Behind The Brands With Steve Halsall Of KEF
Steve Halsall heads up KEF in the UK. Hifi Pig gets Behind the Brands with him, find out about his past and current systems and what he makes of the state of the Hifi industry.
Month: July 2016
How I Judge A Hifi System
Hifi Pig reader Michael Howell was born in England but now resides the good old USA. In this Readers’ Lives article he tells us how he personally goes about evaluating a system.
Burson Announce Noir Edition Conductor V2+ Headphone Amplifier/DAC/Preamplifier
Australian brand Burson have announced a Noir Edition of the Conductor V2+ headphone amplifier/DAC/preamplifier. Hifi Pig had one of the older versions of this in house for a few months driving Audeze cans and it offers very good value and great sonics for money at USD 1499. The Noir Edition will have the same spec […]
Why Hifi Pig ? Why ?
The truth behind the name and origins of Hifi Pig.
MQA Announce Mike Jbara as CEO
MQA, the music technology company founded by Bob Stuart, announced today that it has hired music executive Mike Jbara as CEO. In addition to day-to-day leadership responsibility, Jbara will sit on the Board of MQA Ltd. Bob Stuart, Chairman of MQA said: “We are delighted to have Mike join us to take the helm as […]
Schiit Audio Have Introduced Modi Multibit DAC
Schiit Audio have introduced Modi Multibit, the most affordable DAC in the Schiit Multibit lineup. Modi Multibit, which retails for £249, joins Bifrost Multibit, Gungnir Multibit, and Yggdrasil in the Schiit Multibit DAC line. “Modi Multibit smashes the price barrier in advanced multibit DACs,” said Mike Moffat, Schiit’s Co-Founder and head of digital development. “It […]
The Revox A77 Reel-to-Reel Recorder
Things are afoot in the world of reel 2 reels. Not only are there now at least 4 major companies producing reel to reel copies of famous master tapes, but very importantly after a long gap the Swiss tape recorder manufacturer Revox are bringing back the medium with a player based on the A700.
Avid Hifi Announce Reference Four Loudspeaker
Following the successful launch of their Reference loudspeakers at the Munich Highend show, where they won the Hifi Pig Loves You award, Avid Hifi have expanded their range further to include their new entry level Reference. Reference Four employs the same unique cabinet construction and vibration damping techniques, sandwiching the drivers between metal plates and […]
Artnovion Acoustic Panels
“Artnovion combines art and innovation to create the most beautiful and effective acoustic panels” says the company’s recent press release. The range of panels include absorbers, bass traps and diffusers which are engineered to work sonically and be “striking” to look at. Artnovion has also created an acoustics app called Impulso, which is designed to […]
Goldmund Launches A Support Centre In Taiwan And Restructures Its Distribution In China
The Swiss company Goldmund has been present in Asia for more than three decades. Issued in 1982, at a time when most audio brands were trying to conquer the USA, this one had the clear objective of serving Asian customers first. Since then, Asia has continuously been Goldmund’s preferred market, and the first one in […]
There’s More Than One Way To Skin A Cat
Now before all you cat lovers and anti-vivisectionists try to lynch me, let me explain. Loudspeaker design has fascinated me for almost as long as I have been on this planet (60 years if you really want to know!!) and from my earliest days in retail I spent a lot of time not only listening […]
Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder
With Stuart writing extensively about taste recently, and, having touched on the subject of hifi looks and beauty myself in previous articles, I got to thinking about how a hifi’s looks have a bearing on how it sounds, or how we perceive it sounds. For me, hifi systems fall into three main categories looks wise.
Iota QT Ultra-SP Turntable & Satori Tonearm
The Iota QT Ultra-SP turntable & Satori tonearm is the flagship model in a range of four turntables all of which are designed, manufactured, and hand built here in the UK by Iota Audio Design. The Ultra SP turntable is built to order, and the final finish options are to each individual customers preferences, from […]
Vermouth Audio Rhapsody Speaker and Mains Cables
David Robson takes a look at Indonesian company Vermouth Audio’s Rhapsody loudspeaker and mains cables costing £200 for a six foot pair for the former and £150 for a four foot cable for the latter.
Rickie Lee Jones – The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
When Rickie Lee Jones toured her Pirates album in 1981, she comfortably filled Edinburgh’s 3,000 seat Playhouse Theatre. Tonight, The Queen’s Hall, at less than one third of the size, is somewhat less than half full. The lack of seat sales is undeniably disappointing but is perhaps unsurprising. Jones is an uncompromising musician who has […]
MUTEC Announce Firmware Update For MC-3+ Smart Clock USB
MUTEC, German manufacturer of professional and audiophile consumer audio equipment, say they are excited to introduce the firmware V1.10 for their MC-3+ Smart Clock USB. The new firmware V1.10 will not only introduce several functional improvements, it also presents a significant step-up for the already exceptional sound performance of the MC-3+USB say the company. Furthermore, the update will be free to […]
Meze 11 Neo Available For Pre-order
Romanian company Meze Headphones has announced that the new line of earbuds, the Meze 11 Neo, is now available for pre-order. Coming in two colour variations, Gun Metal and Iridium, Meze say that the 11 Neo earbuds are ‘designed for the user to elegantly stand out from the crowd.’ They have an ergonomic shape aiming […]
Eyes Of Blue – Crossroads Of Time (Esoteric Recordings)
The sleeve notes for Eye’s Of Blue’s Crossroads Of Time opens with a bit of an odd one “Sometimes a band can anticipate history to their own detriment. There is such a thing of being too far ahead of the game and finding everyone else is still playing by the old school rules…The story of […]
BenQ GW2270H monitor review
BenQ certainly have a monitor for everyone. Here at GadgetyNews we’ve reviewed a few high to mid spec screens but it is now time to check out something more entry level so we give you the GW2270H. It is easy to get excited about the latest gaming panel or 4K display but not everyone needs, […]
Tascam TrackPack US-2×2 review
Home studios have always been popular but it’s only really over the past 10-15 years that they have actually been in the reach of most people. I remember getting my first tape 4 track recorder but, since the cost of a digital set-up such as the Tascam TrackPack US-2×2, has become affordable and the knowledge […]
Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0 review
The Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0 is set up to be the Chinese company’s challenger to Apple and Samsung. Huawei have made no secret that they aim to actually overtake those two over the next couple of years. Has the MediaPad M2 got the chops though? Months without a new Huawei device to review and then […]
Huawei P9 smartphone review
The Huawei P9 was launched almost three weeks ago and GadgetyNews was there. Since then, I have been living with the phone that packs Leica camera smarts and no fewer than three snapper sensors – one up front and two around back. Huawei is still trying to win over the Samsung and Apple returning customers. […]
AGON AG271QX announced
You might recall my news of AOC announcing their new line of premium gaming monitors – the AGON series. Now they have released its first model – the 27-inch (68.6 cm) AG271QX. The AOC AGON AG271QX is powered by a high-speed TN panel at a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. It promises ultra-smooth […]
Onkyo DP-X1 claims to be world’s best
The DP-X1 press release makes no bones about it – “Onkyo has launched the world’s best Hi-Res Digital Audio Player, the DP-X1” That’s a lofty claim to say the least but Onkyo must be pretty sure of themselves. As you would expect, it handles all the existing Hi-Res formats you can think of, including MQA. […]
Nvidia JXD S192 portable Android gaming console
I love my Nvidia Shield tablet but what about an Android device that’s dedicated to Android gaming? Well the Nvidia JXD S192 may be the one. Before I start, I realise that there’ll be some of you saying “Hang on, you’ve forgotten about Ouya!” well, I think most other people have too. The Ouya seemed […]
Minute EL-34 SE Valve Amplifier
At £885 the Minute EL-34 valve certainly looks to offer good value for money with its separate power supply. Add another £150 and you get a full compliment of cryo’d valves. Ian Ringstead takes a listen.
Various – Let’s Go Down And Blow Our Minds (The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1967) (Cherry Red)
When I was a youth I had the door to my bedroom painted with all psychedelic patterns, dragons, mushrooms and the like. Somewhere on the door I also had a poem that started “I am Bufo bufo, not yet rested from the great work” and on the frame over the door I had “It’s an […]
Mark-Levinson № 526 Dual- Monaural Preamplifier At Karma-AV
Karma-AV have announced the availability of the Mark-Levinson № 526 dual- monaural preamplifier. The № 526 is a 12-input dual-monaural design featuring Pure Path circuit topology, a class-A ‘Pure Phono’ stage, a 32-bit DAC, and a class-A Main Drive Headphone output. Designed and engineered at HARMAN’s Engineering Centre of Excellence in Shelton, CT, USA, the […]