PMC cor integrated amplifier From the moment I learned that the PMC cor integrated amp was coming to market I was wondering what this integrated amp would be like, and when it did appear I wondered why it got the name cor. Some say it is an expression of interest, admiration or surprise, others say […]
It says something about the size of the German market that AVM, a brand with a substantial range of high end hardware, was virtually unknown on these shores until it started working with PMC. AVM’s products have so much consistency of industrial design that it’s difficult to tell them apart at a glance, it’s hard […]
Cute, that’s the reaction that this smallest of the current Quad amplifiers elicits. And it is I guess, a valve integrated in a chassis that’s about the size of an original Quad II is an unusual thing. But they sold an awful lot of Quad IIs back in the day, so perhaps it’s a popular […]
Does the name Gato Audio ring a bell? Does this Danish audio company have any presence where you are? If not that’s a pity because Gato Audio deserves your attention for the high standards it sets in design both inside and outside its products. I want to share the joy that this amplifier has brought […]
A relatively new kid on the block, Hegel is making waves in audio markets around the globe by thinking outside the box, as Trevor Butler discovered when auditioning their latest integrated amp with on-board DAC. Taking the smartly-branded white carton from Editor Kennedy I was staggered at the weight, after all this is just an […]
Someone called the other day and said what’s your favourite valve amplifier in quick fire, fingers on the buzzer style. The first one that came to mind was the Ongaku, as made by Audio Note Japan in the eighties and nineties, I mean what else is there! I don’t use valve amps because decent ones […]
I have long been a fan of the sculpted forms produced by the Neal Feay company, Resolution Audio’s beautiful Cantata first brought this Californian metal worker to my attention but it was Constellation Audio that showed just how finely they can machine aluminium, with creases that fade to nothing like a piece of silk. It […]
The most affordable amplifier in Rega’s armoury is not just prettier than its predecessor the Brio-R but it sounds more powerful to boot. But look at the specs and you’ll see that both are rated to produce 50 Watts, so what gives. A lot of small but significant changes, that’s what, and the fact that […]
Back in 2015 I spent several highly enjoyable months with a Naim NAP 250 DR and the experience left me keen to hear what the next power amp up in the catalogue could do. That model is the NAP 300 DR, the two amplifiers don’t look that different on paper, the 250 is specced to […]
Tom Evans is obsessed with noise, or rather he is obsessed with reducing it in his phono stages and amplifiers. So when he gets some new regulation chips in and upgrades his range of Groove phono stages a great deal of enthusiasm can be found to be emanating from Aberbargoed in south Wales. Tom is […]
2016 might have been a bad year for rock stars but it was a good one for audio equipment. We saw and heard a plethora of fabulous new components that made our systems sing and renewed our love of music. Rather than trying to find something worthy in a variety of categories we picked the […]
Every once in a while you stumble across a product that looks so appealing you need to have it at home. Such is the case with the DIMD PP10 tube amplifier from Latvia. Originally designed by a music lover and engineer for his wife who is a musician, and later refined and cased in an […]