Author: HifiPig

Hifi News

NAD Announce VISO HP50 Headphones

The NAD VISO HP50 is a fold-flat design and can be stowed away into its very own included soft neoprene carrying case. The headphones are engineered with Room FeelTM technology from NAD’s sister company, PSB Speakers, with the intention of expanding the whole soundstage. The NAD VISO HP50 features acoustically optimised ear cups and specially-developed […]

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Valve Audio Devices Launch NEw valve DAC

Valve Audio Devices (VAD) launches DAC-10 British newcomer to the high-end audio scene has released its new vlave based DAC. VAD’s first product is a dual mono design based around VAD’s own 24bit dual DAC circuitry, which is coupled to its bespoke designed triode valve analogue stage. The DAC-10 features RCA COAX, BNC, TOSlink optical […]

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MOON Nēo 260D CD Transport

Simaudio Ltd. has introduced the MOON Nēo 260D CD transport with an optional digital-to-analogue converter. The Nēo 260D provides a CD Transport and a DAC all-in-one with 32-bit processing engine, upsampling capabilities, MOON oversized power supplies. The DAC section, entirely optional, can be added later on.The Nēo 260D borrows much of its technology from the […]

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Audio4soul Launch New Speaker Cables

Audio4soul whose Xtreme 16 amplifier we reviewed has announced the launch of its OCC IT! Xtreme speaker cables. Employing single crystal, pure OCC copper made by the now famous Ohno casting method, the OCC cables are said to “dig deeper into the music truth of your collection.” “As with all Audio4soul products the new cables […]

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Focal launches a new version Aria 900 Loudspeaker

Available from October the new loudspeaker from Focal will feature a Flax cone, new TNF tweeters and minimalist styled cabinets.  It represents a significant design shift away from the Chorus 800 V’s very strong design identity towards a more sober statement combining the mineral and the organic. The Aria 900 range is similar in breadth […]

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Van de Leur Launch New Look Website

Pim from Van de Leur Audio, the Dutch manufacturer of the 402 amplifier and the 002 preamplifier, got in touch with us to tell us about their new look website. The site’s nice and clean and the photography is pretty interesting and out of the ordinary for a hifi company. Due to a new partnership […]

Album Reviews

Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks

“It costs ten bucks or go fuck yourself”. A nice personable accompaniment for the album’s release from Trent Reznor himself. He’s obviously not terribly fond of  the “pay what you want” system as championed by Radiohead… never mind Trent, thousands upon thousands of people will pay absolutely nothing besides a bit of bandwidth for it. […]

Album Reviews

Kitchens Of Distinction – Folly

Kitchens of Distinction formed as a band in 1986 releasing just four studio albums, as well as a few singles and EPs on the One Little Indian label, before disbanding in 1996. Lead vocalist Patrick Fitzgerald explains the gestation of their first album in 19 years, “Folly”: “These songs came together over a two-year period […]

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Acoustic Sounds Offer DSD Downloads

Acoustic Sounds, the online music store, has announced it will be offering mainstream albums from leading labels in the DSD format – used to master SACDs. Initially 46 albums will be available in the DSD format including Counting Crows’ ”August and Everything After”, Rickie Lee Jones’ “Traffic From Paradise”, Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” and John […]

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Parasounds New Halo P 5 Preamplifier

Parasound has announced the addition of a new 2.1 channel preamplifier to its Halo product line( Jerry reviewed the Halo A21 amp some time ago giving it a Recommended award). The new Halo P 5 replaces the Halo P 3 preamplifier adding a DAC with coaxial, optical and USB inputs. Also included is a subwoofer […]

Album Reviews

Thundercat – Apocalypse

Ok, so a few of you may be familiar with Mr Cat (Stephen Bruner to his friends), either from his recent role as bassist in LA superpunks Suicidal Tendencies or his collaborations with Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus.  If it’s the former, this album will really come flying out of leftfield for you, but those […]

Album Reviews

Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Actions

“Sometimes I wish you were here….weather permitting…” Well, the weather apparently does permit because Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand are back with their fourth full length album.  The band has been plying their trade of innocuous but eminently danceable indie rock for over a decade  now and have achieved some pretty massive success, most notably from the […]

Hifi News

Roksan K2 BT 150 Amplifier

Roksan have announced the launch of their K2 BT 150 amplifier which takes elements of the previous K2 model but improves connectivity, flexibility and sonics. The power rating is increased from 120W to 150W per channel whilst high frequency noise has been radically reduced in both the pre section and the power amplifier section. The […]

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ATC’s Announce Launch of Passive SCM7 and SCM 11 Loudspeakers

Featuring the new ATC designed and built 25mm soft dome tweeter, updated bass/mid drivers and crossovers housed in a curved, laminated cabinet, the first of a new range of ATC closed-box passive loudspeakers has been announced. The third generation SCM7 and second gen. SCM11 are the first to employ ATC’s landmark SH25-76 tweeter, developed to […]

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Bryston Announce New Loudspeakers

Bryston, has announced the introduction of a new series of loudspeakers designed to complement their Model T offering introduced at CES 2013. The Model A series has the same design principals as the Model T, with a focus toward minimizing distortion and compression during music and home theater playback. The new Model A series relies […]

Album Reviews

Polyphonic Spree – Yes, It’s True

Whilst I enjoyed the Polyphonic Spree’s first album “The Beginning Stages of…” they were never really a band that I explored further than that one album and perhaps this has been a mistake on my part given how much I loved “Yes, It’s True”. The first album was a gloriously positive and uplifting offering from […]

Album Reviews

Held Lampi Project – Digital Dreaming

This is not a new album having been released in 2004 but it looked interesting and so I thought I’d give it a whirl anyway. It’s a collaboration between Jim Lampi and the German producer Zeus B Held (what a fabulous name that is!) with input from Australian musicians including Craig T and Damian Armstrong […]

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Quadral Introduce New Loudspeakers

Quadral have contacted us to tell us about a new range of loudspeakers soon to be introduced. First up is he quadral Rondo active desktop monitor which comes with a 115mm polypropylene woofer and a titanium RiCOm tweeter. Rondo will have an aoutput in excess of 100 Watts, has Bluetooth (aptX), USB and soundcard connectivity. […]

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STST Motus Turntables Debut in UK

Guy from Pure Sound contacted Hifi Pig to let us know about the UK arrival of the STST Motus II turntable and Vertex tonearm. STST are a German Hi-Fi manufacturer founded by Stefan Strohmetz in 1985 and they make two turntables called Motus and Motus II which both utilise an ‘in house’ designed direct drive motor. […]

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New Website for Tuning Specialist Akiko Audio

The guys at Akiko got in touch to tell us all about there new website launched this weeks that they seem pretty proud of. They have eight new products and a fully stocked webshop so you can purchase stuff direct. “It feels like a new start,” said co-owner Sander van Berlo, who started along with […]

Album Reviews

Hawkwind – Warrior on the Edge of Time 3 CD Edition

OK, before you read this review of Hawkwind’s “Warrior on the Edge of Time” Three Disc Expanded Edition, you ought to know that I’m a bit of a fanboy of Mr Brock and his cohorts. However, having replaced most of my (stupidly sold vinyl) Hawkwind collection with CDs (and Vinyl) Warrior was one of the […]

Hifi News

Audio Research Announce SP20 Preamplifier

Audio Research has announced the new SP20 vacuum-tube preamplifier which the company say is influenced by some of their classic SP preamplifiers but with performance that is only achievable their best LS- and PH-series. The front panel has a new 4.3″ LCD touchscreen, with two large rotary knobs on either side. For the first time […]

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Plinius Launch Digital Players

New Zealand based manufacturer, Plinius Audio, has announced it is introducing the Tiki network media player and Toko digital media player. Tiki is essentially a network capable digital to analogue converter, it connects to a home network via Ethernet to retrieve music files stored on a server or NAS. The Tiki prioritises the treatment of the sensitive audio signals and avoids additional sources of noise and […]

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Clarity Alliance Elect Laurence Armstrong as Chairman

Following a ballot of the members of The Clarity Alliance (an alliance of the best of the audio and video industries in the UK), Laurence Armstrong, managing director of Henley Designs, has been elected as the next chairman of the Alliance. In order for the Alliance to be successful in its objective of raising the […]