Articles and Reviews – page 2

Part 9 of Hifiverse's original coverage of the 2026 edition of the largest (over 500 companies) audio show HIGH END Vienna 2026 lifts the curtain on this year's most extravagant audio developments.

The eighth part of our detailed photo report on visiting the exhibition will tell about the most impressive technology of 2026. Yes, HIGH END Vienna 2026 rocks!

We are publishing the 7th part of our extensive photo report on our visit to the exhibition HIGH END Vienna 2026. That comprehensive photo report will allow you to be transported into the heart of the show.

How the audio market is developing this year can be easily found in the sixth part of our extensive photo report on visiting the HIGH END Vienna 2026 exhibition.

Our extensive report on visiting the world's leading audio exhibition HIGH END Vienna 2026., part five, is dedicated to the most interesting new products on the audio market in 2026.

We are publishing the fourth part of our extensive photo report on our visit to the exhibition HIGH END Vienna 2026. We hope that such a comprehensive photo report will allow you to be transported into the thick of the events.

We present to you the third part of our global photo report on the exhibition HIGH END Vienna 2026. The new location turned out to be ideally suited for demonstrating top-tier audio equipment, and we truly enjoyed attending the event.

The second part of our photo report from the High-End and Hi-Fi equipment exhibition HIGH END Vienna 2026 is dedicated to the season's latest audio technology.

The Hifiverse team attended the largest High-End and Hi-Fi equipment exhibition, HIGH END Vienna 2026, and is thrilled to present a detailed photo report of the event. Video footage from the exhibition will also be published on our social media channels.

Why need a separate streamer when there are integrated streaming amplifiers? Here we enter the segment of higher-quality component systems that allow flexible upgrades and significantly improve sound by isolating separate power circuits and shielding the digital portion.

Therefore, the elegant solution of an integrated amplifier with a built-in DAC and streamer (to which you only need to add a couple of speakers) has become a true industry standard. The sound quality of the latest streaming amplifiers has leaped forward - a true revolution has occurred in the segment over the past ten years. So now this class of equipment no longer seems like a compromise between price, convenience, and quality.

Meanwhile, the functions of a phono preamp (amplifying the signal from the cartridge, restoring the frequency response through equalization) are performed with an extremely low-level signal - highly sensitive to interference and crosstalk. Even minimal correction errors are subsequently multiplied at a much higher signal level in the amplifier circuit. In this article, we've compiled seven of the most impressive phono preamplifiers, sorted in ascending order of price. Looking to upgrade your entry-level hi-fi system? This article is for you. Thinking about upgrading your high-end vinyl audio system? This ranking will point you in the right direction.

Last year, vinyl record sales in the US surpassed $1 billion for the first time since 1983 - and as a result, the market is now flooded not only with LPs but also with turntables. While the high-end segment remains fairly conservative, the budget turntable sector is absolutely bursting with options. Even a savvy audiophile could get lost in this abundance - but the good news is that for under $500 you can now find a unit that would have cost twice as much five years ago in terms of sound quality. Our editorial team has separated the wheat from the chaff and selected the best affordable turntables on the market today. That's right - years of refinement from brands like Rega, Pro-Ject, Audio-Technica, and U-Turn have paid off.

Engineers from Denmark (Purifi), the Netherlands (Hypex), and the USA (Orchard Audio, AGD Productions) have solved Class D's main problems - high-frequency distortion, heavy dependence on speaker impedance, and synthetic-sounding reproduction. In this analytical article, we break down the principles of digital amplification, describe the major modern Class D modules, and select the best among digital amplifiers priced from $89 to $6,500.

Just a few years ago, buying a digital-to-analog converter for two hundred dollars meant an inevitable compromise in sound quality. Devices at this price point could only be recommended for the most entry-level Hi-Fi systems. Fortunately, digital audio technology is advancing at the fastest pace of all - so today's market within this budget offers DACs that would have cost close to a thousand dollars five years ago. FiiO, Topping, SMSL, and other companies have truly transformed our understanding of what an entry-level DAC can deliver.

Our latest rating of the best floorstanding speaker systems is compiled from new market releases - here you will find both affordable Hi-Fi models and stratospheric High-End speakers. What unites them is cutting-edge technology, excellent sound, relative genre impartiality, and high power handling. Welcome - smart speaker selection, despite the abundance of contenders on the market, is not as difficult as it seems right now.

Our new editorial rating focuses on compact speaker systems. Bookshelf speakers are advancing in sound quality by leaps and bounds, and all we can do is applaud the latest releases. From the abundance of new models, we have carefully selected eight of the most impressive speakers for every taste and budget.

Even though 2026 is still young, the integrated amplifier market has already seen a notable refresh. In our latest expert ranking, we sorted through the newest releases to find those truly worth your attention - and picked the very best among them. What's especially encouraging is how many models landed in the affordable segment - great sound is becoming more accessible.

For the Sennheiser HD 600, HD 650, and HD 800 S to truly open a window to another world, you'll need to carefully select the right partners. We've done the work for you, analyzing dozens of amplifications and digital-to-analog conversion combinations for these headphones, and determined which source would be the optimal choice, delivering that signature impeccable dynamics and creating a wide soundstage.

The Zellaton Stage is a three-way loudspeaker employing proprietary drivers with sandwich cone construction - thin aluminium skins bonded to a foam core. This architecture reduces moving mass to a radical minimum, and the fact that the midrange driver operates across a full seven octaves, from 100 Hz to 8,000 Hz, without a crossover, represents a genuinely remarkable engineering achievement even by cost-no-object standards.