Cyrus has added a fourth component to its Stream X range in the form of the £1,250 Stream Xa. This is a wired/wireless UPnP network streamer with internet radio and digital inputs, onboard DAC and an analogue line output. It’s based on the Stream X2 24/192 streamer but adds digital to analogue conversion to that […]
Immutable Music has released details of its range topping new cartridge the Transfiguration Proteus. This moving coil is a yokeless design that has ring magnets either side of the coil wires in order to provide precisely focussed magnetic flux and an extremely low 1 Ohm internal impedance. The magnet design was conceived to remove the […]
Meridian Audio hosted a visit from audiophile rocker Neil Young on Wednesday. Meridian is associated with Pono, the hi-res music service which Young has been instrumental in setting up and which claims to be on the eve of unleashing “a wealth of music & soul (or if you must, "data") trapped on millions of recordings […]
Krell has released the Connect wireless streamer in two guises, with and without and onboard DAC. It will play most of the popular formats but does not include DSD in its roster, in fairness this a very rare feature on streamers. It runs at up to 24/192 and the converter equipped version sports a s32-bit […]
Antelope Audio, maker of the impressive Zodiac Gold DAC has upped the ante with a higher specced version called Zodiac Platinum. It’s killer app is DSD upsampling, a feature that Antelope is claiming to be unique to this converter and which can push DSD64 to DSD256. It also has a custom USB input which can […]
M2Tech has taken a leaf out of Audioquest’s book and built a Dragonfly competitor in the highly compact form of the HiFace USB DAC. This asynchronous converter is only 88mm long (3.5inches) yet can decode at up to 32-bit/384kHz and combines a USB plug input with minijack output. It plugs straight into a PC and […]
Linn has revived the Isobaric principle in its latest floorstander the actively driven Akubarik. With its Aktiv power pack cunningly blended into the tapered back of the speaker this is an extremely neat looking design given its inherent firepower and bandwidth. The isobaric element consists of two bass drivers placed face to face and venting […]
The headphone market is the biggest thing in audio right now so it’s hardly surprising that loudspeaker brands are getting in on the act. Latest entrant is KEF which hopes that its 50 year heritage will give it some profile in a crowded market place. KEF has released two models, the closed-back M500 at £250 […]
Slovakia’s premium tube electronics manufacturer has released the TP306VR+, a phono stage with distinctly high end sensibilities. For starters it’s an MM/MC stage with tube regulation and Lundahl step-up transformers for moving coil cartridges, all signal path capacitors are Mundorf polypropylenes and it sits in a resonance damped chassis with separate chambers for the power […]
Tomorrow’s the day when the remaining record shops of the western world will be overflowing with new vinyl releases put out to celebrate their continued existence. There are hundreds of special releases on 7, 10 and 12inch vinyl to pick up, some are re-releases others rare recordings that have not previously been pressed, see the […]
Avid has introduced black versions of its range topping Acutus turntables. Previously available in chrome the Acutus SP and Reference SP have now been released in a ‘lustrous’ black finish. This is apparently in response to demand and a result of technological improvements and bespoke tooling which has given the company the opportunity to produce […]
Easter Friday was cold and gloomy which made a good excuse to visit John Howes (above right) for the launch of Howes Acoustics, his new listening room and museum near Heathfield in East Sussex. This is where John and Mike Blackmore demonstrate many advantages of high efficiency loudspeakers and tube amplifiers with single figure outputs, […]