SoundStage! Access | SoundStageAccess.com (GoodSound.com)

Snyderman’s Choice: Are You an Audiophile or a Music-Lover?

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 March 2026

As I hinted at in a recent editorial about the stranglehold boomers have on the audiophile hobby, “what even is an audiophile?” is a peculiarly fascinating question. As my podcast cohost Brent Butterworth is fond of saying, biking magazines aren’t filled with editorials about what it means to be a cyclist, nor were knitting magazines (when those still existed as more than an expensive but gorgeous curiosity) clogged up with navel-gazing pieces about the identitarian components of being a knitter.

KEF Q Concerto Meta Loudspeaker

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 March 2026

Reviewers' Choice I’ve made no secret of the fact that I get frustrated with subjectivist hardliners—especially those who insist that there’s nothing to be gleaned from the specifications and objective measurements of speakers like KEF’s Q Concerto Meta (US$1399.99, CA$1799.99, £1099, €1198 per pair). And yet . . .

Dayton Audio Classic T65 Loudspeaker

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 15 February 2026

I feel fortunate to live right up the road from Parts Express, as it’s my source for parts, tools, and some audio gear. Headquartered in Springboro, Ohio, Parts Express is also the parent company of Dayton Audio. I’ve reviewed many of Dayton Audio’s products here on SoundStage! Access, including the Classic B65 standmount loudspeaker, the little brother of the subject of this review, the Classic T65 floorstander. The B65 was available for US$69.98 per pair at the time of my review, which I considered a steal. It now costs US$79.98 per pair—still a steal. SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider had the B65 measured at Canada’s National Research Council in Ottawa, and he gave it a qualified “OK.” (His primary complaint was that it went into fairly high distortion at 85dB, but I rarely if ever listen that loud.) So when Shawn Behmer, social media manager at Parts Express, offered me a pair of Classic T65 floorstanders for review, I accepted with pleasure.

First Look: KEF Q Concerto Meta

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 February 2026

Looking back at the blog post documenting my unboxing of KEF’s Q3 Meta in late 2024, I find it sort of adorable how much I went on about how large those standmount speakers are. Granted, for a two-way design, the Q3 Meta is a hoss. I needed only one glance at the packaging for the company’s three-way Q Concerto Meta (US$1399.99, CA$1799.99, £1099, €1198/pair), though, to be reminded that everything is relative.

Yet Another Navel-Gazing Editorial About Boomers, Kids, and the Future of Hi-Fi

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 February 2026

If you read or write about hi‑fi for any meaningful length of time, you start to notice that certain editorial motifs pop up with predictable regularity. There is, of course, the story about one’s formative years as a hi‑fi enthusiast, which can fuel editorials for years. There’s the story about converting a normie to the cult of hi‑fi, or just having conversations with regular people about our hobby. You can run that one every couple of years and have something new to say.

iFi Audio Zen DAC 3 Headphone Amplifier–DAC–Preamplifier

Details: Written by: Super User; Created: 01 February 2026

Why do you need a DAC? It’s a question I’ve asked—and answered—in the past, but it’s worth exploring again. The simplest answer to that question, of course, is that you need some component in your signal chain to convert streams of digital data into analog waveforms so they can be amplified and sent to your speakers. Of course, the speakers sitting in front of me right now, as I type this—a pair of SVS Prime Wireless speakers—handle that function on their own. As does the integrated amplifier in my reference system. So, again, I ask: why do you need a DAC? In other words, why would you purchase a standalone, outboard product such as iFi Audio’s Zen DAC 3 (US$229, CA$349, £229, €229)?

Audio-Technica AT-VM95ML Phono Cartridge

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 15 January 2026

In April 2025, I reviewed the Technics SL‑100C turntable, which came factory-equipped with the Audio‑Technica AT‑VM95E moving-magnet cartridge—a cartridge that features an elliptical stylus. However, by the time I purchased my own SL‑100C a few months later, Technics had downgraded the bundled cartridge to an AT‑VM95C, which has a conical stylus. I felt like that was akin to putting the engine of a Fiat 600 into a Ferrari: it might work, but it won’t exploit the full capabilities of the host. I promptly swapped out the AT‑VM95C in favor of my Goldring E4 cartridge with its elliptical nude-diamond stylus.

First Look: iFi Audio Zen DAC 3

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 January 2026

If you’re of the opinion that looks don’t matter when it comes to hi-fi gear, it should go without saying that I very much disagree. If you lean toward thinking that looks do matter but only differentiate pricier audiophile components, I’ve also got a bit of a bone to pick with you. And I sort of feel like I can simply point to any of iFi Audio’s Zen components—the Zen DAC 3 digital-to-analog converter and headphone amp (US$229, CA$279, £229, €229), for example—and rest my case.

A Complete Contrarian’s All-Time Favorite Records (Part Two)

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 January 2026

Y’all, I lied. In Part One of my list of favorite albums list, I indicated that only the record in the top spot was immovable, and everything else was arbitrary—that anything from the first list could swap places with anything on the second (at the time unpublished) list, and it wouldn’t really matter. And in my defense, I believed that at the time I wrote it. But as I stepped back to re-read the first article in preparation for writing this follow-up, I realized there was, indeed, a bimodal distribution of the albums contained in these two lists.

DALI Kupid Loudspeaker

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 January 2026

Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada’s National Research Council can be found through this link.

Reviewers' Choice As I’ve said on any number of occasions lately, my barometer for value has become completely uncalibrated. Every trip to the grocery store involves sticker shock. Homeowners’ insurance deductibles have climbed so high that I may as well not have said insurance, if not for the fact that total devastation is becoming increasingly likely due to an increasingly angry climate. Panera Bread—long my favorite cheap fast-food restaurant—now seems like a bougie indulgence.

Newest Features & Reviews