The Verges favorite audio gear for 2022 – The Verge

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While I love constantly streaming music and podcasts via Wi-Fi speakers in my home, nothing beats making the time to put on a record. My Audio-Technica is a very modest setup — an inexpensive homage to the legendary Technics SL-1200 — but it’s the experience of sitting and listening that makes it special. I’m well aware that music is recorded digitally now, and the vinyl doesn’t make the sound much better unless you pony up for pricey gear, but I don’t care.

My record collection is my poor man’s art collection. When I buy an LP or seven-inch, I’m not just buying the songs but also the larger artwork, photography, design, liner notes, and ultimately the experience of dedicating my time and attention to it all when I listen. I love the occasions when I get to sit around the living room with friends, taking turns picking a record, and just chatting while the songs spin for hours. I don’t even mind having to get up in the middle to flip the disc. It’s all part of the experience, and it always puts me in a good mood. — Antonio G. Di Benedetto, commerce writer

I see that Mitchell already introduced you to a set of high-performance, low-cost in-ear headphones. I can vouch for another, the KZ ZSX, which cost a little more at $60. There are two reasons why I bought these. I, of course, want high-quality sound without going broke. After I read our piece on Chinese hi-fi earphones that have good components at a fraction of the cost that some well-known brands typically price them at, I was sold.

The other reason is for getting some passive hearing protection while I play drums without ruining sound quality. Over-ear noise-canceling headphones are good at blocking out sound, but sometimes, the noise-canceling algorithm in my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones goes on the fritz with too much noise coming in from the drums and cymbals. It can sound bad. And, I usually have to listen to music too loudly to hear it as I trace over the track’s drums with my own. The KZ ZSX are a good, affordable fix for that. — Cameron Faulkner, reviewer

There’s nothing better than sitting in your favorite chair, putting on a favorite album, and enjoying the music without other distractions. At least, that’s the ideal — the reality in my home is hearing the same 10 songs my kids are into at the moment playing through our Sonos speaker system.

Over the past decade or so, I’ve collected enough Sonos speakers to put them in each room where I care to listen to music. I’ve got a Sonos One and a Play:1 paired in stereo in my office (shout out to the SonoSequencr app for letting me make unsupported pairings of my hodgepodge of speakers); a Play:5 in our living room; a gen-one Beam with a Play:1 and Ikea bookshelf as surrounds in our playroom; a Move in our dining room / outdoor patio; and the most recent addition, a Roam in our main bedroom that works as an Alexa speaker and provides shower tunes for me. My kids own the playlists on the Beam, I get to pick what I like in my office, and the Play:5 and Move are on the same floor, so sometimes I play the same thing across both of them when we have guests or are enjoying meals as a family.

Sonos’ sound quality is generally excellent for the price, and it’s great whether you’re listening at low volumes so as not to wake the baby napping or when it’s turned up to 11 and you want to bring the house down. But the reason it’s my favorite way to listen to music is because of how easy it is to play what I want through any combination of the speakers in my home. The Sonos app supports nearly any music service I might subscribe to, plus things like my preferred podcast player, Pocket Casts. But more often than not, I use AirPlay from my iPhone or iPad to play something through other apps. Vinyl may be hipper, and good headphones might provide more immersion, but when it comes to ease of use, it’s hard to beat Sonos. — Dan Seifert, deputy editor

The Wonderboom 2 is one of the more popular Bluetooth speakers out there, so I won’t bore you with a sales pitch, just a story. I recently got an electric cargo bike to take my kids to school and quickly realized there was an opportunity to make the morning commute a little less dull. Two kids on the back of one bike can sometimes lead to fights over personal space, so I had the idea to bring along the Wonderboom as a distraction. Let them listen to music or books-on-tape so they won’t kill each other before reaching school. But after attaching the speaker to the rear rack with a carabiner, I realized what I was riding was less a cargo bike and more of a rolling party. Sometimes, the kids choose the music (Encanto soundtrack, Justin Beiber), and sometimes, dad chooses (’90s R&B, pop-punk). Either way, we get a lot of smiles along the way. The Wonderboom doesn’t have the best sound, but you can’t beat it for portability. Call me the Dom Whiting of suburbia. — Andrew J. Hawkins, transportation editor

To start with, I need to say that I have a slight tendency toward paranoia, in that I don’t feel comfortable walking around Brooklyn (or any other part of NYC) without being able to hear what’s going on around me. As a result, for a very long time, I only used wireless headsets — basically, single earbuds that were meant mainly for phone calls.

About a year ago or so, however, I realized that my Plantronics Explorer 500 headset was way, way overdue for replacement. I looked around for something that (a) reasonable quality audio (I love music, but I’m not an audiophile by any means), (b) could pair with two devices at a time (so I could pick up a phone call while listening to my computer’s audio), and (c) in a concession to my cautionary nature, could be listened to using only one earbud. And all this on a budget. Finally, I picked up a pair of Jabra Elite 75t buds on sale, and I’m very glad I did. Now I can surround myself with music at home and wander my local streets listening to podcasts using one bud. (Although my Plantronics is still sitting in a drawer, just in case…) — Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor

The only problem with my favorite audio system is that you probably won’t be able to find a new one. I missed out on a Google Home Max deal when the prices dipped to $150 each on Black Friday in 2020. However, a month later — after it had been officially discontinued — the prices dropped below $200 again, and I got one right away, then added a second one not long after that.

I don’t use voice assistants, but being able to cast music from my phone or PC works exactly the way I want it to, and the Home Max gives me an option for decent sound in my home office where I don’t have a surround sound setup.

When Google launched its smart speaker for $400 in 2017, it was fair to question whether its sound quality matched other devices with similar prices. But for what I paid, they are not just good enough, they’re great. If you can find one or two in decent shape and you use Google Cast-compatible audio services, I’d recommend picking them up. — Richard Lawler, senior news editor

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