Best of High End, the independent English-language magazine for high-end audio and home theatre, has relaunched its website with a new premium design and a restructured navigation. All content is now grouped into five sections: Choose, Experience, Follow, Learn and Trust. The update also adds a dedicated video hub and personal pages for each of the magazine’s four reviewers, including their complete reference systems and listening rooms.
A new look
The site now uses a dark interface with a purple accent and a new B monogram. A switch in the menu bar changes between dark and light mode. Review cards show the score and, from 9.0 out of 10, the Best of High End Award medallion directly on the homepage and in every overview, so readers see the verdict before they click.
Five sections
The new navigation follows the way readers use the magazine:
- Choose: reviews, First Looks and buying guides, currently covering loudspeakers, amplifiers, streaming DACs and accessories.
- Experience: factory visits, Industry icons and show reports.
- Follow: daily news from the high-end audio and video industry.
- Learn: Academy and Tech talk, explaining the technology behind the products.
- Trust: the people behind the reviews and the rooms they listen in.
A separate Watch page brings together the videos from the Best of High End YouTube channel, from reviews and First Looks to news and factory visits.
Trust: who listens, and where
Best of High End’s editorial team works from three countries: Marco Lisi and Finn de Kroon in Belgium, John Bugailiskis in Canada and Daniel Březina in the Czech Republic. Each reviewer now has a personal page listing their full system, their listening room and its acoustic treatment, a sound-profile chart and a short biography.
Marco Lisi’s page, Inside HQ, documents the 80 m² reference room where every Best of High End review begins: a 7.5.4 Dolby Atmos setup with a StormAudio Core 16+ immersive processor and 4K ultra-short-throw laser projection on a 240 × 135 cm acoustically transparent screen.
How Best of High End reviews
The relaunch also makes the review policy easier to find. Review samples are borrowed, preferably directly from the manufacturer, and stay four to six weeks before they are returned. Manufacturers may read a review before publication to flag technical inaccuracies, never to change the verdict. Scores are a weighted average out of 10, weighted towards raw performance, and the Best of High End Award goes to products scoring 9.0 or higher. The magazine uses no affiliate links, including in its buying guides.
“Our readers spend serious money and serious time on their systems. They deserve to know exactly who listened, in which room and on which equipment. The new site puts that front and centre, in a design that finally matches the products we write about.”
— Marco Lisi, founder of Best of High End
Newsletter
Readers can subscribe to the Best of High End newsletter on the homepage to receive reviews, First Looks and factory visits by email.
Key facts
- New dark design with light-mode switch, purple accent and B monogram
- Navigation in five sections: Choose, Experience, Follow, Learn, Trust, plus a Watch video hub
- Scores and award medallions (from 9.0/10) shown on every review card
- Personal Trust pages for four reviewers in Belgium, Canada and the Czech Republic
- Buying guides for loudspeakers, amplifiers, streaming DACs and accessories
- Borrowed review samples, no affiliate links, no influence on scores
