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 […]
Newcomers to the Auralic brand can be forgiven for finding their range of near identical components a little confusing, the external differences come down to details of construction and the colour of controls. In essence it seems that the more ambitious products are entirely black and weigh more than the more affordable options. All of […]
On paper this DAC looks too good to be true, nobody else makes a discrete ladder DAC with this sort of build quality for this price. Happily not only is it true but the DAC delivers sound quality above expectations as well. But before we look at performance it’s worth asking who Holo are, which […]
Given that it is the hottest day of the year as I write this, and that I am inclined to laziness, the easiest thing for me to do would be to refer you to my review of the Copland CSA150’s less powerful sibling the CSA100 , and simply add the words ‘and more so, with bells on’. […]
We have seen an increasing number of one-box solution devices entering the market in recent times, even music enthusiasts want fewer boxes in their homes and brands including Naim, Hegel and NAD among others are competing in this sector. Recently I have been lucky enough to play host to the NAD Masters M33 BluOS streaming […]
The BBC runs a very popular police drama called Line of Duty, the latest season of which is currently being broadcast on Sunday nights. One of the most common comments on-line and in the press about this gripping series concerns the barrage of acronyms and abbreviations threaded through the dialogue. My theory is that the […]
March was Hegel month in the Kelly household, not only did I spend many happy hours with their excellent V10 phono stage but I also enjoyed some quality time with its stablemate, the Hegel H390 integrated amplifier, which was here at my request, as the obvious companion. Actually, calling the H390 an integrated amplifier sells […]
Simaudio’s software engineers had a busy lockdown if the recent announcement of Spotify Connect integration is anything to go by. Unlike streaming services that will be familiar to the sonically aware such as Qobuz and Tidal which can be integrated into an audio company’s control app Spotify Connect works rather differently. In fact it works […]
Métronome made its name with CD transports in the ‘90s, substantial sculptural examples of the art that made most of the competition look flimsy by comparison. Now that the silver disc is in decline in many parts of the high end world the French company has branched out into streamers and DACs. OK it has […]
Merason DAC1 digital to analogue converter If you spotted the Merason DAC1 at the High End show in Munich you wouldn’t equate it with Swiss origin because high mass is clearly not a goal in its construction. It looks like something from France or the UK in its use of an acrylic front panel and […]
The Hegel story begins in 1988 when Bent Holter, a student at the Technical University in Trondheim, prepared his thesis on transistor amplifier design. He quickly discovered that enemy number one was distortion. Holter could not accept the fact that when we supply a simple signal to an amplifier, the output reproduces that signal plus […]
New York-based Woo Audio was founded in 2004 and specialises in tube powered headphone and loudspeaker amplifiers. Taking three years to develop the WA8 Eclipse reflects the company’s desire to bring the undiluted performance of their big amps to a smaller product for audiophiles who want an authentic tube headphone listening experience without being confined […]