If you own a turntable, or got one for the holidays, then you want to be able to keep your record collection in the best possible condition. For instance, the wiggles and undulations of an LP record groove are incredibly tiny, so it doesn’t take much dust, dirt, or crud lurking down there to mess …

The Audiophiliac is 12 years old — that’s a good long run, and this blog has been the most satisfying gig in my writing career. I came to CNET long before that, focusing on reviews and articles here and there, but the Audiophiliac was more personal, covering a wider range of subjects and ideas than my other pieces for CNET. The …

You know about Schiit? The California-based company has been making stellar, mostly very affordable electronics since 2010, and I’ve reviewed a bunch of them. The newest Schiit shipment came in a plain brown shipping carton, but its insides were anything but ordinary: The Schiit Ragnarok 2 stereo integrated amplifier looks, feels and sounds like no other amp. That is, except the …

If you find most audiophile gear too bulky and too expensive but you’re still interested in good headphone sound, may I direct your attention over to the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt? It’s a tiny USB digital converter and portable headphone amp, and it sells for $299 in the US, £269 in the UK and AU$549 in Australia. More good news: the …

Sound quality is ephemeral and next to impossible to quantify, so it’s no wonder most audio companies load on features to attract new customers. We buy audio to listen to music when it’s all said and done, and the Cambridge Audio AXA35 integrated amp aces that department. It sells for $350 (£299, AU$599). The features set is downright minimalist. The AXA35 …

The Klipsch Reference Premiere 600M bookshelf speaker was my Speaker of the Year for 2018. I’m still coming to terms with how remarkable that speaker is, but the question was raised, why not try a Klipsch tower speaker? As I scanned the offerings I was drawn to its Reference Premiere 5000F. Priced at $750 a pair it’s not all that much …

The Sony Walkman is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The now-famous gadget was introduced with little fanfare in the summer of 1979, but it didn’t take long before the whole world fell in love with the diminutive device. The Sony Walkman TPS-L2, a 14-ounce (397 gram), blue-and-silver portable cassette player, had an impact that was monumental.  Sony had a long history with …

Fostex is a high-end consumer and pro sound Japanese company but its spotty distribution in the US has made availability a “sometimes” thing. That’s not a concern with the Massdrop X Fostex TR-X00 Purpleheart headphones, so I requested a review pair. Unboxing the headphones I was impressed with the build quality of the magnesium alloy frame and biodynamic drivers. The …

Last week I heaped praise on the JBL Stage A170 tower speakers, but I also had the much smaller Stage A130 bookshelf speakers on hand, so I cracked open the box to see how the two JBLs compare. They share the same 1-inch aluminum tweeter set into a waveguide that focuses the high-frequency dispersion, but while the A170 has two …

In late 2018 I spent some quality time with a couple of high-end JBL horn speakers, the 4429 and S3900. Nice, but the 4429 sells for $5,000 a pair and the S3900 for $10,000 a pair! High-end to be sure, so I also wanted to spend some ears-on time with JBL’s considerably more affordable speakers and see how much of …