SoundStage! Access | SoundStageAccess.com (GoodSound.com)

Q Acoustics 3020c Loudspeaker

Details: Written by: Thom Moon; Created: 15 October 2025

Founded in 2006, the UK speaker brand Q Acoustics is about to conclude its teenage years. For a while now I’ve wanted to audition one of its speakers, and recently I had that opportunity. Armour Home Electronics, which also owns QED cables and Goldring cartridges, “started Q Acoustics specifically to offer good-value speakers no matter the price category,” PR manager Nick Renshaw told me as we discussed the possibility of a review. He suggested I check out the 3020c, the middle standmount model in the new 3000c series. The 3020c is sold in pairs for US$829, CA$829.99, £399, or €499.

First Look: WiiM Amp Ultra

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 October 2025

I’m just going to lay all my cards on the table: it feels awkward to me that, nearly five years into my tenure with SoundStage! Access, I’ve never reviewed a bit of WiiM gear. It feels a bit akin to running a publication about affordable Belgian-style saisons without ever mentioning Hennepin Farmhouse Ale, or about the best e-readers without talking about Kobo. For a while now, I’ve almost felt like doing my first WiiM review at this point would make things more awkward by shining a light on my negligence to date. But at some point, you have to stop letting awkwardness be justification for continued awkwardness and just do the thing. And the new WiiM Amp Ultra (US$529, CA$749, £499, €599) seems as good a motivation as any for finally ripping off the adhesive bandage.

Is Linux Ready for Audio Prime Time?

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 October 2025

To the surprise of absolutely no one, I’ve just about had my fill of evil multinational corporations and their draconian control over every aspect of our daily digital lives. Thing is, though, that’s normally a principled stance. But recently, it’s become a pressing problem that I have to resolve soon if I want to keep earning a living. Apple and Microsoft both seem dead set on making it nearly impossible to function without spending gobs of money I don’t have, and I’m responding in the only way I know how: outright revolt—by trying to make Linux work for me despite the fact that the open-source OS wasn’t designed to do a lot of the things I need it to do.

Q Acoustics 3050c Loudspeaker

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 October 2025

Reviewers' Choice Someone needs to invent a word to evoke the specific disappointment that comes from realizing you’ve stolen your own thunder. If the Germans can give us such evocative loanwords as schadenfreude, verschlimmbesserung, and wanderlust, surely they could cook up some delightfully and elegantly convoluted way of encapsulating the emotions running through my brain when I realized, far too late, that the conclusion of my unboxing blog post for Q Acoustics’ lovely new 3050c tower speaker (US$1749, CA$1900, £849, €1099 per pair) really should have been the intro to my full review.

First Look: Q Acoustics 3050c Floorstanding Loudspeaker

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 September 2025

Here in my third decade as a hi‑fi journalist, it still surprises me from time to time that there are legitimately major brands whose products I’ve never reviewed. Q Acoustics is one such brand, and I point that out merely as a way of underscoring my excitement during the unboxing process. A speaker with proper British pedigree, with a gorgeous design and good engineering for US$1199 per pair? Sign me the heck up. It took all the restraint I could muster to open the packaging for the new Q Acoustics 3050c properly—with a knife and all that—instead of just ripping into the cardboard like an unhinged beast.

Perplexingly, My Hi-Fi System Feels More Important Than Ever Right Now

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 September 2025

There’s one aspect of making a career out of a hobby that is rarely discussed. Sometimes life gets in the way of your hobbies. We’ve all been there. But unless you’re independently wealthy, a trust-fund baby, or retired, life can’t get in the way of your income. So what happens during those periods when pastimes are a luxury, work is a necessity, and you’re stuck in a paradox because your pastime is your work?

Magnetar UDP800 Universal Disc/Media Player

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 September 2025

Let’s not bury the lede here, because I know the question right at the top of mind for most regular readers of SoundStage! Access: “Do I really need a $1600 4K Blu‑ray player?” The answer to that question is, of course, no. As nice as the Magnetar UDP800 universal disc/media player (US$1599.99, CA$2500, £1399, €1620) may be, it doesn’t change that fact. So the real question is, why might you want this particular player, despite its cost, given that you can purchase a UHD Blu-ray player with literally perfect A/V performance for under $500?

First Look: Magnetar UDP800 Universal Disc/Media Player

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 15 August 2025

Every once in a while, I feel compelled for whatever reason to justify the existence of these unboxing blog posts, because it’s not about consumerism or SEO or anything else of the sort. Bottom line: it’s about telling a story slightly tangential to that of my in-depth gear evaluation—one that, I feel, gives you a more thorough overview of the product and the experience it delivers.

Outdoor Audio Done the “SoundStage! Access” Way

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 August 2025

I don’t often dig deep into the sausage-making process in my editorials, since I think most of the decisions we make behind the scenes at the SoundStage! Network are quite a bit more boring than many people would suspect. Each of the SoundStage! editors has a lane, it’s not difficult to figure out what is and isn’t our beat, and we rarely have to worry much about which product categories are right for each of us. But when KEF reached out to me with an offer to review its new outdoor speakers, it prompted a lot of editorial discussions about whether outdoor audio—typically the domain of expensive custom installers—had any place in a publication focused on home theater and affordable hi-fi.

KEF Ventura 6 CI Series Outdoor Speaker

Details: Written by: Dennis Burger; Created: 01 August 2025

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know here, but the way most people shop for audio products barely resembles the way hi-fi enthusiasts and audiophiles shop for audio products. Imagine you’re in the market for an outdoor audio system centered on passive speakers intended to be driven by an amp. You and I might research the category, do comparisons based on specifications, try to read some reviews, factor in any brand loyalties we might have, and plunk down our credit cards after some careful deliberation. Most people purchasing KEF’s Ventura 6 outdoor speaker (US$599.99, CA$749.99, £459, €599 per pair), on the other hand, probably asked their custom integrator for an outdoor speaker system, and it just so happened that their integrator was a KEF dealer.

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