Congratulations to Kostas Metaxas, who has just bagged a second Product of the Year Award from The Absolute Sound!
His Tourbillon T-RX tape player won in 2022 and now, in 2026, it’s the Papillon Studio tape deck – which also recently won a Golden Ear Award from the magazine too.
So it’s safe to say that reviewer Jonathan Valin is a fan!
In his December review, Valin enthuses that the Papillon is “the best source component I’ve heard” and “one of those components that not only changes the game, it changes the playing field.”
In his Product of the Year Award article (TAS, January 2026), he adds “the Metaxas & Sins Papillon is the best all-new tape deck I’ve heard in my home—the truest to the mastertape and the intentions of the engineers, producers, and artists who created it” and “it does, indeed, challenge the notion that we’ve heard all there is to hear on old familiar albums”.
If, like me (and Valin for that matter!), you don’t have the resources to own one, perhaps we’ll at least get the chance to give it a listen at a trade show at some point this year. If you do, feel free to drop me a line and tell me how it was for you, I’m super curious!
More details online at www.metaxas.com
Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler 