hi-fi

We haven't seen a desirable Buick in so many years that our expectations were very low when the LaCrosse arrived in our garage. Yet this car turned out to be one of the better luxury sedans we've driven, especially at its price. The cabin tech suite includes a navigation system with excellent traffic avoidance features and a Harman Kardon audio system with exceptional audio quality.

The soft suspension rides over bumps well, while the direct injection 3.6-liter V-6 delivers ample, efficient power. The LaCrosse is truly a car that will make people give Buick another look.

Read our review of the 2010 Buick LaCrosse CXS. … Read more

It's a rare SUV that comes with a manual transmission. It's an even rarer SUV that can justify it. The Porsche Cayenne GTS's handling makes a manual transmission a preferred option. Unfortunately, just not the particular manual used in the GTS. This car's handling finesse makes you want to give it a quick downshift before a corner, to get the most out of its 405 horsepower engine on the way out, but shifter's long throw adds to that gear change time significantly.

That criticism aside, this new Cayenne sports some new cabin tech, a suite … Read more

Mitsubishi's Lancer Ralliart gets some of the gear that makes the new Evo X such an amazing car, specifically the double-clutch transmission. But this latest version of the Lancer Ralliart also gets what looks like a hastily sketched-out hatchback. The 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart is nearly identical to the Lancer Ralliart sedan, except the rear has been deformed, with C pillars stretched back to bridge the gap between trunk lip and roofline. More practical, but also more ugly, the car still proves fun with its smart all-wheel-drive system and thumpin' Rockford Fosgate audio.

Read our review of the 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart. … Read more

In the 1970s, the U.S. audio market was dominated by American-made products. Case in point: the original Dynaco A-25 speaker, introduced at the end of the previous decade, sold really well. The oft-cited sales number was something like 1,000,000 speakers sold.

Annandale Acoustics took the original Dynaco as the inspiration for its A-25 XL2. It's not a replica per se, more like the A-25 XL2 is a pumped-up version of the original concept. The company is selling the speaker directly, with a 30-day in-home audition.

The A-25 XL2, like the original A-25, is a large two-way … Read more

The painted grille and bulging fenders of the new Suzuki Kizashi give it an aggressive look. With tail pipes integrated into the rear bumper, you might think this is a new sport-luxury driver. But no, it is just another midsize sedan in a crowded market, with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine under the hood. It does include a well-equipped cabin, with standard Bluetooth phone support, iPod integration, and a thumping Rockford Fosgate audio system.

Read our review of the 2010 Suzuki Kizashi.

The SRX name may not be new at Cadillac, but the car wearing it certainly is. The 2010 SRX is radically redesigned from earlier versions, opting for a more carlike suspension, while retaining a five-passenger SUV-like body. Borrowing much from the CTS sedan, the SRX has angular design cues around its body, and a very modern cabin tech suite, anchored by a very good navigation system. Power comes from a direct injection 3-liter V-6.

Read our review of the 2010 Cadillac SRX.

OK, we are going to get something out of the way from the beginning. The 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports may be the most extreme example of sport luxury available today, putting mere BMWs to shame, but its navigation system is terrible. The maps are very low resolution and, stored on a DVD, are slow to refresh and calculate routes. This navigation system lacks all but the most basic features, with no external data feeds or text to speech. It really doesn't belong in this car.

Let that rest as our main criticism so we can get to the good stuff, which is just about everything else.

Bentley has offered several variations of its Continental coupe since its introduction in 2003, but the Supersports model exhibits the purest level of performance. Bentley tweaked the already massive engine for more power, fitted wheels with big carbon ceramic brakes, and shed 243 pounds of weight, most notably by removing the rear seat.

And you really don't want a rear seat in this car, as you would resent any passengers back there for being a drag on performance, while they would unfriend you on Facebook for being relegated to such cramped quarters.

We were actually a little surprised at the manageable size of this car, making it easy to maneuver through parking garages and dense urban streets. Despite its smallish size, the body is a head-turner, with external lighting nicely molded into the body and the signature wire Bentley grille. The glossy black 20-inch wheels added to this car's unique look.

Of course, the engine also announces the Continental Supersports arrival with a throaty roar. When we pushed the start button, the engine's 12 cylinders began to pump, air was forced into the manifold from twin turbos, and 6 liters of displacement hosted precisely timed explosions that turned the driveshaft with 621 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque.

This kind of power means you can lightly tap the gas pedal and find yourself far ahead of the pack of traffic sitting back there at the light, the drivers just putting their cell phones down so they can get back to the business of driving. Put the gas down a little harder and you push up to freeway speeds, the car showing very little effort. Introduce the pedal to the floor and you've begun a career in amateur rocketry. … Read more

BMW's X6 is a bit difficult to digest, a coupelike body with the proportions and stance of an SUV, managing to lose the virtues of both types of vehicles. And now BMW has given it the M treatment, putting a massively powerful engine under the hood and fitting the suspension with all sorts of ingenious gear to make this vehicle handle like a sports car. Its greatest asset may be that it defies easy categorization.

Cabin tech is good, with really beautiful maps in the navigation system, but we do think that a $90,000 car should have an … Read more

We're not talking about Albert Einstein, the legendary theoretical physicist; we're talking about Einstein Audio Components, a Germany-based high-end audio manufacturer.

Its advanced audio equipment designs use vacuum tubes. Its latest stereo preamplifier, The Tube MKII, uses a total of (gulp) 19 tubes. That's a lot of tubes! Most tube preamps only use four, five, or six tubes. However, here's the cool part about the new Einstein preamp: only 10 of the 19 tubes operate at any given time. Eight are used all the time, and two are selected for whichever audio source happens to be … Read more