For Audiophiles using their phone for on the move sounds, Essential has announced that the Audio Adapter HD is now available to buy – currently, only in the US and Canada. More »
The KR Audio VA350i amp is hand-built, as are its enormous tubes, in Prague and it costs £11 500 in the UK and €12 900 in Europe. Stuart Smith takes a listen. More »
The Roon Nucleus + is essentially a Roon specific dedicated network streamer costing £2500, but what does it bring to the whole Roon experience sonically? John Scott finds out. More »
Naim Audio and Focal, have got together to offer three exclusive system deals, including a free music system for a second room. More »
I love hifi shows. Time to see old friends and new equipment, and of course some old favourites, too. It gave me the chance to meet both new faces and products at a new location for me, at a time when this hitherto fairly unknown show now wants to turn up the volume and make it really international and worthy of your trip on Ryanair. This is not a new show, having begun in 1992, and this year has been rebranded as the ‘Copenhagen High End Show’, emphasising the top-end brands manufactured in Scandinavian countries, having originally been known as the ‘HiFi and Surround Show’. Starting modestly in a hotel the other side of Copenhagen, the capital and most populated city on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand, the event this year was the fifth time at the Clarion Hotel, conveniently located at the airport, meaning easy connectivity for those coming in via the airport or metro. For the previous eight years the show was at the Marriott in Copenhagen, around 25 minutes away by train away. Scandinavia should be really taken seriously for what they offer the audiophile and not just from majors such as Dynaudio, Gryphon, Dali and Densen. I guess with the prevalent winds and snow keeping the Danes sat indoors keeping warm for much of the year they really do need a good hi-fi system to keep them entertained. More »
Audio Physic are a German manufacturer with a great reputation, Ian Ringstead takes a listen to the company’s Classic 5 floorstanders costing £1598. More »
Janine Elliot takes a listen the SweetVinyl SugarCube SC-1, a device aimed at removing the clicks and pops from your vinyl collection and costs £1500. More »
Janine Elliot attends Festival Of Sound and pops along to see Whispering Bob Harris and Chris Difford’s presentation. More »
In part 2 of his report from this year’s Festival Of Sound held in Hammersmith, London, Stuart Smith takes a look around the static stands at the event and the headfi zone. More »
This year’s festival Of Sound took place in Hammersmith, London over the weekend and here is Hifi Pig’s first report from the show. More »
For this mini show report of the recent Audio Show at Leamington Spa, Hifi Pig Reader Sean Cooke takes the reigns for Hifi Pig. Apologies for the quality of photographs but on returning from the show Sean realised there had been a fault with his DSLR and so most of these are from a smartphone. More »
Italian brands Gold Note IS-1000 Streamer and Integrated Amplifier does what it says on the tin and has an impressive range of connectivity, high power output and even has a built in MM/MC phonostage. It costs £3820 (around $5000) as tested in the UK (a version with an updated DAC is available for £4500) but does it all add up to a great deal in the final analysis? Stuart Smith finds out. More »
Titan Audio, A relatively new company, starting out in 2013 and based in Northern Ireland with a passion for getting the best mains power to your HiFi equipment. Not only do Titan strive to construct the very best power cables and connections, they back their work up with a “Lifetime” guarantee too. Here Dave Robson will be be testing their Styx Power Distribution Block and the first three power cables in their line up. The Styx, Tyco and Helios power cables. More »
Today, Active Bird Community have shared their new single ‘Sweaty Lake’, which is taken from their forthcoming album and Barsuk Records debut, Amends. More »
Bassist, composer and a leading figure of the 21st century Polish jazz movement, Wojtek Mazolewski has long been a frontrunner in the evolution of modern jazz. Heading up outfits such as Pink Freud (signed to Universal Poland) and the Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet, his career continues to evolve with the forthcoming release of ‘Polka Worldwide Deluxe Edition’, a collection of remastered and original material from the quintet’s highly acclaimed debut album ‘Polka’, along with their new EP and single. More »
At the start of 2018, Mildlife were set to release their debut album via Australian imprint Research Records. Few first releases can garner praise from Mojo, The Guardian, BBC 6 Music, and then pick up equally high praise from the likes of DJ Mag, Resident Advisor, Worldwide FM, Dummy, and Indie Shuffle. Yet it is in the fusion of these various genres, tastes, and influences, that Mildlife originally bonded and look to reflect in their sound. More »
Brandon Prinzing & The Old Revival is a four-piece folk punk group from Bend, Oregon. Inspired by classic americana, the intricacies of metal and the defiant energy of punk rock, Brandon Prinzing combines all three in an all-consuming kick, stomp and holler force of motion. Hear This, their debut album recorded by Aaron Gillespie of Underoath, details the struggle of loss and fighting to continue. Inspired by a near-fatal car crash that left his girlfriend paralyzed and paraplegic, Prinzing explores the darkness of feeling trapped with no way out – but still fighting to pursue happiness. More »
The Molochs are celebrating the release of their second album ‘Flowers In The Spring’ today via Innovative Leisure with a new video for the latest single from the record, ‘Too Lost in Love’. The album premiered at Hype Machine earlier this week where it was described as a “confident collection (that) touches on topics of love and disgrace and life and death”. The new video was inspired by the work of legendary filmmaker Jonathan Demme, as director Evan Pritts explains below: More »
Black Belt Eagle Scout (aka Portland-based Katherine Paul) is an indigenous queer musician whose debut album, Mother of My Children, is about “grief and love for people, but also about being a native person in what is the United States today.” Mother of My Children is out September 14th via Saddle Creek. After sharing lead single, “Soft Stud,” and then the brilliant “Just Lie Down”, Black Belt Eagle Scout now presents “Indians Never Die.” Directed by queer Diné Evan James Atwood, the “Indians Never Die” video was filmed on the ancestral lands of the Chinook, Chinnuk Wawa, and Tillamook tribes. More »
Sicily is famed for its lemons. Fortunately, John Scott discovers that Sicilian amplifier manufacturer Audiozen’s Alchemy amp is a bit of a peach at £3091. More »
dCS has announced its Bartók network DAC and headphone amplifier – a single- box, digital-to-analogue converter with full network streaming functionality and Class A headphone amplifier. More »
The Cyrus OneHD is an integrated amp and DAC with a whole host of connectivity for what looks to be a very reasonable £999. Alan McIntosh takes a listen. More »
Made in Switzerland the Boenicke W5SE are a very small speaker with a reasonably high price tag of £4595. Stuart and Linette Smith take a listen. More »
This is the New Power Station power supply just released by Clones Audio starting at HKD4,799 (£475 plus taxes). More »
Tangent Audio has announced the launch of two new wireless audio products, the Spectrum DAB/FM radio and W1 wireless multi-room speaker with built-in Chromecast audio. More »