A wider view of audio gear
What reviewers agree on.
Where they disagree. What matters to you.
The only full-range Air Motion Transformer headphone, rebuilt lighter and retuned for the studio — rich mids and rare low-level detail to most ears, lean, oddly voiced and clampy to others, and divisive on almost everything else.
A studio monitor you wear — flat on most benches, dark on some heads, and fussier about where it sits than any headphone should be.
The $549 tribrid that set the 'natural' template for a generation of IEMs — praised as hard to fault, and still argued over as too safe.
The powered pair that made Audioengine's name, now with Bluetooth: loud, wide-staged and handsome at $499 a pair — but its wired twin measures a scooped lower midrange, owners argue about its bass in both directions, and loan-unit praise for the build sits beside owner failure reports.
The dongle that behaves like a desktop amp — including the heat, the appetite for power, and a menu with more ambition than its software.
Reviewers crown the keybed; owners waited most of a year for firmware that made the sustain pedal behave.
The dictionary
A boost in the bass and lower mids that gives music a rich, cozy, easy-on-the-ears character.
The perceived three-dimensional space of a recording — how wide, deep, and tall the sound appears.
An emphasis on the upper midrange and treble — vivid, clear, and sometimes sharp.
An even-handed sound with no part of the spectrum pushed forward or held back — balanced and reference-like.
