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When you make the best headphones on the planet, you can afford to sit back and enjoy the acclaim. And yet Focal, a French company who produce the astounding Utopia headphones, refuse to settle.

The bookshelf speaker market is hugely competitive, with hundreds of companies putting out everything from tiny wireless wonders to huge monoliths that shade the line between bookshelf and tower speakers. Audioengine have made waves here.

Did you know that you can still buy actual hi-fi systems? As in, two speakers and a dedicated CD/tape-deck/AM-FM tower - the kind of thing you used to see in dorm rooms in the 1990s. On that note: meet the SO8000.

There are, quite literally, tens of thousands of earbud models available to buy. Sifting through the ocean can be tricky, but fortunately, we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve picked out 10 of the very best earbuds, at all budget levels.

If you want an example of an arms race in the audio world, check out the drive to create the best wireless noise-canceling headphones. Now a new challenger has entered the race, in the form of the Elite 85H headphones from Jabra.

Amazon’s Echo series has been a trailblazer for smart speakers. The company was among the first to make virtual assistants available to the world, and with their budget Echo Dot line, they’ve made it even easier to get a smart speaker in your life.

Despite what you may think, computer speakers are not the same as regular speakers. They’re designed to work in close proximity to the ears, and while this sounds easy, it’s often quite tricky to get right.

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 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.

Jack Wu is one of the most creative audio designers around. His company, Woo Audio, is the place to go for incredible tube amps. But this time, he’s released something a little different.

The survival of digital audio players is actually quite extraordinary. Despite the fact that we carry around phones that can do everything, standalone digital audio players continue to sell.

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...

Portable speakers are booming, with new models popping up every couple months. All of them are fighting for the crown, including the all-popular JBL.

Ultimate Ears say that their Megaboom speaker “can be immersed in liquid up to 1m for up to 30 minutes.” At The Master Switch, we have only one response to this: Challenge accepted.

Building the perfect subwoofer isn’t just about volume or power, in the same way that the perfect hot fried chicken isn’t just about nuclear levels of cayenne pepper.