Back in 1995, the globe was a completely different place. We were assaulted by a slew of black pressed steel-cased transistor amplifiers and CD players in hi-fi; Audiolab’s 8000a reigned supreme on the showroom floor, and HDCD was the buzz of the day. Valve amplifiers were slowly re-entering the public consciousness, but they were still […]
Lee Taylor received BAFTA and Palme d’Or honors for his work in recording and mixing for television, music, and film prior to founding Leema, while Mallory Nichols had previously worked in the manufacturing of MAGTRAX monitors for recording studios and mastering firms since the early 1990s. It’s no surprise that the two men started their
Leema Xen 2 Review Read More »
Etsuro Nakamichi, a tape magnetics research engineer, created the Nakamichi Corporation in Japan in 1948. In 1951, he began creating open reel decks for other hi-fi businesses to put their own badges on, as he was captivated by tape. It was a difficult business to be in, needing tight tolerances and precise alignment, as well
Nakamichi BX-150E Review Read More »
The Cyrus CD transport, which was released in 2011 for £699, filled a much-needed vacuum in a hi-fi world that was suddenly seeing a drop in the number of silver disc spinners being produced. Linn had already announced that it would no longer offer Compact Disc players, and the major Japanese manufacturers — with the
A top Marantz engineer once told me, “The original Bitstream players sounded horrible.” You understand that this is strictly not for publishing, yet it is refreshingly open all the less. Others used more diplomatic terminology at the time, but it’s worth noting that the company didn’t release a flagship Bitstream system until 1994’s CD-15. This
Marantz CD-7 Review Read More »
Who would have guessed? Oppo Digital Inc., a California-based spin-off of an obscure Chinese optical disc player firm, launches a high-end hi-fi product line. It’s not your normal hi-fi success story, but with each new product launch, the tale becomes more credible. The business now has its own matching DAC/preamp/headphone amp – in the very
Cyrus Audio’s ONE integrated amplifier, which debuted at the 2016 Munich High End Show, is a Class D design that employs the company’s hybrid Class D technology’s third iteration. When headphones are plugged in, the power supply rails switch to powering the Class AB headphone stage, claiming 100W RMS per channel into 6 ohms. As
The sheer quantity of low-cost Philips-based Marantz CD players produced in the 1980s and 1990s is staggering. The market was continuously moving throughout the heyday of the silver disc, and Marantz, like everyone else, had to come up with new features, adjustments, and/or style to maintain its market position. In 1988, Marantz released the CD65
Marantz CD-65 MKII SE Review Read More »
The Aurora was the company’s first turntable, and it cost little under £1,000 when it was released in 2014. It’s a high-quality skeletal belt drive design hewn from black acrylic with a low-resonance platter, just like the original from 2003. It lacks traditional sprung suspension and must be placed on a well-isolated table or wall
Origin Live Aurora Mk3 Review Read More »
The decade of the 1990s was perhaps equally as significant for digital audio as the decade before it, because it witnessed the first introduction of high-resolution recording and playback. The next wave of DVD players that followed towards the end of the 1990s were finally able to deliver 24-bit, 96Hz stereo, whereas Compact Disc had
