The Gearhead

Planar magnetic headphones get talked about like they’re a single category with a single sound. Fast. Clean. Detailed. End of story. In reality, “planar” tells you almost nothing abo…

Why the PowerCell 8 SX Changes Everything. “Hey… you look like me.” Those opening words from Elbow’s Weightless float in over a gentle but uneasy drum pattern, a swirl of inst…

Why Phono Stages Still Matter, Maybe More Than Ever Vinyl has never offered more choice. More turntables, more cartridges, more reissues, more boutique pressings. But with that abundance comes a chall…

Why the Phono Stage Is Where the Truth Shows Up A cartridge is a little generator with a hard job. It’s pulling microscopic information out of a groove and turning it into a signal so small that…

Why High-End Streamers Still Matter In the age of streaming, it’s easy to think the source has become a commodity. After all, music is music, right? Bits are bits. A laptop, a phone, a streamer…