First reviews coming soon

This section is being built. If there is a product you want covered — or you make one and want it considered — say so and it goes on the list.

Request or pitch a review

What gets reviewed here

Coverage focuses on the equipment a working musician or home-studio owner in Europe is realistically choosing between, rather than the flagship gear that exists mainly for photographs:

  • Studio monitors — nearfields for small and untreated rooms, and what a subwoofer does and does not fix.
  • Headphones — open, closed and semi-open, for tracking, mixing and simply listening.
  • Audio interfaces — preamps, converters, latency, driver stability and how well the software holds up over a year.
  • Microphones — condensers, dynamics and ribbons for voice, acoustic instruments and amps.
  • Instruments — guitars, basses, keyboards and controllers, assessed on playability and build as well as sound.
  • Software and hardware oddities — the pedals, boxes and plugins that turn out to matter more than the specification suggests.

How a review works

Every review says how long the product was used, what it was connected to, what room it was heard in, which recordings were used as reference, and what it was compared against. Prices quoted are European street prices at the time of writing, with the date attached, because they move.

There are no star ratings and no scores out of ten. Each review ends with a plain verdict: who this product is right for, who should look elsewhere, and what the cheaper alternative costs you. The full method, including how gear is sourced and how errors are corrected, is set out in the editorial policy.

Independence

No manufacturer sees a review before it is published, coverage cannot be bought, and any commercial relationship is disclosed on the page it affects — see the affiliate and sponsorship disclosure. At present there are no affiliate links anywhere on this site.

Elsewhere on the site

Looking for the bigger picture rather than a single product? The guides compare whole categories and answer the “which type should I buy at all” question. The blog covers technique and process, and news tracks releases and launches worth knowing about.