Articles
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The Hi-Fi+ Awards: Personal Audio products of the year
|High-End Headphone of the Year: MrSpeakers VOCE MrSpeakers is led by Dan Clark, a keen-eared headphone enthusiast and an engineer’s engineer. The company takes its name from an earlier phase in Clark’s career where he ...read more -
RME ADI-2 DAC digital converter/headphone amplifier
|In all honesty, most domestic DACs fall somewhere between ‘inadequate’ and ‘woefully inadequate’ when it comes to telling the world what they are doing. There are exceptions of course – Chord Electronics and its colour-coded ...read more -
Schiit Audio Jotunheim Multibit headphone amp/preamp
|When Schiit Audio introduced its Jotunheim headphone amp/preamp in 2016, it was considered a technical marvel and a bargain. Jotunheim used a unique balanced circuit topology, called a ‘Pivot Point’ gain stage, developed by company ...read more -
Cayin iHA-6 headphone amp, iDAC-6 DAC, and iDAP-6 digital audio player
|If you jumped into an audiophile’s time machine and went back about a year and a half (to late 2016), you might have seen and heard two compact yet very impressive new components from Cayin ...read more -
iFi Audio Pro iDSD DAC/headphone amp/preamp/streamer
|Many of you know the backstory behind iFi Audio. In essence, the firm is a spin-off from the well-regarded British high‑end audio company Abbingdon Music Research (AMR) and iFi’s mission is to make AMR-like technology ...read more -
The Hi-Fi+ Directory of High-End Audio Manufacturers, 2019
|We’ve selected and showcased the work of 32 of the finest manufacturers in high-end audio in our exclusive guide. Regardless of price, product type, or brand name, we’ve uncovered the most exciting and innovative companies ...read more -
iFi Audio Pro iCAN, Chord Hugo2, Final D8000, and Campfire Andromeda system
|As high-performance personal audio systems have evolved, they have become more specialised. Some focus on top class headphones and electronics intended for use within the relative quiet of one’s home, while others centre on advanced, ...read more -
Burson Audio Conductor Virtuoso 2+ headphone DAC preamp
|This is not our first rodeo with Burson Audio. If they even have rodeos in Melbourne, Australia, where Burson Audio is based. We looked at the HA160 headphone amp in Issue 79, and the original ...read more -
Bluewave Get portable headphone amp/DAC
|Taking in the afternoon sun for a spot of al fresco coffee action, I discovered the one big flaw to the Bluewave Get Bluetooth headphone amplifier from Canada. With a dark-coloured headphone cable blending into ...read more -
Linn Selekt DSM digital streaming platform
|Editor’s note: In the weeks between encountering the Linn Selekt DSM and today, some of my opinions have changed. They are included in an addendum at the bottom of this review. In the network streaming ...read more -
dCS launches new Bartók upsampling network DAC with headphone amplifier
|From the dCS press release: CAMBRIDGE, UK: dCS proudly announces its Bartók network DAC and headphone amplifier – a singlebox, state-of-the-art digital-to-analogue converter with full network streaming functionality and Class A headphone amplifier. Retailing at ...read more -
Sennheiser HD 800 S headphones and HDV 820 DAC/amplifier
|Sennheiser’s ‘functional’ top end (as in, excluding the “give me your Amex Black and repeat after me… help yourself!” Orpheus) was rebooted with the HD 800. This remains a stunning headphone that was launched with ...read more -
Stax SR-L700 Lambda earspeakers/SRM-006tS Kimik 2 energiser
|While it’s not good to start a piece of writing in the middle and sum up a whole review in a single word in the opening paragraph, the Stax SR-L700 Lambda earspeakers coupled with the ...read more -
Astell&Kern KANN portable, streaming high-resolution digital audio player
|Reflecting back on the development of personal products over the past six years, it might be fair to say that the firm Astell&Kern almost single-handedly invented the portable, high-resolution digital audio player (DAP) product category. ...read more -
iFi Audio Nano iDSD Black Label headphone amp/DAC
|iFi’s diminutive and cost-effective Nano iDSD Black Label headphone amp/DAC ($199/£200) beckons with an extensive list of features and functions, but it creates an even stronger impression once listeners hear the device in action and ...read more