Borreson X3   • The Børresen X3 Floor Standing Loudsp…  

YG Talus   • YG Talus Speaker & Descent Subwoofer …  

J Sikora Max   • J Sikora Initial Max Turntable Review…  

Audio Research Reference 6SE Preamp   • The Audio Research Reference 6SE Prea…  

dCS Lina & MasterClock    • dCS’s Lina Ring DAC and Master Clock …  

Linkwitz LX521   • The Linkwitz LX521.4 Dipole Loudspeak…  

Magico A5   • The Magico A5 Loudspeaker Review  

PS Audio BHK   • The PS Audio BHK Mono 600 Power Ampli…  

Audio Research 160MkII   • Audio Research’s Reference 160M MkII …  

Burmester BC150    • Powerful, Poised, Pretty | Burmester’…  

Sony MDR-7506 headphones 

These $100 (or less on the street) closed-back wired headphones outperform many models at 3-5 times the price. That’s largely because Sony did a reasonable job of following the Harman curve that is often used to approximate the effect of your outer ear on frequency response. The MDR-7506 has a few drawbacks, but so does practically every headphone.  

Audio-Technica ATH-M50X headphones 

Audio-Technica offers a closed-back, wired headphone that sounds quite good. At $150, we consider it a worthwhile step up in frequency balance and comfort from the Sony MDR-7506. But, if you’re really on a tight budget, the Audio-Technicas are mathematically almost twice the price. And we think you should be the judge between the Sony and the Audio-Technica because the differences between headphones, with their inevitable deviations from perfect and human-to-human differences, may play to your hearing differently than they did to ours. 

Korf HS-A02 Ceramic Headshell 

If you are using a standard removable headshell, this would seem to be the one to beat. We like removable headshells because they make cartridge swapping fairly easy and they save the expense of multiple arms. The Korf has good mechanical rigidity measurements and is reasonably priced at $215 or thereabouts.  

AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt Amp/DAC 

We generally recommend wired headphones, because Bluetooth by design imposes severe data rate limitations on your music. Wired headphones generally perform better with an amplifier and you can certainly get a better DAC than the one in your phone or PC. The Audioquest Dragonfly Cobalt addresses all these issues in a tiny, easy to carry package. The Dragonfly amp works with higher sensitivity headphones and the onboard ESS DAC chips are impressive. At $329.95 (or lower on the street) the form factor plus sound quality are easily recommended.  

Fluance RT81 Turntable 

If you are interested in investigating the “vinyl thing” or need to replace an old turntable without breaking the bank, the Fluance RT81 is an excellent place to start your shopping. This turntable is nicely finished, comes with the Audio-Technica AT95E cartridge, a favorite of Fremer’s, and has a built-in phono preamp. At $249.99 it is an amazing deal and delivers key elements of the analog magic with simple, but careful, setup.  

Audioquest Powerquest 303 AC Conditioner 

You can spend thousands on power conditioning and, once you have a feeling for how electrical signals actually work, you might be open to that idea. Some people can’t go there, either intellectually or financially, and for them Audioquest offers the $459.95 PowerQuest 303. This can be the AC hub of a reasonably-sized system with the security of linear noise-dissipation filtering designed by a real power delivery expert – Audioquest’s Garth Powell. Having a hub like this is also a great enabler to have a common grounding point for all your gear.  

Stein Music The Perfect Interface Carbon mat 

We have had good luck with LP to platter interfaces that are on the firm side. When such a mat isn’t stock (as it is on some ‘tables) both Michael Fremer and I have had a good experience with the Stein Music Perfect Interface Carbon mat. It is made from a special Japanese paper and seems to slightly tighten up the image and the bass from various turntables. For $468, this is a worthwhile tweak for already refined and well-set-up vinyl systems. 

Focal Bathys Headphones 

At $699, the Focal Bathys headphones are around twice the price of the well-established wireless headphones from Sony and Bose and Apple. But from a sound quality standpoint, we’d say they are also “so much better”. One way the Focals are better is in frequency response. The Focals just seem to follow the difficult Harman curve for HRTF correction more closely than less expensive models. Music sounds deep, balanced and clear without stabbing you with a knife in the upper range. And, the Focal Bathys can be connected via a cable when you are in the office or at home, so that you can get around the horrible data rate limitations of Bluetooth that the tech community has imposed on the world.  

Magnepan LRS+ speakers 

This one is kind of a miracle of modern science. The $999 Magnepan LRS+ offers more than a taste of what the high-end can do at 10X its price point. From the upper bass to the upper treble, the LRS+ is detailed and balanced. As a dipole, it can image with the best when properly set up in a small to medium room. Like all dipoles, it is bass-shy, but we there are subwoofer solutions available and more coming to address this. The LRS+ also likes a powerful amp, though these can be had without breaking most banks.  

VPI Classic Signature

$6000 

The VPI Classic Signature is an exceptional effort by a company that knows the analog landscape like few others. Arriving complete with the Classic unipivot tonearm, an HR-X center weight, and a PRC ring clamp to fully flatten stubborn LPs, the Classic Signature is fast, lucid, and responsive. Rhythmically it has an upbeat, forward-leaning personality with excellent timbre and pitch definition in the low frequencies. The tonearm is also brilliant, with-on-the-fly VTA adjustability and removable armwands for the slickest cartridge-swapping in town. 

Clearaudio Performance DC Wood with Tracer Tonearm

$6400

The Performance DC Wood turntable’s evenhandedness and consistency (of speed, etc.) capably conveyed complex layering of instruments and/or vocals, helping to preserve their true characteristic tonality for a more realistic and compelling presentation. Better still, this presentation benefitted any type of music, making the Performance DC Wood/Tracer tonearm (with optional Stradivari V2 cartridge) an excellent choice for multi-genre vinyl lovers, who (like JM) have all-over-the-map musical tastes. If you have the means, this turntable/tonearm should be on your short list. 

JR Transrotor Dark Star

$6500 

With its out-of-this-world good looks yet approachably down-to-Earth affordability Transrotor’s Dark Star conveys little sense of compromise. Fully equipped for LP playback—it is bundled with a Jelco SA-750D tonearm and a Goldring Elektra moving-magnet cartridge—this belt-driven, suspensionless design picks up transient cues as if it were anticipating the record groove before the stylus begins tracking. Though a bit lighter and quicker in balance, and slightly less dynamic in the bass, than some, the Dark Star is an elegant package and a sonic delight. 

Clearaudio Ovation

$7000 ($9500 w/Tracer tonearm) 

Continuing the trend of bundling together even more sophisticated turntables, ‘arms, and cartridges into fine-sounding but relatively hassle-free combinations, Clearaudio recently released what may be the most ambitious such package yet. With the Tracer carbon-fiber tonearm and Talisman v2 Gold cartridge, the Ovation is a terrific-sounding combo. It is very well balanced, with excellent detail that emerges from silent backgrounds, exceptional pitch stability, and sweet extended highs—if not the powerhouse bottom-end found in the highest-end models. 

Acoustic Signature Tornado Neo 

$7495

Acoustic Signature implemented across-the-board improvements to its entire turntable lineup: an accumulation of at least twenty-five years of industry experience, along with the present-day implementation of its innovations in vibration control, platter bearing design, and constrained-layer damping. With these updates, the mostly all-metal Tornado Neo provides a stable platform for multiple cartridges and tonearms to easily show their individual differences and performance characteristics. With already solid construction and the Neo advancements, the Tornado provides exceptional performance, along with countless hours of musical enjoyment.

Helius Alexia with Omega tonearm 

$8790 

The Helius Alexia turntable and Omega tonearm represent a combination of traditional and genuinely innovative thinking. A two-speed (33/45) belt-drive, the Alexia features a novel suspension that is very compliant in the vertical dimension, completely fixed in the lateral, while an optical sensor below the platter results in unusually effective speed accuracy and constancy. The Omega’s bearing is a uniquely “tetrahedral” configuration that offers “a captured design and minimal friction.” Reviewer PS was impressed by the setup’s stability of pitch, wide dynamic window, and excellent tracking of inner grooves. 

Merrill-Williams R.E.A.L. 101

$8995

Having taken his Heirloom design as far as possible, George Merrill has produced a radically innovative, non-suspended turntable that makes extensive use of elastomers to dampen resonances (without dampening the life out of the music). Coupled with a sophisticated microprocessor-controlled motor-drive system, and optional periphery ring and clamp, the R.E.A.L. has an astonishingly low noise floor and excellent speed stability and control. Music emerges from a jet-black background without any blurring and with lots of fine musical detail. 

Pear Audio Blue Kid Thomas

$9995 (w/Cornet 2 tonearm and external power supply)

Based on the pedigree and designs of the late Tom Fletcher (of Nottingham Analogue fame), the Pear Audio Blue Kid Thomas is an advancement over Fletcher’s older products. Pear Audio’s goal with the Kid Thomas is “sonic harmony.” In this case, every aspect of the Kid Thomas’ design was tested, down to the smallest parts, to optimize performance. The act of merging art and craftsmanship with measurements and science allows this turntable package to become a subjectively quiet playback system that can reproduce music in a way that is like more expensive turntable systems.