LATEST ADDITIONS

The big news at Ayre is that the standing range of "5"-series components is being upgraded to "The Twenty Editions," which incorporate the circuit and performance facilities of the well-received flagship KX-R Twenty, MX-R Twenty and VX-R Twenty.

With the demise of the iPod, the number of high quality portable players has jumped. Case in point are these two new players from Questyle. Both play DSD and Double DSD files along with about a dozen PCM formats up to 24/192. The players also feature the company's unique "current mode" headphone amplification.

Another music server that caught my eye was the latest offering from SOtM, which will hit retailers in February for around $3k. Though the front of the box is plain, this is a full-featured machine, as evidenced by the back panel. USB inputs and outputs support up to 32/384 PCM and native DSD, and networking support for DLNA is included.

This is one of the smallest boxes I've seen that handles both streaming and conversion, and the price is tiny to match: $249. The BurrBrown chip inside handles up to 32/384 via USB and there are also analog RCA outputs on back. Though not listed in the catalog, there is a filter switch on the display unit.

Pro-Ject also has another new streamer that didn't make it to the show called the Stream BOX S. It will include UPnP and DLNA ethernet and WiFi connectivity to your network and support app control of your streams. No pricing yet, but should show up near the middle of the year.

The DAC BOX has now been upgraded to include DSD decoding in addition to 24/192 PCM. There are USB 2.0, SPDIF and optical inputs as well as analog RCA outputs on the back and a button for two filter settings on the front. Price is $499.

Though they only had a prototype board (in the photo below) as well as the poster (in the photo above) in the room, Calyx were announcing the new PaT DAC which should hit retailers in February for $99. Handles PCM up to 16/48, but no DSD. One interesting feature is the buttons on the panel can control your play, volume and skip features on the connected phone.

In the Devore Fidelity room was the Line Magnetic DAC that sports both a tube and solid state user-selectable output section via a front panel switch. Async USB, SPDIF, optical and AES/EBU connectors on the back and the LM-502CA has been updated inside to accept up to 32/356 PCM. Available now for $1,795.