. Esoteric technologies are the summation of fresh ideas and uncompromisable goals. The design teams use a principle of technological fusion. The absolute best in mechanical, electronic, acoustic and visual design elements fused into superior audio products.
GOLD NOTE: Twenty-five years ago, Maurizio Arterini, a young Italian engineering student, decided to create a turntable that sounded like music and not like the typical "hifi". This personal product development turned into Gold Note - a true high end manufacturer of complete (beginning to end) systems. Cartridges, turntables, phono pre-amps, CD players, pre and power amplifiers, as well as speakers, are all made in Italy with real Italian materials. The turntables employ real Italian walnut, as do the speakers. Every Gold Note product is a genuine value, sounds like real music, and oh, by the way, they all look fantastic!
HEGEL: Elegant design, clean and accurate sound, and all the modern features associated with high-end audio.
LUMIN MUSIC: Formed from Pixel Magic Systems Ltd, a Hong Kong firm whose core business is developing high-definition home-theater products with advanced software programming and design. Lumin was formed by a group of Pixel Magic’s commercial engineers, who wanted to leverage the company’s video reputation into the nascent high-resolution-audio market. Its first product was the MediaBox, which played all type of media files and included an audiophile version, the MB200. Their new flagship model, the Lumin S1 represents a nice leap forward. The S1 ("S" presumably stands for "Statement") uses four ESS Sabre 9018 eight channel DAC chips. This means that the S1 has 16 paralleled DAC’s for each channel. The A1 by comparison uses one Wolfson WM8741 DAC per channel. The S1 also has an updated clock system.
LUXMAN: Luxman is one of the world's oldest companies that manufactures audio components. Founded in 1925 in Japan as a transformer specialist, Luxman evolved into radio and audio products over the ensuing decades. Glenn Poor's began selling Luxman in 1975 after the brand was first introduced to the American market by Jerry Kaplan. Brian Tucker (of Revox fame) was picked to represent Luxman in the Midwest, and Brian picked Glenn Poor's to be the exclusive dealer in our territory. I'll never forget the first time I saw the M-6000 power amp after opening the shipping box. It was so beautiful and well made, but it was so heavy! Fortunately, it sounded as good as it looked, and we went on to have quite a lot of success with Luxman until, about ten years later, they made a distribution deal with a more mainstream Japanese company who started selling products under the Luxman name that were just not really Luxman! Needless to say, we lost interest, and dropped the line. Then, a few years ago, Luxman came back with real, made in Japan, Luxman products. Beautiful to look at, beautiful sounding - LUXMAN is back!
MARANTZ: For more than half a century, the name Marantz has identified the best in home entertainment. And today, even in the midst of burgeoning and often confusing technology, these components still emulate the vision that originally drove Saul Marantz to expand the sensory horizons of even the most demanding aficionados.
MCINTOSH LABS: McIntosh Labs was founded in 1949 - the same year as Glenn Poor's. The Binghamton, NY company is justifiably one of most storied, important manufacturers in hi-end audio. Responsible for numerous patents in audio amplification, McIntosh continues to innovate, and build immaculate components. McIntosh builds world-class sources (D/A converters, CD/SACD players, and turntables), pre-amplifiers, amplifiers, home theater components, and loudspeaker systems - virtually, the full gamut of audio and video products. Glenn Poor's Audio Video started selling McIntosh products over thirty years ago, and we're proud to offer this legendary company's products to our customers.
MOFI: Developed by revered engineer Tim De Paravicini, MoFi's USA-made StudioPhono and UltraPhono prize simplicity, purity, precision, and control—the very characteristics responsible for producing audiophile clarity, unstinting accuracy, and breathtaking realism during analog playback.
MYTEK: Since its establishment in New York City in 1992, Mytek has been at the forefront of digital audio reproduction and recording for its entire history. Their DACs are some of the best on the market.
NEW ACOUSTIC DIMENSION: NAD started in 1972 with great two channel products that were known for good performance, industrial design, and value. NAD has kept the same values, and the same look, but made a strong step into the home theater and multi-channel audio segment as well.
OCTAVE: Close to 30 years, Octave has been building high-quality tube amplifiers that offer stable performance and reliability on par with the finest transistor equipment. Octave's models owe their outstanding durability to the well thought out electronic monitoring and protection systems. The soft-start technology, the controlled "power rise", precise stabilization and intelligent protective circuits are the guarantors of unsurpassed product reliability. After all, with an OCTAVE amplifier, music lovers should be able to listen to their records and CDs - at the highest performance level possible - for decades.
PLAYBACK DESIGNS: Playback Designs imagines, creates and manufactures the highest resolution, jitter free digital playback systems available for the most discerning of listeners.
QUAD: This UK brand is seminal to the history of high fidelity stereo equipment. Their new gear represents fantastic value and quality, especially their Vena II integrated amp (pictured).
REGA: Rega started as a turntable company in 1973, and made the now famous Planet and (later) Planar turntables. Rega continued with innovation making new tonearms, and eventually cartridges. Like their analog sources, their electronics are extremely precisely engineered and sound wonderful.
ROGUE AUDIO: Excellent made-in-America tube gear with a wide range of prices. Even their entry level components sound like heaven, making Rogue a perfect choice for both the tube enthusiast and someone looking to try something new.
SONY: Glenn Poor's introduced Sony TV's, radios and tape recorders to our markets in the late 60's. We even built a store in 1974 that exclusively showed Sony consumer products. Since then, Sony has evolved into arguably the world's best known consumer electronics company, and we are still proud to represent Sony's top products - like their "ES" audio/video receivers and universal disc players.
TECHNICS: Technics understands that the listening experience is not purely about technology but the magical and emotional relationship between people and music. We want people to experience music as it was originally intended and enable them to feel the emotional impact that enthuses and delights them. With a combination of love of music and the vast high-end audio experience of the Technics team, they stand committed to building a brand that provides the ultimate emotive musical experience by music lovers, for music lovers.
TIVOLI AUDIO: Tivoli products are created to make natural replication of sound that can be delivered from a small and compact footprint. With only one or two speakers in each speaker, Tivoli strives to get optimum audio quality without destroying our design concepts.
TEAC: High quality gear that is simple and affordable without sacrificing sound quality. TEAC has a wide variety of products that can build a great modern hi-fi system.