HiFiSystems.net earns commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site. This disclosure appears here in full, and in short form above the first affiliate link on every page that carries one.
Who pays us
We participate in affiliate programs operated by, among others, Amazon Associates and specialist audio retailers. When you click a link to a retailer and buy something, that retailer may pay us a percentage of the sale. The price you pay is not affected. You do not pay more for using our links.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
What that does and does not influence
It does not influence our calculators. Every tool on this site runs on manufacturer-published specifications and fixed formulas. There is no code path that checks whether we have a commercial relationship with a brand before producing a result. The complete arithmetic is displayed on every calculator output, so you can verify this rather than take our word for it.
It does not influence which products we include. Our gear database is built by category coverage, not by affiliate availability. It contains products we cannot earn a cent on, including discontinued models, brands with no affiliate program, and manufacturers who sell direct.
It does influence which retailers we link to. Where a product is stocked by several retailers, we will generally link to one we have a relationship with. If a product is only available somewhere we earn nothing, we link there anyway.
What we will not do
We do not accept payment for coverage, ranking, or favourable treatment. No manufacturer or retailer has ever been given the ability to review, approve, or influence anything published here before publication, and none will be.
We do not publish sponsored posts.
We have not been given review units, because we do not publish reviews. If that ever changes, the arrangement will be disclosed on the page and on this one.
The honest version of the conflict
The tension in a site like this is real and worth naming rather than glossing.
The pages that earn are the ones that end in a purchase recommendation. The recommendation is also the claim we are least able to support, because we do not listen to equipment. That is a structural pull toward writing confident-sounding sentences we have not earned.
Our answer is to make every recommendation derived and to say so in the sentence. When we point at a product, the reasoning reads like “these are the models whose published minimum impedance and sensitivity satisfy the constraint you entered, sorted by price.” It does not read like “we loved these.” We do not have an opinion about how they sound, and manufacturing one to make a link convert would be the specific failure this site exists to avoid.
Our full method, including the limits of our model and which figures are our estimates rather than manufacturer numbers, is on the How We Work page.
FTC compliance
This disclosure is provided in accordance with the US Federal Trade Commission’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 CFR Part 255). Disclosure is placed clearly and conspicuously, before the first affiliate link, on every page containing one.
If you believe a page on this site carries an affiliate link without adequate disclosure, tell us at corrections@hifisystems.net and we will fix it.
Last updated: 8 August 2026