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You can use this one just for headphones or hook up a pair of speakers to the 150 wpc amp. In addition to a handful of analog inputs, the H160 accepts SPDIF, USB, optical and ethernet connections for digital audio. But that's not all: Hegel has done some tweaking in software to improve wireless playback from any Apple AirPlay or DLNA device. Available now for $3,500
Bryston's latest DAC was on hand, and yes all of those buttons on the front represent the number of input options! In addition to the normal SPDIF, optical and USB inputs are four HDMI inputs for hooking up computer-based, SACD, Blu-ray and other "modern digital sources".
Bryston says the BDA-3 can handle up to 32/384 PCM and DSDx4 all processed in their native resolutions through to the custom discrete analog output section. Price will be somewhere around $3,200-3,300 and it should hit retailers by spring.
The BOT-1 rips CDs to internal RAM where the files are then read as if…
I liked the sound of the music in this room. Driven by a Calyx M series music player and a Virtue Audio, "Virtue One" class-T integrated amp ($499), the Well Rounded Sound EXP loudspeakers ($1599/pair) and the WRS SUBST sub ($799) played the joyous hell out a variety of musical selections. This modest system generated a big but well-articulated soundspace. Bass was smooth and went pretty deep. Tone character and musical flow seemed easy going and natural. Like Siskel and Ebert used to say, "Thumbs up for Well Rounded!"
Morel's new Octave 6 bookshelf loudspeakers ($2500/pair) employ the kinds of new technologies I believe are leading today's audiophiles into some fresh, open, and I would say newly transparent realms of musical enjoyment. Driven by Hegel H300 amplifiers ($5500), the Morel Octave 6s played with a strength and precision that speakers of even the recent past could not achieve.
The Octave 6 woofers utilize a 6" mid-bass unit with an oversize 3" aluminum voice-coil, a hybrid neodymium/ferrite motor, and a damped polymer cone. These new Morels and the big (250W) Hegel amps delivered music with…
In my review of the Roksan K2 BT integrated amplifier last November I made it especially clear that I enjoyed the way this amp played the earthbound"'roots" type music I love. It played my Bartok and Stockhausen equally well. In fact, the K2 BT is still the amp I use when I am not reviewing and I am just listening for my own simple enjoyment. I am a Roksan fan . . . But!! I also suggested that maybe I liked the way it played music more than how it looked in my "fashionable" Bed=Sty man cave.
Well, the newly styled Roksan K3 integrated amp ($2500 with aptX streaming), the K3 CD player ($…
I am a sucker for the new breed of desktop "wireless" loudspeakers—when they look and sound as natural and dynamic as the new Audioengine B2 Premium Bluetooth loudspeaker, I can dance around, sing, dream on Bartok, or play air guitar while streaming Tidal or WFMU. You are invited!
I was sure my friend Jeffrey Catalano of High Water Sound would have no products under $2000 for me to report on but I also knew he would play a couple of killer records that would make my day. So I stopped into the Ortofon/High Water Sound room to refuel my Chi. Jeffrey was talking to a customer while I wandered over to ogle the TW-Acoustic Black Knight turntable ($40,000) which sported two TW 10.5 tonearms ($5500 each), as well as an Ortofon A95 cartridge ($6500) and an Ortofon Cadenza Mono ($1219). But I fell in love with this new, cool, 5mm-thick, two-layer, bi-rubber compound mat! I am a…
Before I tell you about the new Pear Audio "Tracer" moving-iron cartridge ($999) I want to apologize to my readers as well as Peter Mezek and Michael Vamos for my half-backed coverage of Pear Audio products at the 2014 Rocky Mountain Audiofest. By the time I arrived at the Gamut/Pear Audio suite—I was crazy tired, stupefied and grumpy. I just wanted to get back to my room. While Michael was patient, excited, and did an admirable job of explaining the Tom Fletcher/Nottingham Audio heritage of the Pear Audio line of turntables, arms and cartridges, I could barely focus.
I felt especially…
See that picture of a well-suited handsome man? That's Keith Martin of Washington-State firm, Vana Ltd. Vana distributes cool stuff like Vienna Acoustic loudspeakers, IsoTek AC line voltage products, Dr. Feikert Analogue (maker of one of the finest alignment protractors), and Acoustical Systems (makers of the Axiom tonearm, Archon cartridge, the Arché headshell, and the $799, SMARTractor cartridge alignment tool). What Keith is holding is the new Blue Horizons ProFono MM/MC phono stage ($1249). I have this substantial little component in my system now (under review) and I am not permitted to…
My experience with the new AudioQuest Nighthawk headphones ($599) was one of highest points of my CES adventure. The launch party was crowded and noisy. There were people I wanted to talk to but I had a job to do—so I went over and gave AudioQuest's first headphone offering a listen. I played Paul Simon's Graceland and by the time I was listening to it all the way through—for the third (!!!) time—I realized: The reason I like headphones so much is they direct my attention to a song's lyrics way more than loudspeakers in a room ever did. I have always joked that I never listen to the lyrics—…