They’re made by Bowers & Wilkins, of Zeppelin and Zeppelin Mini fame, so even before seeing them you expect the B&W P5 headphones to be something special. They’re also the company’s first foray into headphone manufacture, and though they’re a ‘Made for iPod’ and ‘Works with iPhone’ product, it doesn’t put a damper on our expectations ever since going ears-on with a pair at CES in January. The clues are all there even before looking at the headphones themselves. For a start, Bowers & Wilkins are asking £250 for a pair of P5s, which is hardly pocket change. It’s a...
4 Stars CNET EDITORS’ RATING 5 Stars 2 USER REVIEWS THE GOOD Sony’s MDR-7506 closed-back, full-size headphones click with all music genres and are comfortable to wear for hours at a time. They sound excellent for their relatively modest price point. THE BAD With a coiled, pro-style cable and lack of an inline remote/microphone, some will find the 7506s less mobile-friendly than more modern headphones. THE BOTTOM LINE They’ve been around since 1991, but the Sony MDR-7506s are still great sounding — and fitting — headphones for less than $249.00NZD. 8.5 OVERALL Design: 8 Features: 6 Sound: 9 Value: 10...
Want to get the most from your iPhone? Then read our handy guide to playing hi-res music on your Apple device. It’s our long-held opinion that Apple iPhones have generally been among the best-sounding smartphones around. Newer phones may boast about natively playing hi-res music, but the likes of LG, Samsung and HTC haven’t been able to better the iPhone in terms of pure audio quality. But never mind the iPhone 7, we want to play hi-res music on our Apple portable right now. After all, who wouldn’t want that level of sound quality? Considering how many people now listen...
While delving through my stash of phono cartridges came across this Denon DL 110 high output phono cartridge. Can’t remember where this came from, but was new in box and never open. Oh well, remember fellow audiogon member Ed Kobesky had done a review on its big brother the Denon DL 160 and found that I agreed with him completely on the DL 160. Have owned many Denons in the past 47 years in the hobby such as the 103,103D,103S,103R as well as the DL160 and now the DL 110. It is very hard to fault the overall Denon line...
It’s not just vinyl that’s enjoying a resurgence – now the cassette tape format is set to get a serious upgrade. Vinyl may have been grabbing the headlines, but the cassette tape has also been riding the retro wave and seeing an increase in sales, releases and new products. Now an upgraded version of the format, HD Cassette, looks set to give a further boost to the classic audio format. Using updated machinery and manufacturing methods, the new cassettes will offer HD sound, unchewable tape and up to 360 minutes of storage space. The HD tapes feature Shush technology, which...
Introduction There’s nothing more satisfying than having your favorite music available to you throughout your house. Such seemingly complex, multi-room audio setups are often features of high-end homes. Yet, how cool would it be to have the audio from your main system playing in other rooms and speakers in your home? With a simple device called a speaker selector, you too can distribute audio to free standing, in-wall, or in-ceiling speakers across your home. What is a speaker selector? A speaker selector is a device that splits the audio signal coming from your receiver or amplifier and sends that same...
I can’t fault these headphones. As with all headphones, things like styling and fit are a personal thing, but the build quality, comfort and sound quality are unsurpassed for a DJ design. The sound has subtleties that you simply don’t get with cheaper headphones (and that means basically all other DJ headphones)! So these are really for use way beyond the DJ booth. If you’re considering one pair of headphones for production, DJing, and general use, and can’t afford to drop any balls as far as sound quality goes in any of these areas, the Ultrasone Signature DJs should be...
In 2015, LP and EP sales rose to their highest level since 1988 The sale of vinyl albums in the U.S. brought in more money than the recording industry made from advertising on the free tier of services like YouTube and Spotify last year, according to the RIAA. Vinyl LP/EP sales rose 32% in 2015 to $416 million, their highest level since 1988, the U.S. record industry group said. That’s still a fraction of overall industry revenues, which edged higher by 0.9% over 2014 to an estimated $7 billion. But it’s more than the revenue generated from on-demand, ad-supported streaming,...
At the top of Yamaha’s new PRO line of headphones, the $399.95 (direct) Yamaha PRO 500 is a formidable beast. At first glance, it may appear to take its cues from the Beats school of design, with a focus on glossy plastic and logos. But the PRO 500 is no knock-off, and it sounds flat-out excellent. Armed with a nice array of accessories and a detachable cable that helps extend its value, the PRO 500 is, nonetheless, not a bargain. It’s a luxury and an investment—but its rich bass and wide stereo field earn it our Editors’ Choice award for high-end...
For our 30th anniversary we wanted to achieve new heights of greatness…so we did just that. Meet the worlds first ever intelligent subwoofer and amplifier combination, SPG Z6-30. The SPG Z6-30’s main feature is our brand new Accelerated Force Mechanism technology, or AFM for short. Instead of a single voice coil driving the moving parts of the woofer, we’re driving the moving parts of the woofer with 26 radially distributed intelligent electro magnets. Using similar technology to modern Gauss cannons (which is essentially a Stupid Potato Gun), we were able to create the most powerful yet sonically accurate subwoofer in...
