"Stephen Harris then introduced Stephen Norber of Edge, whom he had met at the Consumer Electronic Shows and decided to become a dealer. Stephen first spoke a little about the history of Edge Electronics, which started out in 1985 as a speaker manufacturer that got "burned" by a non-paying wholesale customer. He and co-designer Tom Aker then took Edge into the repair of high-end electronics, where they saw many different designs and decided that they could do better. In 1987, they started Edge, the manufacturer in Cape Coral, Florida, although the repair shop still exists in Boulder, Colorado.

Stephen went into some detail about the design philosophies of their equipment, emphasizing that they strived for "linearity and efficiency of energy use" in their work. He described that they use only one type of transistor in their amps, "NPN" devices. This greatly reduces crossover distortion (by a factor of 10). They also put custom built transformers in their amps that run at no less that 96% efficiency. Another very innovative design feature of their top end amplifier products is the use of lasers shining directly into the power amp transistor substrates (as a coherent light source, ordering the flow of electrons) for even more efficiency and precise bias control. This producing further clarity, speed and definition. With this said, it was obvious something positive was going on here as the speed and dynamics were about as good as it gets. The preamp we were using, their Signature One model, uses battery power for a very nice sound. It even includes a built-in battery charger! And you can switch to AC on a moments notice if the battery runs low after many hours of playing."

The Edge are somewhat less relentingly neutral than the Halcros - more the kind of sound we tend to prefer (detailed and musical). They are also able to drive somewhat more difficult speakers than the Halcros. The fact that they had originally started in Boulder, Colorado, where we still live, clinched the decision. In hindsight, it was quite a fortuitous choice, as we really like and respect the Edge folk (and we think they are still Boulderites at heart, no matter how long they have been in Florida!).

Unfortunately, most of today's speakers are inefficient (especially in the bass frequencies), and big powerful amplifiers are needed to drive them. There are very few high-powered amplifiers that do not just pump out lots of watts at the expense of quality and finesse . One of these few, and the best in our opinion, is the Edge Signature Ones.