Audio Gear Of The Year 2024 – Our Personal Favourites
Gear of the Year: since everybody and their dog chorn out such lists, we make it quick and dirty. We started the year with 6 contributors, took a 7th in from Headphonesty’s liquidation sale for a while, but continue as “The Magnificent 6” into 2025. We thank Rudolfs Putnins for his short but very fruitful stint with us — and promise to overtake his new outfit in no time (if not faster).
Soon completing our 6th year, we finally have the big players in sight, despite our handicap of losing partners through our critical reviews. It will remain our goal to deliver uncompromised quality, unvarnished and without restraint.
Our list of earphone reviews is hitting the big 500 and our DACs/amp list is going towards 150. Our well-curated Wall of Excellence (WoE) is constantly being renovated. Since any product on our WoE is backed by more than one opinion, it should give you confidence in your buying decisions.
Dear attentive reader, dear audio company: thank you very much for your patronage in 2024! Enjoy this read and we wish you a happy and successful 2025!
Hey, feel free to let us know your personal favourites of 2024 in the comments section below.
In this Article
We thank our 2024 Partners
| Most of our reviews would have not been possible without our 2024 cooperating partners. We thank (in alphabetical order): Aoshida Audio, Angel Hifi, AudioQuest, Audirect, Baseus, Burson Audio, Campfire Audio, ddHiFi, FiFine, FiiO, Fosi Audio, ifi Audio, Hidizs, Jackrabbit Media, Knowledge Zenith, Linsoul, Maono, Meze Audio, Moondrop, NF Acous, Oladance, OneOdio, OCY, Questyle, Rose Technics, Sennheiser, Simgot, TinHifi, SoundMAGIC, SHENZENAUDIO, Sigva, TOZO, TRN. For the companies: you can check for your products/yourself in the search field on the right-hand side. |
And here we go…that’s what we enjoyed in 2024…published by author in the order of submission…and purely subjective.
Jürgen Kraus…Calgary, CANADA
FiiO DM13 BT and Moondrop DiscDream 2 Ultra—two portable CD players with probably the same drive mechanisms but different features. Great by themselves and as CD transports. Here a spectcular CAGE MATCH between the two contenders.
final Audio VR2000—simply the best iem for gaming thanks to its speedy driver; also excellent for binaural applications.
Happy Ears Ear Plugs—they don’t generate sound but rather muffle it. Handy when you have neighbours. Small, reusable, practical.
Meze 105 AER—well-designed, super comfortable open-back headphones with a fun tuning.
Redecker Keyboard Brush—don’t laugh, but computer keyboards can get hairy, from the reviews and my cat alike. The soft side also dusts the screen.
Sennheiser HD 620S—well tuned, very resolving headphones added to the top of their HD 600 line.
Tozo Open EarRing—fabulous little clamp-ons that don’t invade your ear canals but still deliver a robust bass. The only earphones I can wear safely during teeth brushing.
Durwood…Chicago, USA
Premium segment (>$300)—BGVP DM9 — While the I/O Volare is on the same solid footing, I prefer the fitment and tuning of the DM9. The upper treble is a dream and the bass resolution is most excellent as well.
ANC TWS—Sony WF-1000XM5 is damn near silent. Driver resolution and technical abilities is merely above average, but if grading solely on ANC the Sony wins. KZ Xtra was a solid entry for KZ finally, but ANC is average.
New “Budget”—Kefine Delci AE, I define budget loosely as anything under $50 and I would rather be more interested in TWS. The Delci AE does nothing wrong, and if someone was just starting their journey they might even be happy enough to stop there.
Mini Class D amps—Fosi was busy beta testing Class D amp designs all year, the Fosi ZA3 is pretty simple in looks and nails it with all the features a mini amp needs. If I didn’t already have a set of powered monitors, I would surely team this up with some good bookshelves. I currently use it for testing used market speaker finds and demos when I thin the herd.
DAC Dongles—There are plenty of good dongles, the FiiO KA15 is pretty cool, good value and the USB cable is flexible. HIDIZS makes some excellent dongles, but the stiff cable caused disconnection issues in my pocket. Switch to a more flexible cable HIDIZS.
Mid-tier ($100-200)—Sennheiser IE200 – Tiny and packs up small too, sounds balanced with great technical abilities and is my reference for the $100-150 crowd, enough so I overlook the annoying cable.
Desktop DAC/AMP—SMSL DO400 still love it, has all the greatness of the SMSL SU-9, but with a great headphone amp built in.
Loomis Johnson…Chicago, USA
TOZO Open Earring—Anyone should be able to make a good >$200 earphone—making a good one for <$50 is the real grail. Cheap, unassuming and unexpectedly musical, with bass quality that defies the laws of physics—I’ve bought/gifted four of them already.
BGVP DM9—at the other end of the price spectrum, these will demonstrate why you should drop $600 on an IEM.
SMSL RAW DAC1—uncolored, unrefined and simply gigantic sounding; this has an immediacy and drive which makes it stand out among the legions of me-too products.
FiiO BTR 17 DAC/Headamp/BT Streamer—if (shudder the thought) you could own only one dac/amp for all your devices, this one would be as good as any. It’s an impressive bit of kit.
Hidisz S9 Pro Plus DAC Dongle—I have a lot of dongles in the $50-100 range; most are good but truth be told don’t sound all that different. The Plus doesn’t cost any more but simply sounds like a higher-tier piece—beefier and louder. My product of the year.
Dwight Twilley “Twilley” and Artful Dodger, “Rave On”—two of my favorite 80s power pop albums just popped up on Spotify after being extremely hard to find. Much of the former would fit comfortably on “A Hard Day’s Night”, but the best parts channel the theatrical swell of Roy Orbison or Del Shannon.
The latter is an obscure classic, with taut, stripped-down songs, a very good jangly guitar sound and a great Steve Marriott-soundalike who can belt or croon with equal aplomp.
Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon—as nuanced as you’ll get at this $45-ish pricepoint; this’ll stave off despair on those long winter nights.
Patrick Mahomes—he’s ranked 17th out of 34 among AFC QBs, and his wife is an unrepentant Trumper, but the guy always manages to win. Which ain’t nothing.
Alberto Pittaluga…Bologna, ITALY
There’s very little the seriously grabbed my attention this year, which is a logical, direct consequence of the continuing market saturation, and lack of real dramatic technological evolution.
On the sources front no doubt my preferred item, and a new solid addition to my bag, is Chord Mojo 2 – recently and dutifully added to our Wall of Excellence too.
As a runner up Questyle CMA18 Portable is worth noting too.
Oh, and before I forget: anyone looking for a really good (near-perfect size compromise, feather weight, multiple connectivity options, long lasting battery) transport to exploit their preferred battery-backed dac amp Hiby’s most recent R1 is it !
On overear front, the year’s sole real shining star was Sennheiser HD 620S. Simply put: the sole closedbacks I heard to date standing the quality comparison with Final Sonorous II and III.
As for in-ears, I would mention Dita Project-M for very good execution (in spite of not meeting my personal preference in terms of timbre), and I would also shine a light on low cost Maestraudio MAPro 1000.
Lastly, after plugging it for testing the first time Audioquest PowerQuest PQ3 surge protector became a solid part of my central setup.
Kazi Mahbub Mutakabbir…Munich, GERMANY
2024 has been a rather “dry” year for me. All I saw in the industry is the fervent race to the bottom, and even more influencer-shilling where they keep churning out one collab after another (all of which sound a*s, for the lack of a better descriptor). Even then, a few devices and headphones stood out. So, without further ado…
Xduoo XA-02 caught me off-guard. A budget all-in-one is not what I expected to be a standout device for the year, but here it is. Even the notoriously amp-picky Sennheiser HD 800 sound great with this one. Has a permanent spot as my daily driver.
In terms of IEMs, nothing truly stood out. Sidegrades galore.
As for headphones, the only one that I can’t forget is the RAAL 1995 Immanis. When paired with a powerful amp, the whole presentation is organic and engulfing. A treat, albeit a very expensive one.
When it comes to DAPs or portable amps, nothing stood out. Cayin C9ii has just been released but I am yet to listen to that one. Hopefully next year.
Finally, a shout out to the SVS SB1000 Pro subwoofers. Usually not the kind of product that we cover but it has truly elevated my desktop nearfield setup. Very easy to integrate with satellites thanks to the app and PEQ capabilities and the sealed form factor helps in keeping the neighbors happy.
Biodegraded…Vancouver, CANADA
Environmentally friendly, as his name implies, he is still stuck to his 2021 gear…again. Gives us even more carbon credits.
Gear of the Year 2023
