Henry Audio DA 256 DAC Eleven years ago we were contacted by Norwegian programmer Borge Strand-Bergesen who had created the Henry USB DAC MkII, a compact single input converter that ran off the 5V provided by a USB connection. That DAC was surprisingly good for its €260 price at a time when there were few […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Rotel Michi Q5 CD transport and DAC Receiving any CD player for review in 2025 is a relatively unusual experience. Even though the death of CD is rather overstated, it might be fair to say that the format is enjoying a graceful decline. When I think about the players that I have received in recent […]
Topping D900 DAC Does it really need to be said that the time is long past when made-in-China audio kit was almost always a copy of western designs? Today, not only do a very large number of the west’s audio companies rely on China for high-quality, low-cost manufacturing, but China’s universities are churning out bright […]
Bonawatt Triton integrated amplifier There is often talk of technologies becoming obsolete and even in the world of audio it occasionally happens, but more often than not older tech carries alongside the new. Vinyl was written off as dead in 25 years ago yet appears to have the upper hand on its enemy CD today, […]
Atoll CD400 Evolution CD player and DAC We’ve all been lost in an internet rabbit hole, gone down a Youtube tunnel and found ourselves in no-man’s-land. Can you remember the last time you got lost in your own CD collection? The Atoll CD400 Evo sent me on such a journey. It took me so far […]
Heed Abacus S streaming DAC Hungarian hi-fi manufacturers are not two a penny, at least not among brands available in the UK. From what I have seen and heard from them over the years, Heed Audio like to do things a little differently. I purchased their Cannalot III, Class A headphone amplifier a couple of […]