Tellurium Q Ultra Silver II USB cable Never did I think that a one-metre cable would change the sound of my system quite so much. But did this short USB cable bring a change for the better? Speaking to the guys from Hegel at the Oslo Hi-Fi Show I decided that I wanted to experiment […]
Avid Integra integrated amplifier Avid Hifi made its name with turntables, solidly engineered and superbly finished examples of the breed. Having built models to suit a wide range of pockets the Huntingdon-based company started building a range of electronics and speakers in order to be able to offer full systems to its customers around the […]
Oephi Immanence 2.5 loudspeakers Reviewing Oephi’s standmount Transcendence 2 earlier in the year gave me a taste for the fast, dynamic and frankly thrilling sound of this Danish cable maker’s loudspeakers, it didn’t take long before a request was put in for something bigger. That bigger speaker is the Immanence 2.5, which is not the […]
ATC SCM40A active loudspeakers Active or powered loudspeakers seem to be gaining ground in the wireless world that so many music lovers choose. The sort of powered speakers that are making headway tend to be more about keeping costs down and features up, but that is changing; there are now some respectable speaker makers building […]
Velodyne DD10+ subwoofers However you look at it, bass is a bit of a bugger. Everyone has a very different idea of how it should sound, and getting decent bass in smallish rooms can present the music lover with something of a challenge. Received wisdom (of the historical sort) suggests that large drivers and large […]
Benchmark DAC3 HGC DAC/pre and AHB2 stereo power amp I suppose it’s having grown-up with it, as it were, in my early BBC days but I just love the look, feel and operation of professional audio equipment. When the chance presented itself to try some Benchmark electronics from the US, I just could not resist. […]
Phonar Veritas p6.2 Match Air wireless loudspeakers Loudspeakers need power to work. Historically, that power has been pure analogue signals from analogue power amplifier circuits. The crossover circuits, which share out these high-power signals, are usually passive, using only inductors, capacitors and resistors running at high power levels and inside the speaker cabinets. As these […]
Hegel H190v streaming amplifier Having secured the very first UK review sample of the Hegel’s new H190v (v for vinyl), the immediate observation is that a moving magnet phono stage has been added and so we have an additional pair of RCA connectors alongside a ground tag on the rear panel. Other than that it’s […]
Naim NSS 333 streamer, NAC 332 preamplifier, NAP 350 power amplifiers Apparently the NAC 332 is the first Naim preamplifier to have an onboard power supply. In a day and age when finding any preamplifier without its own power supply is unlikely this is hardly shocking but it’s clearly a change of approach for Salisbury’s […]
Morel Avyra 633 loudspeakers Having enjoyed so much the new Morel two-way Avyra 622 stand-mounts I was very excited at the prospect of trying the larger, three-way Avyra floor-standing loudspeakers. I had heard them in the Editor’s room and was impressed by what they could do on the end of some pretty heavyweight electronics that […]
Triangle Borea BR02 Connect powered loudspeakers French hi-fi brand Triangle’s catalogue is not short on compact active loudspeakers, and now we have new additions in the shape of the Borea Connect range, based on passive variants. There are two models: the larger Borea 03, with 160cm main drive units and two 60W amplifiers, and the […]
HEDD Heddphone Two headphones I don’t often get over-excited by headphones, using them only when listening via loudspeakers is not possible for whatever reason. However, at the Dutch Audio Event last autumn I discovered some rather amazing German headphones using AMT drivers, my preferred type of high frequency drive unit for speakers, rather than more […]