Hi-Fi

TOWERS OF POWER For a truly immersive 3D experience, you want floor-standing speakers that deliver natural, musical, room-filling sound. And among the best are those from Marten. Luckily, with the Oscar Trio, the company has created an incredible speaker set worth twice its asking price. Yes, it has very cute (sound-isolating) feet, but we love it for its huge dynamic range and deep bass. $11,000 a pair; marten.se

VINYL VIBE S

Love audiophile-grade vinyl? Build a great sound system around it with the best bang-for-buck hi-fi gear.

PERFECT PLATTER MoFi’s UD1S, or UltraDisc One-Step, is an unprecedented vinyl pressing method, using just one step (versus the standard three) to minimize “generational loss” and give listeners the closest sound to the original masters. This means a disc with the lowest noise possible outside of the studio. Our pick? Charles Mingus’ masterpiece Mingus Ah Um. $125; mofi.com

SPIN MASTER Want a world-class turntable ready to rock right out of the box? The C-Major is it. The acclaimed European Audio Team’s entry-level offering—based off its most popular and lauded C-Sharp player—is the last turntable most enthusiasts will ever need to buy. A high-end cartridge, needle and record clamp are included—and in a groovy twist, the platter assembly itself is made from recycled vinyl. $3,349; europeanaudioteam.com

GET AMPED One of the most advanced integrated amplifiers available, offered at half the price of its competitors? Yes, please. The NAD M33 is most notable for its precision-timing, or self-clocking, technology, which delivers extremely low noise and distortion for an incredibly accurate soundstage. Musical details flow smoothly and naturally, and on top of the three analog ports it can connect up to six digital inputs. Prefer headphones? A dedicated amp will drive even high-impedance studio cans. $5,999; nadelectronics.com

SOUND INVESTMENT E.A.T’s Jo No. 5 was made in cahoots with Denmark’s Ortofon, arguably the world’s premier maker of turntable cartridges. The big sell here is that this moving coil (i.e., higher-fidelity) cartridge outperforms competitors that cost almost five times as much. Plus, it’s pistachio green, has a whole diamond stylus and is built with—no kidding—the help of frickin’ laser beams. $1,199; europeanaudioteam.com