Top spy replaces lead for fancy audio equipment (4)
I believe the answer is:
mike
'fancy audio equipment' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'top spy replaces lead' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'spy' could be 'm' ('M' is James Bond's boss) and 'm' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ike' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mike that I've seen before include "Device collecting sound from a singer, say - boy's name (abbr)" , "Idle period" , "megaphone" , "Boy's name; piece of recording equipment" , "that helps speaker to be heard" .)