We have seen an increasing number of one-box solution devices entering the market in recent times, even music enthusiasts want fewer boxes in their homes and brands including Naim, Hegel and NAD among others are competing in this sector. Recently I have been lucky enough to play host to the NAD Masters M33 BluOS streaming […]
I grew up with records being my only gateway into music and perhaps because of that I have an affection for vinyl replay which has never waned. Since those heady days of the 1960s we have seen many different carriers come (and in many cases) go – cassette, Minidisc and variations on the compact disc […]
The Scandinavian countries have between them produced some iconic audio brands – I bet if you put your mind to it you could name at least half a dozen without hesitation. Copland would certainly be on my list if I was to do the same thing, and yet this is the first time that I […]
Rega Aria 3 MM/MC phono stage More than most audio components there seem to be a myriad graduations of quality with phono stages (preamps). A budget example will give you a good idea of what vinyl is capable of and one at twice the price will clearly improve on that. And this seems to carry […]
Kent based Chord Electronics has been around for long enough now to have built a very strong following around the world, its British designed and manufactured products clearly striking a, er, chord with hi-fi lovers. In recent years it has won over a lot of new fans with its diminutive range of DACs like the […]
Rega Aphelion 2 moving coil cartridge One of the first notes I made after installing the Aphelion 2 in a Rega P10 was: it’s not going to do anyone’s vinyl habit any good. Three months and several hundred tracks later I realise that not only does this cartridge make you want to listen to more […]
Where would we be without vinyl? Whether you love it or hate it, it’s been a major element of home music replay for many decades from its earliest beginnings in the heady days of acoustic shellac discs to the refined electronics and modern pressings we can enjoy today. Not that it’s without its foibles. Talk […]
I left hi-fi retail in 2015 and moved to Devon, bringing with me the best system that our limited budget would allow, and made a few purchases on the advice of respected industry friends to ensure that I could continue to enjoy my record collection for as long as possible. Included in the equipment which […]
For a company that only made moving magnet cartridges in the first three decades of its existence Rega has thrown itself into moving coils with gusto. It started with the original Apheta in 2005 which became the Apheta 2 nine years later and was joined by the Aphelion a year after that, then in 2017 […]
It may have been a rocky year for politics in the UK but that hasn’t stopped hi-fi manufacturers from creating some spectacular pieces of kit to help us hear more of our music and thus gain even greater enjoyment from the most transcendent of artforms. Vinyl continues to grow in popularity with ever more albums […]
There are a few cartridge companies that have mastered their microscopic art so well that they not only produce moving coils and moving magnet designs under their own name but do so for other brands as well. This so-called OEM (original equipment manufacturer) model exists elsewhere in hi-fi of course but rarely does it apply […]
Back in the first decade of this century before the advent of the Supernait 3, I was a well-paid employee of a well known high tech firm, that’s when I bought my first piece of Naim equipment, a CD5X disc player. Within five years that had somehow grown into two racks of Fraim, with a […]