What is it though? That was my response to the press release for this compact and inexpensive device. It’s described as a source of hi-res multi-room streaming and is the size of a Nokia from 20 years ago or a box of 10 cigarettes perhaps, not big anyway and largely devoid of connections and displays. […]
Marantz SACD 30n & Model 30 With the Marantz SACD 30n this classic brand has its eyes firmly set on the quality conscious consumer, the people who are prepared to pay more for things that are well built and well designed. We’re talking upper end BMWs and Audis, Apple products and Santa Cruz mountain bikes […]
Auralic is a small company with plenty of ideas, especially with regard to adding functionality to their range of streamers, DACs and associated components. They have been making these since launching the compact, curvy Aries nearly a decade ago, in that time their casework design has become more uniform and now there is only one […]
It must be tough to introduce audio electronics into such a crowded market, especially in the circa £2,000 DAC sector where there are a lot of strong contenders. Nuprime emerged from Nuforce in 2014 and have been making an impression on audio critics ever since, but the brand only gained serious distribution in the UK […]
Just how much do we need to spend to acquire a decent integrated amplifier? A budget of, say £1,000, will net a large number of candidates. But if we also want bona-fide high-end sonic credentials, then the number of options becomes markedly smaller. Readers who have read my short bio here on The Ear will already be […]
This standalone upsampler exemplifies one key difference between digital and analogue systems. With turntables and tape recorders less is genuinely more, the fewer the elements that the signal has to pass through before it gets to the amplifier the less the signal is changed or degraded. With digital sources extra processing such as that provided […]
It’s not clear when looking at a single product from M2Tech’s Rockstars range why they have a particular name, but gather the model names together and you have the Crosby power amplifier, Nash phono preamplifier and Young DAC as well as a Joplin ADC/phono stage and a Mitchell active crossover among others. Stills doesn’t seem […]
If you want proof that noise is the enemy of good streaming sound put the Network Acoustics Muon filter and cable between a network switch and a streamer and press play. The sonic benefits are not in the slightest bit subtle, it’s up there with a significant DAC upgrade. Stopping noise getting into a streaming […]
The Chinese manufacturer Jay’s Audio – note the possessive apostrophe – is the personal project of Jay Ho, who also goes by the alternative first name of Jacky. Perhaps his actual given name just doesn’t translate that well into English. There’s no equivocation, though, about Mr Ho’s engineering credentials. His 2021 Red Book CD transport, […]
Linn is one of the few hi-fi manufacturers that makes its own metalwork in house, this is because the company’s founder worked at his father’s engineering business before creating the legendary LP12 turntable and discovered a way to make a mark on the audio world. This is possibly why the latest incarnation of Linn’s ultimate […]
I first heard an Astell & Kern player back in 2014 whilst auditioning a pair of headphones. I remember the dealer raving about it being so good that he had sold his CD player and replaced it with an Astell & Kern AK240, which from memory, was the player used for the demo. It was […]
I have always enjoyed French electronics so, when news broke that the Atoll range was available in the UK, I jumped at the chance to take a listen to the company’s SDA200 Signature, an all-in-one streamer, DAC and integrated amplifier. It’s a concept I have grown very fond of over the years, so much so […]