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Perhaps it’s something in the water. For whatever reason, Australia has become the center of personalized sound – audio which customises itself to your hearing. On that note, meet the Audeara A-01s...

While we don’t have a yearly awards event for the best audio products of the year— on account of the fact that all of our product roundups already name the very best in each category— that doesn’t stop us from having favorites.

MarkAudio-SOTA is a name that not a ton of people outside of the hardcore audiophile world know. It’s a collaboration between Mark Audio and SOTA Acoustics (obviously) and over the past few years, they’ve been putting out some seriously good stuff.

We really, really wanted to like the Polk Audio Omni S2. It kind of hurts writing that. Criticising a bad audio product is easy. It’s plain to see when shortcuts have been taken with production, when materials or build aren’t up to scratch...

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?

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.

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.

We make no bones about being huge fans of MEZE Headphones here at The Master Switch. Why wouldn’t we be? The Romanian company blew our minds with the gorgeous 99 Classics over-ear model, which is probably our favorite pair of this year.

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.

With very few flaws, and an almost endless number of positives, the TDOEs are among the best headphones you can buy for this price. If you're looking for something a little different, look no further.

Gamers have officially been blessed with the industry’s newest gaming headset: the HyperX Cloud Orbit S. If you’ve been keeping an ear to the ground, you’ll have heard the buzz about this team-up between HyperX and AUDEZE.

Wireless speakers have become the quiet juggernaut of the audio industry. Ever since features like Bluetooth and WiFi became commonplace, manufacturers have been tinkering, slowly freeing us from the chaos of wires and ceiling speakers.

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.

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.

Say the word MartinLogan around audiophiles - yes, it’s one word, there’s no space between Martin and Logan, poor bastards - and you’ll get a knowing smile and a wink, as if you’ve just spoken a secret password.