Stereophile's 2021 products of the year

I have read Stereophile and TAS since the early 80s. I enjoy them for what they are. To me a source of exposure. I do not purchase them to find fault. There is so many good to great products available today why not review those that can be recommended. Cause no harm. (That said I have/had components in my system that have not been reviewed.) The collective sonic merits of a component is so subjective. It remains that one can put together great components at any price level and end up with a system that represents far less than the sum of the individual components. 

From my viewpoint two technical aspects that could be better discussed in equipment reviews are:
      1)The relationship between speaker sensitivity and the impedance/reactance curves with reference to power requirement. (Usually covered well by JA in Stereophile.)
      2)Compatibility concerns of the component under review with the upstream or downstream component as influenced by impedance or gain particularities. 

Reactance and gain structure compatibility across a system is very important. This includes, however is not limited to, speaker sensitivity and cartridge output. I do believe as transducers they do contribute a great deal to the character of a system.  

To the guy who said to stay away from speakers below 92db. Between that and all the writers who say Stereophile is all payola, this whole thread couldn't be more depressing. Dude - if I may call you dude - listen to Joseph Audio Pulsar speakers, well below 92db, and tell people to stay away from them. Sheesh. What is wrong with y'all? 

Haters love to hate.

If you read JA's comments in the measurements - plenty of reviews have cautionary(can even read some as 'negative') comments.

I don't think some here have even read it, but the pile on is to be expected.

To the dude with limited reading comprehension, never said there are no good speakers with less than 92dB. What I did was answer a question, what if any measurements are important? Speaker sensitivity surely is one of them. Notice, since I actually do read and comprehend, I do not twist your words around into something you never said. I take what you actually did say and show how you completely misunderstand the message.

Anyone looking to build a great music system will do well to exclude from consideration speakers with low sensitivity. Such a speaker will limit your amplifier choices. Since the sound you get is not all due to the speaker but is the sum total of everything in the system, then things like choosing hard to drive speakers exact a price in terms of having to spend more money on amplifiers. Therefore, if you want the best sound you can get for the least money you will do well to avoid such problems. Is that so hard to understand?

millercarbon,

Your explanation above (starting with "Such a speaker will limit your amplifier choices...") is even nicely written.

However, tangentially related to the matter, you seem to continually ignore the fact that some people can actually afford to buy an amplifier.

It could be beneficial if you reposted your statement from above every time you wanted to explain benefits of higher-sensitivity speakers. Usually, you just come across as talking garbage about it. Like this, people would actually understand what the ground for your thoughts is. Then they could decide if they want to be frugal, or they may not care about spending more money for an amplifier. And you would get some points for advice.