We gathered the opinions of Redditors and our own reviewers to come up with this list.
We’re living in the far future in the year 2024, and the life of a music lover has never been better, especially compared to the 10-pound headphones our ‘ancestors’ had in the 1880s.
Our smartphones grant us unlimited access to almost all of the recorded music, and it’s effortlessly beamed to a pair of wireless earbuds.
Recently, the r/audiophile group on Reddit asked their netizens, “What’s The Best HiFi Product Of The Last 20 Years And Why?” This has gathered a lot of interesting opinions.
But we didn’t want to stop there. Since we also have our very own audiophiles, we also surveyed our Review team for their insights. Here’s what we found out so far:
The Best According to Reddit
Many weighed in their opinions of what has impressed them the most in the last two decades.
As suggested by the user OklaJosha, indeed, only the Benchmark AHB2 is an actual product. However, the Danish amplifier modules have found their way into many products from NAD, Marantz, and others.
Others offered more fundamental innovations whose impact has become a part of our everyday life.
While the ethics of music streaming are debatable, there’s no doubt that having full access to almost all of the music that has ever been recorded is revolutionary!
The MiniDSP UMIK-1 is an invaluable tool in the hands of a knowledgeable music lover. After all, the biggest hurdle to good sound in your living room is… the room itself!
Fire up the free Room EQ Wizard software, ring out your room, and find out where some corrective EQ can help and where getting physical treatment is better.
What Do the Pros Think?
To set the record straight, we asked our review team what they thought of the matter. After a few swift emails, here’s their short list with some comments:
- Trav Wilson, Review Lead
- Eric D. Hieger, Psy.D., Senior Reviewer
- Kazi Mahbub Mutakabbir, Senior Reviewer
- Ace Bee, Junior Reviewer
- Rudolfs Putnins, Junior Reviewer
Trav Wilson, Review Lead
Trav is unapologetically a gearhead and loves tubes, buttons, meters, and switches. He finds myself trapped between an appreciation for the sublimely built gear of the past and a desire for the convenience of the newest high-tech digital devices.
- Sennheiser HD650/600 headphones: No other pair(s) of headphones (other than the older Koss PortaPro, perhaps) consistently remain on current recommended must-own lists.
- Apple iPod: The evolution of the mp3 player set the standard for all DAPs that followed.
- Streaming apps: Digital audio has matured and become something unique. No longer do many folks have huge physical or digital libraries when you can literally ‘rent’ it all for a monthly fee.
Eric D. Hieger, Psy.D., Senior Reviewer
Eric serves as a Board Member for Chamber Music Hawaiʻi and has been an active voice in various audio forums. His passion has led him to produce both written and video reviews, helping others in their audio journey.
- The original Bose noise-canceling headphones: These dramatically changed the world of audio and the way people from all walks of life listened to music. Did you know, Bose technically invented active noise cancellation in headphones?
- Bluetooth technology: This changed audio the most in the past 20 – 30 years. These two things essentially launched the multi-billion dollar global industry that we see today.
Kazi Mahbub Mutakabbir, Senior Reviewer
Hailing from Bangladesh and living in Germany, Kazi got into head-fi in mid-2019 under the username kmmbd. His introduction to portable audio was through a Walkman cassette player in his pre-teens, and music has been his getaway ever since.
- Sennheiser HD800/800S: even a decade after their original release, the HD800 boast perhaps the most technically advanced dynamic drivers in existence. Their spatial abilities are unrivaled by many current TOTLs, and they are still supremely resolving.
- Hifiman Sundara: the headphones that somehow “democratized” planar magnetics. They are built well, fairly comfortable when worn, and, despite some timbral issues, offer superior technical performance over their peers.
Ace Bee, Junior Reviewer
Ace has been a connoisseur of music ranging from country through rock and pop to instrumental, etc., for more than 23 years and an audiophile for more than eight years. It took him five long years to properly build an understanding of audiophilia, and he has been officially voicing my opinions for three years now.
- Lotoo Paw S1: first introduction of how premium a sound can come from a portable dongle DAC/Amp, helping people without a proper DAP get by with a smartphone to enjoy HiFi music.
- Qudelix 5K: Bluetooth DAC/Amp is so good with such an impressive software control that people are still pursuing it.
- Sony IER-Z1R: enigmatic hybrid IEMs, having equal shares of lovers and haters, but still impressing audiophiles in its own price bracket even six years after its release.
Rudolfs Putnins, Junior Reviewer
Rudolfs’ entry into headphone audio was in 2011 when he got his Grado SR80i. This was also when he got his Philosophy degree, with the philosophy of science being his major interest. After a short stint in a news agency, he was lucky (and crafty) enough to land his first full-time audio job.
- Sennheiser HD650: While starting to get a bit long in the tooth after 20 years on the market, the HD650 is still a neutrality benchmark in full-size headphones. Sennheiser is busy trying to repeat its success, but the best it has managed is the HD6XX which is the same headphone but way more affordable.
- DIRAC Live room correction: Room acoustics is the main enemy of good speaker sound at home. Being able to measure and correct the tonal shifts they cause is by far the most audible improvement one can achieve. Of course, don’t let yourself get lulled into thinking that it can fix everything.
- B&O ICEPOWER and Hypex nCore Class-D amp modules: these are the first Class-D amplifiers that can comfortably duke it out with Class-AB amps. The best implementations not only measure very well but also sound phenomenal.
- Soekris R2R DAC module: It’s an ‘honorable mention’ because it started the affordable multibit discrete ladder DAC movement. Until then your best bet would be either hunting for old DACs or you fork out silly money for MSB gear. Now many other companies are building similar stuff, but Soekris was there first.
Do you agree with Reddit’s and Headphonesty’s finest? Chime in the comments section to tell us what your take is!