Our 10 Best Gear Awards

The best gear of the year.

Just when you thought your Blu-rays were safe…

Like it's rival, the LG BD300, the BD-P2500 is no simple Blu-ray player.

It has the ability to stream content directly from Netflix.

While this may seem odd, it adds a level of functionality that is surely the future of entertainment.

Blu-ray and… Netflix?

Why would you want to download SD movies on your new Blu-ray player? That was my first thought when learning about the BD300 (and it's rival, the Samsung BD-P2500).

Upon using it though, I get it.

And it's really cool.

Wadia's best ever CD player is much, much more than just a CD player

With the demise of HD-DVD and the LP's renaissance I thought this would be a great time to review a state of the art CD player.

Formats with real staying power, like CD and LP, inspire passionate collectors who own many hundreds or as in my case, thousands of discs. I still buy an occasional LP and average one or two CD purchases a week, so whatever the future brings I'm going to be listening to CDs for a long time. I just hope it's over something as good as Wadia's 781i CD player.

Computer Audio 101: Revving Up a New Spin for CD Playback

For years now, hobbyists have been transforming their computers into audio source components, a natural endpoint for all kinds of digital music.

Conceptually, it's quite simple—store, instantaneously access, and manage an entire library of music on your computer. No more sorting through piles of CDs. Yet, serious audiophiles (especially those not computer savvy) have traditionally been hesitant to embrace this "techno" alternative to their tried and true CD players.

They should take a new look, as the computer can be the powerful audiophile device.

A mini survey of ear-bogglingly good headphones and headphone amplifiers

I'd like to let you in on a little secret: You can buy terrific headphones for next to nothing. That's not to say they all sound great, but a bigger budget definitely buys better build and sound quality.

For this roundup I've selected three contenders for the world's best headphone: the Denon AH-D5000, Grado Labs GS-1000, and the Ultrasone Edition 9, plus a pair of headphone amplifiers, Benchmark's DAC1 USB and Woo Audio's WA5-LE.

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In the first two sentences of Acoustic Energy's web page on the AE1 Mk III SE, the word "special" is used four times.

Normally I would scoff at such repetition of an already over used word. In this case though, they don't seem to be resorting to hyperbole.

One Point Four Kilowatts

An A/V receiver is arguably the most important component in a home theater system surpassed, only, perhaps by speakers.

It has a big job: Take in all your sources, process them, and then the "little box that could" has to amplify the signal and send it out to your speakers.