Hi-Fi sound for your phone, laptop or games console. The BTR7 features wireless charging, colour display, MQA, and support for audio up to 32Bit 384kHz/DSD256. Whether listening to music from your smartphone, laptop or games console — on the move, in the car, or in the home — the FiiO BTR7 portable amplifier ensures your... Read More »
AVA Group A/S, owners of the superlative audio electronics brand Vitus Audio, announces that they have engaged Elite Marketing Dynamics, LLC (EMD) as their official representative sales agent throughout The Americas (United States, Canada, Caribbean, and Latin America). EMD shall commence sales of all Vitus Audio products by January 2, 2023; hereby, enabling Vitus Audio... Read More »
CES, Las Vegas – January 5, 2023 - The French brand Focal expands its collection of loudspeakers for Home with Vestia. This line comprises five models and has been designed for high-quality music enjoyment and Home Cinema experiences delivered by Focal’s renowned savoir-faire in acoustic. The brand which is recognized by the French government as... Read More »
Create the music system you’ve always wanted with the new Naim Audio Classic range. Featuring cutting-edge innovation, sharp styling and exquisite quality, New Classic lives in service of the sound. CES, Las Vegas – January 4, 2023 - Naim Audio launched in 1973 with a simple aim: to experience music replayed in its truest and... Read More »
Paris, France - Trinnov Audio will demonstrate its new groundbreaking acoustic processing technology, based on years of research, at ISE 2023 (booth 2D150). In partnership with Krix, Sony & Officina Acustica, this new digital sound field control system makes its debut in an active 13.16.6 channel home cinema system. The revolutionary new acoustic technology from... Read More »
New flagship DAC/preamp offers PS Audio’s latest technologies to deliver extraordinary sound quality and flexibility Boulder, Colorado, January 9, 2023 – PS Audio is now shipping its PerfectWave DirectStream DAC MK2, successor to the acclaimed original version. The DirectStream DAC MK2 incorporates a host of newly-developed PS Audio technologies to deliver a new level of sonic excellence in digital audio... Read More »
Enid Lumley, the long-ago first female reviewer for The Absolute Sound, was possibly a little over the top, but at least a major portion of her observations were dead on. She was right, for example, in thinking that lifting speaker cables off the floor (she ran them over short pieces of two-by-four) would improve the... Read More »
Buffalo, NY, January 5, 2023 --- Bluebird Music, distributor of high-performance audio products since 2000, is pleased to announce immediate availability of the all-new SME MK2 series turntables. The SME product range now includes: Model 12 MK2, Model 15 MK2, Model 20 MK2, Model 30 MK2 and Synergy MK2. The primary feature of the new MK2 models is a... Read More »
Effortlessly detailed audiophile sound everywhere The new Sennheiser IE 200 – an ideal choice for audiophiles looking for clarity, detail, and impact at home or on the go. Old Lyme, CT, January 5, 2023 – The Sennheiser IE range continues its history of excellence with the all-new IE 200. The newest member of the IE family... Read More »
Featuring dual ES9038Q2M DACs, the M11S is able to decode up to 384kHz/DSD256 Hi-Res audio The versatile M11S builds upon the success of previous award-winning portable audio players from FiiO. Alongside its 3.5mm single-ended and 2.5mm/4.4mm balanced headphone outputs, and dedicated line-out, the M11S also offers LDAC, aptX HD, and LHDC Hi-Res Bluetooth connectivity. Further wireless options... Read More »
Offering a comprehensive overview of American Black roots music, this 40-track collection spans generations and genres: from little-known banjo players and Gullah singers to New Orleans jazz icons and contemporary blues acts, and everything between Due out February 17th on 2-CD/digital formats available to pre-order beginning today “This collection is the DNA, the blueprint, a sonic... Read More »
I've written before about the recordings of pianist Hannes Minnaar (see HERE and HERE). I'm writing now to share with you a new solo piano recording of the Shostakovich 24 Preludes (a marvel), an earlier recording of piano works inspired by Bach, and a scrumptious complete cycle of the Beethoven Piano Concertos with Jan Willem... Read More »
In this superb release from Eudora Records, the Protean Quartet deliver stylish performances of the last of the Haydn's Russian Quartets, the first of Beethoven’s String Quartets, op. 18 no.1 (but already a masterpiece), and the first recording of Juan Pedro Almeida Mota’s String Quartet op. 7 no. 1. Performed on period instruments, with historically... Read More »
Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique. Roméo et Juliette: Scène d'amour. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi. Telarc CD-80578. TT: 71.22. Downloads: classicalarchives.com (mp3) Like Cala Records and Avie Records, which I've recently discussed, Telarc Records, based in Cleveland, was created as an audiophile label. At first, they briefly pursued the "direct-to-disc" blind alley with Advent Records' Direct from Cleveland, presenting Lorin Maazel... Read More »
When I was fifteen I had yet to learn that greatest hits and best of records also meant The Worst Sounding Records. Back then my ears weren't very sophisticated, so I was oblivious to the fact that albums like Simon & Garfunkle's Greatest Hits and Rod Stewart's Sing It Again Rod were, despite the wonderful... Read More »
Robert Pincus joins PF as a writer of music and other topics of interest. Telling a story about myself is always a challenge, so I will start by telling you my name. My name is Robert Pincus, but some people call me Mr. Record. Some of you may know me from my ten-year tenure at Cisco... Read More »
This article by Gary Beard originally ran in Issue 5, February/March 2003, so while we call this section "New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print" you are also going to see some articles from our early days of going online. A Lighthearted Look at the Lightweight ChAMP of the World: The Zero-Hysteresis... Read More »
Part 1: About the Brain From the Editor In her first column for High Fidelity, Malwina Prus-Zielinska talks about how our brain works and what sounds have to do with it. Women's Listening is a series of essays written by Malwina Prus-Zielinska, an occupational therapist by profession, a music fan by choice, and an audiophile's... Read More »
Been an interesting year or three. Neither of us have done much writing simply because not much in audio interested either of us. The pandemic, health and personal issues, life... but also other things that were positive diversions to both our time and spirit. Audio took a back seat to so much that we just... Read More »
There are times when something so special comes along that one needs to shout "Stop the presses. Hold page one." This is one of those occasions. HDTT has just released a superb DSD256 transfer of the legendary RCA Living Stereo recording of the Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 "Organ Symphony" from Charles Munch and the Boston... Read More »
So, this is going to be a trip of sorts… one where we take you from our early audio system beginnings to where we are today. Yeah, just like most audiophiles we have seen many changes in our systems, rooms, and listening habits. No doubt for many, music preferences as well. We figure that for... Read More »
Location: Shadow Brook Community Clubhouse, 3860 63rd Street East, Palmetto, FL 34221, between Sarasota and Tampa.
I’ve been listening to various of the Hunnia Records' Pure DSD256 recordings downloadable from NativeDSD. There are very many that I like both for the music and for the quite stellar sound quality. It's time to share with you some of the excellent Hunnia recordings that I'm enjoying. Founded by Robert Zoltán Hunka, owner and... Read More »
EAT’s latest creation has reached North America and is shipping now — a compact, accessibly priced entry that shares its DNA with the brand’s luxe reference tables Nesconset, NY — European Audio Team, the Austrian manufacturer acclaimed for producing elegantly styled turntables and electronics whose performance competes with the industry’s finest phono products, has introduced... Read More »
Debut Models Include Balanced XLR-to-XLR and RCA-to-RCA GRAND RAPIDS, MI, December 19, 2022 – Pangea Audio Distributing, a developer and manufacturer of high performance, today rolled out two new cables that mark the introduction of the new XL flagship series. The two models -- Premier XL True Balanced™ Interconnect XLR to XLR and XL Interconnect RCA to RCA -- represent a new... Read More »
Audiofest! Things are opening and people are going out to events finally, and one of those events is the Capital Audiofest. If you're not familiar with the event, it's a show in Rockville Maryland where individual dealers and a few manufacturers book rooms in a hotel in order to demonstrate their products. The rooms are... Read More »
Lloyd Walker listening to his Proscenium Black Diamond Level V Turntable (photograph courtesy of Walker Audio) (From a Facebook posting made by Felicia Walker within the last 24 hours, December of 2022.) This will be the last posting on the Walker Audio facebook page and this page will be deleted in a few days. For... Read More »
David W. Robinson, a portrait. The Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem, Israel, 2022 (Photograph and image processing by John Robinson) Photographs with Dave, Carol, and Peter Clark, and some Long Beach work... Some of the very finest moments at this event are when Dave and Carol Clark, their son Peter, and I get to spend time together.... Read More »
David W. Robinson, a portrait. Tiberius, Sea of Galilee, Israel, 2022 (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by David W. Robinson) Sunday during the LAOC AS Gala is the main gathering of the audioclan. Running from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., it's five solid hours of drinks and a quality buffet lunch, followed by the... Read More »
Tampa, Florida—January 2023—Florida International Audio Expo takes place Friday–Sunday, February 17–19, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore. The more than 65 exhibit spaces will be the scene for plenty of action—several rooms will unveil new products, letting show attendees be among the first to experience some of the best new high-performance audio... Read More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Dec 14, 2022) – Richard Schram, who founded the prestigious audio equipment brand Parasound in 1981, has announced his retirement and the sale of his company to David Sheriff, an entrepreneur active in product growth and supply-chain management. Parasound manufactures audiophile-grade amplifiers and other components known for their exceptional build quality, value, and... Read More »
For quite a number of years now, the Los Angeles and Orange County (LAOC) Audio Society has been holding an end-of-the-year Board dinner and Gala banquet. These events have been the annual wrap-up of the monthly series of LAOC AS meetings, usually held in various high-end audio dealer locations, or via Zoom during particularly bad... Read More »
Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave and Carol Clark had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award. The Gizmo Award,... Read More »
After the success of the Sopra N°2 loudspeaker created as a special edition for the 10th anniversary of Focal and Naim joining forces, Focal has applied the expertise acquired on this exclusive finish to launch a collection of new Sopra finishes for 2023.These changes will only affect Sopra N°2 models. The prices for the finishes... Read More »
Time Out was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies. The album was certified platinum in 1997 and double platinum in 2011. The single, "Take Five", also sold over a million. And it has been reissued endlessly. So why bother with yet another? Because this release in Pure DSD256 from HDTT... Read More »
The MC901’s Little Brother Continues the Brand’s Hybrid Drive Technology Binghamton, NY – December 8, 2022 – McIntosh is proud to announce the MC451 Dual Mono Power Amplifier, a unique combination of a vacuum tube and solid-state amplifier that uses McIntosh's Hybrid Drive™ technology. The MC451 follows the success of McIntosh’s MC901 model. A more... Read More »
Thousand Oaks, CA, December 8, 2022 - Zesto Audio is pleased to announce the launch of their new Eros 500 Select Monoblocks, quite possibly the most powerful Class A tube amps available. Each amp has 250 watts of dynamic Class A power. The Eros 500 Select ships with KT150 output tubes, but has the perfect auto bias... Read More »
