audiophile

What’s your favorite way to listen to music? Maybe you prefer a quiet room with some headphones or listening on vinyl. One thing is for sure, you don’t want to hear some compressed MP3 on your phone, right? Apple, Amazon, and Tidal offer “lossless audio,” claiming users can “hear the exact same thing” an artist created in the studio. However, it’s a myth that lossless audio objectively sounds better than MP3, and most users can’t hear a difference at all.In 2014, Gizmodo asked readers if they could differentiate “lossless…

Blasting Taylor Swift on the 30-watt speakers that accompany Fuse Audio’s upcoming release.Gif: Jorge Jimenez, Artem GolubTurntables seem to be making a comeback, at least at CES: JBL took a modern, Gen Z-friendly route with its recently released Spinner turntable that connects via Bluetooth, and Fuse Audio displayed several gorgeous vertical record players at CES 2024. The star of the category at CES was Fuse Audio’s upcoming vertical turntable, which ships with two 30-watt speakers at no additional cost.Would Peter…

In this guide, we explore the 10 best affordable soundbars, perfect for gifting your audiophile friends this Christmas. Soundbars have come a long way from being just an accessory to TVs. Today, they stand as a testament to how technology can enhance our auditory experience. Whether your friends are movie buffs, music enthusiasts, or podcast addicts, a good soundbar can transform their audio journey, providing clarity, depth, and a richness of sound that standard speakers often fail to deliver.…

Now that the iPhone 15 has a USB-C port on the bottom, the doors have been opened up to way more headphone options than you might expect — ones that need a more widely available USB-C adapter. The throes of the audiophile are for many but a new pair of headphones away, and you often need not spend as much as you might first expect. Even then, you don’t need to go so far as to get a pair of wired headphones. There are some excellent wireless headphones that sound good and don’t break the bank; and most importantly, they…

In recent years, the audiophile hobby has become considerably more affordable for beginners, attracting many more people to the fold. This is because of the rapid growth and global spread of ‘Chi-Fi'; entry-level IEMs from China look and sound pretty good, and don't cost too much either. The emergence of good portable DACs has also largely covered for the lack of 3.5mm sockets on modern smartphones, making it possible to set up a decent portable audiophile kit on a budget.I've had a chance to test many Chi-Fi products,…

Predictably, it was harder than Whitener thought. It took him two years to persuade AT&T, which hadn’t made a tube since 1988 but still owned Western Electric, to license the brand and sell him its tube-manufacturing equipment. He set up shop in Western Electric’s former tube factory in Kansas City, Missouri, where the mothballed machines were stored.After a fortuitous meeting with retired AT&T employees on a visit to Bell Labs, Whitener combed the northeast tracking down veterans of the storied facility,…

While most mainstream personal audio brands have pivoted towards a wireless future, Sennheiser is perhaps the only major brand to continue earnestly on its wired audio portfolio, while also working on competitive wireless products. This also means that it's among the few big names with products made for audiophiles, including wired headphones and earphones across price points. Among the latest in the company's range is the Sennheiser IE 200, which is priced at Rs. 14,990 in India.The Sennheiser IE 200 has a similar form…

San Francisco-based audio product makers Drop announced at CES 2023 in Las Vegas today the launch of its BMR1 Nearfield Monitors, a set of affordable compact desktop speakers that promise to bring pristine and natural audiophile-quality sound to your workspace, whether you’re a professional sound mixer, a discerning sound snob, or just a work-from-homer. Drop A great set of desktop speakers can be hard to come by, especially ones that offer accurate sound reproduction at such a close distance. Nearfield speakers…

Drop might be best known for its mechanical keyboards, but the company has also built out an impressive portfolio of audio gear as well. Usually those take the form of headphones and headsets made in partnership with other brands like Sennheiser and HiFiMAN. But the new BMR1s are an entirely in-house designed set of desktop near field monitors.  The BMR1s rely on balanced mode radiators (hence the BMR tag) instead of traditional conical drivers. This means that they can deliver a wider frequency response from a single…

Audiophiles on a budget are spoilt for choice thanks to plenty of excellent, affordable IEMs from various brands based in China, that are available in India. A lot of these ‘Chi Fi' brands come and go, but one particular brand has stuck around for a while and has consistently produced excellent, value-driven products. Moondrop is popular for its budget and mid-range audiophile IEMs, and its most recent launch is the Moondrop Chu, which has been the subject of some hype in audiophile circles.Priced at Rs. 1,999 for the…