We’ve been keen at Hifi Pig to get hold of a couple of items from Schiit Audio for a while now as the company seem to 
have a good attitude, offer good service and their prices seem to be very keen indeed.
We managed to get our hands on the Modi USB DAC ($99) and the Magni Headphone Amplifier ($99) and put them through their paces.
“It’s that time of year again when new students are getting ready to pop off to university for the first time and so we’ve been on the lookout for a few systems that we think satisfy a few essentials for today’s music loving academic.
Carting a full blown analogue front end, full range loudspeakers and the vinyl associated with this kind of system off to the other end of the country isn’t really feasible for the vast majority and not always desirable for your average Joe who wants a great sounding system that takes up little space and is portable. With this in mind we got hold of a couple of items from Schiit Audio that seemed to fit our needs.”
You can read the full review of the Schiit Modi and Magni or any of the Hifi Pig reviews by following the highlighted links.
The guys at Concrete Audio, the German loudspeaker manufacturer, got in touch to tell us about their N1 loudspeakers 
which is unusually made from concrete – as the company name may suggest.
“The sound of a loudspeaker dependents largely on the quality of the speaker housing,” says Frank Nebel, head of the company. “Unlike a musical instrument, an optimal speaker housing should not vibrate itself, because these resonances would distort the sound of the speakers.” Nebel explains. “The shortcomings of existing audio systems and the search for the perfect sound motivated us to develop a loudspeaker that will satisfy even the highest demands in sound and listening experience.”
The loudspeaker cabinet is made from a special high-strength concrete with a compressive strength of at least 30 N / mm ² and by means of a special casting process, the housing is cast out of one single piece with all sides closed and sealed. It’s a two way, closed design offering a claimed frequency response of 34Hz – 40 000Hz and a sensitivity of 83dB using components from Scan-Speak, Kimber, Mundorf and WBT.
Price in Germany is €32 170 inc shipping and Worldwide €27 034 plus taxes and shipping.
Monitor audio announced today they will be “fine-tuning” their Radius loudspeaker range. Alongside re-vamped Radius 45,
90 and 270 designs, the new eight-strong loudspeaker line-up includes slimmed-down versions of the 225 centre speaker and Radius One soundbar, together with a new Radius 200 centre-channel speaker and two compact active subwoofers: Radius 380 and 390.
For the first time in a Radius series, the new range utilises C-CAM (Ceramic-Coated Aluminium/Magnesium) bass drivers, featuring concave cone profiles introduced originally by the range-topping Platinum series and subsequently on Gold GX.
Complementing the new bass cones, a new 25mm C-CAM tweeter has been developed.
Prices range from £200 for the Radius45 super compact speaker cube to £700 for the Radius270 compact floorstander. The speakers will be available in September.
This chunk of tuneage landed on my desktop this afternoon from international dance music label Cómeme who whilst based in Europe release music mainly from Latin America. It’s the third Volume of ONE NIGHT IN CÓMEME! – a new series of compilations including a selection of released tracks, unreleased surprises and alternate versions of Cómeme dance tracks from DJs Pareja, Christian S, Dany F, Alejandro Paz, Ana Helder, Danilo Maloso, Matias Aguayo, Sano, Philipp Gorbachev, The District Union, Capracara and many more!
Having given it a quick listen I can categorically state that this is very much my kind of music! Ok, this isn’t going to do it for your average metal fan or hardened classical music aficionado, but it certainly got our asses moving at Hifi Pig towers. More »
The CA Electronics Ceramic LP Puck HW SE is the latest addition to the product line-up and offers real 23,5 carat 
gold on top, combined with the finest Bentley spec leather on the side, providing what CA are calling a “luxurious look and feel”.
The Ceramic LP Puck is designed to prevent resonances from the turntable traveling to your cartridge and the weight will also push the record towards the turntable platter, so the record is stabilized and flattened.
This special edition is also handmade in The Netherlands.
Price is €500
Clearaudio’s recently appointed UK distributor Sound Fowndations is pleased to announce the release of the new 
Performance DC turntable.
The Performance DC integrates a high-torque, smooth and quiet DC motor into the chassis.The motor is similar to that used in Clearaudio’s high-end Ovation and Innovation series turntables and is said to provide great speed stability and ease-of use with start, stop and speed selection controlled by the touch of one of four illuminated buttons situated on the plinth.
The main chassis consists of a sandwich of aluminium / highly compressed wood fibre / aluminium – designed to effectively deaden resonances with the turntable.
A new 40mm thick black POM platter provides the mechanical interface with the record and rests on Clearaudio’s patented ceramic magnetic bearing (CMB) which, by using a magnetic field to effectively float the bearing on air, reduces friction, wear and noise by avoiding any point of load.
The turntable can be complimented with Clearaudio’s Clarify tonearm which features a woven carbon fibre arm tube and a magnetic bearing which eliminates bearing noise entirely. The Clarify tonearm is fully adjustable providing fine-tuning of VTA, azimuth, magnetically applied anti-skating as well as accurate setting of the cartridge tracking weight by virtue of its micrometer-style counterweight adjustment.
Completing the package is the Clearaudio Virtuoso v2 MM cartridge.
Partnered with Clearaudio’s Clarify carbon tonearm and Virtuoso V2 MM cartridge, the Performance DC offers a complete solution to the audiophile.
Price is £2495
Chord Electronics has added DSD 64 file playback over ethernet to its flagship network music player, the DSX1000.
The DSX1000 now includes DSD 64 over ethernet functionality without any increase to the retail price (£7,500). In addition, existing owners can get the upgrade for free via the internet, with a simple push-button menu option from the unit’s display screen.
The implementation of DSD 64 into the DSX1000 enables audiophiles to access an emerging world of high-resolution material in addition to 24-bit/192kHz PCM media. The DSX1000 decodes the incoming digital data stream using Chord Electronics’ proprietary DAC technology. The latest-generation Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) architecture found inside the DSX1000, is the same advanced technology used in Chord Electronics’ flagship DAC, the QBD76 HDSD, and the range-topping Red Reference MkIII CD player.
The FPGA handles all the digital data decoding, clocking, WTA filtering and the 5th generation Pulse Array DAC. The Pulse Array DAC has been further complimented with an enhanced power supply design and layout.
The player also boasts both volume-controlled and line-level analogue outputs which feature both balanced XLR and RCA phono connections. The network connection is via a fixed-wired ethernet port due to the bandwidth limitations of Wi-Fi for 24/192kHz support (ethernet-over-mains connections can also be used if required).
The DSX10000 has a full-colour 3.5-inch TFT front-panel display showing album artwork, set up options etc. and conventional control is via a front-panel cursor button that illuminates depending on the button pressed. Remote control is also available.
The DSX1000 is available now priced at £7,500 (standard finish); £7,830 (nickel).
Meridian has announced the introduction of Director, the company’s latest DAC. Built in Britain, Director aims to 
provide the link between digital sources and a conventional analogue audio system.
Featuring a range of connectivity, Director can be used with a wide selection of traditional components as well as USB based sources. Director features technology drawn from Meridian’s Reference 800 Series, offering up to 24-bit resolution and 192khz sampling and the full range of proprietary Meridian resolution enhancement technologies such as Upsampling and Apodizing.
- Takes digital audio from USB, Optical and Coax S/PDIF
- Up to 24-bit, 192kHz Digital to Analogue conversion
- Direct-coupled, fixed output for connection to an audio system
- Meridian Resolution Enhancement technologies including Upsampling and Apodizing
- Music grade power supply capacitors
Price is £449
We’d read a good deal about the little Tisbury Mini Preamplifier and it was getting some good comments made about it so 
we thought it about time that we got hold of one for review.
“Tisbury are a small, UK based outfit that at the moment manufacture just the one product and sell direct. The Mini Passive Preamplifier is available in three flavours: Single Out – 3 inputs and 1 variable output. Parallel Out – 2 inputs and 2 variable outputs (for bi-amping). Tape Out – 2 inputs, 1 variable out and 1 fixed output. I went for the Tape Out option so that I could wire up the headphone amp into the system.
It’s a tiny little thing but it looks very nice indeed and immediately got the thumbs up from Mrs Hifi Pig. It has an American black walnut front panel on which the input selector and the volume control are mounted and round the back are the four RCAs. It looks great and also very well built in its simple anodised aluminium box.”
Read the full review of the Tisbury Audio Mini Passive Preamplifier or the rest of the hifi reviews on Hifi Pig.
Vinyl Lover or Hater – Mrs Hifi Pig Has a Bit of a Rant
After spending nearly the last 20 years with Mr Hifi Pig we get along pretty well and only have minor altercations and disagreements every now and again.
There is one subject that really divides us though, vinyl.
To Mr Pig it is the ultimate listening experience. More »