The CXA81 is part of a second series of CX components that was originally launched by Cambridge Audio in 2014. As well as this integrated amplifier, the line-up also includes a second amp, CD transport and a network audio streamer. According to Cambridge Audio, the second generation CX Series has been re-engineered to bring “full-fat” […]
Kent based Chord Electronics has been around for long enough now to have built a very strong following around the world, its British designed and manufactured products clearly striking a, er, chord with hi-fi lovers. In recent years it has won over a lot of new fans with its diminutive range of DACs like the […]
Rega Aphelion 2 moving coil cartridge One of the first notes I made after installing the Aphelion 2 in a Rega P10 was: it’s not going to do anyone’s vinyl habit any good. Three months and several hundred tracks later I realise that not only does this cartridge make you want to listen to more […]
Late last year Tellurium Q MD Geoff Merrigan asked if I would like to hear his new Silver Diamond mains cable and compare it with the Silver, which sits below it in the well-mapped Tellurium Q product hierarchy. It took me less time to accept his offer than it took me to type this sentence. […]
The name of this amplifier tells you that there has been quite a bit of evolution in the Nord Acoustics range, something that a brief look at the website backs up, Colin North has been making class D amplifiers for some time now and the sheer variety of options on offer is quite an eye […]
It’s hard to believe that it has been eight years since the release of Audioquest’s ingenious Dragonfly, the memory stick-sized USB DAC/preamp/headphone amp that provides a simple, effective and affordable solution to the problem of mediocre sound quality from computers. The original Dragonfly was supplanted in 2016 by two new models; the even more affordable […]
Grimm Audio is a Dutch company with studio connections that entered the hi-fi market with the LS1, a DSP active loudspeaker system with bass and mid/treble sections separated by a stand. The MU1 is Grimm’s first entry into the streaming market and it’s equally if not more distinctive than the LS1. In essence it’s a digital […]
Last year I was lucky enough to be sent some Shunyata Venom NR mains cables to review, along with a Venom UK6 power distribution block and as some of you may recall, I thought they were excellent, to the point where they continue to be my primary power cables across all my audio components. Therefore when […]
Where would we be without vinyl? Whether you love it or hate it, it’s been a major element of home music replay for many decades from its earliest beginnings in the heady days of acoustic shellac discs to the refined electronics and modern pressings we can enjoy today. Not that it’s without its foibles. Talk […]
Semantics are particularly problematic in the niche within a niche that is ‘serious’ hi-fi. The word streamer is a classic example, is it something that delivers music from cloud based services such as Spotify or Tidal, or does it deliver music that you have stored on a hard drive on your network. Furthermore does it […]
You wouldn’t think that attenuating or reducing a signal would be all that difficult, yet this is essentially what preamplifiers do most of the time. Active ones complicate matters by adding gain, which in essence is increasing the signal, but with modern sources there is rarely any need to actually increase it by much unless […]
I have been aware of the Swiss loudspeakers brand Piega for a few years now but had never previously had the opportunity to hear a pair, so jumped at the chance to review the Coax 311, a handsome stand (or shelf) mount model, which sits in the second tier of Piega’s hierrachy, below the Master […]