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.  

Audience forte V8

$980 (includes forte f3 powerChord)

The Audience forte V8 power strip gets right down to business with eight hospital-grade AC outlets, each wired separately with high-purity, 14AWG copper. Plus, the entire electric circuit has been treated cryogenically. The V8 performed impeccably, with no discernible losses, changes, or degradations versus wall outlets. If anything, backgrounds seemed quieter and low-level transparency more fully resolved. Bass response also firmed up and conveyed greater control. Soundstage dimensionality and ambience retrieval were enhanced, to boot. Impeccable in construction quality, virtually unbreakable, and not liable to break the bank, the V8 ships with the exceptional forte f3 powerChord. All in all, a no-brainer.

IsoTek Aquarius

$1995

Aquarius benefits from much of the innovation and technology of IsoTek’s uptowners, Nova and Sigma. In terms of three-dimensional presentation, clean transients, plus the depiction of micro-dynamic and low-level information, it packs some real moves. In suppressing line noise, the six outlet Aquarius unlocks low level transparency and dimensionality in the same way that removing layers of old wax from a fine wood surface allows more of the inherent depth and beauty of the wood-grain patterns to shine forth.

Nordost QKore Grounding System 

QKore1, $2749; QKore3, $3849; QKore6, $5499

The QKore grounding system truly demonstrates that silence is golden. It represents an ingenious attempt to combat the electronic nasties that conspire to corrupt the sound of electronic musical reproduction. Unlike many products that purport to produce a purer sound, the QKore is a non-invasive grounding device that you plug into an unused input on a stereo component; it produces no extra-musical artifacts of its own. What it does is create a much blacker background from which the subtlest of details emerge with elegance and refinement. Every part of the sonic spectrum will also sound fuller and more transparent. For any high-end enthusiast seeking to improve his system, this is an essential component. 

Shunyata Research Hydra Delta D6

$3250

Housed in a full-sized chassis and rated for 20 amps of continuous current, Shunyata’s Delta D6 delivers the juice to more demanding systems, including high-powered amplifiers. Its most noteworthy sonic achievement was an expansion of spatiality and increased ease of presentation. At the micro level, images were pocketed within halos of ambience upon the soundstage—a finely focused presentation with an almost eerie lack of noise and distortion. Equipped with top-notch features like electromagnetic breakers, Hubbell outlets, vibration-dampening materials, and cryogenic treatment, Shunyata’s latest is among its most successful yet. It makes an audio rig less about electronics and more about music. 

Clarus Concerto PC

$3600

The Clarus Concerto is an unassuming, but well-made, rack-mountable module with a power switch and dimmer button on the front, and a clever and unique cable-support bar on the back that prevents the dreaded heavy-power-cable droop we all know and hate. The Concerto offers a total of eight outlets, separately specialized for high current, digital, and analog sources. Clarus’ five-tier approach to conditioning lowers the noise floor without restricting dynamics. Reviewer Matt Clott’s digital and analog sources benefited from what the Concerto provided: blacker backgrounds, more dynamics, and a cleaner canvas upon which to paint the music. 

IsoTek EVO3 Sigma

$3995

Pretty much guaranteed to banish any lingering hum issues you may be experiencing, The EVO3 Sigma features six outlets with the two dedicated for high-power equipment said to deliver up to 3680 watts of continuous power. The improvement in sound quality via the Sigmas is immediately audible. It lowers noise floor, improves transient response, and provides blacker backgrounds. 

AudioQuest Niagara 5000 Low-Z Power Noise-Dissipation System

$5500

All power conditioning products claim to do the same thing: lower the various current and ground noises generated by your power grid and the wiring in your house and system. The difference between the Niagara and most of its competitors is that the Niagara 5000 does this task demonstrably well, raising low-level resolution of detail and reducing background hash (making for a clearer, better-defined soundstage and more neutral timbre top to bottom) without choking off peak current delivery. With twelve outlets (four of which are high current), the Niagara 5000 is equipped to handle just about anything in your system—and to render audible improvements in just about every aspect of the stereo image. 

Shunyata Research Hydra Denali 6000S v2 

$5500

This AC conditioner from Shunyata takes what had been the state of the art in AC conditioning to a new level. It is based on noise-isolation technology that Shunyata developed for medical imaging equipment. The sonic result is quieter backgrounds, which allow for resolution of the finest micro-details. These low-level cues are vital to a sense of timbral and spatial realism, which are the areas where the Denali excels. The 6000S v2 is a shelf version with six outlets. Now available in an improved (but unreviewed) v2 version. 

Synergistic Research Galileo PowerCell SX/SRX 

$6495/$27,995

As a skeptic about power conditioners, JHb was pleasantly surprised by the improvements in imaging and dynamics rendered by the Synergistic Research PowerCell. Unlike many of its brethren, the PowerCell did not appear to limit current. Instead, it offers even blacker backgrounds and lowered grit and distortion. Particularly noteworthy were the smoother treble and improved suppleness of musical lines. As with all conditioners, however, auditioning the Synergistic in your own system is a must, as the quality of electricity varies markedly from home to home. 

Shunyata Research Everest $8000/Omega XC Power Cord 

$9000/$7000

Shunyata’s new Everest 8000 is easily the company’s finest effort yet delivering an entirely unprecedented level of performance. This eight-outlet conditioner in a vertical truncated pyramid chassis benefits not just from Shunyata’s previous work on AC power for audio, but from technology developed by founder Caelin Gabriel for Shunyata’s sister company, Clear Image Scientific. The XC power cord that connects the Everest to your wall outlet is no less impressive. The soundstage opens up with greater space and depth, with more vivid and tangible images, along with far greater resolution of air and space around those images. RH’s reference. 

AudioQuest Niagara 7000 Low-Z Power Noise-Dissipation System

$9800

The 81-pound Niagara 7000 is the brainchild of AC design engineer Garth Powell, whom AudioQuest hired and essentially gave him two years and carte blanche to design a new power device from scratch. Powell says the Niagara 7000 is not a power conditioner; rather, it relies on dielectric-biased AC isolation transformers to reduce distortion without reducing current to any component, including amplifiers. Essentially, the Niagara seeks to create a power bank for your amps so that it doesn’t have to strain to grab voltage from the wall. The most immediate and salubrious effect of the Niagara was to offer a more controlled and refined performance. The treble is smoother and rounder with the Niagara. Overall, the Niagara is a fabulous piece of equipment that adds sheen and palpability to the music that are utterly addictive. 

Audience adeptResponse aR12-T4

$11,400 (studio ONE powerChord upgrade, $2299/6ft.; Au24 SX powerChord upgrade, $4660/6ft.; frontRow powerChord upgrade $6300/6ft.)

To Greg Weaver’s ear, Audience’s aR12-T4 power conditioner represents a substantial improvement over its predecessors, so much so that it would be fair to say that it borders on an order of magnitude advance. This is a world-class device, deserving your full attention. Give one a listen—perhaps the 6- or 2-socket variety—but be prepared to buy it. If you are anything like GW, there is no chance it will come out of your system once it is in place!