Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2 integrated amplifier & Nu-Vista DAC As an audiophile who got his introduction to this hobby, or perhaps obsession is a better word, in the late eighties, the Musical Fidelity brand had a big impact on me. I remember hearing their Tim de Paravincini designed Class A, A1 model for the first […]
Auralic Vega S1 & Purer-Power S1 streamer & power supply Auralic’s range of streamers and related ancillaries has been growing in quantity and price over the dozen or so years since the brand launched with the original Aries streamer in its curvy plastic case. Today’s top Auralics inhabit machined aluminium casework and sit on sprung […]
Benchmark DAC3 HGC DAC/pre and AHB2 stereo power amp I suppose it’s having grown-up with it, as it were, in my early BBC days but I just love the look, feel and operation of professional audio equipment. When the chance presented itself to try some Benchmark electronics from the US, I just could not resist. […]
Naim NSS 333 streamer, NAC 332 preamplifier, NAP 350 power amplifiers Apparently the NAC 332 is the first Naim preamplifier to have an onboard power supply. In a day and age when finding any preamplifier without its own power supply is unlikely this is hardly shocking but it’s clearly a change of approach for Salisbury’s […]
Holoaudio Cyan 2 digital to analogue converter When Holoaudio’s European distributor, Magna Hifi, asked me to review Cyan 2, my excitement over being one of the first to hear Jeff Zhu’s redesigned, entry-level R2R digital-to-analogue converter was dampened a little by the realisation that this rather than the May DAC would be the next Holoaudio […]
English Electric EE1 ethernet filter About fifteen years ago I saw a gold-plated ethernet cable for sale in Tesco and was somewhat bemused. Fast forward to this evening, where I am writing up what must be my umpteenth review of a device that claims to improve the sound of a network-streaming music system and I […]
Melco C1-D20 SFP+ streaming cable Up until Melco told me about the so-called C1-D20 SFP+ direct attach cable I understood that SFP cables were exclusively optical and used glass or plastic fibre to conduct signals. Melco’s copper based C1-D20 SFP+ has revealed that this is not the case. While the SFP cables used instead of […]
Denafrips Iris 12th DDC and Ares 12th-1 DAC Although this is the first time The Ear has published a review of one of the brand’s products, Denafrips has been making news amongst the audiophile community over the last few years. Technology such as R2R DACs and I2S connections have become synonymous with the brand, whose […]
Mutec MC3+ USB reclocker and Ref10 Nano master clock I have enjoyed the benefits of reclockers in the past, the little Ideon 3R USB Renaissance MkII was very inspiring for its asking price and the Innuos PhoenixUSB proved to be one of the highlights of 2020. In fact I encouraged a friend who owns the […]
Auralic Vega G2.2 DAC The Vega G2.2 is currently the only digital to analogue converter in Auralic’s seven strong range of streaming oriented electronics, the Vega G1 never made it to G1.1 status so at present there is a hole at that entry point for the brand. They do however make an Altair G1.1 which […]
Bricasti Design M19 SACD/CD transport, M1 Series II DAC, M20 preamplifier and M25 power amplifier Bricasti products reveal their heritage in the casework design, a style that comes from company founders Brian Zolner and Casey Dowdell whose backgrounds were with Lexicon and who work closely with former Madrigal Labs engineers. The latter manufactured Mark Levinson […]
The Ear picks the best hi-fi of 2023 2023 has been a tough year for the hi-fi industry but that has done nothing to stem the flow of first class products coming to market. In fact there are even more extraordinary audio components to choose from than there were last year, with advances made in […]