International consumer electronics show, IFA 2018, is underway in Berlin and MQA has a strong presence, with several partners showcasing new MQA-enabled products. More »
AVM’s latest Compact Streaming CD Receiver, the INSPIRATION CS 2.2 4T will be unveiled by PMC UK Distribution at Festival of Sound in September. Based on the CS 2.2, the enhanced CS 2.2 4T now features the latest Bluetooth 4.2 standard, with a dedicated second antenna on the rear of the unit. More »
EISA, the European Sound and Imaging Association, has awarded the iFi xDSD Best Portable DAC/Headphone Amplifier for 2018-2019. More »
Quad has replaced the original Artera Play source component with a new version called the Artera Play+. Like its predecessor, which launched in 2015, the Play+ is a CD player, DAC and preamplifier combined in a single compact chassis. But while its form is familiar, the ‘plus’ suffix denotes a range of improvements that broadens functionality. More »
Chord Electronics’ Hugo 2 DAC/Headphone Amp EISA DAC 2018/19 Award More »
Crosby, Young, Gifted and, er, not Black…John Scott hangs out with M2Tech’s Rockstar separates and finds himself helpless to resist their charms. More »
Chord Electronics will be at the Festival of Sound for the third time this year. If you didn’t get a chance to experience the new Chord Hugo M Scaler at CanJam London then you’ve got another chance at the Festival Of Sound the last weekend in September. More »
The Totaldac d1-driver is an analogue driver. It is usually connected to the output of the DAC. Vincent Brient of French brand Totaldac told us more. “It is an answer to the endless question “is it better with or without preamp?”The strength of preamps is there active stage more than their volume control. The active stage helps driving the power amp. Traditional preamps have been designed when people had several analogue sources: LP, cassette, FM tuner, CD player… Some of us still use LP today and still need a traditional preamp”. More »
CanJam London 2018 was held at the prestigious Park Plaza Hotel, Westminster Bridge this year, just over the River from the Houses of Parliament. The hotel itself was very luxurious and a great setting for consumers, companies, designers and music lovers from the U.K, U.S, Canada, Japan, Singapore and many other countries to come together for this event.
Chord Electronics has just unveiled, at CanJam London 2018, the Hugo M Scaler, a standalone upscaler which Chord say is “capable of redefining sound quality from digital audio”. Hugo M Scaler uses advanced filter technology to upscale standard 44.1kHz digital audio up to 705.6kHz (16x CD’s 44.1kHz native resolution), ready to be passed to a suitable DAC; Hugo M Scaler extends its upscaling performance to 768kHz (from 96kHz input data) for dual-BNC-input Chord Electronics DACs: DAVE, Qutest and the new Hugo TT 2. More »
Auralic got in touch to tell us about their Summer promotion. Buy the Altair Streaming DAC between now and September the 30th and receive six months Qobuz free of charge. More »
June was a very busy month indeed. We brought you loads of Hifi News which is all rounded up here in case you missed it. We also brought you Hifi Reviews and coverage of the North West Audio Show 2018 at Cranage Hall.…it was fabulous so make sure you check out coverage from Linette and Stuart too.
The Bakoon Satri DAC-21 D2A DAC is diminutive in size, but does it make up in sound quality what it is lacking in stature? Janine Elliot finds out.
Crosby, Young, Gifted and, er, not Black…John Scott hangs out with M2Tech’s Rockstar separates and finds himself helpless to resist their charms. More »
The Bakoon Satri DAC-21 D2A DAC is diminutive in size, but does it make up in sound quality what it is lacking in stature? Janine Elliot finds out. More »
Primare has announced the shipping of the first Prisma models: the I35 Prisma integrated amplifier/network player and CD35 Prisma CD/network player. More »
Electromod at the North West Audio Show are showing, for the first time in the UK, the Schiit Hifi system comprising of Schiit’s Vidar Amplifier, Schiit’s Saga Preamplifier and the Bifrost Multibit Dac with a pair of Kudos X2 loudspeakers and using Audioquest entry level connections, the total price for the system not including source is under £3500. More »
NAD Electronics has announced their new C 538 CD player which is available now with an MSRP of £249.00. Though music downloads and streaming continue to grow in popularity, many consumers still have a vast collection of CDs and need a player to enjoy them. NAD has continued to develop its CD players as part of its development in digital technology. More »
David Blumenstein takes a listen to the Exogal Comet Plus DAC costing $3500 or £2500 in the UK for the DAC and £2950 with improved PSU. More »
Aeron has launched what they say is the smallest Hifi system in the world, the Aeron C101 pre-amplifier/ headphone amplifier and Aeron P101 Class D Stereo Amplifier. Just connect to your source and speakers. More »
David Blumenstein takes a listen to the Exogal Comet Plus DAC costing $3500 or £2500 in the UK for the DAC and £2950 with improved PSU. More »
ExaSound Audio Design has announced their PlayPoint DM next-generation flagship music server and DAC. Combining a reference-grade 32-bit digital-to-analogue converter, balanced headphone amplifier and Roon-enabled music server in one component, the PlayPoint DM unites, say exaSound, “simplicity with sonic perfection”. More »
Stuart and Linette Smith have had the Chord DAVE DAC sat on their rack for the best part of a year now and don’t want it to go 
home. Find out why. More »
Every year we say the same thing, ‘surely the High End Show can’t get any bigger?’, but every year it does! It is now at the point when no human can actually cover every inch of the show…we have tried our very best but I think Super-human powers would be needed for that! However, being very organised and attacking it with military precision meant that we got to see most rooms and exhibits with the aim of bringing you the most comprehensive and interesting coverage of the show…we even managed to get over to the HifiDeluxe show too and bring you CanJam Munich coverage. More »
Chord Electronics certainly had the world’s Hifi Press beating a path to their door at High End Munich this year. Their room was so busy that some had to wait outside, luckily Hifi Pig was in there for a first glimpse of their new products. The full team were there and as always it was a pleasure to see them and great to see the iconic British brand in such high demand at the world’s major international Hifi Show. More »
