The Listening Room

The Listening Room At The Listening Room we offer a carefully curated selection of only the best audio products. Appointments available weekdays.

08/19/2026

Fresh unboxing by the one and only owner of The Listening Room, Mike Hoatson.

The turntable unveiled today is the Rega Planar 8, and Rega engineered it by removing mass rather than adding it. The skeletal plinth is an aerospace foam core between two HPL skins: 30% lighter than the original RP8, and stiffer for it. The whole deck, 4.2 kg (9.3 lb).
Research ·

It’s a good day to visit the Listening Room.
08/15/2026

It’s a good day to visit the Listening Room.

08/08/2026

The brand new Matrix Audio MS-1c music streamer, fantastically fresh unboxing from the incomparable Brian “Woody” Stout . The newest and most accessible entry into the flagship M Series, built on the same streaming hardware platform as the MS-1. Runs Matrix Audio’s own MA Player OS. Built-in DAC, XLR and RCA outputs, 100-step digital volume so you can run straight into a power amp.

🎥 Fidelity Imports USA Brian “Woody” Stout

08/05/2026

The FLS20 SACD. Top-loading transport engineered from scratch to kill vibration. Dual Sabre ES9038PRO DACs running in mono mode. Crystek ultra-low-noise clock. Ten regulated power supplies for the digital stage alone. Three separate toroidal transformers. Handmade in Italy. Your disc collection deserves this.

08/01/2026

Three 8.5-inch carbon-fiber drivers and 1,500 watts, out of a cabinet under six inches deep. The amplifier sits in its own outboard chassis, which is how the part on your wall stays that thin.
That's the Perlisten D3is, rated down to 17 Hz, and Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity just gave it a full review.
In the wall or on it?
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07/31/2026

Most turntables fight vibration with mass. Rega argues the opposite: keep the plinth light, then stiffen only the line that actually matters.
The Planar 3 RS Edition skins that plinth in aluminum and double-braces it into a single stressed beam running from the RB330 tonearm to the main bearing. Rega's new Nd5 cartridge sits on the end of it.
Which Rega turntable is on your upgrade list?Research ·

Ruark turns 40, and they're marking it with 500 of these.The R410 Anniversary Edition wraps a fully active 120 watt Clas...
07/29/2026

Ruark turns 40, and they're marking it with 500 of these.
The R410 Anniversary Edition wraps a fully active 120 watt Class D platform in a white oak cabinet, with an ebony veneer inlay and a handcrafted ebonized grille. Every one carries an anniversary badge.
Streaming, internet radio, FM, HDMI eARC, and a built-in phono stage for the turntable.
Forty years in, what was your first Ruark?
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07/27/2026

The Aurender N20 doesn't play a song straight off the network. It loads the whole file into a bank of solid-state memory first, then plays from there.
Hybrid linear power, an OCXO-clocked AES output, and a USB output isolated from the CPU board. A source built to obsess over jitter.

The Unison Research Triode 25 Black Edition. Pure triode, pure emotion. The kind of warmth and intimacy you have to hear...
07/25/2026

The Unison Research Triode 25 Black Edition. Pure triode, pure emotion. The kind of warmth and intimacy you have to hear to understand. Designed and built in Italy. This is the stuff that reminds you why you fell for tubes in the first place.

Fidelity Imports USA

07/18/2026

Twin 170mm drivers sit clamshell in a sealed enclosure inside the A.C.T. 3Zero's foot. That is an isobaric pair: two drivers facing each other and moving as one, with the air trapped between them held at near-constant pressure. A third 170mm Tactic 3.0 carries low bass up on the baffle in its own sealed enclosure, and the midrange runs straight off the amplifier with no crossover in its path.

Fun fact: the cabinet shell isn't carbon anymore. Wilson Benesch replaced the carbon fibre monocoque with one made from naturally sourced renewable fibre, and says it came out better damped and quieter than the carbon it replaced. The carbon stayed where it earns its keep: the sculpted top, the tweeter, and inside every drive unit.

Isobaric bass or a bigger box? Where do you land?

Wilson Benesch · Fidelity Imports USA

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320 Cannon Street
Chestertown, MD
21620

Opening Hours

10am - 5pm

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