It is a long time since I had a separate pre and power amplifier in my system, the last being the highly accomplished Naim NAC 552 pre and NAP 300 power amps. They had to be sold when redundancy struck in 2008 and we needed to turn some of our less essential assets into cash. […]
Less is more when it comes to output devices. Naim have proved that with the Statement amplifier and Gamut made the point some years ago with their D200 power amp, a product that was clearly ahead of its time. Nick Gorham appreciates that the fewer transistor pairs you have the better the sound, presumably because […]
ATC P2 power amplifier ATC make two power amplifiers that look almost identical, the specs suggest they are slightly different sizes but I don’t believe that, I do believe that the P2 is 7kg heavier than the P1 which is itself already inconveniently big boned at 23kg. What is hard to see in the specs […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
It’s not every day that I am invited to listen to a truly high-end system so when the Dutch Distributor of MBL, Orpheus Lab and TARA Labs asked me over to hear a very nice system I took a day off work to make the most of it. He had the Orpheus Lab Heritage amplifiers […]
The NAP 250 power amplifier has been a mainstay of the Naim range since time immemorial, or at least that’s the way it seems. The first NAP 250 was first made in 1975 and had the ‘chrome bumper’ livery of that era (it wasn’t chrome nor did it have bumpers but that’s by the by) […]
Space has been more expensive than stuff in this part of the world for some time now and that has had quite a severe effect on the world of stereo systems, hi-fi, call it what you will. The popularity of headphones is not merely linked to the the quantity of music you can keep on […]
Many years ago I discovered that products built for the professional market work well in domestic systems as well. This is especially true for D/A converters and loudspeakers, maybe less so for 19” rack mount amplifiers (except Bryston and ATC). In a studio loudspeakers are often in the walls, however you always find a pair […]
René didn’t like class D amplifiers but that has all changed now that he’s heard this remarkable pairing from NAD. High resolution, power and features, what’s not to like?Several years ago I considered New Acoustic Dimension, NAD for short, to be a high profile manufacturer specializing in mid-fi that also tried its hand in the […]
2014 was a good year for new kit, both René and I struggled to narrow our selection down to three piece each and many fine products were discovered that didn’t make the cut. But the six products below were the cream of the crop, the components that made our music sound more compelling than all […]