Judith Owen describes her latest album, her 10th studio release, as “a love letter to Laurel Canyon”. In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles was home to several members of the Californian rock music community. Joni Mitchell lived there and David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash first met in […]
Dave Pen and Mike Bird formed BirdPen while sharing a flat in their hometown of Southampton. Self-releasing a handful of well-received EPs, the duo went on to release their debut Album On/Off/Safety/Danger in 2009. Evolving and honing their sound, new album In The Company Of Imaginary Friends, their third, harnesses subtle melodies to evoke widescreen […]
Pro-Ject are set to take their own traditional design, and completely revolutionise it to accommodate the ever-growing number of vinyl listeners. The Essential II DIGITAL aims to be the first hi-fi specified turntable that can be connected – out-of- the-box – to any modern home entertainment system. The brand new internal phono stage gives customers […]
Duo Inga Calstrom and Leck Fischer were discovered by producer Mike Mason in a club in the small Swedish town of Sveg. Unimpressed by the entertainment on offer, Mason was on his way out. “A monstrous bass line rabbit punched me in the back of the head and a voice made me weak at the […]
Rather than bringing out a single pair of Bluetooth in ear monitors, Noble Audio the California based IEM specialists have come up with a clever little gizmo called a Bluetooth Solution (BTS). It’s a tiny clip-on device that turns headphones and IEMs wireless using Bluetooth. Barely bigger than an AA battery and weighing just 10 grams, […]
Akiko Audio think that the importance of a good power supply cannot be stressed enough. “That’s why we took another critical look at, and where possible improved, the top range of our power cables: the Aerostar.” Says Marc van Berlo, co-owner of this Dutch company. The quality of the silver plating has been improved, together with […]
Voxtok, a Frano-American company with their R&D team based in the South of France, announces the launch of AudioCapsule, an audiophile-grade player and a music server, controlled from your smartphone, tablet or Smart TV. Combining a premium quality player, a multi-room music service, and a CD-ripping feature, AudioCapsule also comes with a high-capacity internal storage, and […]
PureAudioProject make some very interesting open baffle loudspeakers that we first encountered on the Newcomers Stand at High End Munich 2013. Their self-assembly speakers now have the option of the new Trio15, three piece, all aluminium frame, which has been engineered for better vibration control, stability and aesthetics and is compatible with their WTW and […]
Theta Digital are now shipping the new Dreadnaught D modular main amplifier, designed and built in their Montebello, California manufacturing facility. Designed to accommodate up to 8 channels of amplification, the Dreadnaught D has a built-in power supply using dual power cords, power switches and toroidal transformers plus 4 slots designed to receive proprietary Theta […]
The NuPrime IDA-8 Integrated Amplifier, a single-chassis, integrated stereo amplifier with a DAC capable of decoding USB PCM 384 and DSD256 in addition to a 100Wx2 power amplifier in a 8.5” wide chassis. NuPrime tell us that the IDA-8 is packed with innovative features including: – NuPrime power amplifier design breakthrough technology Ultra Linear Class […]
Woozy Summer days. The French TV version of Robinson Crusoe. Sky Ray ice lollies. If these things could have a sound, it would be the sound of Sarah Cracknell’s new album. An album that the words “pastoral” and “sun-kissed” were made for. Sarah Cracknell is, of course, the singer with Saint Etienne; a band that […]
Geneva have just launched their AeroSphère music system. Controlled via App or handset, AeroSphère is a stylish looking and versatile multi-source, multi-room music system comprising wireless active speakers in two sizes, for table top, shelf or floor stand, together with an optional network-connected entertainment module, the AeroSphère Base, which adds CD, DAB/DAB+, FM radio and […]
I first became aware of Tidal in October last year. At that time it was being quietly marketed as a high quality streaming service with the emphasis on its lossless, CD-quality sound. Sound quality has virtually become an irrelevance in the mass market; the received wisdom that it it impossible to hear the difference between […]
Ruark Audio is a family-owned British firm that has made well reputed loudspeakers for over thirty years. Today it has applied the same principles to design and engineer a new generation of compact tabletop music systems. Ruark’s R1 Mk3 and MR1 models are now available in the U.S. Pre-order now from Ruark for delivery in early […]