Soulnote D-2 converts digital to music
Soulnote D-2 DAC Soulnote is Japanese brand that has been around for a lot longer than recent events would suggest. They first made an impact on me at the High End show, Munich in 2022 but a quick web search reveals that their products go back considerably further, to 2004 in fact when it was […]
Sugden Masterclass IA-4: a different class
Sugden Audio Masterclass IA-4 integrated amplifier Sugden are survivors. There aren’t very many independent British electronics brands that have been around since the ark and Sugden go back further than Linn, Naim and Rega, all of the older brands have been bought up by international operations. Last year Sugden encountered a major set-back when MD […]
Circle Labs A200 hybrid for the ears, feet and heart
Circle Labs A200 integrated amplifier Circle Labs will be a new name to many, yet this Polish manufacturer has been producing high-end audio products since the latter part of the twentieth century. The two guys behind Circle Labs, Krzysztof Wilczyński and Krzystof Lichoń, took the company, whose core business is in the design and manufacture […]
Ophidian Ffion: dare to be different
Ophidian Ffion speakers As a reviewer who has form for turning the spotlight on less well-known brands, I find a particular pathology often on display in audio dealer showrooms really quite fascinating. Say a customer auditions three contending models of speakers; among them is one that isn’t the creature of a big brand A or […]
Russ Andrews has got the power sorted
Russ Andrews X6 block MkII, RF Router, Technical Ground Weave, Evolution-300 Powerkord, Yello Power, DC Blocker Russ Andrews has long been of the opinion that power delivery and grounding are critical to the potential of any sound system, he introduced an audiophile power cable as far back as 1986 and have a number of useful […]
Titan Audio Eros V2 the power of love
Titan Audio Eros V2 mains block and FFT Module The mains supply should arguably be considered the front end of every good hi-fi system. The ultimate sonic results that we achieve will depend on a stable supply of electricity, effective earthing, rejection of noise from elsewhere in our households, and, indeed, cross-contamination between components within […]
Tellurium Q Ultra Silver II: excellence is a rare commodity
Tellurium Q Ultra Silver II interconnect cable Way back when I was an avid consumer of audio things, before I joined the industry in retail, I picked up information from all sorts of sources. I read the magazines of course, I went to audio shows and later on I joined some online forums. Somewhere during […]
Art Emotion Carbon 6: fast, compelling, well balanced
Art Emotion Carbon 6 loudspeakers The latest range of loudspeakers from Art may only have been in production for a matter of months, but they owe their existence to an ongoing quest by the company to refine its innovative cabinet designs and choice of drive units. This has resulted in the current comprehensive line-up of […]
Rega Aya: bargain speakers of the moment
Rega Aya speakers After decades of reviewing audio products, I cannot believe that this is the first Rega design to pass through my hands: the British company is long-standing and has a loyal following. It was therefore with more than the usual excitement of receiving a new item that I unboxed the floorstanding Aya loudspeakers, […]
Tannoy SGM 10 for the glory days
Tannoy SGM 10 speakers Given that the very first loudspeaker I reviewed, back in 1988, was a Tannoy I was interested to hear how a modern iteration from the same marque sounds. Many millions of published words later and I received the first UK samples of the brand-new two-way standmount 10-inch dual concentric design, the […]
Vivid Moya M1: everything, all the time
Vivid Audio Moya M1 loudspeakers The Moya is by far and away the largest loudspeaker that Vivid have ever made, in fact it’s one of the biggest speakers that anyone has ever made outside of the wild world of horns. Each one is made up of six parts; a plinth, four bass cabinets weighing 60kg […]
Moonriver 505 Hybrid all about the vinyl
Moonriver 505 Hybrid phono stage Regular readers may recognise the Moonriver brand name from two earlier reviews which I submitted for the company’s 404 integrated amplifier, in January 2021 and its more powerful sibling the 404 Reference integrated amplifier, in June of last year. To save you scrolling back through the archives let me summarise […]