Search

An amp should be the center of your hi-fi world. It should be the focus point for all your efforts, the piece of equipment that can make or break your sound. Everything flows into it, and everything flows out of it...

t’s arguably the most annoying problem in the audio world. You’ve got a brand-new TV and or soundbar, you’ve hooked everything up, made yourself some popcorn, and settled down to give the beast a try. Only: something isn’t right.

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.

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.

This German manufacturer might not be a household name stateside, but RME have been quietly making nerdy audio equipment since 1996. And they've gotten rather good at it. We were able to spend a month with their ADI-2 digital-to-analog converter.

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.

You can survive with just a regular set of speakers. You don’t, strictly speaking, need a subwoofer. But you cannot believe the difference having one will make. This big box of wonder will do incredible things to your sound.

Beats by Dre certainly don’t have a great reputation. Despite their purchase by Apple, the headphones they’ve released have been almost universally terrible. But boy, did the Powerbeats Pro surprise us...

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.

When Apple announced they were releasing a smart speaker, we were sceptical. This is not a company known for amazing sound quality. But while we wanted to hate the HomePod, it won us over - and we think it will win you over, too.

Very few audio designers are as accomplished as Aaron Fournier. After stints at Tivoli Audio and V-Moda, the Boston-based engineer started his own company, Thinksound, with the goal of making environmentally-friendly headphones that sounded fantastic.

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.

When you test as much all your equipment as we do, it’s actually quite amazing how impatient you can get. Time and again, we find ourselves getting frustrated...

1More make some of our favorite headphones and earbuds of all time. Naturally, we were quite excited when we found out they were releasing their first Bluetooth speaker.

Jeff Bezos and Amazon want to take over the world - if you don’t believe that, then we have a bridge to sell you (and we’ll ship it to you on Amazon Prime). Hi-fi audio is part of that world.