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 […]
Etude 5 loudspeakers Regular readers may recall Chris Beeching’s review of a rather unique speaker design called the Curvi BMR Mk2. The Curvi is designed and sold by materials scientist and former fellow and lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, Dr Christopher Liauw. The key feature of the Curvi BMR Mk2 is that it is based […]
Stack Audio Auva EQ isolators As a long time fan of isolation proper it’s gratifying to see so many products on the market that are genuinely trying to stop the transmission of vibration into audio components. For far too long we were told that spikes were isolators whereas in fact they are the opposite, a […]
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 […]
Mofi Sourcepoint 8 loudspeakers The Mofi Electronics Sourcepoint 8 and its larger sibling the 10-inch Sourcepoint 10 are the progeny of British designer Andrew Jones, who is known for his concentric driver designs developed during his tenure as chief engineer at KEF in the 70s and 80s and refined through similar roles at Pioneer, TAD […]
Silent Pound Challenger loudspeakers Trevor Butler discovered the distinctly different Silent Pound Challenger at the Warsaw show in 2022, it was there again last year and sounded so good that he encouraged me to try this substantial loudspeaker at home. What arrived was the heaviest pair of speakers to turn up on my doorstep in […]
Gold Note IS-10 streaming amplifier Having visited the Gold Note headquarters, near Florence, to see the company’s new integrated streaming amplifier being designed, built and tested, it was with a degree of excitement that I opened one of the very first units to be shipped to the UK. The IS-10 is sold as an all-in-one […]
Sendy Peacock planar magnetic headphones It’s so obvious once you’ve seen it, but it was three or four weeks before the light caught the Sendy Peacock’s outer earcup at just the right angle and it dawned on me that they looked like peacock tail feathers. Having initially found the name of these headphones rather challenging, […]
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 […]
Vertere Dark Sabre cartridge Back in October, just as Storm Babet was about to make landfall, a small group of audio writers gathered at Vertere’s North London headquarters to spend a day with the company’s founder and engineering leader Touraj Moghaddam. Regular readers will know that I have had the pleasure of reviewing several Vertere […]