Now Hear This

The ultimate rigs, whatever you're listening to.

- Robert Ross

LISTENING TO GREAT music on a superior sound system is one of life’s sublime pleasures, and once you’ve been bitten by the audio bug, it’s impossible to go back to soundbars and earbuds. At its best, a carefully assembled system can paint a spellbinding sonic landscape.

While home theatres employ surround sound for maximum effect, most serious music listeners prefer a stereophonic set-up with left and right speakers to replicate the experience of hearing real performers in a real venue. Approaches to speaker, electronics and turntable design are almost as varied as the products themselves, and both subjective impressions and objective measurements play a part in evaluating these components. Just as important is achieving synergy between every link in the aural chain, including cables, audio furniture and especially the room, whose acoustics are inextricable from the quality of sound.