It used to be that if a music fan wanted a high-performance system, he would have had to invest in products that didn’t quite live up to their advanced billing. In the early years of consumer audio, listeners had to deal with the maintenance of tube-based components. Then in the 1980s and 90s, discerning audiophiles had to tolerate the growing pains of the CD format until it matured into a viable, quality means of entertainment. Today music lovers have a much broader choice — CDs, multichannel SACD, and DVD-A formats, portable MP3s, high-resolution lossless digital files, and even vinyl. You can have a computer-based system alongside your turntables and tube electronics and experience audio nirvana from both.

Tried-and-true analog music coexists with computer-based systems in the current audiophile landscape. Download this editorial supplement on High Performance Audio to learn more.