Chord Company Power ARAY The Power ARAY is the entry level component in the Chord Company’s growing range of devices designed to reduce ground noise in a system. Following my review of Chord Co’s Powerhaus M6 mains distributor it has become one of those items I live in fear of being asked to return. I […]
Ansuz Acoustics Darkz S2t & T2 When I visited the Audio Group Denmark last year Ansuz Darkz S2t resonance controllers were one of the first things they demonstrated to me, and they made a deep impression. The guys at Ansuz have done a lot of research into the resonant characteristics of different materials, specifically metals […]
Zorloo ZuperDAC Max USB-DAC High Quality portable listening solutions like the ZuperDAC Max are arguably more important to the hi-fi industry than many of us appreciate. The industry needs to convert a certain percentage of young music lovers, who often start listening via YouTube or Spotify, into future buyers of pricier equipment. My day job […]
Stack Audio Auva 70 loudspeaker isolation feet Stack Audio Auva is Theo Stack’s latest creation. I have known Theo Stack since I met him at the Bristol Audio Show back in 2016. He lives not far from me in Devon and has been to Kelly Towers on a number of occasions. His eponymous audio company […]
If you want proof that noise is the enemy of good streaming sound put the Network Acoustics Muon filter and cable between a network switch and a streamer and press play. The sonic benefits are not in the slightest bit subtle, it’s up there with a significant DAC upgrade. Stopping noise getting into a streaming […]
2021 may not have been the year that many of us had hoped for, there was only one hi-fi show in the UK and not many more elsewhere, but that hasn’t stopped manufacturers both large and small who have produced some absolutely outstanding audio components in that time. Our best of the year round up […]
Vibrations; can’t live with them, can’t hear anything without them. In order to turn an electric signal into sound a loudspeaker has to vibrate, likewise a stylus is vibrated by the the side of a vinyl groove and this produces a (tiny) electrical signal. In an ideal world these would be the only things that […]
Vinyl is easily the most fabulous medium for recorded music ever created. It may not sound quite as good as tape nor have the potential for dynamic range and bass power available with digital but on the one hand most of the music ever produced is available on vinyl and on the other sound quality […]
Over the years I have experimented with various types of audio isolation system, with a view to eradicating the unwelcome effect of mechanical vibration and microphony on various parts of my audio set up. I have tried everything from squash balls cut in half (less mad than it sounds), through Sorbothane in various thicknesses and […]
Record cleaning is a topic which can spark off some lively discussions among vinyl lovers. Some believe in it, some swear by it and some are definitely sceptical. I am definitely a believer and own a well-regarded record cleaner which has served me well for a few years. A thing of beauty it is not […]
The nature of music is vibration, if air molecules didn’t vibrate we wouldn’t hear any sound. If that was only thing in an audio reproduction system that vibrated the audio engineer’s life would be a lot easier. Because the air has to be vibrated the devices that achieve that excitement tend to move as well […]
With many of today’s audio components requiring external power supplies there is the potential to upgrade performance by replacing these often inexpensive wall-wart style supplies with better quality alternatives made by third party companies. This is nothing new of course but the variety of DACs, headphone amplifiers and other components that have low voltage external […]