TF

Tom Fine

23 Total
1 Interviews
22 Reviews
NTH-100 Headphones

Gear Review

NTH-100 Headphones

Nov 15, 2022

Long a well-reputed maker of microphones, Australian company RØDE has jumped into the crowded, but red-hot headphones market with both feet. The...

NDH 30 Headphones

Gear Review

NDH 30 Headphones

Nov 15, 2022

Back in 2019, I reviewed Neumann's first foray into headphones, the closed-back NDH 20 . At that time, its parent company...

HD 400 PRO Headphones

Gear Review

HD 400 PRO Headphones

Mar 10, 2022

Sennheiser, a German business run today by the founder’s grandsons, took a new direction last year. A longtime player in consumer and professional...

Fireface UCX II USB Interface

Gear Review

Fireface UCX II USB Interface

Jan 15, 2022

RME has raised the bar on value with the Fireface UCX II. This German-made ADC/DAC is an all-in-one recording tool of bits and bytes, with no...

HPA4 Headphone/Line Amplifier

Gear Review

HPA4 Headphone/Line Amplifier

Jan 15, 2021

When the folks at Benchmark suggested a review of their HPA4 for Tape Op, my first reaction was, “Isn’t this aimed more at the audiophile market?”...

BT-Pro V2 Bluetooth Direct Box

Gear Review

BT-Pro V2 Bluetooth Direct Box

Nov 15, 2020

Radial Engineering, of Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada, has built its business by designing clever solutions for stage and studio, including an extensive...

Mercury Mastering DA Converter

Gear Review

Mercury Mastering DA Converter

Jul 15, 2020

SPL electronics is a 35-year-old German company that makes everything from the Vitalizer sweetener/equalizer to a well-regarded de-esser and desktop...

4B3 Pro Dual Mono Amplifier

Gear Review

4B3 Pro Dual Mono Amplifier

May 20, 2020

Bryston, based in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, has been around since 1961. The company straddles the border between pro audio and the part of the...

Professional 1 Series 104 Powered Monitors

Gear Review

Professional 1 Series 104 Powered Monitors

Nov 15, 2019

I wanted some small-format speakers for monitoring a transfer chain I set up to digitize a medium-sized pile of old NTSC videos. These videos...

NDH 20 Headphones

Gear Review

NDH 20 Headphones

Jul 15, 2019

Neumann made its bones on the microphone side of the audio business. From its 1928 founding by Georg Neumann, through its 1991 acquisition by the...

Mini Maglite Pro LED Flashlight

Gear Review

Mini Maglite Pro LED Flashlight

Mar 15, 2019

I've been a Maglite man since I was in college. They are built to be dropped, don't die under most rain conditions and the beam-focus...

Big Knob Studio & Big Knob Passive

Gear Review

Big Knob Studio & Big Knob Passive

Jan 15, 2019

Back in 2004, Mackie introduced the original Big Knob, the first affordable monitor/headphone bus controller for DAW-based studios. Essentially...

DT 1770 & DT 1990 PRO Headphones

Gear Review

DT 1770 & DT 1990 PRO Headphones

Sep 15, 2018

A couple of years ago beyerdynamic debuted the latest versions of their top dynamic studio headphones. The DT 1770 PRO closed-back and DT 1990 PRO...

P3100 Studio Power Amp

Gear Review

P3100 Studio Power Amp

Sep 15, 2018

As Canada's Radial Engineering continues to revive the Hafler brand (acquired in 2014 from Rockford Corporation), its latest move is into power...

ADI-2 DAC Converter

Gear Review

ADI-2 DAC Converter

May 15, 2018

Set up as a straight DAC/headphone amp, RME's ADI-2 DAC sounds fantastic and is very much on the neutral and clear, perhaps "clinical"...

Clear Professional Headphones

Gear Review

Clear Professional Headphones

May 15, 2018

France-based Focal is best known for pro and consumer audio speakers, but the company has, in recent years, moved into all aspects of the headphone...

m900 Headphone Amp/DAC/Preamp

Gear Review

m900 Headphone Amp/DAC/Preamp

Mar 15, 2018

As we all know, it's a new "personal listening" world out there. The majority of consumers, especially younger ones, listen to most of...

Monotor Headphone Amp

Gear Review

Monotor Headphone Amp

Jan 15, 2017

Boutique equipment maker and former studio technician Jonathan Little has built a business around making useful (and small) boxes that solve specific...

HA15 & HA75 headphone amps

Gear Review

HA15 & HA75 headphone amps

Sep 15, 2016

These days, pro audio's end products often live in the "Headphones World." The home stereos of the past have been supplanted by the...

Sparrow DAC

Gear Review

Sparrow DAC

May 21, 2016

Black Lion Audio, based in Chicago, started out as a "hot-rodding shop," modifying equipment by other manufacturers to improve the sound...

DAC2HGC A/D converter & preamp

Gear Review

DAC2HGC A/D converter & preamp

Jan 21, 2016

Before she joined Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick was in a band called The Great Society. They made an LP, Conspicuous Only in Its Absence, the title...

Two18 studio monitors

Gear Review

Two18 studio monitors

Jul 15, 2015

A few months ago, I took on a project that pushed me into the dreaded realm of needing new studio monitors. After about ten years of using a pair of...

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