Network Acoustics Muon2 network switch With Dela (£12,999), Xact (£6,000) and now Innuos (£21,500) making high end, high priced network switches it must be becoming clear to the bits is bits brigade that there is more to getting good sound out of a streaming system than a decent DAC. Network Acoustics have been making filters […]
Nagra Compact Player network streamer Nagra has some claim to being the OG high end audio brand, it’s hard to think of another that has been making such well built and regarded equipment for longer. The brand’s origins lie in tape recorders, both full size studio machines and portable examples that are among the most […]
Hifi Rose Master Fidelity RS451 network streamer The Hifi Rose RS451 network streamer is the latest addition to the Korean brand’s line-up and incorporates the firm’s second-generation streaming platform which has now trickled down from the flagship RS151. Right out of the box this feels like a premium product, the packaging is impressive, the user […]
Cinnamon Galle DAC Hi-fi shows are sadly not always the best places to audition audio gear, they are noisy and often cramped but fundamentally they rarely play the music you are familiar with at the right levels. At the recent Hi-Fi Show Deluxe the smaller of Boyer Audio’s dem rooms managed to contradict this impression […]
Moor Amps mana DAC It’s becoming increasingly clear that there’s an elephant in the high end audio listening room and that herbivore is aluminium. This material is almost ubiquitous in the casework of high end audio components and even a few loudspeakers, it’s relatively easy to machine into attractive shapes and when anodised has a […]
iFi iDSD Phantom DAC streamer headphone amp On a wet night in January iFi launched its most ambitious digital to analogue converter to date in one of the towers on London’s Tower Bridge, it was a novel location which will have helped get journalists out into the rain, fortunately the appearance of a recording industry […]
Primare Allt-i-Ett one box system Allt-i-Ett. No, not a secret keyboard shortcut to hack Elon Musk’s PIN number but, if you speak Swedish or Norwegian, simply ‘all-in-one’. After a 41 year run building some of the world’s sleekest Scandi-fi separates for both music and home cinema lovers, Allt-i-Ett is Primare’s long-awaited lifestyle concept album, the […]
Woodnote Solo streamer Woodnote is an example of a European hi-fi manufacturer that has grasped the nettle when it comes to shifting requirements in the market place. The brand is part of Lindemann, a company that started out making conventional 17 inch components in 1993 with the integrated Amp1, they made a CD player six […]
Pro-ject CD Box RS2 Tube CD player While unboxing the CD Box RS2 Tube, I discovered a watch battery and an Allen key for the super-sleek remote control. I immediately set about installing said battery, which required the dexterity of a Swiss horologist: five very small screws, two expletives, and one dropped screw later, I […]
Hegel D50 DAC I was encouraged to do something unusual when reviewing Hegel’s latest digital to analogue converter the D50, that was to listen to the system without it then plug it in and listen to the same system and see if anything changed. The D50 has a device on board that should improve the […]
Dela S5 network switch It is incredible to think how far network streaming has come in just a few years. When I purchased my first serious streaming DAC some eight years ago, the notion of spending more than double figures on a network switch would have been akin to heresy. Yet here I am, reviewing […]
The Ear’s reviewers pick the best hi-fi of 2025 If you want to discover the best hi-fi of 2025, the audio products that really wowed our reviewers over the last 12 months, look no further. These components made a lasting impression, they are the ones reviewers would have held onto if they could and in […]