Best High-End Audio Equipment to Buy Right Now

Hearing music the way the artist intended is everything. Many of us have gotten a little too used to tangled smartphone earbuds making their way up our bodies in a knotted mess and into our sweaty, greasy ears. As long as we hear something… “Cool, that’s good enough!”

But, if you’re a true music-listener, you’re going to want to hear every beat, note and sound wave just as you were supposed to hear it. Today’s post is for the real audiophiles. People who are easily tantalized by the perfect, crisp, clean sounds of their favorite musicians… oh my! If your heart is already racing thinking about perfected sound waves tickling your ear’s fancy, you’re going to love this post.

We’re going to explore really awesome (very) high-end audio options, but also make note of some more affordable counterparts.

Legacy Audio Whisper XDS Speaker System

$24,750

At first glance, these bad boys look like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. And they’re almost as majestic. The design of the Whisper XDS is truly special. The design is open air, which means that there are practically no room limitations. The design also allows a listener to move from one side of the speaker, to the other and still hear a balanced sound. Not to mention, it’s built in such a way, that boundary interactions are eliminated from walls, ceilings and floors. This means your ears can lock in on the sound easier. This magnificent creature is six feet tall. When you consider all of its capabilities, the price tag makes a lot of sense.

Devialet Phantom Wireless Speaker

$2,490

This is a real nifty, cool-looking toy. It’s heavy, but much smaller then you would expect considering it’s monstrous sound capabilities. The sides of the device pulsate like a heart-rate while the music thumps. The Devialet Phantom has all kinds of intriguing features that boost its technology. The ADH® technology combines both worlds of analog and digital amplification. The HBI® system can emit extremely low frequencies. SAM® was actually invented by Devialet to guarantee maximum fidelity.

Sennheiser Orpheus

$47,156

Besides being phenomenal headphones, they’re really pretty to look at as well. Made from Carrara marble, you’ll be wearing the same type of stone Michelangelo used for some of his sculptures.

Sennheiser calls the device, “a vault of silence.” Four parallel channels for each ear and eight internal DACs mean that distortion is severely reduced. The few people who have gotten to feel the touch of the Sennheiser Orpheus say that it’s extremely comfortable for your ears and head.

Budget Choice: Sennheiser PXC 550 Wireless Travel Headphones

oBravo EAMT-1s

$4,886

You thought the only headphones listed would be over-the-ear models, didn’t ya? Not all high-end headphones have to go over the ear! The oBravo EAMT-1s are in-ear and deliver some serious quality straight to your eardrum. It’s a coaxial design, which mixes two driver types into a single unit. These things can reach lows of 15Hz and highs of 45kHz. The body is precision ceramic, hand crafted. So they look gorgeous too!

Budget Choice: Sennheiser IE 80 S In Ear Headphones Black

AV Designhaus Derenville VPM 2010-1 

$607,613

Vinyl is cool. Turntables are cool. The AV Designhause Derenville VPM is absolutely amazing. These are probably the most expensive turntables ever built. This turntable is over half a million dollars, so it must be fairly good, right? The short answer: Yes. Frequency controlled motors on the belt, laser toe angle measurement and an integrated digital scale. There’s also an HD Camera and a screen that gives you the ability to ensure everything is running smoothly.

Budget Choice: Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB XP Direct-Drive Professional DJ Turntable Standard