Our Favorite Audiophile-Grade Gear for Serious Listening

Take it from somebody who data music: The world of high-end audio is usually tainted with bullshit. Precious (and infrequently snake-oily) supplies and phrases are exploited to promote merchandise for inflated costs. Faux-science is deployed to trick you into pondering you want overpriced equipment like 2-inch-thick speaker cables. 

Once you begin procuring for gear that approaches the excessive three or low 4 figures, it is robust to tell apart what’s good from what’s merely handsome. Never concern! I’ve spent 1000’s of hours listening to music in my acoustically handled residence studio by most of the most cherished high-end headphones, audio system, and amps in the marketplace. Below you may discover my present favorites, and a few details about what every merchandise does.

Before studying on, be certain you take a look at our cheap (or free!) tips on how to get more out of your home audio setup.

Interested in different audio recommendation? Check out the guidelines in our different guides, together with the Best Wireless Headphones, Best Bluetooth Speakers, Best Turntables, and Best Gear for Learning Music.

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Before Wasting Money!

Consider the place you’ll be listening earlier than you resolve what you have to be listening with.

The high quality of the sound you hear in your room will solely ever be pretty much as good because the room itself. In different phrases, a pair of $250 audio system will sound higher in a room that is been handled to dampen reverberations than a pair of $10,000 audio system will sound in an empty room with naked flooring and partitions.

What is “dangerous,” precisely, relating to room dynamics for high-end listening? Typically it means sound waves bounce round an excessive amount of, giving the room what’s generally known as a protracted reverb decay time. This is the size of time it takes for sound to die out because it bounces off the partitions. Try this: Clap your fingers loudly in the course of your room and hear for the decay—the audible echoing of that clapping sound. The finest method to shorten that decay time is to fill the room with as a lot comfortable, porous mass as doable. This brings the audio reflections underneath management, damping them so that you hear extra of the centered sound waves popping out of the audio system, and fewer of the messy sound waves bouncing across the room. Properly acoustically handled rooms use acoustic panels (usually Rockwool insulation wrapped in low cost cloth and hung from the partitions or ceiling) to offer the recommended amount of coverage for their area. 

Throbbing and thumping bass frequencies, that are tougher to tame than increased frequencies like splashy cymbals and twangy guitars, will usually degrade the audio high quality you get in smaller rooms. Significant porous absorption is required to make massive audio system sound nice in a tighter area like a bed room. If you want massive audio system with massive bass, arrange your stereo someplace a bit extra spacious.

The softer and greater your room is, basically, the larger you’ll be able to go when it comes to techniques, and the higher they’re going to sound. If you are caught organising your stereo in a room that is both small or notably reverberant and acoustically “bright,” I like to recommend shopping for smaller audio system or simply sticking with headphones. (But don’t fret, nice headphones are superior.)

When enhancing your listening room, it is price noting that investing in some acoustic therapy is rather more cost-effective than investing in additional audio gear. You should buy or construct sufficient panels for a medium-size area with just some hundred {dollars}. In my expertise, hanging some panels and curtains over your naked partitions will improve the standard of your sound greater than any single piece of kit.

Headphones