Sure, it’s a beautiful nation, but it’s not the first location that comes to mind when you think of hi-fi pickup arms. New Zealand, on the other hand, is full of surprises, including the Design Build Listen Wand tonearm. Designer Simon Brown has created an intriguing product that reminds us that there are few new […]
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Denon’s TU-1500AE had a problem: it was the long-awaited successor to one of the best and longest-running budget tuners in history. True, there were a few fantastic rivals from NAD and Creek, but the Denon TU-260L sold well for a long time because it sounded rich and silky in a way that was surprising for
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There aren’t many cartridges that are as divisive as this one. Some people say it has a magical, natural melody that is simply not available in any other pick-up. Others believe it is an out-of-date old bruiser that is absolutely out of its element in today’s world. After owning many variations, all of which were
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There was a time, between the early 1970s and the late 1990s, when every well-equipped British home included a respectable audio system. Possessing high-quality hi-fi equipment, whether you were an audiophile or not, was a sign of your discerning character, similar to having good furniture or a high-end car. By the 1990s, many of the
With its transport, DAC, clock, and upsampler, the flagship four-box dCS Vivaldi system is a magnificent thing. It is, however, exorbitantly expensive and difficult to set up, and it necessitates a considerable quantity of living space. The Debussy entry-level model, which shares most of its technology, is a simpler, slimmer, single-box design that doesn’t sound
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Cyrus was founded in the 1990s, having previously been a sub-brand of Mission, a loudspeaker specialist. As a result, it was an exciting moment – a lot of items appeared that demonstrated the company’s ideas, some of which were short-lived. The Cyrus dAD7 is one such example, as it represents the company’s final attempt at
A passive preamplifier is simple to construct; I’ve built several. Purchase a 50k ohm potentiometer from RS Components or a similar company, connect it to four phono connectors, and, if you’re feeling brave, mount it in a box with a knob! You can get great results for cheap, which makes you question why some people
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The NAD 3020 was undoubtedly the finest hi-fi success story ever reported at the start of the 1980s. This small integrated amplifier had a tremendous impact on the cheap hi-fi market, and for good reason. The infant New Acoustic Dimension, introduced in 1979 and priced – for a brief, fleeting moment – £59, sounded significantly
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Since he “foolishly decided to become engaged with creating hi-fi,” Rob Watts has gone a long way. He cofounded Deltec Precision Audio after graduating from Cardiff University in 1984 and quickly established himself as a talented electronics engineer. Then he went on to digital, where the PDM1, his first Bitstream DAC, raised some eyebrows. He
This was a hit when it debuted at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It wasn’t simply the company’s first digital-to-analogue converter; it was also the result of Rob Watts and John Franks meeting by coincidence. The former is a talented audio engineer who began his career at Deltec Precision Engineering, while the
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