Buying Guides

Reviewed September 2026. There's no single best turntable, there's a best turntable for how deep into vinyl you actually are. We pick three: the Audio-Technica AT-LP60X ($179) if you want to be pla...

Reviewed September 2026. You want to play records. You don't want to become a hobbyist who spends more time optimizing a turntable than listening to music. Here's what to get. What a turntable set...

Three ordinary microphones cover more records than one expensive one. What the three are, what each is bad at, the order to buy them in, and what the stand, mount, cable and pop filter add to the b...

The interface decision is a channel count and a driver, not a converter. Boxes named and priced by what you record at once, the ADAT ceiling, and what to check on a used one.

A cartridge is chosen by what it has to work with, the arm above it and the phono stage after it, and only then by how it sounds. Gain, loading, compliance, named picks with their faults, and what ...

Five picks for a desktop headphone amp or DAC around $150, including the one with a tube in it and the pair we would buy used.

The HD 600 or the HD 650 is the whole question at this money, and the answer depends on which listener you are, not on which headphone is better.

Four headphones around $500, the one to buy used, and what to do if you already own an HD 650.

Five headphones around $200, including a used one we would spend the money on ourselves and one that costs half as much, plus what to check before you buy a used pair.

Three picks: one for the Apple ecosystem, one for music, one for planes. Plus where wireless still loses to wire at the money.

Six closed-back headphones I would defend, why the pad decides more than the driver, and how to read isolation in terms you can act on.

For a first pair of in-ears: the Truthear Hexa at $79.99, the Sennheiser IE 200 as a second pair once you know in-ears fit you, and who should skip in-ears entirely.