Reference Components

Nineteen components, one showroom floor.

A reference component is not simply the most expensive thing a manufacturer makes. It is what a company builds when it stops designing to a price and starts designing to an argument — the WAMM Master Chronosonic, the Relentless Epic 1600, the Suprema, the Varèse. Each is the closing statement of the house that made it.

Seventeen of the nineteen are on the Scottsdale floor — not in crates, not to order, but set up, aligned and playing. That is what makes an honest comparison possible. The WAMM, the Autobiography and the Chronosonic XVX can be heard against one another in a single visit, on amplification chosen to their standard rather than to their price.

Walk in during business hours, or book ahead for an extended session.

How to read this page

The four groups below follow the signal path — speakers, amplification, analog, digital. Every tile carries its current availability, and that availability is verified against the room the component actually sits in rather than against a price list.

Why the reference tier sits in Scottsdale

Every component on this page is in the Scottsdale showroom rather than split across our two locations, and that is deliberate. A reference component only tells the truth when the room, the power and the rest of the chain are held to the same standard, so we concentrated the tier in one building. LMC has sold high-end audio in Arizona since 1999. We are the state's only Wilson Audio dealer, Wilson named us its number one dealer worldwide for 2024, and McIntosh named us Dealer of the Year for six consecutive years from 2011 through 2016.

The rooms are arranged so that comparison is practical rather than theoretical. The Reference Room holds the Wilson Autobiography, the Chronosonic XVX and the Alexia V together, driven by Burmester 159 monoblocks through the 077 preamplifier, with the 175 turntable and 100 phono stage on the analog side and a Subsonic pair underneath. The WAMM Room next door runs the WAMM Master Chronosonic on Relentless 800 monoblocks and the Relentless Preamplifier, sourced by the dCS Varèse, the Clearaudio Statement V2 and the Analog Audio Design TP-1000. The Suprema Room carries the Sonus faber Suprema on a second pair of 159s with the dCS Vivaldi APEX stack in front.

Setup is the part that never appears on a specification sheet. Wilson's adjustable arrays are time-aligned to the listening seat by our Wilson-trained team, which is why booking ahead changes what you actually hear — the alignment can be set to where you will sit rather than left at the room's default. The same logic governs cartridge loading on the phono stages and the crossover point on a Subsonic pair. Tell us what you already own and we will configure the demonstration around your chain instead of ours.

How a reference system is assembled

No component on this page performs alone. The WAMM Master Chronosonic is time-aligned to the seat you occupy, and it reaches that alignment through Relentless 800 monoblocks, a Relentless preamplifier, and the Varèse and Clearaudio Statement V2 ahead of them. Change one link in that chain and the loudspeaker tells you.

That is why the groups below are ordered by signal path rather than by price. A reference system is built from the source outward, and the decisions that matter most — cartridge, phono stage, clocking, amplifier current into a difficult load — are rarely the ones a specification sheet makes obvious.

Two of the nineteen are built to order rather than kept on the floor — the Relentless Epic 1600 and the Burmester 808 MK5 — and both can be judged here through their closest siblings, the Relentless 800 and the Reference Line 077. A third, the Clearaudio Statement V2, is on demonstration but remains a special order, hand-delivered and commissioned on site by a Clearaudio-trained technician.

Hear them in Scottsdale

Very few rooms anywhere hold this much of the reference tier at once, and fewer still will let you compare across it in an afternoon. Walk in during business hours, or book ahead and we will prepare the room, the chain and the alignment before you arrive.

Frequently asked questions

Can I hear these components before buying?

Yes. Seventeen of the nineteen are set up and playing in the Scottsdale showroom during business hours. Only the Relentless Epic 1600 and the Burmester 808 MK5 are built to order, and each has a close sibling on the floor — the Relentless 800 and the Reference Line 077 — so you can judge the family before committing. Walk in during business hours, or book ahead for an extended session.

Which reference loudspeakers can be compared in a single visit?

All of them. The Wilson Autobiography, Chronosonic XVX and Alexia V share the Reference Room; the WAMM Master Chronosonic has the WAMM Room; the Sonus faber Suprema and the MBL 101 X-Treme MKIII each have their own. Because every room is in the Scottsdale building, an honest side-by-side comparison takes one appointment rather than several trips to different dealers in different states.

What makes a component reference tier?

It is the component a manufacturer builds once it stops designing to a price and starts designing to an argument. In practice that means either the top of a maker's range — the WAMM Master Chronosonic, the Suprema, the Relentless Epic 1600, the Varèse — or a full-standard expression of it at a different physical scale, which is what the Burmester 077 is relative to the 808 MK5. Price follows from the engineering rather than defining it.

Do I have to buy a complete system?

No. Every component here is sold individually, and most clients arrive with a system already in place and change one link at a time. That is usually the better path, because it lets you hear what each change actually contributes. Bring the details of your current chain — loudspeakers, amplification, cartridge and loading — and we will set the demonstration up against it.

Can the reference tier be auditioned in Tempe?

No — the reference tier is concentrated in the Scottsdale showroom. Our Tempe showroom carries the wider range across its own demonstration rooms and is the better first visit if you are still deciding on a direction. For the components on this page, Scottsdale is the address.

Is LMC an authorized dealer for these brands?

Yes, for every brand on this page, with the manufacturer relationships that follow from it. LMC is Wilson Audio's number one dealer worldwide for 2024 and one of seven dealers globally chosen to present the Autobiography, and was McIntosh Dealer of the Year for six consecutive years from 2011 through 2016. Authorization matters at this tier because it governs factory setup, warranty and the ability to get a component properly commissioned in your room.