These inexpensive portable Swedish cans are compact and light, with a simple design (59g). Considering their low price, build quality is excellent – easily as good as anything from Sennheiser at or anywhere near their £50 retail price. Their design is also semi-foldable (with two folding joints), making them ideal for portables, whilst they’ll be […]
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For audiophiles of a particular generation, the term “direct-drive” conjures up images of a whole generation of cheap, poor Japanese turntables that swamped mass market retailers like Laskys and Comet in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The British hi-fi press did not have much good to say about them at the time. There was
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Few people have ever seen or heard of this piece of Plexiglas perfection, which first debuted in the mid-1970s. It was allegedly designed and constructed by IMF Electronics, and a deeper examination reveals why… The deck featured an electronic speed controller to drive the split-level podule platter through a fine rubber belt, which was unusual
IMF Transcription 300 Review Read More »
It’s difficult to understand how revolutionary Goldring’s G900 series was when it debuted in the late 1970s. Here was a state-of-the-art technology that weighed a silph-like 4 grams in a world of somewhat heavy, lowish compliance cartridges. It was, for a brief period, the very essence of a modern moving magnet, as zeitgeisty as New
Goldring G900IGC Review Read More »
Vinyl began declining in popularity in the early 1990s. It had a ‘end of the century’ vibe to it, as if the sting of death will befall it soon long. As a result, the availability of low-cost, high-quality cartridges began to dwindle. The Ortofon VMS series was silently being phased out of dealers’ inventory lists,
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Turntables are a particularly highly contested niche in hi-fi’s arena of items that aspire to be ‘the greatest.’ Others claim it’s a Garrard, Roksan, Oxford Acoustics, Voyd, Pink Triangle, SME, Oracle, or Continuum, while others swear it’s a Garrard, Roksan, Oxford Acoustics, Voyd, Pink Triangle, SME, Oracle, or Continuum. The Goldmund Reference, on the other
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Garrard had been a turntable specialist for nearly half a century by the time this immensely successful record player was originally unveiled in 1967. The pedigree dates back to 1721, when Garrard and Company was designated Crown Jewellers of London, with the responsibility of looking after the British Crown Jewels and Royal Crown. The company
Garrard SP25 Review Read More »
It’s funny how certain things make a big splash when they first come out, but then fade into obscurity once they’ve been phased out. The Gale GS401 speaker is an example of this, having earned the CES Design and Engineering Excellence Award in 1978, only to fade into obscurity a decade later. The 401 was
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Every Japanese business has a specialty, something it is particularly proud of. It was always innovation and miniaturization with Sony, and it was always dependability and affordability with Matsushita (just like Honda and Toyota respectively). Pioneer built their fame with LaserDisc, and TEAC went towards optical storage, particularly CD, following a solid start with magnetic
Esoteric X-05 Review Read More »
Over the years, there have been surprisingly few fantastic CD transfers, and you have to ask why. They were pretty much the only method to get digits into your DAC until computers came along, so they played – and continue to play – a crucial role in many people’s lives. TEAC is unquestionably the most
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