Amps, DACs & DAPs

Best Headphone Amps of 2024

You wouldn't expect headphones to need any special equipment to work. They are just about as simple as audio equipment gets.

A simple DAC upgrade can do wonders for your audio playback, as for example, a 4K-capable TV might change your movie viewing experience. So why not take the jump? We’ve gathered some of the most exciting converters currently on the market.

Best Phono Preamps of 2023

If you’re reading this, you are at the very least intrigued about great-sounding vinyl playback. That’s not an easy thing to get right: record players are very much like fine musical instruments, so you need a damn good preamp.

Best Digital Audio Players (DAPs) of 2024

Remember the very first iPod from seventeen years ago? No? Damn, we're old. Anyway, it sold around three hundred and sixty million units. It changed the way we listen to music forever - and today, Apple is no longer the market leader.

How-To Guides

How to Choose a DAC

In the world of audio, no subject is more confusing than Digital-to-Analog Converters, commonly known as DACs. for new listeners, they can be daunting, and for audiophiles, they can be a subject of heated debate.

How to Choose a Stereo Amp

A great stereo amp is the key to a great hi-fi system, but there are thousands of amps available and picking one can be tricky. That’s where we come in, with our full guide to choosing the right amp.

How to Choose a Headphone Amp

Chances are, buying a headphone amplifier is the first step you’re taking in your journey to great audio. Headphone amps are an easy, fun, and affordable way to boost your sound quality. But how do you choose the right one?

How to Choose a Subwoofer

Buying a subwoofer is like navigating a minefield. You want to get the best bass possible, but you probably also want to avoid installing a sub the size of a rhinoceros in your living room.

How To Tube Roll

There are three types of audiophiles: those that find tube amplifiers to be the bee’s knees; those that swear only solid-state amps can produce true-to-life audio; and those that haven’t tried tube amps and are simply missing out.

WAV vs. FLAC vs. MP3: Audio File Formats Explained

FLAC, WAV, AIFF, DSD… There’s no denying that picking the right type of audio to listen to can be crazy confusing. Fortunately, we're here to help, with our full guide to this audio topic.

4 Tricks To Improve Your Headphone Sound

At The Master Switch, we spend an awful lot of time thinking about audio. More importantly, we spend an awful lot of time thinking about how to improve it. Everything we do is geared towards creating bigger, better sound.

Headphone Impedance And Sensitivity Explained

Everything you need to know about headphone specs. if it doesn’t involve any of the following, you probably don’t need to worry about it. Consider this the ultimate explainer.

How to Choose a Music Streamer

A music streamer is a device that takes audio from one location and directs it to be played from another. If you’re into streaming, and you want to boost the sound of your system, then a good music streamer is absolutely essential.

How to Choose a Digital Audio Player

Digital Audio Players - also known as DAPs - are a lot of fun. They’re sleek, well-made slabs of metal that can not only contain every music file you have, but usually stream the ones you don’t.

Headphone Amp Reviews

Review: Bluewave GET

On a recent trip to Toronto for the TAVES audio show, we got chatting to two guys from Montreal, Pierre and Stéphane, who owned a company called Bluewave. What they were showing was a single product: a tiny little portable headphone amp called the GET.

Review: Burson Audio PLAY

Headphone amps, for the most part, break down into two categories: ones that you plug in and forget about, and ones that invite you to tinker - messing with the settings, switching out various bits, and generally getting your hands dirty.

Review: Feliks Elise MkII

Feliks Audio is a Polish boutique headphone amplifier manufacturer that specializes in tube circuit designs. Their Elise MkII model has been making waves on tube amp forums and trade shows

Review: FiiO A5

Portable amps are tricky little things. While they unquestionably make your sound better, they don’t have the luxuries that desktop models do. They can’t be heavy, or feature cool-looking tubes, or have loads of connections.

Review: FiiO Q5

Convincing people to carry around a portable amplifier in addition to a phone is a bit like asking Usain Bolt to strap rockets to his feet. Yes, it will technically make him faster, but it’s also cumbersome and annoying, and will probably explode.

Review: Goldmund Telos 2

We’ll be honest: we never expected to review a product from Goldmund on this site. They’re not just a high-end audio brand; they’re floating somewhere above the very concept of high end. And yet: here we are.

Review: H2 Designs MIYO

We flatter ourselves that we know most, if not all, of the audio industry players, and what they do. But we hadn’t heard of H2 Designs. They recently got in touch to ask if we’d like to try out their new MIYO audio interface.

Review: Hafler HA75

There’s no denying that high-end headphones and headphone amps can be amazingly nerdy. Wade into even the shallow end, and you’ll find yourself swamped by a discussion of whether a 12AX7 tube is better than a 6S7L, or an endless debates about...

Review: iFi Audio micro iCAN SE

It can often be a challenge to go for an audio company that prizes rigorous engineering over marketing flair. Judging by their website and their staid, sober presence on social media, you might be forgiven for bypassing iFi Audio. Don't.

Review: JDS Labs The Element

One of the biggest debates in the audio world is whether an amplifier should change the quality of the music, or simply present it as objectively as possible. The JDS Labs The Element can help with that.

Review: JDS Labs Objective2

Quick question. How much color do you like in your music? Do you like your bass to be fat, your mids to be warm, your soundstage to be wide of the hills? Or do you prefer no color at all, with an aggressively analytical sound?

Review: Linear Tube Audio MZ2-S

The MZ2-S is that something. It’s expensive, and specialised, and not for everyone. But if you’re willing to give yourself over to it, you’ll be in for one of the greatest musical experiences a human being can have.

Review: Mayflower ARC

It’s actually quite rare to find dedicated amplifiers for gaming headphones. If a gamer does spend money on amp – as opposed to splurging on screen, mouse, and headset – it’s not likely to be a specialised one.

Monoprice Monolith Liquid Platinum Review

Headphone lovers like to talk about what they call the endgame: a magical combination of amp, DAC, and headphones that delivers the perfect sound, meaning they’ll never need to buy another piece of equipment. But endgame us a myth.

NAD D3020 V2 Review

Stereo amps can be boring as hell. The companies that make them are more often than not concerned with treating the internals, and ignoring what things look like on the outside. The NAD D3020 V2 is different.

Peachtree Audio nova300 Review

You want to know the reason Apple was so successful? The reason they, above all others, dominated the first fifteen years of this century and became a global juggernaut? They kept it simple. So does Peachtree Audio.

Schiit Fulla 2 Review

Let’s get one thing out of the way first. We solemnly swear that in this review, and in all future reviews, we will not make any jokes, puns, bon mots or witty jibes at Schiit Audio’s name.

Review: Schiit Lyr 3

Rule number one when writing a Schiit review: don’t make jokes about the name. They’ve not only heard them all before, they probably wrote most of them. Rule number two: don’t expect a newer version of a product to even be close to what the old one was.

Schiit Magni 3 Review

It’s almost a right of passage for anybody looking to get into the world of audio. For many, the first stop in upgrading their headphones sound is a little outfit out of Valencia, California: Schiit Audio, pronounced exactly like you think it is.

Review: Sony TA-ZH1ES

Dear Sony marketing department: can we talk? Can we be real for a sec? Thank you. We’re just trying to understand, you see. We want to figure out how your minds work. How do you name something the TA-ZH1ES with a straight face?

DAC Reviews

Review: AudioQuest Beetle

It’s often easy to forget in the seemingly endless mission for better and better sound, but the role of a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) isn’t just to improve the audio quality. It’s also there to make it easy to send the audio where you need it.

AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt Review

It’s impossible to overstate the impact of AudioQuest’s Dragonfly range on the audio world. The technology remains revolutionary: a tiny USB stick that matches the quality of much larger headphone amp/DAC combinations.

Review: Benchmark DAC3 HGC

If you like to tinker, if you like to go deep into your equipment, and if you like to have your efforts rewarded, then you are going to want to hear this. It’s spectacular.

Chord Mojo Review

Chord Electronics, the purveyors of handmade British hi-fi have been - since the eighties, no less - making waves with their innovative DACs and headphone amplifiers. The Mojo is one of them.

Review: iFi Audio micro iDAC2

No piece of audio equipment is more contentious than the humble DAC. It can cause some pretty major arguments. iFi Audio’s Micro iDAC2 isn’t going to help either side work out their differences with the other – but in our opinion, it’s solid.

Review: iFi Audio nano iOne

iFi Audio are nothing if not consistent. That’s the kind of first review sentence that normally has most readers rolling their eyes - don’t lie, we saw you do it - but we use it deliberately. But in the Nano iOne, there is a surprising spark of life

Review: JDS Labs OL DAC

The debate about whether DACs (Digital-to-Analog Converters) actually make a difference to your sound is still one that has yet to be resolved. As good as it is, the OL DAC from JDS Labs isn’t going to convince the doubters.

Review: Meridian Audio Explorer2

That shelf at Meridian Audio’s HQs displaying their hifi innovation awards must be a substantial one - they’ve come up with plenty of firsts since their formation back in 1977. With the Explorer2, they're hoping to do it again.

Review: Optoma NuForce uDAC5

It’s not often that you can call a piece of audio equipment cute. You can with the Optoma uDAC5. When we took it out the box, our first thought was that someone was pranking us. This thing costs $200?

DAP Reviews

Review: Astell & Kern AK380

In the month or so we spent with Astell & Kern’s AK380 player, the most common question from those who saw it – after a few minutes spent marvelling at its stunning good looks – was the price point.

Review: Dodocool DA106

You might not think it while reading about the four- and occasional five-figure monsters on the site, but we absolutely love cheap here. If a piece of audio kit mixes low cost with decent components, we start getting very interested.

Review: FiiO X1

Here’s a question for you. How much are you willing to put up with for great sound? When you’re buying audio gear, do you go for stuff that is easy to use, that you will never have to think about, and which will become second nature to operate?

FiiO M7 Review

The survival of digital audio players is actually quite extraordinary. Despite the fact that we carry around phones that can do everything, standalone digital audio players continue to sell.

FiiO M11 Review

Few companies have been as productive as Chinese audio giant, FiiO. They not only continue to produce incredible in-ear headphones, they also churn out digital audio players at an alarming rate.

Shanling M5S Review

The Chinese audio world has exploded over the past decade. One thing the country is particularly good at is creating great digital audio players. Shanling are a company specializing in just that.