From the first digital to analogue converter ever made by Metrum Acoustics they have taken a different route to most manufacturers. The majority use conversion chips by Burr Brown, Philips, TI or Wolfson to name a few, Metrum selected an industrial DAC chip and claimed its high speed architecture improved the conversion. A lot of […]
Bryston’s latest cubed amps are a logical follow on from the previous squared series in naming terms at least, and it factor terms too, as this represents a pretty thorough overhauling of Bryston’s core product range; power amplifiers. Bryston’s Chris Russell explains it thus: “As far as the Cubed Series goes; first, it employs a […]
iFi goes in for compact audio in a big way, I've lost count of the number of models there are that look a bit like this but they seem to do nearly everything including digital to analogue conversion, USB power line clean up, headphone amps and a tube preamp to name but a few. I […]
Despite being 35 years old the Halo Integrated or Hint is the first integrated amplifier that Parasound has made. It’s not clear why it took them this long but it may be something to do with the companies enthusiasm for offering more features than you can shake a stick at in products that have audiophile […]
It would have been easy for Cyrus to have made a straightforward phono stage, they could undoubtedly have made one that sounded great and it would have sold to fans of the marque. But instead they chose to do it a little differently, to make a product that had features not found on any other […]
In 1987 Arcam paved the way for the consumer DAC industry with the release of their Black Box, the very first outboard D/A converter to target this market. Somewhat ahead of their time, another 23 years would pass before Arcam returned to what is now a fiercely competitive sector, and a concerted effort has clearly […]
I am always curious about what new brands and/or technologies have to offer, so when I got the chance to hear a SPEC amplifier at home I didn’t say no. I picked the Real Sound Amplifier RSA-M3EX, the middle model in the range. I had not heard of the brand or the designer so took […]
Rega turntables are like buses it seems, you wait an age then two come along at once! It’s been a while since Rega made a Planar or P2 but back in the day there were only two turntables in the range and this was the more affordable option. The last P2 was introduced in 2000 […]
It all started when someone said it was hard to find compact amplifiers that you could plug into the USB output of a computer and use with a pair of small speakers on the desktop. It turns out that this is a relatively rare breed and the selection we have gathered represents a fair proportion […]
Let’s get one thing straight from the start, the Mu-so does not shoot out colours like the picture on the Naim website, pity really as it looks rather good but I guess the novelty would wear off! It does look pretty gnarly without its wraparound grille though, drivers pointing everywhere in complete contrast to the […]
It has been a while since Rega used this name on a turntable but in the seventies, eighties and nineties the Planar 3 was considered the next best thing to a Linn LP12. The company built its reputation on the Planar 3 and cemented it with the RB300 tonearm, a turntable and arm that remained […]
Last year I visited Ken Ishiwata at Marantz Europe’s HQ in Eindhoven, Holland. This is where he has built a substantial listening room in the basement of an office block, it’s one of the best I’ve encountered and not a bad place to show off the latest Marantz components that Ken had given the Special […]