In 1987 Arcam paved the way for the consumer DAC industry with the release of their Black Box, the very first outboard D/A converter to target this market. Somewhat ahead of their time, another 23 years would pass before Arcam returned to what is now a fiercely competitive sector, and a concerted effort has clearly […]
It all started when someone said it was hard to find compact amplifiers that you could plug into the USB output of a computer and use with a pair of small speakers on the desktop. It turns out that this is a relatively rare breed and the selection we have gathered represents a fair proportion […]
When it comes to audio components I prefer the designs of a knowledgeable person who follows their own path. A man, in this business it’s usually a man, who builds a design from scratch, using a love for music, technical knowledge and a commitment to excellence as the main tools. A man like Cees Ruijtenberg; […]
There aren’t many really good CD players on the market today, they have always been pretty scarce in truth. There have been good ones and better ones but the reason for vinyl’s survival through the dark days that preceded its revival is that the competition was so weak. But oddly enough in what appear to […]
The Canadians seem to be a honest, dependable bunch by most standards and this is reflected in the music of people like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Oscar Peterson, we’ll reserve judgement on Justin Bieber. It is also apparent in the products of Bryston, who have been making solid, reliable and mercifully snake-oil free electronics […]
Maybe I should have used headphones in the photo of the µDAC5 but hopefully the size of a CD is familiar, the idea of course is to give an indication of how compact this digital to analogue converter is. There are smaller, the AudioQuest Dragonfly and LH Labs Geek come to mind, which are also […]
Musical Fidelity has three small and attractive boxes in its MX-series: MX-HPA headphone amplifier; a MX-VYNL phono stage and the MX-DAC digital to analogue converter. All three are fully balanced, a speciality you would not expect at the price. It means you could combine the MX-series with costly high end products that often use full […]
Last year I visited Ken Ishiwata at Marantz Europe’s HQ in Eindhoven, Holland. This is where he has built a substantial listening room in the basement of an office block, it’s one of the best I’ve encountered and not a bad place to show off the latest Marantz components that Ken had given the Special […]
2014 was a busy year of exciting new product releases and refreshes for Schiit Audio, and 2015 has seen no let up. Following the anticipated unveilings of Yggdrasil and Ragnarok, the company’s long-promised ‘cost no object’ statement DAC and amplifier, Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat have been swift and sure-footed in bringing their recently dethroned […]
The Mojo is something of a radical move for Chord Electronics, the brand has long been associated with high end audio separates which tend to carry a high end price. The Hugo portable DAC/headphone amp brought the entry level down quite considerably but still kept it within the realm of dedicated enthusiasts, anyone else would […]
Ayre is one of those companies that quietly gets on with producing innovative, well thought out and in my experience great sounding hardware. I have tried amplifiers and CD players in the past and always mourned their loss when the review period came to an end, so when the opportunity arose to listen to the […]
Can this Musical Fidelity integrated with onboard DAC sound as good as it looks? Réne closes his eyes and lets the music work its magic. When I was asked to pick a Musical Fidelity amplifier for a review I was attracted to the beautiful silver front and the quietly shining LEDs of the M3si, but […]