A regular player isn't worse for having more inside it. The budget just gets split across everything it does, and your DAC decides if you'll notice.

Its economics add another layer. Audioholics says major brands can operate on 40- to 60-point margins and gives one example where a $600 retail speaker may contain roughly $60 in drivers and crossover ...

Audiophiles have used words like “glassy” and “hard” to describe unpleasant treble for decades, so glass arrives as a speaker material with a reputation already attached to it. That reputation matters ...

One designer says that arrival is the sound of something going wrong. Szymon Rutkowski of Graphite Audio says metal, ceramic and bearing-based supports can introduce a character of their own. If so, ...

Expensive CD players can still depend on optical hardware designed for computers. Naim has never identified the drive mechanism or maker inside its £3,499 (US$5,699) Uniti Star. But in another part of ...

Halving sound-pressure amplitude takes 6 dB, while a perceived halving of loudness is often closer to 10 dB. Add 10 dB to the ...

Extra conversion and uneven results across listening seats remain separate concerns that ART’s narrower approach cannot ...

iPhones make the 48 kHz part simpler. Apple’s own documentation says Apple Music Lossless ranges from CD-quality 16-bit/44.1 kHz up to 24-bit/192 kHz, with an [external DAC required for songs above 48 ...

A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with no dedicated DAC chip sounds like a contradiction. XMOS has built one anyway. Its ...

Across the five Bang & Olufsen (B&O) models Best Buy carries, 279 owner verdicts include 30 rated one or two stars, and every ...

Colin Toh is the Editor-in-Chief of Headphonesty. He founded the website in 2016 to provide reliable headphones reviews and insights. Headphonesty has quickly established itself as a trusted source in ...

Alexandra Plesa is an Audio Writer at Headphonesty. She has more than 10 years of journalistic experience. Deeply immersed in music and audiobooks, she has honed her expertise in evaluating audio ...