To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chord Electronics’ DAC 64, the company will be launching something very special at CES 2014. Based on their FPGA DAC technology the company will be introducing a reference-level. Called the new device offers “studio-master-tape sound quality, advanced connectivity and uncompromising file playback capability, all from a palm-sized player”. Hugo […]
Time for a left turn into tubeland for the guys over at Schiit Audio whose Magni and Modi kit we’ve reviewed in the past. The new Vali headphone amp uses a tiny NOS JAN Raytheon pencil tubes which supply all the gain (not just an buffer!) and whilst the Vali resembles the Magni, the only thing […]
Meridian Audio has announced the introduction of their Prime Headphone Amplifier which replays audio from both analogue and USB-based sources. The Prime Headphone Amplifier also provides a preamplifier output to drive an external audio system or active loudspeakers. The metal enclosure of the Prime headphone amplifier is a dual-skinned design of interlocking extrusions which Meridian […]
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 […]
Oppo, those of the famous DVD and BluRay players, have announced they will be launching a new Planar Magnetic Headphone (PM-1) and a headphone amplifier (HA-1). The PM-1 headphones use an FEM optimised magnet system with very high energy Neodymium magnets. The headphones magnetic system and conductor patterns are said to be optimized for maximum […]
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 […]
A while ago we ran a news item on the Coffman Labs G1-A preamp and thought you might also be interested in their new, tubed H1-A Headphone Amplifier which will debut at the Newport Audio Show in a couple weeks Externally, the H1-A has a strong family resemblance to the G1-A. The design includes variable […]
Burson have introduced two new products aimed squarely at the headfi marketplace, the Burson Conductor SL9018 (pictured) and the Conductor SL1793. The Conductor SL9018 is a streamlined version of the company’s already well established Conductor whilst the Conductor SL1793 is an enhanced version of Burson’s HA-160D. The SL9018 will retail for $1550 whilst the SL1793 […]
Jerry puts the King Rex HQ-1 headphone amplifier into his system and gives his opinions on this £600 unit. Read the full review here.
Schiit Audio announce the production of the Asgard 2 headphone amplifier. Asgard 2 is a complete redefinition of the company’s Asgard headphone amplifier, adding both a higher-performance gain stage based on their flagship Mjolnir amp, as well as features such as selectable gain and preamp outs. “With these changes, Asgard 2 becomes a complete control […]
With its Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC), standalone Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) & Preamp, Digital-to-Digital Converter (DDC), standalone Digital-to-Digital Converter (DDC) with analog input and Headphone Amplifier this little unit from Tokyo certainly seems to be well specced. All in one device for USB DAC, standalone DAC & Preamp, USB-DDC, standalone DDC with analog input, headphone amplifier. Asynchronous USB operation: […]
Hifi Pig reported on the Yamamoto YDA-02 DAC way back in March of 2012 and now the company has announced a headphone amplifier to add their range of high end audio kit. The Yamamoto HA-03 uses two of the C3M valve from Siemens and a very simple circuit design to deliver upto 1.4 watts per […]
TEAC have recently announced the launch of a new series of hifi seperates called the 501 Reference series. The series includes the AI-501DA class D integrated amplifier (pictured) with 192kHz USB Audio Input using BurrBrown PCM5102 D/A , the PD-501HR CD Player with 5.6MHz DSD-file-recorded disc nativeplayback, the HA-501full-analogue dual monaural headphone amplifier and finally […]