Black Pearls is a relatively newcomer to the audiophile marketplace and their first product, the Birth 100 Integrated amplifier, certainly looks like a well thought out product from the outside. Hifi Pig’s Stuart has the Black Pearls amplifier at home for a close up and personal review. “Hifi Pig first bumped into the Greek “Black […]
Tom takes a listen to the AMI Musik DDH-1 DAC and headphone amplifier for his review for Hifi Pig. “The DDH-1 sells at $549 – about £340 before shipping and taxes (currently only direct from the manufacturer but local distribution deals is in the offing). This sub £500 area is a highly competitive sector in […]
QED has announced the introduction of their ‘uPlay Stream’ wireless streaming station which is available now for £149. Talking about the new product, Jack Fox, QED’s Brand Manager stated: “We believe the new uPlay Stream ‘moves the goalposts’. For the first time, users can experience genuine Hi-Fi sound quality from a product that is extremely […]
QNKTC was founded by Børge Strand-Bergesen, who is an expert on electronics filter design, circuit board layout and design for manufacturing. He believes the circuit board design contributes greatly to the sound quality of the DAC. Critical analogue signals are kept on short tracks and away from the digital section. The board design has an […]
Building on the success of their first-generation range of home cinema separates, Anthem (from Canada) has unveiled its next generation of their AVR range: the MRX 710 (Pictured), MRX 510 and MRX 310. Remote control apps for Android and iOS (Apple) devices, improved ease of integration, a new version of the company’s proprietary Anthem Room […]
Enter the new X1 from Alpha Design Labs (ADL), a division of Tokyo-based brand Furutech. The X1 is a small, discrete and high-spec’ portable headphone amplifier and digital to analogue convertor (DAC). It supports digital input from Apple iOS devices up to 16-bit/48kHz as well as 24-bit/192kHz high-resolution files from PC via USB. In addition, […]
Photographs taken at The Hifi SHow 2013 in Windsor. Photography by Mike Blackmore
Auden Distribution has announced the availability of the LUMIN audiophile network music player to UK retailers. LUMIN, from Pixel Magic Systems, is billed as a high-end network music player that supports the widest range of audio formats available, including native DSD and lossless recordings up to 384kHz/32bit studio masters. In lossless playback the player supports […]
The Tuning Stick from Akiko comes in a variety of different models including the RCA, the AC and the Universal. They have now introduced the XLR Tuning Stick which plugs into a free XLR input, with the wiring in the plugcoming solely into contact with the grounding of the device. The contents of a Tuning […]
Custom Cable, UK based reseller of headphones, cables and accessories, is launching the Resonessence Herus personal headphone DAC. Small on form factor, at just 63mm long, 32mm wide and 19mm high, the Herus has Asynchronous USB Audio 2.0, DXD and DSD capabilities. Designed and manufactured by Resonessence in Canada, Herus is crafted from a solid […]
Kaito (Hiroshi Watanabe) hasn’t released a full length album since his “That Was the Way” and that was three years ago and so it was with a good deal of anticipation that I received his latest effort “ Until the End of Time” on the Kompakt label. It kicks off with the massively uplifting “Sky […]
The Longdog Audio VDt1 DAC is a £3650 Digital to Analogue Converter that has been designed by well known valve guru Nick Goreham and so expectations were high when Hifi Pig reviewer Jerry plugged it into his system for a proper evaluation. “Three regulated power supplies are provided;- for the digital board main supply, the […]
The Concept 20 loudspeaker from Q Acoustics is a smallish standmount speaker which comes with its own very attractive support stand. It’s been getting rave reviews from all over the place and so we thought it about time that we had a listen to see if the praise they were receiving was justified. “One of […]