audiophile

AudioQuest shipping Beetle Optical DAC with Asynchronous USB/Bluetooth

July 21, 2017

AudioQuest has the Beetle DAC page live on it’s website, and is taking orders, and shipping them out… which means… WELCOME TO THE FUTURE. For those not in the know the Beetle is capable of delivering uncompressed music via optical [...]

Devialet Air and Roon turn the stream into reality

July 13, 2017

Wake up. You’re not dreaming (you’re streaming). The missing link to make Roon, and the Devialet Expert Series speak easy has arrived. Devialet, the French amplification powerhouse which is considered by some to be the enfant terrible [...]

LA Audio Show 2017: D’Agostino muscle, Audio Research glow, YG finesse – an intoxicating mix

July 9, 2017

Have you ever been to a rock festival and started imagining your dream lineup in a hoped-for ending jam? What would it sound like to hear singer X with guitarist Y and drummer Z? Thoughts similar to that pop into my head as I approach each major [...]

Vancouver Audio Festival 2017: A Hifi Centre Interview

July 9, 2017

Igor Kivritsky wanted to make a difference with the Vancouver Audio Festival, and bring some of the expertise that the staff at the Hifi Centre had to the uninitiated of high fidelity. The goal was to make an audio show accessible to the average [...]

Vancouver Audio Festival 2017: Sonos wants to get you into great sound

July 8, 2017

Sonos had a strong showing at the Vancouver Audio Festival with it’s PLAY:5 speaker system, and the new PLAYBASE television sound base. I’ve seen, and heard the budget-oriented PLAY:1, PLAY:3, and PLAY:5 speakers a number of times, but [...]

LA Audio Show 2017: Vehement Audio off to auspicious start with Brezza Forte speakers

July 8, 2017

It’s fairly common to run into one or two new companies each time I cover a major stereo event. What’s unusual, though, is to meet some fresh audio entrepreneurs on their first official day in business. Yet, that’s just what I encountered at [...]

High End 2017: The Munich Experience, and Rafe’s best of the Show

July 8, 2017

I could see his lips moving but I couldn’t hear a word the guy next to me was saying. We were in the Silbatone room at the MOC for High End in Munich, and I had gone the aural equivalent of snow blind while taking in the massive vintage [...]

McIntosh Announces new MA9000 Integrated Amplifier

July 6, 2017

Touted as their “Biggest Integrated Amplifier” (which is really saying something), McIntosh Labs is today launching another battleship of an amp, this time an integrated going by the moniker MA9000. With 300 watts per channel, two [...]

Vancouver Audio Festival 2017: McIntosh, Transparent Cable and Sonus Faber

July 5, 2017

There’s no denying that Sonus Faber, and McIntosh Labs make beautiful-looking gear. The craftsmanship, attention to detail, and handmade nature of their speakers, and amplification components scream bespoke. But the reason these two marques of [...]

Vancouver Audio Festival 2017: Classé and B&W spark synergy

July 2, 2017

Almost every time I go to a hifi show there they are. Like peas, and carrots: Classé and Bowers & Wilkins. Now, there’s a reason this pairing has been going on so long, and it’s because they work so well together. It was no [...]