If there’s something that almost everyone thinks they can make in hi-fi it’s cables. Before I worked in reviewing I made cables of my own and they sounded better than the cheap ones I had at the time, but I didn’t feel the urge to go out and sell them to the world, maybe I […]
My name is Chris and I am a slot-a-holic. There, my anonymity is blown but I feel better for sharing this dark secret. What is a slot-a-holic? Don’t waste energy looking it up because I invented the word. Here is my definition: a person who, when presented with a device containing a CD ripper, feels […]
One not insignificant barrier to the uptake of streaming in a hi-fi system (as opposed to on a phone) is the perceived issue of software problems. Rather too many streamers rely on rebadged control software that is fine while it works but a pain when it doesn’t. This is why Roon is able to sell […]
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 […]
Chord Electronics’ much anticipated 2yu network bridge started shipping proper this summer, more than a year after its big reveal in early 2020 just before Covid put a rather big dampener on things. 2yu is built specifically to partner 2go and allows the bolt-on streamer/server originally designed for Chord’s award-winning Hugo2 portable DAC/headphone amp to […]
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 […]
Chord Co’s electronics division English Electric launched with the 8Switch network/data switch two years ago, the company has now followed that with two 8Switches in one box aptly named the 16Switch. It costs a bit more than a pair of 8Switches and contains pretty much exactly that but inhabits a full width steel case and […]
When it comes to streaming there is more to life than UPnP. That protocol might be the most popular game in town but as MPD, Roon and latterly Squeezebox have shown alternatives do exist and Italian digital audio specialist Aqua Acoustics is the first to build a modular streamer than can accommodate more than one. […]
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’. […]
Australia is not the first place that comes to mind when hi-fi comes up but there is plenty of interest in the subject down under and a handful of manufacturers plus the occasional superstar designer, Mark Döhmann creator of the Continuum Caliburn turntable is from that part of the globe. There are also more accessible […]
There is more than one way of getting data from A to B as Openreach employees know only too well, they are the people who are changing the copper wire connections installed for telephone landlines (and invaded for internet) to fibre optic cables that are capable of significantly higher bandwidth and speed. Inside the home […]