Latest News
New products from Schiit Audio
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Schiit Audio, based in California, have quickly become popular for their mid-priced, but insanely good DACs and headphone amplifiers. There's been talk for awhile of them releasing an integrated amp, but until now it's only been promises and speculation. Now it looks like in the (hopefully) near future, their first integrated amp will become available. Following their tradition of using strange, Nordic sounding names for their products, the new amp is christened ...
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Triode Lab - A Canadian Tube Amp Company
Date: Thursday, April 04, 2013
Triode Lab is a manufacturer of high quality tube amplifiers based out of Scarborough, Ontario (just north of Toronto).
They appear to specialize in low wattage, pure Class A, single ended triode designs, offering both EL-84 and 2A3 units. Their line features power amps, integrated amps, as well as mono-blocks.
The EL84 amp was reviewed by 6Moons as the "ideal tube starter amp"
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/triodelab/1.html
...
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Interesting New Product From China - QA660 Digital Transport
Date: Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Recently came across this rather affordable CD Card media player from China:
http://www.qlshifi.com/en/wzcapi/qa660.htm
The QA660 is described as "High end digital music transport". It uses a SD card as it's music source and a "proprietary single threaded software framework". We have no idea what the second part means, but we assume it is probably running a stripped down flavour of embedded Linux as an operating system.
It supports all the current lossless music formats from ...
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Bryston BP17 Preamplifier
Date: Friday, December 28, 2012
Bryston has announced plans for production of a new preamplifier - the BP17. Not much detail is available at this time, but it appears to be derived from the preamp section of the B-135 integrated amplifier that was introduced earlier this year.
The BP17 utilizes a software controlled motorized balanced action analog volume control and integrated balance control, enabling the preamp to be operated remotely while still adhering to fully discrete analog circuits. ...
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Hi-Fi World Names NAD M51 Best DAC for 2012
Date: Thursday, December 13, 2012
Hi-Fi World magazine gives the new NAD M51 DAC 5 out of 5, and names it the best DAC of 2012.
As an owner of this DAC, I do not find this surprisingly at all. It's an amazingly good piece.
Read more here
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Bryston Announces New DAC - The BDA-2
Date: Friday, November 30, 2012
Based on the success of the BDA-1, and the rave reviews of the BDP-1, it looks like Bryston is aiming to expand its market share of the digital domain.
The BDA-2 appears to be more than just an upgrade of the existing BDA-1, but instead is a whole different beast altogether.
From my knowledge of the BDA-1, the new BDA-2 is using a completely different DAC chip - dual AKM 32 bit DACs. The asynchronous USB ...
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Bryston Model T Bookshelf Speaker
Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Bryston has launched a bookshelf version of it's new "Model T" speaker line.
It is probably common knowledge now that Bryston developed the Model T line in partnership with Canada's own Axiom Speakers.
Word on the street is the asking price of the Model T bookshelves should be around $3000.00.
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McIntosh now owned 100% by Italian Equity Firm
Date: Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Fine Sounds Acquires McIntosh
Fine Sounds SpA of Milan, Italy, has purchased McIntosh Laboratory of Binghamton, NY, maker of audio and home-theater electronics and speakers for more than 60 years. Owned by Quadrivio, a private equity firm likewise based in Milan, Fine Sounds also owns Sonus Faber, Audio Research Corporation, Wadia Digital and Sumiko, which together account for $70 million in sales and 250 employees worldwide. McIntosh was previously owned by D+M Group.
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Musical Paradise MP-501 KT120 Amplifier
Date: Friday, September 28, 2012
Musical Paradise is a Canadian company located in Edmonton, Alberta. They design their amps in-house here in Canada, but manufacture them (in all likelihood) in China, using only "high quality and 100% genuine components".
The new MP-501 looks really interesting: 4x KT120 power tubes to push 55 watts. It also uses 4x 6J8P input tubes as well. Previous iterations of this amp used all point to point wiring, but this one uses printed ...
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AudioReview.ca and TAVES
Date: Tuesday, August 07, 2012
AudioReview.ca is thrilled to be named as a part of the promotion network of the Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show (TAVES).
Make plans to visit Toronto September 28-30!
For more information, please visit taveshow.com
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NAD M51 Direct Digital DAC
Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Seems lately all the hi-fi brands are tapping into the new domain of computer based audio.
The first stand-alone DAC from NAD looks really cool. This one is interesting in that it resamples the incoming signal from PCM to PWM (Pulse wave modulation) at an astounding 844kz. It also operates as a purely digital preamp as well. Very cool... Also includes both RCA and XLR outputs.
Haven't heard this one, but I'm really looking ...
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Bryston launches a new integrated
Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Looks the new B135 SST2 is a direct replacement of the B-100. Basically a 3B SST2 stuffed inside an integrated amplifier. Optional DAC or MM phono inputs.
I wonder if the optional DAC is on par with the BDA-1? I'm guessing this one is going to go for around 4k new. Would really love to hear one of these!
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New Bryston Headphone Amplifier: BHA-1
Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Typical of Brystons minimalist, industrial design, this headphone amp will certainly appeal to the crowd who prefer to listen with their ears rather than their eyes.
Looks interesting ... dual mono configuration amp inside.
From the Bryston website:
"Advancing our tradition of unmatched audio performance and functionality, the BHA-1 is Bryston’s reference amplifier solution for the finest listening experience from your headphones. The BHA 1 is compatible with both traditional (single-ended) and balanced headphones.
The advantage ...
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Exposure Enters the DAC Market
Date: Thursday, February 02, 2012
Exposure has stepped into the digital game with the release of its first DAC. Really looking forward to hearing this one! From the Exposure website:
"The Exposure 2010S2 DAC is the first digital to analogue converter from Exposure electronics, featuring 6 digital inputs (including USB input) and high quality headphone amplifier. This is a perfect match with the Exposure 2010S2 amplifier designed both to improve the performance of the 2010S2 CD player and ...
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More New Stuff From Cambridge Audio
Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Looks like Cambridge Audio has even more new products coming out, especially in their line of digital products. Just recently they announced an update to the crazily popular DAC Magic, the DAC Magic Plus, and now a smaller, more compact DAC aimed at desktop computer systems it seems.
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Rega Introduces the New Apollo-R CD Player
Date: Sunday, January 08, 2012
Looks like Rega has revised the popular Rega CD player, as well as their
line of integrated amplifiers. Interesting form factor... From the Rega
website:
The
Apollo-R is the result of many years of innovation, advanced
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Cambridge Audio DACMagic Plus
Date: Sunday, January 01, 2012
Cambridge Audio has just released an updated version of their very popular DACMagic. From the Cambridge Audio website:
"The world's best DAC just got better!"
I don't know if this is true, but I am a big CA fan. More from Cambridge Audio...
Improving on a legend is never easy, but Cambridge Audio has gone back
to the drawing board to create the DacMagic Plus with exciting new
features, wireless device connectivity, and best of ...
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W4S Goes Computer Based Audio with a Music Server
Date: Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Looks like W4S is joining an ever growing list of audio computers catering to the latest trend in audio: computer based sources (aka "music server").
This one is pretty cool in that not only is it a media server, it also is a built in CD ripper. 1 TB of storage on board will give you plenty of space for all your music, with plenty of digital outputs and an ethernet connection. It ...
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Grant Fidelity TubeDAC-11 DAC
Date: Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The TubeDAC-11 Turns up to 5 of of your source players into High-End Tube Source Players.
This newly designed Grant Fidelity TubeDAC-11 is to replace the
hugely popular DAC-09 but still keep all the popular features and will process 24/192 high res signal plus much more refined sound.
High fidelity re-design from ground up, and still with budget in
mind. This vacuum Tube Digital-to-Analog Converter will connect you with
modern media storage technology without ...
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Trends Audio Introduces New SA-10 Loudspeakers
Date: Thursday, December 22, 2011
Hong
Kong, December 12, 2011 - ITOK Media Limited's innovative Hi-Fi brand
"Trends Audio" (www.TrendsAudio.com)today unveiled its first
Loudspeakers - Trends SA-10 and SA-10R speakers. It is the perfect match
with Trends Combo Hi-Fi System, Trends Bi-amp Audio System, Trends
TA-10 amplifiers and the high quality amplifiers on the market. Offering
superb performance for their incredibly modest price, the SA-10 designs
are perfect ...
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Ascend Acoustics Introduces the Sierra Tower Speaker
Date: Thursday, December 22, 2011
From the Ascend Acoustics website:
Introducing our New Flagship Loudspeaker
Featuring our Exclusive Minimal Resonance
Solid Bamboo Laminate Cabinet and NrT Dome
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