The Best Bookshelf Speakers of 2020

The guide to the best bookshelf loudspeakers of 2020 covers everything you need to know before you buy your next pair of audio equipment. We tested a whole host of speakers to find which ones will make the best addition to your home stereo system.

1. Q Acoustics Concept 300

Q Acoustics is a relatively new loudspeaker brand on this continent but it’s one that you should pay attention to. Having already made a significant dent in the U.K. and Europe against some rather stiff competition from rivals like KEF, B&W and Wharfedale with its affordable but over-achieving 3000-Series, Q Acoustics is now pushing hard into the high-end with the Concept 300 stand-mounted full-range bookshelf loudspeaker.

Best Overall Bookshelf Loudspeaker

Price: $4,499/pair
From: amazon.com

What We Like: The Concept 300 deliver unrivaled levels of coherency, clarity and presence in a stand-mounted design that can compete with significantly more expensive loudspeakers – not that $4,999 isn’t rather expensive for a two-way bookshelf design. Low-end performance is surprisingly deep and taut making them adept with all kinds of music and they will never be the weak link in your system. The slightly scary-looking Tensegrity tripod stand utilizes cutting edge acoustic isolation and plays a significant role in the sound of the Concept 300 – image solidity and soundstage depth are first-rate. Paired with the right amplifier, these are end-game loudspeakers that also look the part.
What We Don’t Like: The Concept 300 need a really good amplifier to really shine. Not the last word in dynamic punch. Stand design might make you nervous even though they work amazingly well.

2. PSB Alpha P5

PSB have been manufacturing award-winning loudspeakers for over 40 years. Audio industry legend Paul Barton plays a significant role at Lenbrook (NAD, PSB, Bluesound) designing not only the PSB and Bluesound loudspeakers, but also the NAD headphones. Rather than pursue building cost-no-object loudspeakers which Barton could do with his access to significant R&D resources, he has focused on the entry-level and products like the Alpha P5 that are remarkable loudspeakers.

Best Budget Bookshelf Loudspeaker

Price: $400/pair
From: amazon.com

What We Like: The Alpha P5 have a lot of competition below $600 but they manage to win the day with an impressive level of transparency, detail and dynamic punch that works with almost every recording you try. The midrange is superb and the bass response from such a small two-way pair of loudspeakers is resoundingly taut and agile even with electronica and hip-hop and driven with entry-level integrated amplifiers. Also the build quality is very high for the price. You can drive these with 35-50 watts and wipe the floor with any wireless loudspeaker for many years to come.

What We Don’t Like: The Alpha P5 sound a lot better with superior amplifiers and that will force you to stretch your budget. The top end can sound slightly etched as compared to the midrange and low end which are far more balanced. The Alpha P5 start to lose their remarkably coherency when you push them too hard – not ideal for blasting Iron Maiden or Tool at really loud listening levels.

3. Wharfedale EVO4.2

Wharfedale is one of the oldest loudspeaker manufacturers in the world and one of the best at designing affordable high-end loudspeakers that can really reproduce a full-range sound that won’t crush your bank account. The EVO Series is a rather radical departure from the acclaimed Diamond range. They not only look more refined but also sound dramatically more polished and dynamic. They’re built overseas to keep the price down, and you’ll be grateful when you open your wallet.

Best Affordable Full-Range Bookshelf Loudspeaker

Price: $1,000 / pair
From: amazon.com

What We Like: The EVO4.2 sound positively like floor-standing loudspeakers when positioned on solid stands and they don’t require a subwoofer either. Midrange is clean sounding with a warm tonal balance that makes them ideal for a lot of solid-state and tube amplifiers. These are not very hard loudspeakers to drive and they can play very loudly without losing any sense of control or focus. Plus, they’re built like tanks and a remarkable value for the money. AMT ribbon tweeter has remarkable extension and a highly detailed presentation that will illuminate better sounding recordings.

What We Don’t Like: The EVO4.2 require heavy-duty stands – prepare to spend $300-500 for a pair that will do these loudspeakers justice. The slightly laid-back presentation might make some listeners think they are not ideal for rock, metal, electronica – and they would be 100 percent wrong if they don’t give them a chance. Beware: these are capable of taking you down the audiophile rabbit hole where you’ll spend years trying every amplifier you can to see what else they can do.

4. Dynaudio Focus 20 XD

This Danish loudspeaker giant has decades of experience designing and building some of the world’s best midrange/woofers and tweeters, and a real understanding of what 21st-century music listeners expect in an active/wireless system. The Focus 20 XD incorporate a very powerful 150-watt amplifier inside each speaker and support for high-resolution digital audio streaming. Like everything they do, the Dynaudio Focus 20 XD are built to the highest standards and benefit from some 40 years of driver research that give them a serious sonic advantage.

Best Active/Wireless Bookshelf Loudspeaker

Price: $6,000
From: crutchfield.com

What We Like: Some may not immediately like their laid-back presentation, but it works better than most for long-term listening at moderate-to-loud volume levels. Dynaudio builds world-class tweeters and the result is a very smooth, airy and detailed top end that makes even horrible recordings easy to digest. The Focus 20 XD can completely vanish in your listening space on good stands reproducing a deep and relatively wide soundstage. Bass response is articulate. The internal amplifier maintains a really strong grip on the woofer but this loudspeaker is not going to shake your room. If you prize midrange refinement and tonal accuracy over a front-row presentation, the Focus 20 XD will be for you. The ability to tweak the loudspeaker to match your room with the rear controls and app is a huge plus.

What We Don’t Like: Being tied to an ecosystem isn’t going to be for everyone. The laid-back presentation will not excite you right away but the Focus 20 XD will grow on you the more you listen and discover little nuances in each recording. These are not bass crunching loudspeakers for those who need that level of low end punch. Require expensive stands to really strut their stuff.

Why Bookshelf Speakers?

Smart speakers have taken a considerable slice of the loudspeaker market over the past twenty-four months, with Amazon and Google both announcing superior-sounding versions of their Echo and Google Home smart speakers, Apple releasing its first-ever smart speaker, and traditional speaker companies, like Bose and Sonos, also getting in on the action. With their ease of setup, their ability to control your smart home gadgets and answer questions, as well as wireless play with other smart speakers, it’s no wonder that smart speakers have traditional loudspeaker manufacturers running scared.

But there will always be a market for bookshelf speakers. Why? Because stereo sound is special. Music that was recorded in stereo, needs to be listened to in that format unless we are content with listening to single loudspeakers again that attempt to simulate stereo or even surround sound with multiple drivers packed into an enclosure the size of a coffee can. Stereo bookshelf loudspeakers do a rather convincing job recreating the soundstage; the physical space (studio, garage, music hall) where the recording was made and that illusion of being there with your favorite artist is a big part of the experience. They also reproduce the scale of the recording in a far more convincing way; crank Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” through an Apple HomePod and you will discover just how poorly smart speakers reproduce the dynamics of a challenging track.

Active Versus Passive

Wireless smart speakers are also limited by the amplification that the manufacturer has stuffed inside; space limitations almost dictate the use of Class D or switching amplifiers that are more efficient than traditional linear amplifiers, which require large heatsinks to dissipate heat. Class D amplifiers have improved greatly in recent years in regard to sound quality and require less space, are cheaper, and weigh less.

If you really care about sound quality, you have plenty of passive (which require amplification) and active loudspeaker (with built-in amplification) options to select from. Passive loudspeakers are more flexible as you can experiment with different types of amplifiers, DACs, and placement options. Active loudspeakers are a better option for listeners who don’t want the added expense of multiple components, and an equipment rack filled with cables. The trade-off with any active loudspeaker is that you are committed to how the final product sounds. There is no way to try another amplifier or DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) to alter the sound. Active loudspeakers also require at least one of the loudspeakers to be plugged into the wall; limiting how you set the speaker up in your space. One thing is for certain, there is no shortage of affordable passive or active bookshelf loudspeakers for all types of spaces.

Analog or Wireless

It’s also worth considering wireless bookshelf speakers if you want the option to stream audio straight from your laptop, tablet or computer. A lot of newer models have either built-in wi-fi, Bluetooth or both. In addition to being really easy to use, this added connectivity gives wireless bookshelf speakers a few distinct advantages over bookshelf loudspeakers. They don’t require a direct connection to both an amplifier and source, like traditional analog speakers. They have fewer restrictions as to set-up locations or built-in amplification. And they most likely support the streaming services that you already pay for.

In the past, the major Achilles’ heel for wireless loudspeakers was sound quality, but that has taken a major leap forward in recent years, with products like the KEF LS50 Wireless and Devialet Phantoms. Wireless loudspeakers now feature high-performance internal amplification, phono pre-amplifiers, DACs, and support for major streaming platforms such as Spotify Connect, Airplay 2, Tidal, Pandora, and others. The one thing to always remember with all wireless loudspeakers is that they still require a power source — they’ll take up a wall outlet — and some wireless models require a tether from the master loudspeaker to the slave as the amplification is only built into one speaker.

5 Key Features of Samsung’s Tiny New Foldable Smartphone

Samsung has officially announced its next-generation foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip, and unlike the Galaxy Fold, the company’s previous foldable smartphone, the new Galaxy Z Flip folds vertically just like the recently released Motorola Razr. The idea is that it’s way more pocketable. But the new smartphone is unique in a lot of other key ways. Here’s what you need to know.

It’s not that expensive.

The Galaxy Z Flip will be available to order on February 14 and it cost $1,380. It’s still expensive, yes, but not so much considering the Galaxy Fold still demands a $1,980 price tag. Also, the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Samsung’s newest big-screen and premium smartphone, starts at $1,400; meaning the Galaxy Z Flip is ever so slightly cheaper.

It’s foldable glass, not plasic.

The display of the Galaxy Z Flip promises to be even more durable than the display of the Galaxy Fold. That’s because it’s the first foldable smartphone to use foldable glass instead of plastic, thus supposedly making it a little more durable. Samsung claims that the Galaxy Z Flip can be folded over 200,000 times.

An all-new “Flex Mode.”

Samsung gave the Galaxy Z Flip a brand-new type of hinge for a smartphone. They’re calling it a “free-stop hinge” and the gist is that you can stop the hinge whenever you want, just like the hinge on a laptop, and the Galaxy Z Flip will rest in place on a surface. When using it in this “hands-free” way, Samsung is calling this the Z Flip’s “Flex Mode.”

More ways to use a split-screen.

When using the Galaxy Z Flip in this “Flex Mode,” it actually divides the top and bottom displays so you can use them as two separate screens. For instance, when flipping through your Photo Gallery, the bottom screen turns into a trackpad and allows you to easily swipe through photos. Another cool thing is that you can take night-time hyperlapses without a tripod; just prop the Galaxy Z Flip in place, hit the shutter button, wait a few seconds and then you’ve got yourself a hyperlapse.

Take selfies when folded.

When folded into its tiny form factor, the Galaxy Z Flip is a little more capable than you’d think. It has a neat 1-inch cover display, which is barely larger than the smartphone’s camera system, that can show you things like Caller ID and some push notifications. This tiny cover display can also work as a viewfinder for the selfie camera, so you see and get yourself in frame without having to open the smartphone.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The 6 Most Important Things About Samsung’s New Flagship Smartphones

Samsung just announced its latest pack of flagship smartphones. In total, there are three. The Galaxy S20 (6.2″) and the Galaxy S20+ (6.7″) are the next generations of the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ smartphones, complete with a new naming scheme. And then there’s the Galaxy S20 Ultra (6.9″), which is an all-new supercharged phone with an unprecedentedly good camera.

Save for the huge rectangular camera systems on the back, the Galaxy S20s look very similar to their predecessors, but there are a number of huge differences hiding in plain sight. Here’s what you need to know:

A Better Camera with Big, Big Zoom

Cameras continue to be a primary reason people upgrade their smartphones and Samsung’s new Galaxy S20 family goes big on this front. According to Samsung, the Galaxy S20’s sensor is three times larger than the Galaxy S10’s, giving it better low-light shooting capabilities, better clarity and the ability to capture super high-res photos (up to 64-megapixels on the Galaxy S20 and S20+, and up to 108-megapixels on the Galaxy S20 Ultra). That extra resolution is crucial when you are trying to zoom in digitally or crop in the latter of which helps you shoot better landscape or group photos, or zoom-in or crop them in post.

And the zoom is where Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones really stand out. The Galaxy S20 Ultra, the most impressive of the bunch in this regard, has a sideways optical zoom lens tucked into its camera bump, sporting its own 48-megapixel sensor. The result is that it can zoom up to 10x optically, that is to say, with no decrease in quality. And from there, it can zoom up to 100x digitally, though you’ll suffer some loss of quality at extremes like that. On the Galaxy S20 and S20+, the optical zoom is 3x, with a max of 30x digitally. This is still decently better than the 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom on the Galaxy S10.

8K Video and Night Hyperlapses

All three Galaxy S20 smartphones are, for the first time, capable of recording 8K video at 24fps. They have Samsung’s built-in tools that let you edit videos in 8K or downconvert them to 4K if you want to share with somebody who doesn’t have a device that can view 8K content. Samsung improved the image stabilization when recording videos, as well.

Additionally, all Galaxy S20 smartphones have a new “Night Hyperlapse” feature that allows you, with a simple tap, to shoot long exposures at night. There’s a new “Single Take” mode that allows the camera to take 10 seconds of video, but the smartphone will also take photos with all its different lenses, so you’ll get a lot of different photos and a 10-second video.

Bring on 5G, Baby.

The Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra is Samsung’s first family of smartphones that are all 5G-enabled. Last year, Samsung launched the Galaxy S10 5G, which was the company’s first 5G smartphone, but it was more expensive and very limited. This year they’re all getting that 5G treatment by default — but they don’t all sport the same 5G speed.

The Galaxy S20+ and S20 Ultra — the two bigger smartphones and more expensive smartphones — will have slightly better and faster 5G capabilities than on the regular Galaxy S20. This is because they support both flavors of 5G, sub-6 and hyper-fast-but-extremely-short-range millimeter wave, while the Galaxy S20 only supports the slower but more broadly available sub-6. Essentially, this allows the Galaxy S20+ and S20 Ultra to unlock 5G’s most extreme speeds, but only if you have a plan that supports it and you’re inside the coverage range.

A 120Hz Refresh Rate

At first glance, it might seem like Samsung hasn’t done much to change the displays on its Galaxy S20 lineup. They’re still dynamic AMOLED and they look virtually identical. (The front camera still has that hole-punch design, which Samsung says the S20’s is slightly smaller than on the ones on the S10.) But these are Samsung’s first smartphones to have a 120Hz refresh rate, which is double the refresh rate on the S10, and gives on-screen animations an uncanny smoothness and makes them even better for mobile gaming (less lag, more accuracy).

Additionally and related to gaming, Microsoft’s Forza Street is going to be available on Galaxy devices, which is the first time you’ll be able to play the game on mobile.

Note: The default refresh rate on all Galaxy S20 smartphones is 60Hz, but you can change it to 120Hz in Settings. There’s no adaptive refresh rate like we’ve seen some other smartphones, where it automatically switches between 120Hz and 60Hz depending on what you’re doing.

A Cool New Way to Share Music

The Galaxy S20 has a feature called “Music Share” that allows you to share out your Bluetooth connection from your device to other devices. Essentially, if you are streaming music from your smartphone to a Bluetooth speaker or your car’s radio, “Music Share” allows your friend to connect to your smartphone (via Bluetooth) and then play their music. It eliminates the need to unpair and re-pair your smartphone. It’s an innovative way to distribute the DJ responsibilities at a party or on a long road trip.

Price, Availability and Everything Else

All of Samsung’s Galaxy S20 smartphones will come with a 25-watt charger in the box, and the S20 Ultra will support up to 45-watt charging. The base models for every smartphone will come with 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, with 512GB storage configurations available on the Galaxy S20+ and S20 Ultra.

Preorders for all Galaxy S20 devices will start on February 21 and run through March 5. They’ll be available to buy online and in stores on March 6. The Galaxy S20 starts at $1,000. The Galaxy S20+ starts at $1,200. And the Galaxy S20 Ultra starts at $1,400. If you pre-order any of these devices you’ll get a $100, $150 or $200 credit, respectively, to Samsung.com.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

16 Essential Apps the Gear Patrol Staff Can’t Live Without

There are over 2 million apps on the iOS App Store, over two million on the Google Play Store, and more than five million between them. Most of them, as I’m sure you’re well aware, are not worth the data it takes to download, but others are as crucial as your phone itself. Here are some of the apps that our staff just can’t live without.

The Piano

“This app is straightforward and simple. No millennial upstart branding. It’s a piano. Sure, it has ‘features,’ but I just use it to keep my decent relative pitch in check. When I hear a song and I think I know what key it’s in, this app confirms or denies my inkling.” — Gerald Ortiz, Writer, Style

RiverApp

“RiverApp lets you check the flow of various rivers from around the world. Designed for kayakers, it aggregates info into an easy-to-use platform. Upgrade from the free version to set alerts, save favorite rivers and see historical flow information. Also makes a great app for anglers wanting to check water levels on your favorite trout streams.” — Jacob Sotak, Content Director, Gear Patrol Store

TD Ameritrade

“I am under the illusion that I will be able to retire one day. When I want to shatter that illusion, I go look at my IRA, laid out for me in all its digital glory by TD Ameritrade in this intuitive app.” — Oren Hartov, Editor, Watches

park4night

“This past fall, I lived out a long-held fantasy of mine: a #vanlife trip through part of Europe. The van was a 1981 Volkswagen and the destination was Portugal, where campervan camping in beach parking lots and up secret dirt roads is popular. This app, which categorizes camping spots by type and includes photos and reviews — a crucial piece in determining whether a place gets crowded or dirty or busted by the cops — is better than any guidebook you’ll find on the matter. Plus, it’s available in the US.” — Tanner Bowden, Writer, Outdoors & Fitness

Notes

“This app languished for a while during the earlier iOS days, but in the past several iOS updates, Apple has made huge leaps forward. Today, Notes has become one of my key productivity apps and an app that I probably spend an inordinate amount of time in. Sure, I use it for note taking and places to jot inspiration, but where it’s become truly essential is with its addition of collaboration and stronger organizational tools. Now I have a collaborative ongoing, live to-do list that my wife populates with tasks she needs me to handle (I love that it moves finished items to the bottom), I can build tables in real time (I’m a table nerd) that I have synced live with my Apple laptops and the improvements in markup and scanning tools allow me to build longer, more robust memos long before I dive into Google Docs. I’m glad Apple has removed as much of that skeuomorphism UI mumbo jumbo from the app, improved search and added permission levels so you can share notes without letting people make changes – perfect when you have to make your friends accountable to bringing over the beer and chips for the Saturday BBQ. In short, Notes is essentially where I start nearly all my work and personal docs.” — Eric Yang, Founder and Editor-in-Chief

Audible

“Audiobooks have evolved greatly from the books on tape of yesteryear. With narrators like Nick Offerman, Meryl Streep, Samual L Jackson, and Tom Hanks (to name very few) your commute will be greatly improved with world class talent bringing new and old characters to life. Now that Audible’s allows for in-app iOS purchases, it’s the clear choice for audiobook enthusiasts.” — Andrew Siceloff, Director of Video

Snapseed

“Designed by Google, this is my go-to photo editing app on my iPhone, and I’ve tried a few. I don’t bother editing phone photos on the likes of the full desktop Lightroom and Photoshop, and Snapseed is simple to use but pretty powerful. Sure, you could use the filters, but you really get an app like this for the range of effects and control it offers. ” — Zen Love, Writer, Watches

Pigeon

“Living in New York City means you’re constantly struggling with figuring out the best way to get anywhere. Google’s crowdsourced transit app uses data culled from users and the subways/buses in realtime to help you figure out the most efficient route.” — Will Sabel Courtney, Editor, Motoring

Dunkin’

“I drink way too much Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, and this app hooks me up with points for eating and drinking there. It’s not technically advanced or fancy, but damn it, do I need it.” — Will Sabel Courtney, Editor, Motoring

Soundprint

“Trying to find a quiet place to read or chat in NYC can be a nightmare. This app shows exactly how loud bars, restaurants and other public spaces are, based on crowd-sourced data. Also, the decibel meter is super-handy. (Our office averages 59dB, by the way.)” — Will Sabel Courtney, Editor, Motoring

Google Photos

“I offload all my photos to the Google Photos app, never worrying about my phone storage or iCloud backups filling up. The app is super simple to use and you can even set it up to automatically upload all your photos to Google’s cloud. It’ll then delete the duplicated images for you (only if you want). The search features are pretty tight as well — when I’m trying to find that recipe card my mom sent me to make a family favorite, the app pulls that right up. ” — Meg Lappe, Editorial Coordinator

Amazon Prime Now

“Amazon allows me to shop for anything from anywhere, but Prime now has also made me super lazy with free two-hour grocery delivery.” — Kasey Martin, Multimedia Editor

Pocket Casts

“There are about a bajillion podcast apps out there, and plenty of reasons you might choose one over the others. I picked Pocket Casts because I go between different phones a lot, and Pocket Cast lets me save all my podcasts and my progress through them in a single account I can log into on any device to get up and going extremely quickly.” — Eric Limer, Editor, Tech

Mullvad VPN

“Did you know it is 100 percent legal for your internet company to collect your browsing data and sell it to advertisers? It is! That is why I use Mullvad to protect all the data that goes in and out of my house. A VPN won’t magically make you invisible on the internet by a long shot, but it’s a good way to prevent your ISP, who can see literally everything you do otherwise, from selling you out to advertisers. For Android, there’s a dedicated app. For iOS users, you’ll have to set up something like OpenVPN.” — Eric Limer, Editor, Tech

Shazam

“Any music lover needs Shazam. It’s invaluable for those sporadic moments that perk your ears. It syncs with Spotify and saves songs into its own playlist for you to reference later. I also judge restaurants, bars and cafes by how much I open Shazam.” — Gerald Ortiz, Writer, Style

VSCO

“VSCO has really great presets that you can tweak. I love being able to adjust the tint of the highlights and shadows, as well as being able to adjust the skin tones. Of course, you are limited a bit with what you can tweak on your phone but VSCO gets the job done pretty well for on-the-go editing. It’s simple and is super user-friendly.” — Kasey Martin, Multimedia Editor

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The Most Popular Vintage Receivers and Amplifiers, According to a Hi-Fi Shop Owner

For audiophiles, there’s no doubting the appeal of vintage audio equipment. Part of it has to do with rarity, the thrill of hunting down a Marantz stereo receiver from the 1970s, heritage speakers by Klipsch or JBL, or a vintage Thorens turntable. Part of it has to do with fidelity, that the old stuff sounds better. And part of it has to do with charm and character. Vintage units just have that special something that modern equipment lacks.

“I constantly use the analogy of vintage cars running parallels with vintage audio,” says Mike Garry, owner of Hudson Valley HiFi, which specializes in buying, restoring and selling vintage audio equipment. “The early 1970s muscle car may not be as reliable or perform as well as a modern one, but there is just something cool and fun about the 50-year-old model.” Like with vintage cars, vintage audio depends a heck-of-a-lot on restoration. Old gear naturally breaks down over time and needs new parts to perform at their best. A lot of these vital parts, also, aren’t being made anymore because they’re so old, so restoring them isn’t a quick fix for technicians at these vintage audio shop. For consumers, this means they are either finding non-working units and getting them restored, or likely paying a premium on restored units.

Garry’s shop, Hudson Valley HiFi, is located in Cornwall, New York, on the western shore of the Hudson River, and it specializes in both modern and vintage audio gear. “Unlike most audio equipment businesses out there, the most common equipment we sell is two-channel stereo,” he said. For vintage restoration, Garry says that they work primarily on the 1960s vacuum tube gear and 1970s solid-state. To get a little more insight, we asked Garry to share the most popular receivers and amplifiers that people come to his shop for. The answers, in all his own quotes, are below.

Some of the below quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Fisher 500c Stereo Receiver

“The Fisher 500c was a wonderful receiver made in New York in the early 1960s. It was one of the first FM stereo tuners to use multiplex, which is the same system for FM stereo used today. It utilized a variant of the 6L6 power tube 7591 which provided 32wpc powering most efficient speakers at that time. The 500c was a little over $400 new, which at the time was a good chunk of change. The prices of Fisher tube gear have skyrocketed and it is difficult to find good clean examples — now but they are still out there. I highly advise against playing these units without proper restoration, since wall voltage is quite a bit higher than when these were new and this increases the voltages in the amp. There are many mods we do to Fisher gear to make them safer and run a little cooler on modern wall current.”

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Marantz 2270 Stereo Receiver

“If any marketing team wants to see a successful campaign from the mid-1970s, they can check out the brilliant ads for the Marantz 2270. Ads included a story of a fire in an apartment building in which a beloved 2270 fell through the floor yet survived only requiring a new power cord since the original had melted. Thanks to their marketing, Marantz sold a ton of 2270 receivers and it became an icon. The aluminum faceplate with beautiful dashed knobs, three sets of four buttons below a blue backlit dial, has such appeal even 45 years after it hit the market. The sound of the receiver is so enjoyable even Marantz’s current two-channel amps are voiced similar to the 2270.”

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Pioneer SX-1250 Stereo Receiver

“In the later years of the 1970s, the big receiver builders were at each other’s throats building the biggest most powerful units they could. The Pioneer SX-1250 is not the biggest or the most powerful — but it is huge, heavy, and has plenty of power. My feeling is the big receivers of Pioneer’s SX-x50 series were the best-designed receivers from that era. Huge toroidal power transformer with massive filtering capacitors created a well-designed power supply to feed the beast. The silver faceplate and dial with very elegant lighting, wrapped in walnut make it one of my favorites in terms of looks. These, like many big receivers, do need a ton of work to restore, but once done they are just plain fun to play.”

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McIntosh MC240 Vacuum Tube Amplifier

“There are many well-known hi-fi brands but McIntosh always seems to be a common ‘name drop’ when someone wants to emphasize quality. They’re built-in Binghamton, New York from essentially scratch, Mac tube amps have been increasing in value tremendously in the last decade. Using their proprietary auto-bias system for power tubes and beautiful potted transformers these amps are easy to roll tubes for different sound characteristics. The McIntosh MC240 is a 6L6 push-pull power amp making 40wpc, hand-wired point to point design, and has a very robust power supply. The iron is very heavy on this amp which any valve amp builder will tell you the quality of an amp can be measured by the weight of its transformers. We see many Mac tube amps but the MC240 is definitely the most common coming in for restoration.”

Dynaco ST70 Stereo Tube Amplifier

“Today, the big appeal of the Dynaco ST70 is that [it’s usually] fairly reasonably priced. The amp can be restored with its original design intact or, if one desires, it can be heavily modded just by removing the driver board and replacing it with one of the many modern boards available. By replacing the board you essentially change the entire circuit design and gives you the ability to use different driver tubes than the original difficult to find 7199 triode/pentode. The ST70 is easy to work on since it was designed as a kit and with push-pull EL34 power tubes, there are many options to tube roll to change its sonic characteristics.”

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The Best Sleep Tracking Apps for the Apple Watch

The Apple Watch doesn’t come with its own sleep tracking app, no matter which model you buy. Nor does Apple advertise “sleep tracking” as one of its features. The reason is battery life. Apple’s unspoken assumption is that you will be recharging your Apple Watch’s “all day” battery overnight.

Of course, if you want your Apple Watch to track your sleep — you can. There are plenty of third-party apps that track sleep that you can download. These apps are able to track how long and how well you sleep. They can also give you a detailed chart of your sleeping patterns over time. The catch is that you’re going to either want to charge your Apple Watch a little bit during the day or a little bit right before bed. According to Apple, an hour-and-a-half charge will take any of the Apple Watch from about zero to 80-percent battery; while an extra half-an-hour is needed to charge that extra 20 percent.

If you’re an Apple Watch wearer and sleep tracking matters to you, these are the apps you should try out.

AutoSleep

Best Overall: This is most popular app for sleep tracking because it looks and works very similarly to the Activity app that’s already on your Apple Watch — there are rings and everything. It tracks sleep duration, sleep quality and “readiness,” the latter basically attempting to rate how well your sleep prepared you or the forthcoming day. And it integrates nicely with Apple Health.

Sleep++

Best Free: The biggest upside that Sleep++ has over some of the other sleep tracking apps, particularly AutoSleep, is that it’s free. Other than that, it has many of the same features, such as automatic sleep tracking (it detects exactly when you fall asleep) and shows you a bunch of data about your night’s sleep.

Pillow

Honorable Mention: Pillow is a well-reviewed app that, again, has many of the popular features like automatic sleep tracking and in-depth sleep analysis charts. It has a “smart alarm clock,” where it wakes you up at the optimal point in your sleep cycle for maximum morning refreshment. The app can also record audio (like snores and random outbursts) during the night and play it back for you, but that requires you to pay a subscription fee so you’ll have to want it really bad.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The Best Smart Bulbs You Can Buy in 2020

The first thing to know is that, compared to other smart home tech, smart light bulbs are simple. They’re almost exactly the same as conventional LED bulbs, but with a whole host of added benefits.

The Advantages of a Smart Bulb

You can do a host of other neat things with smart light bulbs that you simply can’t conventional LED bulbs, too. Most of them have to do with control.

• Remote control: You can turn smart lights on or off even if you’re not home. All you need to do is have your smartphone connected to Wi-Fi or LTE, and a compatible smart home app at the ready.

• Create schedules: You don’t need to turn your lights on or off manually. With schedules you can set them to turn off or on (or otherwise change their settings, at a certain time every day or night. If you have multiple smart lights you can have them all set to the same or different schedules, too.

• Create scenes: A “scene” or “room” in the context of a smart home is a group of devices all working together. For example, you can group the three smart light bulbs that are located in your bedroom together, name them “Bedroom,” and then turn them all on or off with a single voice command: “Hey Google, turn off bedroom lights.”

• Brightness control: Not every smart light bulb is dimmable, but many are. Dimmable smart light bulbs are neat because you can adjust the brightness without having to adjust a physical dimmer. You can adjust it via an app or using voice commands.

• Energy efficient: The vast majority of modern light bulbs are LEDs, and that includes most smart light bulbs. They’re naturally more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, but the fact that they’re smart means you can always check on them; if you’ve left a light on by accident, you can turn it off from anywhere you have a Wi-Fi or LTE connection.

What to Look Out For

There are many different smart light bulbs that you can choose from in 2020. Not all of them work the same way or have the same capabilities, however. Here are some common questions to ask when considering your choice.

• Does it need a hub? Some smart lights connect directly to your home’s Wi-Fi network so  you can easily control them straight from your smartphone or with a voice assistant. Others, require an extra piece of hardware, like a hub or a bridge, to do the exact same thing. Knowing if the smart lights will need extra hardware, which also adds an extra expense, is one of the most important things before investing in smart lights.

• Is it compatible with your other gear? The other big important thing to consider before buying a smart light bulb is knowing whether it will work with your home’s smart ecosystem. Not every smart light is compatible with Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s HomeKit, the Google Assistant or IFTTT, so you need to check beforehand.

• What do you want for light color and temperature: If you’re willing to spend a little more, you can buy smart lights that have various colors and temperature effects. For instance, Philips Hue’s White And Color Ambiance smart bulbs can shine in millions of different colors and various shades of white light. These smart lights can also adjust the temperature of the light throughout the day, which can help you better wake up or fall asleep.

Smart Lights or Smart Switches/Outlets: Which to Choose?

Smart lights are great smart home products but they aren’t great in every scenario. For example, an area in your home that has multiple lights controlled by a single light switch probably isn’t a great situation for smart lights. A better solution for such a scene, like a large family room with lots of overhead lighting, would be to buy a smart switch instead, such as the Wemo Light Switch, instead.

Smart switches are generally a little cheaper and can be used to control the “dumb” lights that you already have. This also means that you can use smart switches to control any light bulb. On the downside, smart switches usually require more installation — typically some light wire-work — and they can’t be used to create scenes. While most smart light switches are able to dim the lights, they definitely can’t adjust the color or temperature like you’re able to with a lot of smart light bulbs.

The Best Smart Bulbs You Can Buy Right Now

Philips Hue White

Best Starter Bulbs: Philips Hue makes the most popular smart bulbs. The company’s “White” smart bulbs can’t produce the many shades of color as the “White and Color Ambiance” smart bulbs, but they’re cheaper, still dimmable and work in much the same way.

Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
Smart Hub? Optional

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance

Best Multi-Color Bulbs: These are the best option for people who really want to play around with all the customization options smart bulbs have to offer. Like the company’s “White” bulbs, they work with pretty much smart home ecosystem and you can control them with your voice. The big upside with them is that, via the app, you can adjust the smart lights to change to one of 16 million colors and shades of white. The downside is that you need to use the Hue smart hub (included in the starter pack) to get the most out of them.

Compatibility: Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung SmartThings
Smart Hub? Yes

Wyze Bulb

Best Budget Bulbs: At just $8 a piece and even cheaper in packs, you’re not going to find a more affordable smart bulb than the Wyze Bulb. And it’s actually pretty versatile to boot. It’s compatible with both Amazon’s and Google’s smart speakers. You can adjust its brightness and color temperatures (from warm to cool). And if you use Wyze’s other smart home products, you can have the Wyze Bulbs perform tricks like lighting up when certain sensors are triggered, like when motion is detected by a Wyze Cam.

Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT
Smart Hub? No

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Ikea Tradfri

Best Decorative Bulbs: Ikea’s first smart filament light bulb is beautiful, dimmable and relatively affordable. Its tinted glass helps create a warm, moody light. The only downside is that you’ll need to buy a smart hub, the Tradfri gateway ($35), to get the most out of it, such as the ability to control with voice controls or work with Ikea’s ecosystem of smart home products (consisting of motion sensors, LED light bulbs and some light panels).

Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit)
Smart Hub? Yes

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here.

The TV Settings You Need to Change Before the Super Bowl

Welcome to Superuser Skills, a column devoted to making sure you get the most out of the gear you already own.

The Super Bowl is rapidly approaching, and there’s more to getting ready for the game than just making sure you have the appropriate snacks and drinks. If you’ve gotten a new TV recently, or just never bothered to dive into its settings whenever you did get it, now is the perfect time to make sure your picture is up to snuff.

With so many makes and models on the market, it’s tough to provide exact directions for every single set out there, but we can point you towards the options to look for, even if they’re named or applied slightly differently in each case. If you’re stuck, seek out your manufacturer’s website for the appropriate manual.

Calibrate the colors and brightness

Your TV will make its best guess about how to show the colors and set the brightness on its display, and most of the time that guess is going to be a pretty good one. Sometimes, however, TVs come with default settings tuned to the showroom instead of your living room, which results in oversaturated, too-bright picture that will sear your retinas. So dive into your set’s color and brightness settings and you’ll find a lot of variation in terms of the options available, depending on the manufacturer, but all the basics should be covered.

For example, you just head to Picture in Settings on most Samsung TVs to start playing around with brightness, contrast, and tint. A search on the web for your specific make and model of TV should turn up some tips from other users about how to configure these settings, and you can also get some very detailed and very helpful advice from the videos produced by the experts at Rtings.com.

You should also turn off—or at least experiment with—any settings that attempt to enhance or digitally manipulate the colors on your set. How effective and useful these are will vary between devices, so make yourself aware of the options at your disposal and see if disabling any of them leads to any improvements.

Another option to look out for and potentially disable is ambient brightness, where your TV attempts to adjust the brightness on the fly in response to the available light in the room—something which can end up giving you a very weird-looking picture. On some recent Sony sets, for example, the setting is under Picture and Light sensor.

Disable motion smoothing

Out of the box, a lot of modern-day TVs like to apply what’s known as motion smoothing, which works exactly the way it sounds—it applies some behind-the-scenes trickery to make fast motion in action films or sports games appear smoother.

Essentially, TV sets will create extra frames to pack more frames into each second, which should mean less jank and blur. These frames aren’t created out of thin air—they’re calculated based on the frames either side, so if a ball is traveling from point A to point B, it should be possible to come up with a mid-point too.

The problem is, motion smoothing ends up making a lot of movies and TV shows look homemade or low-budget (it’s often called “the soap opera effect”). At the very least, it’s worth turning it off just to see if you prefer the way your TV picture looks.

Confusingly, TV manufacturers use a host of different names for motion smoothing—it’s Auto Motion on Samsung sets, TruMotion in LG world, and MotionFlow if you’re using Sony products, for example. The option to disable it should be somewhere prominent in the picture settings or advanced settings menu.

Fix the aspect ratio

Modern-day TVs have to display content from a whole host of sources, from the latest 4K Netflix shows to early episodes of the Simpsons in 4:3 aspect ratio. Most of the time, they’re clever enough to work out how to display each format, but that’s not automatically always the case.

You’re going to have to do a bit of digging here because all sets handle this differently and serve up a different set of options: Look for mentions of aspect ratio or cropping in the picture settings, or any kind of automatic resizing. Some televisions apply names like Zoom or Wide to the picture manipulations that are going on.

You might need to do this separately for the different inputs plugged into your TV, if you’ve got (for example) a games console plugged into one HDMI port and a streaming box plugged into another. If you can see an option to just display the picture as it’s being broadcast from the input, then select it.

On modern Samsung sets, for instance, from the main settings menu you can go to Picture then Picture Size to make changes: A variety of options then present themselves, including the newer 16:9 aspect ratio, the older 4:3 aspect ratio, and a Custom option that lets you control the aspect ratio manually.

Do a privacy audit

And once your done with the picture settings, it is the perfect time to settle some privacy matters as well. TV manufacturers love user data as much as any other company, which is why working through the setup process on a new TV today can involve accepting a whole host of terms and conditions about how your television usage is going to be monitored.

Some of these terms and conditions are non-negotiable if you want to actually use the TV set, but it’s worth a few minutes of your time to review what you’ve agreed to. On new LG sets, for example, go to All Settings, About This TV then User Agreements—here you can opt-out of features like targeted advertising and voice command control.

If you’ve got a set powered by the Roku TV software, meanwhile, you can go to Settings, Privacy, and Smart TV Experience: The next screen lets you stop the set from tracking some of the programs you watch, and put a limit on targeted advertising.

Remember that any streaming apps you’ve installed on your TV (or on a streaming device plugged into your TV) are going to have privacy policies and settings of their own to think about, covering the data that’s collected about you. Consumer Reports has a good guide to your options here.