Articles
-
Making a Statement
|Naim Audio has been building audio electronics since the 1970s. So, it knows a thing or two about handling the products it’s building. But when you move into making an amplifier of the size, scale, ...read more -
First Listen: Aurender Flow portable headphone amp/DAC/preamp
|Most audiophiles associate the name Aurender with the firm’s range of highly accomplished music servers, and rightly so. More than many competitors in the field, Aurender has demonstrated that it is keenly attuned to the ...read more -
Resolution Audio Cantata Music Center/m100/Pont Neuf system
|When first I proposed this test, I was keen to see the new Resolution Audio Cantata m100 amps, but thought we’d sideline the Cantata ‘Music Center’ CD-streaming-USB-DAC-preamp. The Cantata Music Center is far from old ...read more -
CES: Highlights from Venetian Floor 30 – Electronics, Source Components, and Servers/Streamers
|Most CES high-end audio exhibits are clustered in the aforementioned upper floors of the Venetian Hotel, although by tradition some high-end headphone manufacturers continue to exhibit in the LVCC’s South Hall. Added to this, there ...read more -
First Listen: Oppo HA-1 desktop headphone amplifier/DAC/preamp
|As Hi-Fi+ readers know, we have been closely following Oppo Digital’s ongoing expansion in the high-end headphone and personal audio electronics marketplace. First came the firm’s flagship PM-1 planar magnetic headphones (reviewed in issue 1xx), ...read more -
Aaron No 22 Cineast preamp and No 3 Millennium power amplifier
|This is Aaron’s pre-power system, but it’s a system with a twist. While the No 3. Millennium power amplifier is a stereo design, the preamp – the No 22. Cineast – is designed to handle ...read more -
Townshend Audio Allegri Autotransformer Preamplifier
|This is one of those reviews that was a long time coming. Not long after I reviewed the excellent Music First Audio passive magnetic preamplifier, I got a call from Townshend Audio asking (somewhat arrogantly, ...read more -
B.M.C. Audio BDCD1.1 CD player and DAC1PreHR DAC/preamp
|Once upon a time, high-end audio meant products that were markedly superior in build and performance than their more entry-level counterparts. It also used to mean products that retained a good resale value even a ...read more -
Cambridge Audio Azur 851D & 851W
|Cambridge Audio may no longer operate in the collegiate city that gave the brand its name, but the product design and engineering is still very much British. Now based in Bermondsey in the heart of ...read more -
Jean C. Verdier, 1938-2014
|Jean C. Verdier, French turntable pioneer, passed away earlier this week. Verdier was born in 1938. He started to manufacture turntables in 1963, during his time with the French company ERA. In 1972, Jean Verdier ...read more -
MiZiK dVin phono preamp, dPlay (and dStream) preamplifier
|On the surface, all may be well in the land of audio. OK, prices of top-end equipment are now reaching the stratosphere, but the performance of good high-end equipment of 20 years ago can be ...read more -
The Zanden Model 3100 Line-Stage
|Reviewers are supposed to be neutral, disinterested observers. But the truth is, that to do this job well – in fact, to do this job at all – you have to be passionate about recorded ...read more -
Aesthetix Janus preamplifier and Atlas power amplifier
|The all-tube moving-coil stage is a rare beast indeed. Whilst tube phono-stages are both common-place and popular, when it comes to low-output moving-coil cartridges, the vast majority switch to either transformers (Zanden) or J-FETs (Audio ...read more -
Trinnov Amethyst preamp
|Calling the Trinnov Amethyst a ‘preamp’ is a bit like calling Rafael Nadal ‘a tennis player’; it’s true, but dramatically fails to get across the bigger picture. You see, the Amethyst does all the conventional ...read more -
CES 2014: Electronics (Amplifiers)
|OK, there is an elephant in the room when it comes to audio amplification this year – Naim Audio. By upping the ante by an order of magnitude, to make its Statement NAC S1 preamp ...read more