We know the great feeling we get when listening to good music. In this case, good music is whatever you like to listen to. One person's idea of captivating music is another's cacophony. It doesn't matter what you like; you know the rapturous feeling you experience when you hear it.

Yet music isn’t only about the emotional response. Critical listening on a high-fidelity home audio system can give you an entirely new appreciation of your favorite music or even music you're exploring as something new.

So, what is critical listening, and how can it increase your music enjoyment in your Buckhead, GA home? Let’s explore three key elements below.

In the world of high-end audio, most innovation is evolution rather than revolution. This isn’t to say there’s no innovation in hi-fi today—far from it. But the analog technology side of hi-fi is tried and true, and it doesn’t change that much from year to year. That’s why Mcintosh Audio, on its website, says that the lifespan of its components sometimes exceeds human ones. And they’re not exaggerating. Decades-old McIntosh amplifiers are passed down in families and prized by lovers of vintage audio.

Digital audio technology, however, changes more rapidly. In the past few years, high-resolution digital formats have evolved, and so has the HDMI connection standard, to name a couple. Streaming has become the standard for daily music enjoyment over digital downloads and physical media. So, it’s possible that a digital audio product from 10 years ago isn’t up to date in 2022.

McIntosh Audio doesn’t like to design products that last only a few years. That’s one reason that they have devised an upgrade path for the digital connections and capabilities of their integrated products. That’s one of the things that makes the new MA9500 integrated amplifier stand out. The analog side of this powerful amp is ready for decades of use, McIntosh style. And the digital connectivity and processing side is upgradeable when you need it down the road.

As a premier McIntosh dealer in Alpharetta and Metro Atlanta, GHT Group is excited to see this product evolution, as an integrated amp like the MA9500 might be the last one you ever need to buy for your listening room! Of course, we would hope to see you again.

Read on to learn more about the new McIntosh MA9500 integrated.

What do you get for the person who has (seemingly) everything? Sometimes, more of the same that they love! If that person is an audio enthusiast, they can never have too much good audio.

In the spirit of the holiday season, we’ll present three fantastic gifts that your special audio-lover is sure to enjoy. And if you don’t hit the holiday deadline, fret not – these products are available all year long from GHT Group, your local McIntosh dealer for Kennesaw and Metro Atlanta. And since they are from McIntosh audio, one of the most celebrated names in sound, these gifts will keep on giving, year after year. So keep reading for three hi-fi gift ideas for that special person in your life.

We at GHT Group have been offering high-end audio components for years, with such well-known and loved brands as Klipsch, McIntosh, Focal and more. A little bit newer to our thoroughbred stable of hi-fi speakers, we love Monitor Audio because it offers tremendous value and style for the price.

With the new 7G Series – the seventh generation of the middle-of-the-range Silver Series – Monitor Audio continues with its mission to “make audio human.” Monitor Audio calls the new Silver Series "speakers that speak to you." They are meant to bring the emotion back from when you first heard a favorite recording or the soundtrack from a film that has always stuck with you.

Like the new recently upgraded Bronze Series, the Silver Series 7G is a complete line of speakers that can handle anything from two-channel stereo to a full Dolby Atmos surround system. Keep reading below to see if these are the Monitor Audio speakers that speak to you for your Duluth, GA listening or media room.

In the automotive world, the old adage goes, "There's no substitute for horsepower." Indeed, if you want a car to go fast, you need an engine that delivers the beans. Fat tires, spoilers, and racy styling do nothing for speed, but an engine that delivers power to the wheels does.

But can you have too much power? In cars, perhaps, but power is good if used judiciously. After all, Dodge seems to sell all the 800 horsepower Hellcats it can make. Does anyone need 800 horsepower? No, but it sure is fun.

In high-performance audio, power is good too. With high-end speakers, the more power they are fed, the better they tend to sound. In fact, many speakers don’t sound their best unless they are supplied with copious amounts of power. That’s when you start hearing things in familiar recordings that you’ve never heard before. And it’s because the amplifier is wringing every last detail from your music.

McIntosh is an audio company that needs no introduction to hi-fi enthusiasts. The company recently celebrated its 70^th anniversary, and while today it offers a full array of high-end components, nothing has cemented its reputation more than its beefy, iconic amplifiers.

Where can you find McIntosh amplifiers? GHT Group is proud to be a McIntosh dealer serving Cumming, GA and the metro Atlanta area. Keep reading below about two of our favorite McIntosh amplifiers to bring the power to your system.

Some people love great sound, but they don't love the intrusion of high-fidelity speakers in their décor, no matter how well-designed and finished. You could say that a long time ago, if you decided on architectural speakers for a demure look to your sound, you would give up something in the audio quality department. Today, you can throw that notion out the window. 

Today’s choices in architectural speakers are vast. Virtually every high-fidelity speaker maker has an architectural line voiced and engineered on par with their freestanding models. One of our favorite speaker brands is Monitor Audio. We've raved about their Controlled Performance Series, which is ideal for listening rooms or surround sound where speaker visibility is banned. 

In this blog, we'd like to introduce you to a different type of Monitor Audio speaker – the SoundFrame. The SoundFrame is a high-performance speaker that can almost hide in plain sight in your Kennesaw or Atlanta, GA, listening or media room. Learn more about it below!

SEE ALSO: Introducing Monitor Audio at GHT Group

Home audio systems tend to last a long time. Good quality hi-fi audio gear sometimes may not be replaced for 15 years or more. Analog components like preamplifiers, amplifiers, and speakers don’t need to be replaced unless they falter or you simply want something newer and different.

So why ever upgrade a home audio setup? While the analog side of audio hasn't necessarily changed that much, digital technology is another story altogether. As we know, almost any digital technology moves forward at a breakneck pace. Today's TVs offer astounding performance advantages over those of a decade ago. And your smartphone is nearly obsolete after about five years.

So why might you take another look at your audio system and decide to step it up? Let GHT Group, metro Atlanta’s home audio installation expert, give you three reasons to nudge you into something new.

When it comes to high-fidelity speakers, all the great brands strive to do the same thing – reproduce the sound just the way it was recorded. In reality, all great brands have a certain character they bring to sound reproduction. 

It's not that they change the sound or actively try to do so. It's that they bring different design philosophies and technologies to the speakers they produce. Those design decisions make for different nuances in the sound. But that's what makes hi-fi wonderful – there's tremendous variety in sound presentation. If all speakers of a given size sounded the same, what fun would that be? The right speaker is ultimately the one that just sounds right to your ears.

In this blog, we’ll cover three great speakers from three great speaker companies – Bowers & Wilkins, Klipsch, and MartinLogan. The three that we picked are very close in price and are affordable for the hi-fi audio enthusiast. While not inexpensive, any of these could easily be in your system twenty years from now, because great speakers never go out of style. 

Keep reading to see which of these speakers gets your audio juices flowing in your Dunwoody, GA listening room.

SEE ALSO: Product Spotlight - The New Monitor Audio Bronze 6G

Some high-fidelity speakers require massive power to sound their best. Sometimes, even veteran audio enthusiasts have a speaker that they're not satisfied with that may just need more energy. For example, electrostatic speakers from MartinLogan require a lot of juice to bring out the airy and deep soundstage for which the brand and the technology are known. But without the right amplification, you might be unimpressed.  

The other aspect of wringing the best sound from a great speaker is matching the amplifier to the speaker. There are several types of amplifier designs and topologies. Two classic types are vacuum tubes, which date back to the dawn of electronics, and solid state, which is the most common type found in most audio products.

There’s much more to this, but we’re trying to keep it simple here. And if you already know all that, you’ll still want to keep reading about the McIntosh MC901 amplifier, which combines both vacuum tubes and solid-state components into a beastly high-end audio amp with the power to drive just about any speaker in your Brookhaven, GA, listening room.  

SEE ALSO: 3 Ways to Improve the Sound of High-End Audio Speakers

Audio enthusiasts come in many stripes. Some are continually upgrading every part of their sound system, looking for their ultimate dream setup that sounds "perfect." Others enjoy rotating equipment in and out of their system, looking for a tweak or two to improve sound quality or give it a different nuance. Many simply enjoy the audio journey, knowing there is no audio nirvana, but the ride sure is a lot of fun.

Now, you might think that this constant search for aural perfection can get expensive. And it can, but there is an amazing amount of excellent audio gear that fits many budgets. Many of the hi-fi brands we offer at GHT Group – Monitor Audio, Klipsch Heritage, B&W, and more – have affordable options. But if you already have a set of high-end audio speakers in your Alpharetta, GA listening room that you like, there are some simple tweaks you can do to extract that extra ounce of oomph you may be looking for in your setup.

Keep reading for some simple tips you can try to improve your sound. And afterward, if you still think you need an upgrade, we’ll be happy to assist you with that!

The audio world is full of terminology and buzzwords. There are the traditional ones, like preamplifiers, amplifiers, woofers, tweeters, crossovers, and more. If you’re into audio at all, you know what these are. Then there are words that describe how a speaker or system sounds, like soundstage. If you're an audio fan, you know what that means, too.

Then there are the terms that came in with digital audio. How about lossless vs. compressed, MP3 vs. AAC, 16bit/44 kHz vs. 24bit/192 kHz sampling? For some people, they might have little to no meaning, other than they might surmise lossless is always better than compressed. The reality is, like in most things related to audio, there are not always absolute truths.

If you are familiar with all this as you sit in Johns Creek, GA listening to music on your whole-home audio system, you might wonder if high-resolution audio is something essential or a feature you can blissfully ignore. Keep reading to see which side of the fence you may fall.

Rotel has always been a company that has flown a bit under the radar. Audio enthusiasts worldwide know of its excellent products, yet many others who delve in audio sometimes overlook this hi-fi company.

The name Rotel would not give away that this is a Japanese company, still family-run. The company got its origins in 1961 and has since acquired a reputation as a high-quality audio electronics maker with classic design and robust build quality. For many years, it was part of the Bowers & Wilkins group and was sold almost exclusively by B&W dealers like GHT Group. Today the company is independent again, not straying far from its mission to build beautiful, long-lasting AV electronic components. 

One of those components is the RA-1592 integrated amplifier. Integrated amps are an excellent way to get into high-end audio for your Marietta, GA listening room without complexity but sacrificing nothing in performance. If you love music, the Rotel 1592 makes the perfect complement to drive hi-fi speakers available from GHT Group such as MartinLogan, B&W, Paradigm, Monitor Audio, and Klipsch Heritage. 

Keep reading to see why the Rotel 1592 makes an excellent centerpiece for your two-channel audio setup. 

SEE ALSO: Looking to Upgrade Your High-end Audio Rig?

For many, listening to music is one of the best pastimes. We all have our favorite artist or band — and for some music enthusiasts, a favorite recording, album, or live set. Listening to music is now easier than ever, with access to various streaming platforms and an extensive amount of downloadable content. Even vinyl is experiencing a resurgence. 

With the rise of accessible music is also the advancement of high-quality audio. High-fidelity speakers are what many music lovers, audiophiles, and home audio enthusiasts opt for when building their home’s stereo system. In this guide, we’ll walk you through what hi-fi is and how it can elevate your listening experience in your Atlanta, GA home.

SEE ALSO: Looking to Upgrade Your High-End Audio Rig?

Note: We first wrote this high-performing post in summer of 2019 and have since updated it to fit the times. And yes, though one year has passed since we drafted this article, soundbars still don’t generate as much praise from audio enthusiasts as some other sound technologies, like, say, architectural speakers.

However, few can deny the convenience of connecting one speaker to the TV and hearing impressive sound. And when you witness the state-of-the-art craftsmanship like the Klipsch Heritage Soundbar, we think you’ll respect their capabilities. If you’ve never tried a Klipsch product before, we consider this speaker a great introduction to how superior engineering can do more with less volume.

These days, home entertainment consumes much of our days. We might wish for more media in more spaces; the easier the better. Maybe you have the full surround-sound configuration in your dedicated home theater but want something simpler to connect when you view movies in your bedroom. Keep reading to see why Klipsch’s soundbar might make you reevaluate soundbars altogether.

Even in 2020, decades after high-end names like Klipsch started producing speakers, we’ve associated the best audio with the most exorbitant price tags. While there is some truth to the statement, “You get what you pay for,” that doesn’t mean that spending more is always the way to go. Klipsch’s new RP-600M bookshelf speakers deliver without breaking the bank.

In fact, RP-600M costs about 10% of what the mid-level Heritage Cornwall model sells for. Klipsch wants every owner of their speakers to be proud of their purchase, which shows in the way these bookshelf speakers look and sound.