Best of 2001: Best High-End Stereo Equipment

Stereo Design

7260 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Clairemont Mesa

858-573-0060

Sound does count. It's astonishing how much subtlety and sensuality good reproduction equipment can bring out, even when the sound source is an early CD or vinyl. The widely distributed commercial lines are adequate, but the difference between that kind of sound reproduction and what you get from the specialty high-fidelity manufacturers can blow you away. Stereo Design carries the very best. Their salesmen are an easygoing bunch, knowledgeable but not snobbish, and they allow you all the time in the world to listen and compare without pressure. They will even let you take a component home for a tryout. Is this sort of equipment and service only for the very rich? Well, you could buy a pair of Mark Levinson amplifiers for $19,950, a Wadia CD player for $8000, a pair of Krell loudspeakers for $35,000, and two ten-foot Reference speaker cables for $10,200, and they would be worth every penny. But without the slightest hint of disdain, the Stereo Design people would sell you a Rotel amp for $399, a Rotel CD player for $499, or a pair of Tannoy Mercury bookshelf speakers for $270, and you'd still be a lot happier than with what you can get in the chain stores. (Of course, once you've heard the Mark Levinson amp, the desire for it will start to eat away at you like a plague -- but Stereo Design also carries used equipment, including the highest of the high end, at about half price.)