Monoprice’s Monolith K-BAS Reference Series bookshelf speaker doesn’t immediately come off like an audiophile contender. Yes, it’s beautifully finished in satin black paint, but there’s no outward indication of its rather special design that promises extraordinary bass performance, so I was eager to see what it could do. As I examined the descriptions of the …

Thorens started out making music boxes and clock movements in 1883 in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, and moved onto manufacturing Edison inspired phonographs in 1903. So it knows a thing or two about extracting sound from grooves, it has been doing it longer than any other turntable maker on the planet. The turntable I’m looking at today is a Thorens TD 190-2. …

If you own a home theater receiver, you can improve its performance by taking some time to set it up properly. Most AV receivers have manual and auto speaker setup or calibration features, and even if you’ve already used an automated system you can make your system sound even better with manual tweaks. But is a manual calibration for you? …

A couple of months ago, a record producer friend bought a new AV receiver and it drove him nuts for a couple of days. He went down one setup rabbit hole after another, and he couldn’t play music or movies for a few minutes, and then he’d figure it out, but the sound was out of whack. The subwoofer was …

Most cheap headphones aren’t built to last. They fall apart or stop working in less than a year, then get tossed in the garbage. You get a new pair and the cycle repeats again and again. Sure, they’re cheap, but over time you could have bought a much better headphone that would sound a lot better and last a lot …

Ultimate Ears’ Reference Remastered was one of my favorite in-ear headphones of 2016, so I was more than ready to take on UE’s refreshed flagship, the UE 18+ Pro. My UE 18+ Pro sample’s earpieces were finished in gloss black, but you can choose from a huge selection of color options or order custom faceplate designs. Enlarge Image The UE …

Smyth Research is a UK based company that makes headphone surround processors. I reviewed its original A8 processor on this blog in 2010, and was thoroughly impressed by its ability to create truly immersive surround sound from stereo headphones. I’ve heard similar claims about Dolby Headphone, DTS Headphone:X, and countless other processors and apps, but in my opinion their promises …

There’s a buzz surrounding the Love turntable — I suppose high-tech novelty is its big draw — so I watched the video and laughed my evil laugh. The copy proudly proclaims, “Love completely redefines the record player by keeping the record stationary while preserving the classic sound we’ve grown accustomed to,” but platterless, even turntable-free LP playback isn’t new. Way …

I’m not a musician, but some of my best friends are. I was having lunch with one of them at my favorite Brooklyn Middle Eastern restaurant on Atlantic Avenue, and he mentioned we were just a few blocks north of Retrofret, an amazing vintage fretted instrument shop. We head up a flight of stairs, across a rooftop walkway, and the …

As the world gets ever more complicated a great-sounding headphone can provide a temporary shelter from the storm. Play the music you love, close your eyes, and take it all in with AKG’s K812 or K872 headphones. The K872 headphone is a near twin of the K812 that came out a few years ago. They were both designed primarily for …