Within seconds of hearing Sir Paul McCartney singing “Blackbird” on the Ubiq Audio Model One, I knew it wasn’t just another high-end speaker. Voices had a lot more body and sounded so much more like real live human voices. Instruments were also close to life-size, the Model Ones do scale like no other comparably sized …

I’ve been writing about Audeze headphones since 2010, when I reviewed the company’s LCD 2 over-the-ear headphones, and every new model broke new ground, including the Sine on-ear headphones I reviewed just a few months ago. Audeze was in New York Tuesday night to premiere its upcoming iSine10 in-ear headphones, which look and sound like a game changer to me. …

Peachtree Audio is one of those brands I take for granted. Their amplifiers and digital converters have always sounded good, but the company’s recent refresh sparked my interest, and I was eager to check out their all-new, feature-packed Nova150 stereo integrated amplifier. This seriously potent Class D amplifier design belts out 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms, 250 watts …

I’m an audiophile who loves music and audio gear more or less equally. That said, I think anyone who from time to time really savors music is an audiophile, or might become one at a future date. To clear the air a bit for up an coming audiophiles, I’m going to bust a few audiophile myths. Here we go. Three-way …

Grado headphones have a sound. AKG, Audeze, Beyerdynamic, Hifiman, and Sennheiser headphones tend to be more tonally neutral and accurate. The thing I love about Grados is they’re more dynamically alive and present than those other brands’ headphones. I’m never more aware of that as when I listen to Grados at recording sessions. I could go into the studio and …

Yamaha’s handsome 100-watt-per-channel R-S202 stereo receiver has a lot going for it. First, its clean good looks put most similarly priced receivers to shame. Yamaha sells the R-S202 direct on its Web site for $149.95, with free shipping in the US, and Amazon does the same for Prime customers. Every time I review a stereo receiver I remember how much …

Can Apple really do this? Can they force millions of iPhone buyers to use a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter to play their wired headphones, when the next iPhone comes out? It seems like a rather inelegant solution, very un-Apple. I really doubt the adapter will be free, so why would Apple want to give any potential iPhone buyer second thoughts? …

I go way back with Rega, back to the 1980s when I worked in high-end audio sales. Rega was my go-to ‘table for aspiring audiophiles on a budget, and Rega only made two models: Planar 2 and Planar 3. Those two were very similar, but the ‘3 had a slightly different plinth/base, platter and mat. I typically sold one or …

I’ll start with the obvious: most audio specs are nearly useless to consumers — frequency response, total harmonic distortion, slew rate, input sensitivity — fuhgetaboutit. The most useful specs are the ones that average people understand, like the product’s size (dimensions) and weight. Duhhh — is the product too big or small for your needs? At home, heavier speakers and …

If you already own or plan on buying an audio or home theater system, I have a question, what do you put it on? Or if you want to keep the gear out of sight, what are you going to put it in? When I was an audio salesman these questions came up all the time. Of course some folks …