Headphone Amp/DAC Reviews

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Mark Fleischmann  |  Dec 03, 2012

Audio Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $99 (reduced from original price of $249; version 1.2: $149)
At a Glance: Size of USB thumb drive • Up to 24/96 resolution • Minijack analog out

The AudioQuest DragonFly USB digital-to-analog converter ($249) and the B&W Society of Sound music download service ($59/year) arrived in my listening room at about the same time. They were made for each other: B&W’s 24-bit FLAC files gave the DAC a better chance to strut its stuff than any CD-quality or lossy audio file at my disposal. And the USB DAC enabled the high-resolution files to do an end run around the awful soundcard in my PC.

John Sciacca  |  Oct 19, 2011

Peanut butter and chocolate. Wine and cheese. Lennon and McCartney. Some things are great on their own, but when they meet their perfect counterpart, the result can be pure magic.

Fred Manteghian  |  Dec 06, 2010
Price: $1,595 At A Glance: CD quality, or better, in an easy-to-use iTunes wrapper • iPhone or iPod touch remote control not included

From Air to iTunity

I used to say, “Disk is cheap,” even back in the ’80s when, let’s be honest, it really wasn’t. A 40-megabyte disk drive—go ask your dad what a megabyte is—went for $400 and was about enough to store a 4-minute CD track. Today, I have a pair of 250-gigabyte external drives that ran me half that amount even a few years ago. Together with my laptop, I’ve got a system that easily fulfills my every iTunes fantasy—except one. I still have to rely on an iPod and iPod docking station to get music from the computer rig to my main system across the room. If that’s been bugging you too, check out the Micromega AirStream WM-10. It’s an 802.11n wireless router that your iTunes library can connect to, all for a price that—well, there’s the rub. This thing ain’t cheap.

Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 26, 2007
Griffin Technology's multichannel gift to fruit lovers.

Hey, Mac users: Does it ever feel like your PC-loving "friends" are having all of the 5.1 fun? For you, Griffin proposes the FireWave External Sound Card ($99.99), an outboard Dolby Digital decoder and more, specifically for OS X 10.3.9 and above.

Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 24, 2006
The fruit takes root in the living room.

A while back, we Home Theater drones were all on Macs, and life was good. Then, one day, the powers that be told us that the bulk of us were switching to PC, and that was that. I had a few annoying differences to work through, but I eventually forgot my first real computer. And then the Mac mini showed up for review in its pretty white cardboard box, and it reminded me of the experience of bumping into a friend from the old neighborhood: familiar, sure, but with a lot of catching up to do.

Michael Berk  |  Sep 13, 2011

It's curious enough to find venerable speaker companies getting into the headphone business, but the announcement today by Apple accessories specialists InCase of an all-new - and very complete - line of headphones is even more of a surprise.

Michael Berk  |  Dec 14, 2011

Cable cutting. You've probably begun the process already, even if you haven't gone all the way - think about how often you turn to Netflix, or Amazon, or Hulu Plus. And despite the panicked efforts of networks and providers nationwide, when are you watching live TV, exactly, aside from sports?

SV Staff  |  Nov 21, 2011

Every year around this time, the editors and writers of Sound+Vision put their heads together to come up with a list of the best gift ideas for the holiday season.

Michael Berk  |  Nov 16, 2011

Over the past couple of weeks Hewlett Packard has rolled out a huge pile of new consumer products, among them a clutch of all-in-ones, touchscreen PCs and tablets, Beats-enhanced laptops, and even a curious little Wi-Fi mouse.

Michael Berk  |  Nov 02, 2011

When Atari's Greatest Hits made its way into the App Store this past April, retro-oriented gaming geeks worldwide - especially those who'd never been quite geeky enough to seek out ROMs to run on the open-source MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) - rejoiced.

Brent Butterworth  |  Oct 27, 2011

The iPod just turned 10, and I sure feel sorry for my old standby. It's still working fine, but I know I'll never own another one. Since I got my Motorola Droid Pro smartphone, the iPod lives in a drawer.

Brent Butterworth  |  Oct 27, 2011

The iPod just turned 10, and I sure feel sorry for my old standby. It's still working fine, but I know I'll never own another one. Since I got my Motorola Droid Pro smartphone, the iPod lives in a drawer.

Brent Butterworth  |  Oct 27, 2011

The iPod just turned 10, and I sure feel sorry for my old standby. It’s still working fine, but I know I’ll never own another one. Since I got my Motorola Droid Pro smartphone, the iPod lives in a drawer.

Michael Berk  |  Oct 25, 2011

British manufacturer Monitor Audio has a deserved reputation for well-designed, high-performing speaker systems, and the latest offerings in the company's line of iOS device docks, the i-deck 100 and 200, follow in those footsteps. And now they can be yours.

Michael Berk  |  Oct 21, 2011

The Peel universal remote is a combo platter including a transmitter and receiver that keeps in touch with your home network via ZigBee and passes on commands to your gear via IR, operated via a free app for 

Pages

X