FiiO M27 Headphone DAC Amplifier Released

Audio Advice Acquires The Sound Room

LATEST ADDITIONS

CES 2015

Lumin S1 DAC/Streamer/Renderer and L1 Server

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

Lumin started shipping their flagship S1 this year and displayed it in both silver and black in their room. In the photo above is the silver S1 along with two L1 Music Library UPnP 2 TB servers below.

CES 2015

Constellation Audio Cygnus DAC/Media Player

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

Constellation creates some of the most innovative casework at CES, and the Cygnus is no exception. First shown at CES a couple years back, the product will soon be shipping in two form factors: standalone DAC ($27k) and a DAC/Server ($32k) configuration (shown above).

CES 2015

MBL Noble Line N31 DAC/CD Player

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

Black shiny products are tough to photograph at shows, so trust me when I say the new N31 is dripping with gorgeousness not reflected in this photo.

Priced at $18k and available this May, the N31 will process both 24/192 PCM and DSD sources (including iPods/iPads/iPhones). MBL's Juergen Reis showed me a screen shot of an iPhone playing a 24/192 file in the the USB 2 input of the N31, using iTunes USB storage feature.

CES 2015

Meet the Hi-Res Music Creators

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 11, 2015

For the second consecutive year, Hi-Res Audio made a major statement on the main floor of the Venetian Hotel via a large Ballroom exhibit and star-studded panels. I took in "Meet the Hi-Res Music Creators." Moderated by recording engineer Maureen Droney (pictured fourth, going left to right), Senior Executive Director of the Producers & Engineers wing of The Recording Academy (the Grammy people), the panel consisted of four major engineers who record multiple genres in hi-res.

CES 2015

HDTracks Moves Ahead

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 11, 2015

Meetings were frequently in progress when I glanced at the HDTracks booth in the Hi-Res Audio Workshop ballroom. Every time I take a look at the company's site, it's loaded with new releases from everyone from The Who and Eric Clapton to Anna Netrebko and a host of Grammy 2015 nominees. It was great to see David Chesky again, even though he kept mistaking me for tenor Jonas Kaufmann. I should be so lucky.

CES 2015

Live Blues from Super HiRez

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 11, 2015

Marc Sheforgen (left) and Chad Kassem (right) of Acoustic Sounds' Super HiRez DSD download site spilled the beans that in a few weeks, the world's first live-to-DSD hi-rez recordings of "a handful of" blues artists will become available as both stereo and multi-channel downloads. Recorded in the company's Blue Heaven recording studio/concert venue, a converted church in Salina, KS, these may be the first unedited live DSD recordings ever issued.

CES 2015

Forthcoming Hi-Rez from AIX

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 11, 2015

Hi-rez pioneer/evangelist/recording engineer Mark Waldrep of AIX Records held forth in the Hi-Res Audio Showroom in the Venetian Hotel, near booths from Super HiRez and HDTracks. AIX Records' 2015 sampler, containing three different mixes of 70 tracks drawn from its rich catalog, is due sometime in February.

CES 2015

Critical Mass Goes Sotto Voce

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 11, 2015

Critical Mass has just released its new entry-level Sotto Voce equipment rack ($4500 for four tiers). Far more affordable than the company's other racks, it is made of Sapele, a wood that I understand is in the Mahogany family. The rack is upgradeable to include Critical Mass's filter systems that enhance component performance. The upgrade path starts at $225, and can include filter systems that cost up to $2895.

CES 2015

Naim's Super Lumina Cabling

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 11, 2015

Naim's new Super Lumina range of high-end interconnects and speaker cables was developed in parallel with its new, ultra-expensive Statement amplifiers.

CES 2015

Shunyata Research's Sigma Power Cables

Jason Victor Serinus Jan 11, 2015

Grant Samuelson of Shunyata Research introduced me to the company's new Sigma series of power cords. Designed to intercept noise at a component's power supply, the Sigmas are available in different models specifically intended for digital, analog, and high-current equipment. Each model has a different ETRON filter set that measurably reduces noise for the class of equipment for which it is designed.