For more than seven decades, JBL has shaped how the world listens. From cinema sound systems and recording studios to cars, bars, and living rooms, the three letters have become shorthand for powerful, confident sound. JBL’s legacy was built on scale and impact—but what happens when that heritage is condensed into a compact desktop monitor?…
There are speakers that people recommend.And then there are speakers people warn you about because once you hear them, you start questioning every upgrade you’ve ever made. That’s exactly what happened when I revisited the Klipsch KG 5.5. These aren’t new. They aren’t fashionable. They don’t fit today’s slim-tower aesthetic. Yet the moment music starts,…
There are moments in this hobby when expectations quietly collapse. You unbox a product thinking you already understand its limits—its price, its size, its position in the brand’s hierarchy. And then, a few notes into a familiar track, something shifts. That’s exactly what happened with the KEF Q550. I’ve lived with KEF speakers for years….
Some reviews are written with a stopwatch and a checklist. This one wasn’t. My time with the KEF Q4 Meta unfolded during the Christmas holidays, when listening habits change. Music isn’t auditioned in ten-minute bursts; it plays for hours. Records are chosen emotionally rather than analytically, and streaming playlists drift from festive classics to late-night…
The pandemic didn’t just change how we work or socialize—it fundamentally reshaped how we listen. Confined to our homes, many of us began reassessing what actually mattered in our audio systems. The appetite wasn’t for excess or spectacle, but for honest sound, long-term comfort, and equipment that could truly live in a real space. Out…
For years, the Debut series from ELAC has been the safe recommendation: honest sound, sensible pricing, and little concern for visual drama. The Debut 2.0 was predictable in the best possible way: balanced, neutral, and easy to recommend to newcomers. The Debut 3.0, however, marks a genuine shift. This is not a light refresh or…
Christmas is the time of year when sound actually matters. Between the late-night movie marathons, family gatherings around the TV, and the constant stream of holiday music, your home audio system gets pushed harder than at any other time of the year. This Christmas, our living room underwent a bit of a transformation. It became…
Veni, vidi, vici. That perfectly describes the impact the Soulnote A-2 made on us. It’s rare for a solid-state amp to captivate so completely and so quickly, especially under €10,000. But here we are. Soulnote, a boutique Japanese brand that many in Europe and North America are just discovering, has delivered something genuinely special. Born…
Spending time with the Hera 150 floorstanders from Davis Acoustics initially left me with a subtle sense of understatement. At an earlier exhibition, where the larger Hera 250 was demonstrated, the presentation of musical material felt noticeably different from what I later experienced during extended listening sessions with the Hera 150. One could attribute this…
So, Wharfedale decided to call their flagship speakers “Elysian,” which literally means heavenly. That’s a bold move for a brand I’ve always known for being solid, musical, and high-value—not necessarily for chasing absolute audio paradise. The big question for me was: Is this just a fancy name, or did they actually build something special? I…
