Simple, inexpensive and well-playing amplifiers are not easy to find. Ever since NAD turned the market upside down with the 3020 in the 80’s, there has always been a selection of bargains in the very lowest price range. But lately, the selection has shrunk as prices have risen, and the good old 3020 is long …
Japanese Denon can celebrate its 110th anniversary this year. It’s a respectable age for a hi-fi manufacturer – and not much younger than the electricity grid itself! To celebrate the anniversary, Denon has made a series of special editions of some of its best models. The models have received extra care on the audio side …
The easiest way to get better sound in your headphones is to buy a headphone amplifier. Even affordable headphones can suddenly sound much better. Exactly how much money to spend depends on how good sound you want, and of course what kind of headphones you have. The cheapest headphone amplifiers are not powerful enough to …
For many, serious is high-end, whether English, American, German or Norwegian. Few people think of Japan as a country where high-end producers are flourishing. But that is only partially true. Japan has a long tradition of exotic amplifiers in particular, and they came from the most unlikely manufacturers. For most people, Yamaha is synonymous with …
The sound is as one would expect from a massive monster amplifier. Powerful, dynamic and vibrant, almost physical, and with extreme goosebumps. But there is no monster amplifier in the room. Instead, it is barely visible from the couch. Even the remote control is not as expected. Like the amplifier itself, it is minimalist, shiny …
The doubt disappeared after the first two or three songs. After that, it was a pure Tour de Force for Rotel’s stereo amplifier in the resurrected Michi series. It happily sounds as good as the two 1.08 kW powerful mono stages in the same series, costs half and has enough power galore for most speakers …
Who would have thought that a stripped-down, analog analog amplifier would trigger the drooling reflex? An amplifier that has neither DAC, streaming, not even turntable input? Not me. The elusive Rega Aethos amplifier has a design that few will remember. It costs a lot. And unless you only have analog audio sources, CD player, cassette …
Hi-fi manufacturers can mainly be divided into two camps: those who use their ears in the search for products they think sound as musical as possible, and those who are looking to make the components that measure the best. Distortion should not just be tuned to the most ear-friendly area possible; it must be eliminated! …
The Masters series is NAD’s bid for equipment in the most prestigious class, and while the cheaper models in the hi-fi market come and go with the change of seasons, years can pass between the replacements in the high-end segment. One of them is the integrated amplifier M33. We first wrote about it in connection …
You will never get goosebumps from music played through a soundboard. On the other hand, you can easily bring out the popcorn when you play the movie sound through a good stereo system! But then you depend on a good amplifier. It’s not just easy to make an amplifier that appeals to everyone. A modern …
Ever since the monster Hegel H590, costing nearly ten thousand euro, knocked us for six, we’ve been waiting for Hegel to make a junior sibling with equally explosive sound. But without the same explosive price tag. Because the H590 lies in a price range where most people would sooner consider a separate pre-amp and power …
Naim is not like other hi-f manufacturers. The discreet products look harmless, and the amplifiers here have a very moderately stated effect on the paper. You are therefore excused if you dismiss it as arch-conservative British hi-fi: “Good sound, but lacks power, control and fun”. That is, until you hear it. If you have first …
Hi-fi has a (not entirely undeserved) reputation for being an expensive hobby for middle aged males to squander insane sums on gear in an obsessive quest to perfect the final, miniscule details. This demographic is hardly the one Argon Audio is aiming for with this integrated SA1 amplifier. Rather, their aim is to attract new …
Strap yourself in the armrest, because this amplifier happily blows you out of the sofa, and it does so in style. As McIntosh amplifiers are used to doing. The MA7200 is a bit overshadowed by the powerful flagship amplifier MA9000, which with its 300 W power can revive the dead, and kickstart a 747 at …
What are the characteristics of the perfect hi-fi equipment? When we test products at the highest level of the scale, ostentatious design usually goes hand in hand with impressive sound. And usually also price. But not everyone is equally lavish. The Lyngdorf TDAI 3400 almost looks like a piece of laboratory equipment designed by Philippe …