Editor’s Choice

• iFi’s iDSD Phantom: a streaming DAC & headphone amp for the DSD faithful 20th January 2026
  iFi’s new flagship desktop unit combines DAC, network streamer and headphone amplifier in a single chassis (that looks like two). It’s aimed squarely at listeners who believe higher sample rates deliver audible benefits or those who want the option for tubes in the signal path. The iDSD Phantom succeeds the […] The post iFi’s iDSD […]
• Why I will never call hi-fi gear “musical” 🌶️ 19th January 2026
  [Editor’s note: This is the eighth in a series of fifteen observations from fifteen years of audio writing] Musical. The word lands on audio forums and Facebook groups like a wet blanket, smothering specificity and suffocating insight. Everyone feels they know what musicality means. Nobody can pin it down. That’s […] The post Why I […]
• T+A Talis S 330 vs. Vivid Kaya 45: a year of living with two philosophies 18th January 2026
  Here’s a myth worth busting: expensive loudspeakers don’t converge on a singular “accurate” sound. As if any of us could know what accurate sounded like. We cannot. And it’s not just me saying this. Steve Guttenberg has said as much, and – more importantly – storied loudspeaker designer Andrew Jones […] The post T+A Talis […]