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We admit: we may have gotten a little carried away. But can you blame us? If you deposit any writer from this website into a hall filled with high-end speakers, amps and headphones, we're going to run around like the kids in a chocolate factory.

We saw EVERYTHING. Concrete speakers. Eight-foot-tall driver stacks. Turntables that look like something from the lair of a Bond villain. A torrent of wonderful noise, issuing forth from the rooms of the Toronto Convention Centre.

There are some things in life you can’t say no to. Threesomes. That’s a good one. A ride on a private jet. A chance to meet Samuel L. Jackson, courtside seats to a play-off game. The SVS PB16 Ultra is one of those things.

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.

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.

To more established headphone companies like Sennheiser and AUDEZE, it must have felt like getting hit with a freight train. When French speaker manufacturer Focal made the decision to push deep into the market, few would have predicted their success.

It’s always a bit of a gamble, calling something cool. Cool is such an ephemeral term. After all, Limp Bizkit were once cool. So were Capri pants, ironic T-shirts, Blackberries. The Audioquest NightHawk Carbons are cool, and always will be.

If you’ve heard the name Shinola, you’re probably familiar with the luxury watches, accessories, or even bicycles that they make.

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.

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.

If you’re an audio company, thinking of sending us (or anybody else) product for review, here’s a super handy pro tip for how to catch our attention, and make whatever you’re sending stand out from the massive pile of gadgets we have...

Every new wireless speaker we receive feels like it’s more complicated than the last. With the SYD, Kanto are trying something a little more old-school, releasing a Bluetooth speaker that is refreshingly simple.

With the recent explosion of smart speakers, it can be tough to figure out which one’s right for you. So, we’ve decided to test them all - starting with the Google Home.

Whether you’re just getting into the world of audiophile headphones, or you’re an established geek looking for something new, you need to hear these.

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.