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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.

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.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Audiofly AF1120 in-ear monitors are in the conversation for the best we’ve ever listened to, we would have chucked it in long ago. Because there are so. Many. Tangles.

The Bose QuietComfort 35 IIs are the best wireless travel headphones available. We have absolutely no doubt about this. After spending a month with them, including two international trips, we concluded that, in this regard, they are simply unbeatable.

We weren’t too familiar with Periodic Audio before. Yes, we know, perhaps we should be, but there are a lot of audio companies out there and we aren’t omniscient. We should have been paying closer attention...

We’ll admit: it was a little bit surprising when we got a pair of sports earbuds from Optoma. It may have even been a bit of a “Wait, what?” moment. Optoma? The really good but slightly square company who make projectors, DACs, professional-grade...

Weirdly, we don’t get a ton of tabletop radios for review here. No idea why; we’ve certainly asked. The big companies - Como, Bose, Tivoli - seem curiously resistant to letting us try their gear. Grace Digital are different.

The Sennheiser PXC 550s are simultaneously one of the most convenient, enjoyable pairs of headphones we’ve ever used, and also the most infuriating.

Picking the best stereo amplifier for your setup can be a huge challenge. We know this all too well. There are quite literally thousands of amps available, from tiny desktop models to massive, five-figure beasts.

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.

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.

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.

The wireless headphones market is getting pretty crowded these days. Ever since Apple dropped the stink bomb about removing the headphone jack from the new iPhone models, manufacturers have been falling over themselves to issue Bluetooth headsets.

We had never heard of ADVANCED. Before this year’s CANJAM New York event, they had flown completely under our radar. We have no idea why - normally, we’re pretty good with this kind of thing. Then we heard their Alphas.

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.