Speaker Decision Blog - Speaker, Subwoofer and Amplifier News

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Magico A3 2027 at $25,000: What Else That Buys in a Floor-Standing Speaker

2026-10-08

Magico has rebuilt the A3, the speaker that was meant to be its way in, and priced the new one at $25,000 a pair. The original cost $9,800 when it arrived. I added the A3 2027 to the database this week and lined it up against the 32 floor-standing speakers we already hold between $20,000 and $30,000. The Magico is the smallest cabinet of the lot, and one of the heaviest. Read More...

Wharfedale Diamond 12i vs Diamond 12: All Six Pairs, Same UK Price, More in the US

2026-10-07

Wharfedale replaced the whole Diamond 12 range with the Diamond 12i in December, and readers here are already comparing old against new. So I lined up all six pairs from Wharfedale’s own pages. The drivers are the same, the boxes are the same size, and in the UK the price is the same as in 2020. In the US it is not, and the reason is not the i. Read More...

Audioengine's HD4 Next Gen Is One of Only Two Powered Speakers We Hold With aptX Adaptive

2026-10-07

Audioengine's HD4 Next Gen costs 429 dollars, and it is the second speaker in our database that can take an aptX Adaptive Bluetooth stream. The other one is also an Audioengine. The cabinet, the drivers and the amplifier are the same as the HD4 it replaces. Everything that changed is on the digital side, and there is still no HDMI socket. Read More...

Edifier MR4.5 Added: What 250 Dollars Buys Against the 19 Powered Speakers We Held Under 300

2026-10-06

Edifier is the biggest name in cheap powered speakers and until this week we held none of them. The MR4.5 is now on file, at 250 dollars a pair, with its three MR siblings. It is bi-amplified, it has balanced XLR inputs and it streams LDAC, and none of the 19 powered speakers we already held under 300 dollars does any of those three things. It also has no subwoofer output, which 11 of those 19 do. Read More...

Esoteric F-01 vs F-02: Same 21,000 Dollars, 30 Watts of Class A or 120 Watts

2026-10-05

Esoteric's F-01 and F-02 integrated amplifiers cost the same 21,000 dollars in the US and come in the same 32 kg box. The F-01 makes 30 watts a channel in Class A. The F-02 makes 120 watts in Class A/B. I added both to the database and ran them through our amp matcher. At normal volume they are almost equal. Turn it up and the F-01 runs out of power on 73% of the speakers we hold. Read More...

Castle Tintagel and Walmer: Four New British Speakers, and the Amp Each One Needs

2026-10-05

Castle has four new passive speakers, all hand-built in the UK: Tintagel 1 and 2 with silk domes, Walmer 1 and 2 with a true ribbon tweeter, 2,749 to 7,499 dollars a pair. I added all four to the database and ran them through our amp matcher. The two Tintagels are among the easiest loads at their price. The Walmer 2 is not, whatever the brochure says. Read More...

Yamaha's R200A Replaces a Ten-Year-Old Receiver, and Keeps the Same 100 Watts

2026-10-02

Yamaha has replaced the R-S202, which it launched in 2016, with the R200A at 299.95 dollars. The power rating has not moved: 100 watts a channel into 8 ohms, same distortion figure, same bandwidth. What is new is a phono input, a subwoofer output and proper binding posts. What is still missing is any digital input at all, which decides who should buy it. Read More...

Paradigm Premier v2 vs the Original Premier: All Six Models, What Changed

2026-10-01

Paradigm replaced all six Premier speakers with v2 models this year, and readers here keep putting the old ones next to the new ones. So I lined up all six pairs using Paradigm's own figures: price per pair, size, bass, drivers, and one change on the back panel that the launch material does not mention. Read More...

Which Speaker Brands Keep Their Shoppers, and Which Get Shopped Against

2026-09-28

Last week I said most of you pick the brand first. That was true at the top of the list. When I went through every comparison instead of the top 20, most of them crossed brands. Some brands keep their shoppers. Others are mostly the one people check against. Read More...

Harbeth XD2 Range: All Five Compared, Which Size and What Amp

2026-09-27

Harbeth makes five XD2 speakers, from the shoebox-sized P3ESR to the 38 kg M40.5, and we list all of them. Readers compare them with each other far more than with anything else. So here they are side by side, drawn to scale, with the stand height each one wants and the amplifier power each one really needs. Read More...