Jessica Monroe

When I started mixing for late-night clients years ago, I learned fast that the wrong headphones can mess up a set in seconds. The right pair lets you lock a beat, feel the low-end, and cue the next track without ever pulling the fader. With so many closed-back cans on the market in , I … Read more

Buying your first guitar amp feels overwhelming. We get it. After three months of side-by-side testing in a bedroom and a small garage, our team narrowed down the best beginner guitar amps under $200 you can actually plug into tonight. Every model on this list earned its spot through honest playing, not a spec sheet … Read more

I have spent years plugging into Marshall amplifiers in everything from cramped apartments to properly treated home studios, and one thing stays the same: that iconic British crunch just feels right in a bedroom setting. But finding the best Marshall amps for home use in means sorting through a lineup that ranges from 1-watt micro … Read more

Recording clean audio on location is one of the biggest challenges for filmmakers, podcasters, musicians, and field recordists. A dedicated handheld recorder solves that problem by putting high-quality stereo microphones, professional preamps, and multiple recording formats into a device that fits in your hand. After comparing the top models on the market, I narrowed down … Read more

I pulled a shoebox of mixtapes out of my parent’s attic last year, and the sound was rough. Hiss, dropouts, and one tape that just snapped mid-playback. That moment is exactly why I started looking into the best cassette decks with USB digitizing. Once a tape is gone, it’s gone forever, and analog tape degrades … Read more

When I started hunting for the best cassette players that also record, I had one goal: a real record button, not a glorified playback toy. After spending three weeks testing eight different models on everything from mixtapes to voice memos, I found the options that actually deliver. Cassettes are back. Gen Z collectors, synth musicians, … Read more

Cassettes are back in a real way, and in the two modern players everyone keeps asking me about are the FiiO CP13 and the We Are Rewind. Both look the part of a vintage Walkman, both play your old mixtapes, but they feel completely different in your hand and on your ears. I bought both … Read more

I have spent the last three months hauling ten different retro cassette boomboxes with Bluetooth across my apartment, my garage, and three weekend trips to test how they actually perform in real life. I played beat-up mixtapes from high school, streamed Spotify from three different phones, dragged them to tailgate parties, and left them running … Read more

Last year I pulled a dusty shoebox of mixtapes out of my parents’ attic and realized my home hi-fi system had no way to play them. That frustration sent our team down a rabbit hole testing six of the most popular cassette decks for home audio setups still on the market in . What we … Read more

Yes, a small but dedicated group of companies is still building new reel-to-reel tape machines in . The list is short, the prices are high, and the engineering is borderline obsessive. For audiophiles and recording purists who refuse to settle for digital, these currently manufactured open-reel decks represent the only modern path to true analogue … Read more