In the last couple of years I have had the pleasure of reviewing several pieces of Norma Audio equipment, so when the UK distributor Hi-Fidelity told me that they had secured the rights to import another Italian brand I was more than a little keen to try an example of it here. Anthony Mills, the […]
Lozzo Atestino near Padua looks like a typical provincial Italian town, with a castle, piazza and plenty of churches. It doesn’t appear to be the sort of place where you would find high end cables being manufactured from raw materials, yet this is where Comar S.r.l. who make the LA Sound range of cables is […]
One of my more enjoyable reviewing experiences last year was listening to the Kudos Titan 505 stand-mount loudspeakers, which are the smallest of the company’s flagship range. However, they are not inexpensive and face very stiff competition at their price point. I was therefore more than a little intrigued when offered the chance to play […]
The BBC runs a very popular police drama called Line of Duty, the latest season of which is currently being broadcast on Sunday nights. One of the most common comments on-line and in the press about this gripping series concerns the barrage of acronyms and abbreviations threaded through the dialogue. My theory is that the […]
Released in January, the Q7 Mini Monitor is the latest addition to Falcon Acoustics’ Complete at Home range of loudspeakers that’s making high-end audio more affordable by selling kits directly to the customer. An updated version of the original Q7 that Malcolm Jones designed and sold for many years, the new model exploits improvements in […]
March was Hegel month in the Kelly household, not only did I spend many happy hours with their excellent V10 phono stage but I also enjoyed some quality time with its stablemate, the Hegel H390 integrated amplifier, which was here at my request, as the obvious companion. Actually, calling the H390 an integrated amplifier sells […]
Italian speaker makers have always had a thing for solid walnut, the stuff must grow on trees over there, and it certainly makes for a beautiful and extremely solid cabinet, as a rule it’s used on standmounts but for the first time in its extensive history Sonus faber have built a floorstander from this lovely […]
I grew up with records being my only gateway into music and perhaps because of that I have an affection for vinyl replay which has never waned. Since those heady days of the 1960s we have seen many different carriers come (and in many cases) go – cassette, Minidisc and variations on the compact disc […]
Neat Acoustics Orkestra loudspeakers A new speaker from Bob Surgeoner at Neat is not an everyday occurrence. Unlike the increasing number of manufacturers who feel a marketing necessity to churn out new models with alacrity, this County Durham company spends hundreds of hours listening and honing new designs before releasing them. Each new concept must […]
Auralic products can be idiosyncratic at times, the Vega streaming DAC doesn’t have the Lightning Server onboard for instance so isn’t as complete a streamer as an Aries, but it is admirable for its commitment to product improvements and its unequivocal stance on the thorny subject of MQA. Those unfamiliar with this acronym should know […]
Simaudio’s software engineers had a busy lockdown if the recent announcement of Spotify Connect integration is anything to go by. Unlike streaming services that will be familiar to the sonically aware such as Qobuz and Tidal which can be integrated into an audio company’s control app Spotify Connect works rather differently. In fact it works […]
Regular readers of The Ear may recall that in September of last year we published my comparative review of the Tellurium Q Black and Black Diamond digital RCA cables. To summarise that, the Black was good but the Black Diamond was considerably better, and stayed in my system thereafter as my reference cable. Geoff Merrigan, […]