I reviewed Schiit’s overachieving $699 Freya all-tube preamplifier last weekend, now it’s the matching $699 Vidar solid-state power amplifier’s turn, and it’s a honey! Let’s start with a quick rundown of the things that set Vidar apart from similarly priced amps, first it’s a Class AB, not ‘D amp, and audiophiles such as myself tend …

It’s 2017, everybody’s streaming music so why is singer/songwriter Jeremy Heiden releasing his music on every format he can get his hands on? Isn’t it too late for that? Sure, you can stream his music on Spotify and Tidal, but Jeremy Heiden’s “Blue Wicked” album is also available on CD, LP, cassette, MiniDisc, Digital Compact Cassette, Elcaset, vinyl picture disc …

If you’ve been an audiophile for a while you’ve probably had at least one or two dalliances with tube electronics. The best of them have a sound that can’t be matched with solid-state gear, and with tube electronics music has more color along with something more organic about the sound that just feels better. At night, the tubes soft orange …

How do you really know if your new speaker, headphone, amplifier, receiver, digital converter or turntable is any good? One sure sign is that it keeps you coming back for more. If it’s great, it may even keep you from checking Facebook or Instagram for hours on end. When you find yourself just listening to your favorite music, without multitasking, …

Koss makes a bunch of headphones over a wide price range, but the company has a special affinity for making outstanding budget ‘phones. Take its Porta Pro: It’s been in the line since 1984, and when you pick up a pair it’s easy to see why. Nothing else looks or feels like a Porta Pro, and it’s so darn lovable. …

I’ve lost count of how many Schiit reviews I’ve written, but I keep coming back for more because the company’s products are always so good and affordable. Take the Schiit Magni 3 headphone amp/stereo preamplifier: It’s a cute little critter, a mere 5×3.5×1.25 inches (127x89x32mm), so it’s tiny enough to fit on a crowded desktop. This bad boy goes for …

KEF is one of the few speaker brands that never lets me down, and they offer a wide range of models with innovative engineering and great sound. KEF’s LS50 was the Audiophiliac Speaker of the Year in 2012, and it’s still in production with a healthy worldwide following. The KEF R300 speakers KEF The R300 I’m reviewing today is the …

I love small speakers, I really do, but the sound of the best of them never approaches the size of real instruments. Big, statuesque tower speakers get closer, but to my ears only flat panel speakers, thanks to their larger sound radiating areas convey scale better than other speaker types. The all-new Magnepan 30.7 projects a wall of sound like …

Focal is best known as France’s leading high-end speaker brand, but starting just last year it introduced two spectacular headphones, the Elear and the Utopia. Today I’m reviewing Focal’s latest entry, the similarly named Clear, and all three headphones share a similar design and aesthetic. They’re all over-the-ear, open-back headphones, with a sound that’s big on clarity, spacious imaging and …

When I recently posed this question to my Facebook friends, “Do you stream a lot more movies than play Blu-rays or DVDs?” the responses were not surprisingly all over the map. One streaming friend isn’t looking back “I’m not even sure how I would play a DVD — I think I have a Blu-ray player in the garage. I know …