I2S – pronounced eye-squared-ess for those unfamiliar with the term – is a serial digital signal bus scheme originally intended for board-level IC-to-IC transfer (integrated circuit). Now, an increasing number of audio equipment manufacturers are specifying I2S as a digital interconnect for use, for example, between a CD transport or a streamer and an associated […]
Townshend has been producing the Isolda speaker and interconnect cable since the ’90s. Over that time, changes to the product have been incremental, which suggests they got the basics right in the first place. This review followed a chat between the editor and I regarding cable characteristics. Jason suggested I should try the Townshend Isolda […]
Network Acoustics are mad about noise, by which I mean they hate it. Their aim is to eliminate the noise from streaming systems and by doing so allow those systems to reveal the full glory of the music. Electrical noise on the AC mains and radio frequencies may not be audible as hum or hiss […]
I would like to start this review with an apology to Joakim Juhl, the owner and chief designer of Oephi cables. He very kindly sent me a pair of the Lounge loudspeaker cables back in early August, followed shortly thereafter by a pair of the Lounge RCA interconnects. Now here we are in mid-November and […]
Despite knowing about cable manufacturer Atlas for many years, I only recently discovered that they are based just 25 miles away from me in Kilmarnock. It’s always inspiring to read about British success stories but local ones are even better. Founder and MD Kevin Kelly’s engineering background means the Ayrshire enterprise is very much science-led; […]
Tiglon’s 47-year-old founder, Kentaro Okino, became fascinated with the sonic properties of magnesium during his mechanical engineering studies and, after using it to suppress vibrations in loudspeaker stands and component isolation platforms, obtained an international patent in 2009 for its use as an electromagnetic wave shield in hi-fi cables. The Japanese company has been making […]
If there’s something that almost everyone thinks they can make in hi-fi it’s cables. Before I worked in reviewing I made cables of my own and they sounded better than the cheap ones I had at the time, but I didn’t feel the urge to go out and sell them to the world, maybe I […]
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 […]
You may never have come across the brand Zavfino before now, especially here in the UK, but that is all about to change as Audio Pinnacle, UK distributor of the excellent Audel loudspeakers, has added the brand to its portfolio of products. Pinnacle founder John Simm, told me that after a long search he had […]
I recently posted on an audio themed social media group that I was about to embark on a review to compare a second generation cable to its predecessor. Another member, who is not somebody known to me, jumped in and told me in no uncertain terms that without a double blind listening this would be […]
Australia is not the first place that comes to mind when hi-fi comes up but there is plenty of interest in the subject down under and a handful of manufacturers plus the occasional superstar designer, Mark Döhmann creator of the Continuum Caliburn turntable is from that part of the globe. There are also more accessible […]
Back in November 2020 I reviewed the Network Acoustics ENO in these pages, and the Editor awarded it an Innovation award, I nominated it as one of my Best of the Year products. In the ensuing months Network Acoustics have supplied a lot of ENOs to customers around the world, and the overwhelming feedback seems to be, in broad […]