Tim Gideon

My Experience

I've been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag's lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I'm a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.

My Areas of Expertise

• Headphones and earphones

• Wireless and computer speakers

• USB mics

• Bluetooth headsets

The Technology I Use

Probably because of their prevalence in the recording studios I worked in a long time ago, I am most comfortable on Macs—I'm writing this on the 2019 iMac I use for testing. I also have a MacBook Pro that gets plenty of similar use.

My workspace has a mini recording studio setup, and the the gear I work with there is a mix of items I've used forever (Paradigm Mini Monitors and a McIntosh stereo receiver) and newer gear I use for recording and review testing (such as the Universal Audio Apollo x16).

I'm obsessed with modern boutique analog synths—some of my favorites instruments in this realm are the Landscape Audio Stereo Field and HC-TT,  the Soma Enner, the Koma Field Kit, and the Lorre Mill Keyed Mosstone.

From my studio days, I'm comfortable using Pro Tools, and in recent years have branched out to other realms of creative software, like Adobe Premiere and After Effects.

I stream music, but I also still buy albums, digitally or on vinyl, and encourage anyone who wants fair compensation for musicians and engineers to do the same.

I also play lots of Wordle.