Chord Announce Chordette Qute EX DAC
Forming part of the bijou Chordette range, the new Qute EX adds a new chipset and circuit board which enables decoding at up to 384kHz PCM and DSD 128 over USB (against the QuteHD’s 192kHz PCM and DSD 64). Existing QuteHD DACs can be upgraded with the new chipset and board at the factory for […]
Hifi Review – JoSound Cartouche Loudspeakers
JoSound Cartouche loudspeakers use a Voxativ driver and an innovative bamboo construction that makes these €22 000 loudspeakers really stand out from the crowd. “We first came across the JoSound range of loudspeakers twelve months or so ago when we attended the Paris Hifi and Home Cinema Salon and were very impressed with what we […]
Quantization Noise Killed The Cat DAC
Norwegian-based manufacturer and quirkily named QNKTC (Quantization Noise Killed The Cat!) has unveiled its new competitively priced DAC, the £110 AB-1.2. The device has is roots in an open source project, as a hardware implementation of the Audio Widget venture. The project was started by an online group who wanted to develop the very best […]
Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera – Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera
Brand new to me but a staggering forty five years old Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera’s eponymous album is enjoying a re-release on Grapefruit Records and it’s a really entertaining listen indeed. Starting out as an R&B/Soul band called the Five Proud Walkers, EGVO took a pretty dramatic change in direction in 1967 after supporting Pink […]
Hifi Review – Atlas Ascent 3.5 Mkii Speaker Cables
Hifi Pig announced the launch of these new loudspeaker cables from Atlas way back in June and here Jerry takes a listen to them and gives his impressions of how they perform in his system. “The cables appear well made and very easy to use – the “Z-plugs” (4mm banana) on the set of cables […]
Hifi Review – Tellurium Q Black Diamond USB Cable
At the top of the Tellurium Q range the Black Diamond USB cable comes in at £636 for a 1 metre length. Dan gives it a serous listen and see if it reaches muster. “The Black Diamond, as all other Tellurium products, doesn’t come accompanied with a huge white paper of techno-babble, it simply comes […]
Circles- Infinitas
“So much to see here in the darkness…” Australia (and indeed the world) is enjoying a wealth of heavy music right now. Metalcore, new-school thrash, death and progressive metal are all thriving and our newsfeeds are chock full of new releases, gigs, tours, mind boggling arrays of sub-genres and all manner of heavy goodness. Yep, […]
Kathryn Williams – Crown Electric
Kathryn Williams is Liverpool-born but resides in the fine city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Crown Electric, the company Elvis used to drive for before finding fame, is her tenth album and her first solo record in four years. The album is the distillation of over sixty songs that were narrowed down to the thirteen we hear on […]
Keith Monks discOveryOne Record Cleaner
Keith Monks today announced that the new discOveryOne Record Cleaner had started production in the UK. Jon Monks, son of the founder, Keith, will be demonstrating the discOveryOne Record Cleaner during the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Cleaning is a simple process of applying cleaning fluid and cleaning brush manually in the case of the standard […]
Neat Acoustics Ships New Motive SX Series Loudspeakers
The next generation of Motive speakers from Neat Acoustics, the SX series, will be demonstrated for the first time in Atrium Room 422 of the Denver Marriott Tech Center Hotel at RMAF. The first and most obvious change from original to SX is to the tweeter. A newly designed, aluminium dome that is black anodised […]
Drugstore – The Best of
If you’re new to Drugstore (and I am) then here’s a brief history lesson. They’re labelled as a dream pop (whatever that is) band who formed in 1993 and debuted with an eponymous album which reached 31 in the UK charts…their second album from 1998, “White Magic for Lovers”, reached number 45. In total they’ve […]
Big Sexy Noise – Collision Course/Trust the Witch
Big Sexy Noise is made up of Lydia Lunch, James Johnston and Ian White of Gallon Drunk fame they offer an all out brutal attack on the senses with this double album – the band’s last studio album from 2011 and a live recording made in Italy. The studio album “Trust the Witch” is proper […]