The Scandinavian countries have between them produced some iconic audio brands – I bet if you put your mind to it you could name at least half a dozen without hesitation. Copland would certainly be on my list if I was to do the same thing, and yet this is the first time that I […]
When is a streamer not really a streamer, in Auralic’s case that is when there is not Lightning DS operating system onboard. Auralic has been making the Aries which is purely a streamer with digital only outputs, and the Vega which is ostensibly a streamer with onboard DAC for some time now but the latter […]
Are you one of those people caught up in the headlong rush to abandon physical media? Are you now committed to only using your preferred streaming service to deliver all your music? has your local charity shop got boxes full of your old CDs because you discovered that they have no second hand value? Or […]
Despite Apple’s best efforts USB has become the de facto connection for everything from rechargeable torches to watches, computers and digital audio. It was never designed to send an audio signal but the fact that most laptops can send digital audio via this ubiquitous connection mean it has become the way that the majority stream […]
Reclocking is not a new thing, it was around in the 90s when the first wave of standalone DACs started to become popular and a few companies have been making USB examples for a while, Ideon from Greece among them. This is a small company made up of enthusiasts and engineers who make a range […]
Cambridge Audio launched the Edge series in 2018 to commemorate its 50th year of designing highly engineered audio equipment. Three years in the making, the line-up includes the Edge NQ preamp and network player, Edge W power amp, and the Edge A integrated amp. The series is named after Cambridge Audio co-founder Professor Gordon Edge, […]
Regular readers of The Ear may recall that some months ago I reviewed the Lyngdorf TDAI 3400 and that I was absolutely smitten with it. In fact I was so enamoured that I have since taken ownership of one and it sits proudly at the heart of my system. It is a source of hours […]
It says something about the state of British manufacturing when a brand that once adorned trains and jet planes is used by a cable company on a network switch, but English Electric became part of GEC in the late sixties and like some of the great audio marques of that era it pretty well disappeared. […]
The CXA81 is part of a second series of CX components that was originally launched by Cambridge Audio in 2014. As well as this integrated amplifier, the line-up also includes a second amp, CD transport and a network audio streamer. According to Cambridge Audio, the second generation CX Series has been re-engineered to bring “full-fat” […]
It’s hard to believe that it has been eight years since the release of Audioquest’s ingenious Dragonfly, the memory stick-sized USB DAC/preamp/headphone amp that provides a simple, effective and affordable solution to the problem of mediocre sound quality from computers. The original Dragonfly was supplanted in 2016 by two new models; the even more affordable […]
Grimm Audio is a Dutch company with studio connections that entered the hi-fi market with the LS1, a DSP active loudspeaker system with bass and mid/treble sections separated by a stand. The MU1 is Grimm’s first entry into the streaming market and it’s equally if not more distinctive than the LS1. In essence it’s a digital […]
Last year I was lucky enough to be sent some Shunyata Venom NR mains cables to review, along with a Venom UK6 power distribution block and as some of you may recall, I thought they were excellent, to the point where they continue to be my primary power cables across all my audio components. Therefore when […]