Product-related news items of general interest should be accompanied by a formal press release with basic descriptions, finish options, pricing, a photo 598px or wider and a valid web link. Event news should have venue, date, ticket and registration information plus a logo and website link. We only publish product news on items you can actually buy now. We won't publish product news about items a manufacturer promises to build if enough people pre-pay (crowd funding).
ARTsy phono – It's conrad-johnson's latest reference phono stage limited to 250 units worldwide [$28K, add $2K for step-up transformer]. "The circuit for each channel consists of two triode gain stages utilizing paralleled sections of 12AX7A twin triodes coupled to the output through a buffer of paralleled sections of a 12AU7/6189 twin triode for low output Ω. Each channel is provided with two independent discrete regulated DC power supplies, one for the input gain stage, one for the second gain stage and buffer stage." With 53dB of stock gain optionally expandable to 63dB via step-up transformer, there's also variable capacitive and resistive loading on the second input.
Denon go Technics – With their new direct-drive DP-3000NE turntable that is [€2'499]. A digital control algorithm embeds in the switch-mode power supply for precise speed regulation of 33.3, 45 or 78 records. The S-shaped tonearm offers up to 9mm vertical height adjustment to set VTA relative to platter-mat thickness; and up to 3g of anti-skating weight. The arm can take MM or MC carts. The MDF plinth finishes in dark zebrano veneer and the integral footers target resonance control. The transparent dust cover is included not optional.
Alpha One – It's B.audio's new streaming integrated with a fully balanced preamp stage, resistor-ladder volume, DC-coupled signal path and dual-mono class A/B 200w/4Ω output stages.
Elite grab? – UK distributor Elite Audio just added to their portfolio new French brand Revival Audio from the design team of Daniel Emonts and Jacky Lee. Check out their web link for the finer details.
McSub – At 4 x 13" twin-layer carbon woofers each fronted by 500W class D, the new McIntosh PS2K [$50K] aims low and with power. There are filtered and unfiltered RCA/XLR i/o, Power Guard to avoid clipping and Sentry Monitor, a fuse-less protection scheme against a short circuit. Trim is high-gloss black with carbon trim, aluminium plinth, glide footers for hard floors and spikes for carpeting. Come to daddy.
The canton of Reference – It's not the latest Swiss county but Canton's new 8-deep Reference range from Germany. Shown is the Reference 9, a 17.4cm two-way monitor with 25mm tweeter. Across the range, the aluminium midranges and woofers take a page from the Børresen, Monitor & Raidho cookbook by galvanically converting one fourth of their membranes to ceramic then optimizing this harder surface further with the bombardment of wolfram and other metal particles. The Reference series spans from €3.6K for the monitor to €20K for the top floorstander. It includes a 30.8cm subwoofer with passive radiator and a center channel. Finish options are gloss white or black.
Ananda gets nanofied – It's HifiMan's 4th generation of the design now with 14Ω even thinner membrane and a different surface treatment. Trickled down from costlier models is the 'stealth' magnet array to minimize airflow turbulence. This magnetostatic over-ear headphone weighs 420g sans cable, claims 5Hz-55kHz bandwidth, runs at 94dB sensitivity and comes with a 3m copper cable with 3.5mm angled plug and 6.3mm adapter.
Price drops – It's deflation time at Chord thanks to "decreasing costs of critical parts post pandemic". Both Mojo 2 and Poly shed £100 to now cost £395 each. The Qutest loses £200 for now £1'195, the Hugo TT2 a whopping grand down to £3'995. Even the Hugo M Scaler pulls the belt in a few notches, to £3'495 down from £4'195. Rishi Sunak, take note.
Reference Klipsch – The R40PM [€549] and R50PM [€649] are master/slave actives of rear-ported 2-way type using a 4" or 5¼" mid/woofer respectively. Socketry includes USB/Toslink, one RCA input configurable as MM phono, one 3.5mm stereo mini and a subwoofer output. Volume control is by remote or rear-mounted knob. The smaller model runs 70wpc, the larger one 120wpc.
Mrs. Cohen – It's the new Leonore from Granada's Kroma Atelier, a front-ported 2-way monitor with Mundorf AMT and Purifi 6½" mid/woofer in the company's trademark Krion cabinet of synthetic stone. New compared to the smaller Mimí monitor are the vertical baffle, aligning the drivers and port conventionally down the middle then adding speed-stripe trim on the sidewalls. The matching Krion stand tops out with a black Panzerholz plate.
3-in-1 website – It's the new Metrum Acoustics website which now merges sister brands Sonnet and Acelec all under one roof to simplify logistics.
Get wyred for power – It's Wyred4Sound's new 6-outlet power strip [$199] with standard hospital-grade or surcharge 20A Gray Hubble outlets, standard 15A or optional 20A wall plug, 3ft standard captive cord (longer by request), high-current silver-plated hookup wiring and 3/8" aluminium enclosure with brushed anodized coating.
All-in-one table radio – It's the new Ruark R410 [€1'499] whose retro wood-veneered housing includes 120Wrms class D power, stereo two-way speakers of 20mm soft dome tweeter and 10cm long-throw mid/woofer, FM, DAB and DAB+ radio, a high-level RCA input, MM phono, HDMI eARC and Toslink plus Bluetooth, LAN and WLAN. The streaming module supports native Spotify and Tidal Connect, Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast plus UPnP. Finish options are walnut or matte gray.
Switched for six – It's LHY Audio's new SW-6 [$794], a LAN distributor aka network switch with four standard RJ45 ports, one RJ45 with extra isolation transformer, a 50Ω sine/squarewave 10MHz clock input and an SFP fiber-optic port. The onboard clock is an oven-controlled crystal oscillator, the power supply is linear and the actual switch an in-house so not OEM design. The enclosure is aluminium milled from solid and the brand LHY is a subsidiary of China's Jay's Audio. Global sales are Singapore-direct via Vinshine Audio subsidiary Beatechnik.
Audeze go Sony – Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC has entered into an agreement to acquire Audeze which will continue to operate independently and develop multi-platform products while benefiting from being part of the PlayStation ecosystem. Based in Santa Ana, Calif., Audeze develops award-winning headphones for the professional audio, audiophile and gaming markets. These headphones use patented planarmagnetic drivers designed and manufactured in California. "This acquisition highlights Sony Interactive's focus on innovation and providing the best audio experience to PlayStation players," said Hideaki Nishino, Senior Vice President, Platform Experience at Sony Interactive Entertainment. "We're excited to bring Audeze's expertise into the PlayStation ecosystem, building on the great strides we've made with PlayStation 5's Tempest 3D AudioTech and the Pulse 3D wireless headset."
AMR are back – That's Abbingdon Music Research which for years played fifth fiddle to the company's other brand, iFi Audio. Now the mothership is back in the skies and about to drop this new DAC with remote-controllable volume, angled display and, apparently, two small tubes. The heavily faceted industrial styling with a big spy glass might divide opinion but those into sleek sportscars and their noses could feel right in this wheelhouse. The website still awaits a long-overdue update but the firm's FB pages already have this teaser. Take a look and see what you make of it. The view at left is obviously with the top cover off.
British Petroleum, 19 unleaded – It's the Bryston BP-19 [$5'195], a new preamp from Canada's legendary brand with a whopper of a 20-year warranty. Discrete op-amps promise sub 0.0006% THD+N. The circuit is front-to-back balanced. i/o are 2|4 XLR|RCA inputs and variable|fixed RCA|XCR outputs plus ¼" headfi. Optional is the BP-2 MM phono module, standard an IR remote. There are five faceplate finish options in 17" or 19" widths. Get your rack ears on? Also new is the BR-20, an even more ambitious effort at top preamplitude with D/A conversion built in.
Third digital harmonic – It's Lumin's new D3, an ES9028Pro streamer/DAC with Leedh digital volume and analog output buffer based on this catalogue's X1. The circuit remains fully balanced to end in true XLR analog outputs. A new aluminium surface finish trickles down from the P1 stablemate. Max data support is DSD256 and PCM384. Built in client support is for Tidal Connect, Airplay 2, Roon Ready, Spotify Connect, MQA, Tidal, Qobuz, Plex and TuneIn.
Kinki Earth USB – It's coming. Following up the successful launch of their new cable range, Kinki Studio just announched forthcoming new models of USB leashes and jumpers to fill out that part of their catalogue.
Three dozens – It's the new range of Denafrips DDC. All three models get the 12th Anniversary makeover with revised power transformers, refreshed FPGA code and upgraded parts. With a digital-to-digital converter never entering the analog domain, we can think of the product category as a digital signal conditioner. By offering a plethora of i/o, this type also acts as a port swap whereby we can enter USB and exit AES/EBU; or enter Toslink and exit I²S over HDMI and other such scenarios. There's thus a practical aspect of altering incoming and outgoing cable types and transmission protocols; and a sonic aspect whereby reclocking and buffering can improve noise and jitter stats seen by the subsequent DAC which can impact its performance for the better.
Sir George, mirror-imaged – It's LinnenberG's makeover for their 100-watt Georg Friedrich Händel class A p/p monos with switch-mode power supply [€29.4K/pr]. "Mirrored looks better. It even captures our circuit concept of pure symmetry. And besides the cosmetic aspect, we added a shielding cover to the power supply. This completely eliminated a very small spurious oscillation. That looks even better on our test bench."
Six meets X – It's Børresen's new €20K/pr 2½-way tower with two 4½" mid/woofers, four 4½" woofers and their own planarmagnetic tweeter above 2.5kHz on a gloss black or white rear-slimming cabinet with exhaust-style vents out the back. The canted lot measures 164cm tall and weighs 79kg. Published response of the X6 is 30Hz-50kHz at 88dB sensitivity.
What goes between 2 and 4? – It's the new Elysian 3 [€6'999/pr] in Wharfedale's flagship range, a smaller 4-driver 3-way tower with rear slot vent and just 105cm of height allied to 26cm width and 29cm depth. The driver complement is a 27x90mm AMT, 150mm midrange and dual 180mm woofers. Finish options are black, white or Walnut all high-gloss polished. Included are stainless steel spikes and shoes, biwire terminals and white gloves.
Tower of power – It's the new Goldmund Telos 8800, a 1.4KW/8Ω amplifier singing in the key of class A/B with 35dB of voltage gain adjustable in 3dB increments ±9dB. Unloaded noise is below 3µV, dynamic range 117dB, weight a colossal 265kg/ea. and size 42 x 113 x 47cm WxHxD – so yes, over a meter tall and heavy as sin. The press release neatly sidesteps price so we assume that if we must ask, we can't afford it. Nothing wrong there when this clearly is a no-prisoners flagship effort. This Swiss catalogue has plenty of smaller amplifiers and active speakers which don't even need external amplification.
Control your iron intake – As of today, Ferrum offer their Control app for Mac and PC so Win 10/11 and macOS 10.14 or later. "This app can update the firmware of all your Ferrum devices. Moreover, it keeps them up to date thanks to cloud tech. There's no need for any other files to download or manually install. All it takes is one mouse click to keep your Hypsos, Erco or Wandla on top of the latest features."