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Everybody always forgets about France. When people think of high-end audio, they think of Germany and Austria, Great Britain, and Japan. They don’t think about the French...

Nothing makes us happier than replacing an already brilliant bit of kit with something even better, because who doesn’t love a challenger? So we were really, really excited to unwrap speaker maker Paradigm’s PW 600.

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.

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.

Soundbases don’t often get a lot of respect and audio world. This is a landscape dominated by huge tower speakers, feature-heavy home theater systems and sleek soundbars.

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.

Bass lovers swear by bigger subwoofers. The bigger the cabinet, the bigger the driver, and the bigger the wattage. More wattage equals more air moved which equals bigger bass. SVS, the Ohio-based speaker-maker decided that this wouldn’t do.

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.

Look, we get it. We’ve been there. Upgrading to a full surround system is a big step. We’re not saying this to be condescending, or patronising. Far from it. Everyone has to start somewhere, including us...

There were plenty of manufacturers ready to capitalise on the new Lightning standard, and Audeze, predictably, were one of them. The EL-8 Titanium is their attempt to create a pair of planar magnetic cans that can operate off an iPhone 7.

An audio-video (AV) receiver is the quarterback of your home theater. It’s not just because it tells everything where to go, routing signals to different speakers and screens. It’s because a good receiver will bring the best out of your home theater...

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.

Sometimes, you just need to go big. Sometimes, you need to cash in the retirement savings, throw your neighbours’ concerns to the wind, and invest in a sound system that is going to blow your windows off. Step forward, then, the Marantz SR7011...

In the race to build the world’s best smart speaker, Google have a significant lead. Their Google Assistant is the most intelligent AI on the market, easily besting those from Amazon and Apple. But what happens if they add a screen into the mix?

In the audio world, France is famous for its headphones, and England for its amps. But if you want the best bass on the planet, you need to go to Ohio. For there you will find SVS, a subwoofer and speaker maker who quite simply raise the bar...