The Latest on Hi-Fi+

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  Blog

  Why do bad things happen to good systems?

  by

  Alan Sircom

  | Jul 25, 2014

  As audiophiles, we have all experienced this. Despite all our care, attention, and diligence, that textbook high-end supersystem just sounds flat, drab and uninspired. You might have spent years building it, months tweaking it, and ...

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  Blog

  First Listen: AURALiC GEMINI 2000 headphone amp/DAC/stand

  by

  Chris Martens

  | Jul 25, 2014

  AURALIC’s GEMINI 2000 and 1000 products were first drawn to my attention, if I remember correctly, last October at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2013. At the time, the products were in their final pre-production ...

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  News

  First Listen: HiFiMAN HE-560 Planar Magnetic Headphones

  by

  Chris Martens

  | Jul 21, 2014

  Several months ago I received, as did a handful of headphone-minded audio journalists, a review pair of HiFiMAN’s latest HE-560 headphones. But, less than 24 hours after the headphones arrived, I got a message from ...

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  Equipment+

  Norodst Valhalla 2 cable system

  by

  Alan Sircom

  | Jul 19, 2014

  Nordost has put a lot of faith in mechanical tuning recently. The company discovered that a cable’s mechanical properties (including its physical length) are vital to in its sonic performance. The results of this investigation ...

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  Equipment+

  iFi Nano iDSD portable DSD DAC/headphone amplifier

  by

  Chris Martens

  | Jul 19, 2014

  Have you ever wondered what would happen if a high-end audio manufacturer with a reputation for sonic excellence applied itself wholeheartedly to designing affordable electronics for personal audio applications? As it happens, that very question ...

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  Equipment+

  QUAD ESL 2812 electrostatic loudspeaker

  by

  Chris Thomas

  | Jul 19, 2014

  After much dropping of hints I was offered the chance to spend a couple of months living with the latest Quad Electrostatic speaker, the 2812. Many years ago I owned three different pairs of the ...

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  Equipment+

  iFi Nano iCAN portable headphone amplifier

  by

  Chris Martens

  | Jul 17, 2014

  In high-end audio, context can be everything. Directly following this review, I have also prepared a review of iFi Audio’s Nano iDSD portable DAC/headphone amplifier, in which I observe that the iDSD can be a ...

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  Blog

  Unplanned obsolescence

  by

  Alan Sircom

  | Jul 17, 2014

  A few years ago, at least one set of conspiracy theorists were proved right. After the reunification of Germany, historians were sifting through the archives of the Osram factory in the former East Germany, and ...

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  Equipment+

  Stax SR-009 / SRM-007tII 'Kimik'

  by

  Alan Sircom

  | Jul 13, 2014

  We have already touched upon the Stax SR-009. Our Publisher, Chris Martens, has a great deal of respect for the product, both when it is driven by Stax ‘energisers’ (Stax-speak for electrostatic headphone amplifiers) and ...

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  Equipment+

  Linn Akubarik

  by

  Jason Kennedy

  | Jul 13, 2014

  The original Linn Isobarik was once the top dog on the flat earth. If you had a pair, driven by a Naim six-pack and with a fully loaded LP12 at the front in the 1980s, ...

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