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

Electrohome Montrose RR36 Wireless Turntable and McKinley 2.0 Powered Speaker System

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

Do you have any family members or friends who are wrecking their hearing with earbuds constantly on meltdown volumes, who listen to miserable-sounding Bluetooth speakers, or who just want to get into vinyl? Perhaps this review will point them in the right direction.

First Look: Kaleidescape Strato E

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

Content warning: this unboxing blog post is going to sound like some Boomer B.S. right from the get-go, but I can’t help devolving into back-in-my-day reminiscence every time a new piece of Kaleidescape gear crosses my threshold. If you’re not familiar with the company, it makes movie servers and players—like the new Strato E (US$2995, CA$4495, £3399)—although what that means has changed quite a bit over the decades.

Kayfabe in the Audiophile Community

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

Let me just warn you right from the giddy‑up: I’m going to be throwing some weird-sounding vocabulary at you here. But the concepts are simple, and I promise it’ll all make sense in the end. At least I hope it will.

WiiM Amp Ultra Streaming Integrated Amplifier

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

Reviewers' Choice “What’s in a name?” Juliet Capulet once asked. Far be it from me to argue with the Bard, nor one of his most famous characters, but my answer to that question would be a simple one: “A lot.” Especially when it comes to a product like the WiiM Amp Ultra (US$529, CA$739, £499, €599).

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?

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