Wharfedale Jade 3 Steve Guttenberg/CNET Wharfedale is an old-school British speaker manufacturer; the company was founded in 1932! I first discovered its speakers in the early 1980s when they started showing up in New York City; the little Diamond speakers sounded two or three times as expensive as their actual selling prices. I reviewed a …

Sony’s latest reboot of the Walkman — the NWZ-A17 high-resolution music player — brings back memories of the original Walkman analog cassette players that were all the rage in the 1980s. Sony went on to sell boatloads of CD, video, radio, network, and even MP3 Walkmans, but the NWZ-A17 is the first one I really wanted to try since the …

A man and his hi-fi: Ohm Acoustics designer and owner John Strohbeen. Steve Guttenberg/CNET It’s funny — a lot of audiophiles never admit to being audiophiles. Not me — I’ve always been fascinated by sound, especially the sound that comes out of speakers or headphones. Twenty years ago I went to a party that just happened to have a large …

Dayton B652-AIR (left), B652 (right) Steve Guttenberg/CNET Back in 2010 I reported that the Dayton B652 speakers set a new sound quality benchmark for budget speakers, under $50 per pair. The B652 quickly became my go-to choice for wannabe audiophiles or anyone seeking the best-sounding speakers for the lowest possible price. So when I heard Dayton was about to release …

I worked as a high-end audio salesman for 16 years in New York in the 1980s and 1990s, and I’ve visited a lot of audio stores, but Audio Connection is a standout in a number of ways. First, it looks and feels like you’ve entered a time warp and suddenly it’s 1990. Audio Connection‘s mission is clear, it’s a two-channel …

Listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “The Live Anthology” CDs at home with my Zu Druid V speakers, I kept turning up the volume. How loud was it? Armed with my trusty Radio Shack sound pressure meter, I started listening at a medium loud volume, then 90 dB, and that sounded better, so I pushed it up to 95 …

Apple Corps Ltd. If you’re under 40, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard the Beatles’ music the way it sounded in the 1960s. All of their music, every note of it, was recorded on analog tape — but all of the Beatles’ CDs and LPs mastered after 1986 were sourced from digital masters. Even the 2012 remastered stereo LPs …

Two MA Recordings albums, “Departe De Casa” and “Krushevo.” Steve Guttenberg/CNET Todd Garfinkle started out as a musician and landed a recording contract with CBS/Sony in 1986, while he was living in Japan. The relationship with CBS/Sony didn’t continue, so not long after that Garfinkle decided to start his own company, MA Recordings. He bought a custom-made microphone preamp, a …

The OMA Imperia speaker and OMA electronics. Cynthia van Elk I think it’s a little strange for a man who owns a high-end audio company, but Jonathan Weiss readily admits he doesn’t cater to audiophile customers. There are some of course, but Weiss’ Oswald’s Mill Audio (OMA) designs are far more likely to attract artists, actors, musicians, hedge fund managers, …

Steve Guttenberg/CNET I see it happening all the time: people listening to the tinny sound of tiny speakers on their phones. I get it; most people aren’t audiophiles, and as long as they hear some sound they’re perfectly happy. That’s fine with me — I’m not trying to convert anybody, but if they want better, I’m here to help. Did …