We’ve done quite a few product reviews in the last year or so, and we thought it was time to do an annual roundup of our favorites. When you review products one at a time, it is tricky to provide comparative context – you haven’t heard all the competing products, sometimes you have to wait for a key competitor to go into production, sometimes two reviewers in two different cities review the competitive product, etc. However, since we hew to the philosophy of using the absolute sound (the sound of music performed in real spaces) as a method of judgement, we can highlight the products that did particularly well in sounding real according to our reviewers. This list of recently reviewed products that we can recommend for your consideration is based on that criterion of getting closer to the absolute sound. 

We also want to pay some attention to the reality of high-end audio catering to very different budgets. We’ve reviewed audio gear from $80 to $150,000 in the recent past. Some of that is because speakers are more expensive than headshells simply by dint of their complexity, but some of those price difference reflect the desire of manufacturers to target different buyers on different budgets. To help with this, we’ve organized our recommendations around price ranges. 

This video covers the products under $1000 that we greatly enjoyed as referenced to the absolute sound.  

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.