When is a streamer not really a streamer, in Auralic’s case that is when there is not Lightning DS operating system onboard. Auralic has been making the Aries which is purely a streamer with digital only outputs, and the Vega which is ostensibly a streamer with onboard DAC for some time now but the latter […]
With many of today’s audio components requiring external power supplies there is the potential to upgrade performance by replacing these often inexpensive wall-wart style supplies with better quality alternatives made by third party companies. This is nothing new of course but the variety of DACs, headphone amplifiers and other components that have low voltage external […]
Are you one of those people caught up in the headlong rush to abandon physical media? Are you now committed to only using your preferred streaming service to deliver all your music? has your local charity shop got boxes full of your old CDs because you discovered that they have no second hand value? Or […]
An offshoot of a better known speaker brand, the newest floorstander from 5degrees finds Trevor Butler enraptured by the finesse of a ribbon tweeter that he just can’t stop enjoying. This is my fifth, or possibly sixth attempt to commit this review to print. Why? Because before each one I thought I would just reacquaint […]
Despite Apple’s best efforts USB has become the de facto connection for everything from rechargeable torches to watches, computers and digital audio. It was never designed to send an audio signal but the fact that most laptops can send digital audio via this ubiquitous connection mean it has become the way that the majority stream […]
The reincarnation tale of a genuinely classic loudspeaker reads almost like a thriller. Two retired men started a project to bring back the BBC developed LS3/5a loudspeaker, originally designed for nearfield monitoring in mobile studios to judge voice recording during interviews. That little monitor somehow survived all others and in the Far East it has […]
Reclocking is not a new thing, it was around in the 90s when the first wave of standalone DACs started to become popular and a few companies have been making USB examples for a while, Ideon from Greece among them. This is a small company made up of enthusiasts and engineers who make a range […]
Regular readers of The Ear may remember that last year I gave a glowing review to the Shunyata Venom UK6 mains block and the Venom V12 and V10 NR mains cables, I have yet to hear anything at their price point which comes close to the performance offered. So when the good folk at Shunyata […]
Would it be spoiling the fun if power amplifiers could be limited to say 25kg? As it stands there are rather too many that exceed this figure and have the potential to do serious damage to any unfortunate soul who tries to move them. But it seems that bigger or at least heavier is often […]
A few months ago I visited a lucky man who had a rather splendid sound system that he was more than happy with, the reason for the visit was that this was the first system with Silbatone electronics in it that I had heard about in the UK. Silbatone will be familiar to anyone that has visited […]
At the Bristol Show where the notion of a 2m social distance was totally unheard of Rega showed a complete vinyl replay system with a price of just £1,000. Now that might not seem all that impressive in the general scheme of things but when you consider that it is built entirely in the UK […]
Cambridge Audio launched the Edge series in 2018 to commemorate its 50th year of designing highly engineered audio equipment. Three years in the making, the line-up includes the Edge NQ preamp and network player, Edge W power amp, and the Edge A integrated amp. The series is named after Cambridge Audio co-founder Professor Gordon Edge, […]