How To

Ken Ishiwata, a man and his listening room
3 Jul 2015
Ken Ishiwata’s listening room is hidden in the basement of an innocuous looking office building in Eindhoven, you would barely guess that this was Marantz’s European headquarters let alone the lair of the guru behind KI...
Direct versus tape: the ultimate analogue showdown
18 Jun 2015
About a year ago, I created a direct cut recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (a truly remarkable slab of vinyl, Ed).  We were lucky enough to receive some great press and have now sold over two thousand copies worldwide.  ...
Improve streaming systems
8 May 2015
It’s hard to avoid basic switch mode power supplies in streaming systems, they power every mainstream element in the system from the router through to the NAS drive and gigabit switch. Cheap switching supplies are marvels of...
Get Linn Exakt into a B&W 802D
17 Mar 2015
Linn is rolling out its Space Optimisation software for a range of third party loudspeakers. This room optimisation tech was released with the Exakt system last year and is now incorporated in Linn’s full range of DS and DSM...
Manufacture digital to analogue converters the Dutch way
6 Mar 2015
Metrum Acoustics makes a small but remarkably well formed range of digital to analogue converters, but that is not all that sustains the company. The All Engineering production facility behind the brand makes ‘all’ kinds of...
Build loudspeakers the DALI way
18 Nov 2014
In 1983 Peter Lyngdorf founded DALI, the Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industry, to supply the Audionord Group in Scandinavia with its own brand of loudspeakers. After few years they moved to a small town called Norager...
Get high res in your pocket
20 Oct 2014
It would seem that iFi and Chord Electronics were ahead of the game when they released their respective Nano iDSD and Hugo hi-res portable DACs last season. Japan and latterly the US and Europe are seeing new, hi-res...
320kbps or bust
29 Sep 2014
Once upon a time when history was in its infancy and nostalgia didn't yet exist, hi-fi fanatics had very little to be perplexed by or snobbish about. They pined for a thing that had a hole in it centre, rotated at either 33...
JRiver on the network
8 Apr 2014
I met up with Steve Silberman of AudioQuest a couple of months back and as well as extolling the virtues of his Ethernet cables he showed me JRiver’s software player for the PC and Mac. At the time he pointed out the many...
Media Management: the road to synchronicity
28 Mar 2014
Forget world hunger, forget the everlasting state of war and poverty all around us, forget the corruption of the great and good!  Cast your mind to matters far more important, for instance consider the matter of managing...
Hard wired heresy
8 Nov 2013
Some years ago, whilst going through an obsessive period with hi-fi, I got onto the Naim track. Once I tuned into the grip and rhythm of Naim gear nothing else came close. Starting with a Nait integrated amp, I eagerly...
Making a mono MC cartridge
24 Jul 2013
Ken Betts explains what possessed him to convert a stereo cartridge into a mono one and the steps he took in the process. One to try at home, if you have a steady hand and a keen eye.
Building a moving coil cartridge is not...

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