It’s a polarizing subject: loud music (or loud anything). While a lot of people say they don’t like loud, they’re perfectly OK in loud restaurants and bars, but can’t handle loud music at home. Or it might be the other way around — crazy-loud music is fun, but restaurants or rowdy bars, not so much. …

Audiophiles have long admired electrostatic headphones for their uber-transparency, but they’re all pretty expensive. Ah, but then Massdrop worked its magic on the $1,000 Koss ESP-950, rechristened it as the Massdrop x Koss ESP/95X, and slashed the price to $500! The sound is so pure, the ESP/95X will be a revelation to anyone who never heard an electrostatic headphone before. …

Looking at the Dayton Audio MK442T, you might not expect much; it’s just a skinny 38-inch-tall tower speaker, yawn. OK, peel away the grilles and take a gander at its two beefy 4-inch drivers and 0.75-inch silk dome tweeter: They look a cut above what you might expect to see on a budget tower. Impedance is rated at 4 ohms. …

“Vintage audio” is back in fashion, but you don’t necessarily need to walk into a fancy second-hand dealer to find it. It’s easier than ever to unearth great stuff for very affordable prices, or better yet, for free. For example, I’ve had more than a few friends find working tube amplifiers on the curb — they were there for the …

I’ve been writing about audio for more than 20 years, but this is my first Jamo speaker review. I waited too long, and the Studio Series S 803 stuck me as a great place to start. Right away these midsize speakers made outsize bass — they rock! Better yet, the price is right. They list for $299 a pair in the …

Ohm Acoustics is one of those perpetually under the radar speaker companies. Founded 1971 in Brooklyn, N.Y., the company specializes in hand-crafted omnidirectional speakers. Chances are you’ve never heard an omni model, so some explanation is in order: Most “normal” box speakers only project sound forward, but Ohm’s omnidirectional Walsh speakers have 360-degree radiation, so they produce a bigger soundfield. …

Dayton Audio’s B652 Air bookshelf speaker has been a budget favorite around here for years, and its brand-spanking-new MK442T tower speaker ($228 a pair) looks like a real contender (a review is in the works). So when the UPS driver dropped off the Dayton Audio DTA Pro stereo integrated amplifier, I couldn’t wait to check it out. Measuring a scant …

I’ve sometimes wondered how today’s audiophile gear compares with its vintage counterparts. The best of today’s high-end audio is spectacular, but how much progress really has been made? To find out I tapped SkyFi Audio — it buys, tests and sells used audio, and I asked the folks there to put together a vintage high-end system. The 1970s seemed like the …

For ages wireless headphones had wires; they were “wireless” only because the headphone wires didn’t connect to the ‘phone. So I’m happy to see truly wireless earbuds finally arrive, and based on the number of Apple AirPod users I see on the NYC subway, the no-wires trend is booming! Sennheiser may be a little late to the technology, but as soon as …

I love meeting young audiophiles who play LPs at home.  They may stream music on their phone and in their cars, but at home they hunker down with their turntables and LP collections, and listen only to vinyl. For them music isn’t just something they play as background, music is in the foreground. They may have just bought an inexpensive …