Jimmy

Finding the best planar magnetic headphones under $1000 used to mean choosing between two or three serious options. That landscape has changed dramatically. In , you can buy a planar magnetic headphone that outresolves gear that cost triple this budget just five years ago. Planar magnetic drivers use a thin, flat diaphragm suspended between magnet … Read more

I’ve spent the last three months rotating through eight premium audiophile headphones in my listening room, and I can tell you this: the best electrostatic headphones in deliver a level of transparency that no dynamic driver can match. The reason is simple physics. An electrostatic driver uses an ultra-thin diaphragm suspended between two charged stator … Read more

I spent the last 90 days living with 10 of the best portable music players on the market, switching between them on my daily train commute, on flights, and during weekend listening sessions at home. I burned in IEMs and full-size cans, ran each battery down to empty, and compared how they handled everything from … Read more

I’ve been building car audio systems for over a decade, and I can tell you that 12 inch car subwoofers hit a sweet spot that nothing else matches. After installing more than 200 of them in everything from Honda Civics to crew cab Silverados, I’ve learned which drivers actually deliver the deep bass people want … Read more

Wind noise at 70 mph hits about 100 dB on a typical cruiser, so finding the best motorcycle speakers means picking gear built to shout over the engine and the road. Our team spent three weekends riding with eight different setups across a Harley Street Glide, a Honda Gold Wing, and a Yamaha cruiser to … Read more

I spent the last 60 days setting up and watching movies on 10 of the best home theater projectors you can buy right now. Some lit up my living room like a cinema, and a couple left me squinting at washed-out shadows. Here is what I learned, and which models earned a permanent spot on … Read more

We spent the last six months with 12 dedicated digital audio players strapped to our heads and stacked on our desks. The goal was simple: find the best DAPs for audiophiles that actually move the needle beyond what a flagship smartphone can deliver. A DAP, short for digital audio player, is a purpose-built device for … Read more

I’ve spent the better part of two decades chasing the sound of an open reel deck, and I want to save you a hard lesson right now: you cannot buy a brand-new consumer reel-to-reel tape deck on Amazon in . The Studer, Revox, TEAC, Tascam, and Otari machines that audiophiles revere are all out of … Read more

When I plugged a balanced cable into my Sennheiser HD660S2 for the first time, the silence between tracks was the first thing I noticed. Then the wider imaging, then the extra push of power from my amp. That single swap is why I started chasing the best balanced headphone cables I could get my hands … Read more

I pulled out my notebook the day I finally admitted that my $300 in-ear monitors were held back by a flimsy stock cable. The microphonics during my morning train ride had become unbearable. After six weeks of swapping cables between three different IEMs, two DAPs, and one rather confused-looking desktop DAC, I had a clear … Read more