Welcome to the Guide

Why another list?

Well, maybe because we’ve always been a little different. In that spirit, this is our “Buyer’s Guide”.

In the end, The Guide is more than “We heartily endorse this [fill in the blank ].” This collection represents our enthusiasm. Every product listed in this guide is beloved by at least one team member. These products have elicited responses such as “I was gobsmacked every minute I spent with this” or “The shipping box was wet with the tears of my lost innocence” or, too often, just “Take my money!” In other words, this isn’t about high-end audio products that we merely like. These are the products we love — and we think you will, too.

No list like this can ever be complete since we’re bound to forget something that has duly impressed the heck out of us. We’ve attempted to capture a moment in time — one year — and these bits are the products we want to have and hold and use in our own systems right now.

If you’re looking for our list of “the best” — the best loudspeakers, CD players, amplifiers, turntables, cartridges, preamplifiers, DACs and more — this is it.

Enjoy!

The Part-Time Audiophile Team

Buyers Guide Summer 2023

Buyers Guide

2023 Product of the Year

I’ve made a few changes for the 2023 Product of the Year Awards. Usually I limit the nominees to products our team at PTA has reviewed over the year. That implies we have significant seat […]

Buyers Guide

2023 Best Value Awards

PTA’s 2023 Best Value Awards are marked by an underlying theme, that old audio reviewer canard of saying “I liked it so much, I bought it!” Many of the 2023 Best Value nominees below are […]

Product of the Year

Awards

2022 Best Value of the Year

The 2022 Best Value of the Year Award from Part-Time Audiophile slowly evolved into a different sort of honor this year, thanks to many impassioned late-night discussions in the PTA War Room. Our biggest discovery […]

Awards

Product of the Year Award | 2021

Deciding the Product of the Year Award for 2021 Last year was the first year we awarded a PTA Product of the Year. Last year’s winner–the Vimberg Amea loudspeakers from Germany—was chosen by me, Marc […]

Awards

Product of The Year | 2020

Product of The Year 2020 Publisher’s Note: Someone told me that hanging a Product of the Year 2020 ribbon would be odd. Maybe this year was not the year to do “congratulations”, and any award, […]

PTA On the Road